I still remember the day vividly: my oldest sister sat in front of the chair she’d place in my middle sister’s room, tweezers in hand. As a 14 year old, I was pretty terrified, but they kept saying it was necessary. My eyebrows had been living in an untouched, unkempt state, which every woman will recognize to mean that my eyebrows were straight up crazy.

So they sat me down, took the tweezers to my face, and yanked out the strays one by painful one. Because that’s what sisters do.

The church was designed to be a family. That’s why we call each other brothers and sisters. Within that family, there are a lot of fun, exciting, hilarious times, but sometimes, there are painful ones too. Did I enjoy having my eyebrows ripped out by my sisters? No. But it was a necessary evil; a part of growing up. And fortunately for me, they (tried to) numb my brow with an ice cube and make it as painless as it could be.

We won’t always enjoy the responsibilities of being the “older sisters” in the church family, but God designed it to be that way. The Holy Spirit reveals through Paul’s pen that the older sisters are to “admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.” (Titus 2:4-5).

Sometimes, we younger sisters aren’t going to like you sitting us down and showing us the areas we need to improve upon, but it’s your job – and it’s for our own good! We don’t know best how to love our husbands or raise our children or be discreet and chaste and homemakers. But that’s what you’re for! To guide us through the process and make it as painless as possible.

Jesus said, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” As an older sister, you show you love us by helping us with things we don’t realize we need help with, and giving us proper examples and advice on how to fix them. And as younger sisters, we sit in the chair, knowing it may hurt, and show our love to you by being patient and respectful and receptive.