When I was the leveler.

I had one job, make sure it was level. Literally, that was it. We were building a water station in Haiti and the foreman of the job site gave me a level and said, “Shelby, make sure this is level. It’s really important this thing is level.”

I get it. Soon there would be thousands of gallons of water supported by a wood floor and four wood posts. That floor had to be level or it would quickly give way.

I took my little leveler and went to work telling the crew exactly where to place each post and beam.

After we got done, the foreman went to check my work. Guess what? It wasn’t level. I felt horrible. We had to take it off and start all over again. The second time we got it right though!

When it comes to building things, this foreman is a lot smarter than me. He sharpened my none existent knowledge into something workable. He helped me be better. But, and he probably wouldn’t admit this, he needed me too.

Not for any source of knowledge, he needed me to bring him his water bottle. You see, this guy would work and work in the Haitian heat without taking a break. He needed me to force him to drink water. I made him better.

We made each other better.

Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

There were times I would interrupt him and tell him to go take a break. I could tell he hated it -but, he eventually would. We made each other better in the middle of the hot, dusty, Haitian air. We sharpened each other.

I think we need more of this in our lives.

We have a society of people that somewhere along the way have come to believe they are already the best they can be. People think they are always right, have nothing to learn, and have no areas of their lives they can improve upon. That’s a recipe for disaster.

I heard someone once say, “If you ain’t growing, you’re dying.” Man, that’s so true.

Today, choose to grow. Enter into conversations with humility. It takes humility to recognize that maybe your iron is a little dull. That it may be possible you don’t know everything….and then with excitement try to grow!

Because, if you ain’t growing, you’re dying.

Imagine what the news cycle would look like if people approached difficult conversations with a heart to get better as a person and to understand more. Imagine what difficult conversations in your marriage could look like if humility and love were the driving force.

How can you grow today? In what ways are you intentionally trying to grow as a person?