Growing Pains

We had a case of growing pains with our great-grandchild this week. She had pain in her knees. A little children’s Tylenol and a heating pad and she was fine. Many of us as children remember having pains as our bones and muscles and tendons struggled to grow, especially during our “growth spurts.”

There are spiritual “growing pains” as well. There are times when God stretches us. He grooms us for bigger challenges by putting us through experiences that stretch us. It may be a case of putting us in positions in which our dependence on Him is more obvious than usual. Perhaps He puts us with people who challenge us.

Sometimes He works through “hard” scriptures that make us review our concepts of who He is or who we are in His universe. He may move us from a place of comfort into unfamiliar, even frightening, surroundings. The goal is the same: to grow our faith, trust and dependence on Him.

When circumstances aren’t what  you would like them to be, when the things  you have relied on fall, when people aren’t there as they have been in the past, these may be growing pains. The good news in God is taking you to a new place. It may be a scary place, but it’s a place where He is already waiting. He looks forward to closer walk with us. We should be excited as well.