Growing Pains

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit.” ~Jeremiah 17:7-8

Growing pains. We all experience them – whether they are contained to our physical bodies after an intense workout or are part of our emotional and spiritual journeys.

I remember when I was a young girl, crying in my bed, unable to sleep because my bones were aching as they slowly and painfully stretched into their finished length in my adolescence. I couldn’t detect what was happening, why my body was aching and restraining me from getting any rest. It was in those moments that I called out to my mother, who came quickly with Tylenol, water, and a listening ear. She had been through the growing pains, and had full confidence (not to mention scientific evidence) that all would be as it should be in a few short years. Now at my full height, I really haven’t looked back on these growing pains until this moment. Instead, I walk as a woman fully grown, confident in my height and able to enjoy the benefits of the pain without specifically recalling the painful moments to memory.

As an adult, the growing pains I feel are quite different. These are the growing pains of the soul. They don’t go away with Tylenol, water, and a mother’s touch. They take much longer to complete themselves, and often return when more growth is necessary in a certain area of my heart.

And unlike the growing pains I felt as a child, these are pains that I must consciously choose to endure in order to reap the rewards of the growth. I can choose to stunt my growth by not listening to the call to something higher, or I can choose to walk by faith, endure the struggles, and persevere to a new and more glorious level of my soul.

However, this is a choice that I make on a daily basis when I choose to put God first and accept His will as the absolute best plan for me. While I may be led through deserts, up mountain slopes, and across raging rivers of distrust, doubt, and past hurt, I never walk alone. I am being led by the most caring Shepherd who will never leave my side. He knows where He leads me. He understands my heart for He created me, and He knows the junk that has accumulated over the years – things that will only keep me from going deeper in my relationships with others and with Him if ignored.

In these growing pains there may be fear of the unknown and many tears as the pain and weariness creep ever steadily into my heart, but there is a stronger promise of a more complete self – a soul that walks more perfectly in step with the Father, and a heart that reflects the desires of the Father’s heart. What could be more rewarding that such nearness to God?

I trust that in the times when I may not see immediate benefits of the growing pains, God is working in my heart in ways that I cannot see. For I know that no time is wasted when walking with God. God doesn’t waste time. He uses every minute, every circumstance, to produce a more perfect and holy Bride.

So let us persevere, and run the race marked out for us (Hebrews 12:1). Let us trust in the One who created us and gave Himself for us. We have nothing to lose and the most wonderful of things to gain – an inseparable closeness to the heart of the living God.