Cheer For One Another: What it Really Means to Support Another Woman

There is a woman in your life right now who is doing something brave.

Maybe she is starting a business. Launching a ministry. Going back to school. Writing a book. Stepping into something God has been stirring in her heart for years — and she is finally, finally doing it.

And she needs you.

Not in a way that is demanding or unrealistic. Not in a way that costs you more than you have to give. But she needs what every woman who is doing something hard and new and vulnerable needs: she needs someone on the sideline who actually wants her to win.

She needs a cheerleader.
 
What a Cheerleader Actually Is (and Isn’t)
Let’s be honest about something: the word “cheerleader” can make us a little uncomfortable. It sounds loud. It sounds like a lot. And if we’re being really honest, for some of us it brings up a memory or two of women who cheered for certain people — and quietly let others fend for themselves.

But that is not what I mean.

What I mean is far simpler, and far more biblical, than any cultural version of the word.

A cheerleader, in the truest sense, is a woman who has made a quiet decision in her heart: I want her to succeed more than I want to protect my own comfort. She is the woman who shares the post, writes the encouraging note, says the kind word to someone else about her friend’s work, and shows up when showing up is inconvenient. She is not performing enthusiasm. She is practicing love.

And Scripture has a great deal to say about this.
 
“One Another” Is Not Optional
The New Testament is filled — truly filled — with “one another” commands. Love one another (John 13:34). Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2). Rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15). Outdo one another in showing honor (Romans 12:10).

That last one stops me every time. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Paul is not suggesting that we politely honor each other when it is easy. He is describing a kind of holy competition — a race to see who can most genuinely celebrate the other. This is not the spirit of “I’ll be happy for her when she’s earned it.” This is the spirit of I will look for every opportunity to lift her up.

This is the spirit of a cheerleader.

Titus 2 gives us the framework for what this looks like intergenerationally: older women teaching and training younger women, not because they have it all figured out, but because they have walked the road ahead and can call back with encouragement. That kind of relationship requires something from the older woman, something she has to choose — I will invest in her flourishing, not just my own.

But here is the thing: you don’t have to be older or wiser or further along to be someone’s cheerleader. You just have to be willing.
 
The Hard Truth About What Gets in the Way
I want to speak kindly here, and I also want to speak truthfully — because both can exist in the same sentence, and that is always my aim.

Sometimes we do not cheer for the women in our lives because of fear.

Fear that if she succeeds, it somehow diminishes us. Fear that if we pour energy into her dream, there will be none left for ours. Fear that saying “I believe in you” out loud is a promise we might not be able to keep. Fear of looking foolish if she fails — or if we look too enthusiastic in our support.

These fears are understandable. They are also, if we let them lead, quietly corrosive to the very relationships we say we value.

Proverbs 14:30 says that envy rots the bones. That is not soft language. The writer is telling us that envy — even the quiet, socially acceptable kind, the kind that simply holds back rather than actively tears down — does damage. To us, not just to her.

And Philippians 2:3–4 puts it plainly: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

This is the antidote. Not a manufactured performance of enthusiasm, but a genuine reorientation of the question we ask ourselves. Instead of What will I get out of this? — we begin to ask: How can I help her succeed?

That shift is not small. That shift is sanctification.
 
What It Looks Like in Practice
So what does it actually look like to be a cheerleader for another woman? Here are a few simple, honest, and entirely doable things:

Show up in the small ways. Like her post. Share her content. Leave a genuine comment. These things take thirty seconds and mean far more than you know to someone who is doing brave, new work and wondering if anyone sees it.

Say the good thing out loud. If you admire something about what she is doing, tell her. Better yet, tell someone else. Word-of-mouth from a trusted friend is one of the most powerful gifts you can give a woman building something.

Ask her how it’s going — and mean it. Not as a social pleasantry. Ask with real curiosity. Ask like someone who genuinely wants to hear the answer.

Resist the urge to compare. Her success is not your loss. The Kingdom of God does not operate on a scarcity model. There is room at the table — and if there isn’t, we build a bigger table.

Pray for her. This is perhaps the most underestimated act of support there is. To bring someone before the throne of grace and ask God to bless what she is building — that is not nothing. That is everything.
 
A Word to the Woman Who Needs This Right Now
If you are reading this and you are the one doing the brave thing — launching the business, starting the ministry, stepping into the calling — can I say something directly to you?

First: I see you.

Second: it is okay to need encouragement. It is okay to hope your people show up for you. It is okay to feel the sting when they don’t, and it is okay to grieve that quietly. You are not asking too much when you hope that the women you love will celebrate what God is doing in your life.

But here is what I also want you to hold on to: your cheerleader may not always be who you expected. God has a way of surprising us with the people who show up — and sometimes the unexpected supporter is the very relationship He is knitting together for this season of your life.

Keep your eyes open. Keep your heart soft. And keep going.

I know this personally. Over more than two decades of navigating the beautiful, complicated intersection of business and ministry, I have been carried by women who believed in me — some in small, quiet ways and others in profound ones. They encouraged me when I doubted, advised me when I was stuck, prayed for me when I had no words left, and cheered me on through every new and scary thing God put in front of me. I am standing where I am today, in part, because of them. That is what a cheerleader does. And that is what you can be for someone else.
 
A Word to the Rest of Us
And if you are the friend, the sister, the colleague, the mentor — the one who is watching someone you know step out in faith:

Be the person who shows up.

Not because it is easy. Not because you have nothing else going on. Not because you fully understand what she is doing or whether it will work.

Show up because she is your sister, and that is what sisters do.

Show up because the one-another commands of Scripture are not suggestions for when it is convenient — they are the ordinary, everyday practice of what it means to live as the body of Christ.

Show up because kindness is never wasted. Ever.

At Bridge the Gap, kindness is our core value — not as a brand attribute, but as a conviction. Everything we do here is meant to promote it. And that includes this: the simple, countercultural, deeply biblical act of choosing to put someone else’s flourishing above our own comfort.

Be her biggest cheerleader.

She is worth it.

And so are you.

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Click on this image for a free download of "Free to Flourish Together".
This free one-page resource pairs beautifully with this month’s post — it is a set of gentle journal prompts to help you reflect on the freedom you have in Christ, give thanks for the women who have walked alongside you, and consider how you might do the same for someone else. Nine prompts. One closing prayer. A little quiet space just for you.


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