Love Lines From God: Growing Up Isn’t Easy by Martin Wiles

The path is littered with spurts, setbacks, and tests, but eventually success is achieved.

Whoever said growing up was easy? I watched the challenges with my own children and am now standing by as my grandson begins to make his way toward adulthood. Along the way, he has learned to feed himself if we provide the food. (Or if we don’t quickly enough, he becomes ingenious and acquires it from the cat or dog’s bowl.) He lets us know when his diaper needs changing. And he’s now discovered that crawling isn’t the only way to get around. He can use his legs to walk. In his short journey thus far, he’s encountered bumps, bruises, falls, and scratches. All part of his growing pains.

Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. (Ephesians 4:15 NLT)

Growing up in Christ takes effort. I can choose to crawl around in the basics of my faith just as my grandchild can appeal to the convenience of crawling instead of enduring the falling and getting up process involved in learning to walk. If I do, however, I’ll never develop the kind of spiritual fortitude that moves me successfully through life’s hard knocks.

Growing up in Christ also entails desire. God won’t make me, nor will I my grandchild. But he will naturally do it even without my encouragement, and I should also without God’s prodding.

Using my spiritual gifts helps me grow in my faith. God grants at least one to every believer. As I faithfully use what he endows, he offers more.

Additionally, growing up in Christ involves hanging around with other believers who will encourage me, being a mentor to the spiritually immature, and enlisting people to hold me accountable to God’s standards.

Are you still crawling around when you should be walking?

Prayer: Eternal God, prompt us toward behaviors and attitudes that will mature our faith and increase our trust in You.