Coached to the end

Title: Coached to the End
Author: Tony Beckett and Woodrow Kroll
Proverbs 27-29, 2 Corinthians 10
Key Verse: Proverbs 27:6
The next time you meet a retired Major League Baseball player, ask him, "At what point in your career did you no longer have a coach?" "I always had a coach," he will answer. Even the perennial all star, certain Hall of Famer, needs a coach.

Some coaches are great motivators, encouraging with positive statements to help the athlete maximize his potential. But all coaches are critics. They have an ability to see what is wrong, point it out and correct it. The player who wants to improve his game needs a good coach and a willingness to listen. He may prefer having his ego stroked, but knows that he needs the blows the coach can dish out.

We all need coaches who will tell us what we need to hear, not just what we want to hear. We need to be coachable, people who will listen and learn from what Solomon calls the "wounds from a friend" (27:6). The words of a friend may hurt for a while, but ultimately they will help if we will listen. The person who says what we want to hear instead of what we need to hear is more like an enemy who kisses up to us.

Later in this chapter Solomon says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" (v. 17). To sharpen involves removing some from the edge being sharpened. In a sense it, too, is a wounding, but for the good.

So which do you want ego strokes or wounds?

Has someone tried to help you but you rejected him because his words hurt? Go back to that friend and ask for his help. You can trust the wounds of a friend.

Daily devotions courtesy of Devotions.org, a ministry of Back to the Bible.