Growth Spurts and Growing Pains

Growth is so amazing. We have a tomato plant my daughter brought home from school growing in our sink. Yes.. in our sink. I am very lazy and haven’t planted it outside yet. So, it is in a tiny little pot sitting in our sink. It has been amazing to watch it grow.

The girls thought it was so cool as I would turn the vine away from the sun in the morning only to find it growing right back in that direction by the end of the day. It has been cool to watch it start to wilt on the days I forget to water it, then come back to life after it gets a few good gulps from watering. Today we saw the first few buds pop out. It seems like it just grew over night.

I could say the same about my kids. My son, now taller than me, seems like he has grown 6 inches in the past year. I guess that may have something to do with why it feels like he is eating me out of house and home at times. I look at pictures from just a year or so ago and wonder what happened to my little boy. My little boy looks like a man. He likes the idea, but mama isn’t exactly thrilled when 16 year old girls ask for him to stop by and visit them at work.

On the other hand, my baby girl has been crying at night. Her feet hurt and the middle daughter complains of her legs hurting. We all know of these infamous “growing pains.” I remember spending nights as a little girl rubbing my legs because the hurt so bad from the bones and muscles stretching with growth.

Growth does amazing things to plants, teenage boys, and pretty little girls. Growth also does some neat things to this mama’s spiritual growth. Funny… I have growth spurts and lots of growing pains in my spiritual growth.

This week has been full of growing pains. I have had to face feelings, emotions, and circumstances that have just been downright painful. I have had to “put on my big girl panties” -as a good friend calls it- and deal with life. Sometimes these things are spiritual and sometimes they are just part of life in general.

One thing I have learned is that no matter what you are facing in life, if you are a Christian, it is going to carry over into your spiritual life. What I have to realize is that these pains are part of the growth process. Just like I tell my little girl when she cries with her legs at night, there isn’t much I can do about it, it is just part of growing up.

I was enlightened about growth spurts too. Just like that plant in the window that withers when it isn’t getting watered. If I am not drinking from my fountain of life, I get weak and puny. But, as I begin to grow, I get hungry. I have realized that just as my 13 year old son eats and eats when he is growing, I grow and grow when I am eating from God’s word. The more I am feeding on scripture, the faster I seem to grow.

Growth is an amazing thing. It doesn’t matter if you are a little plant stuck in a kitchen sink, or a huge oak in a forest of trees. If you have the right water, food, and sunlight… you are going to grow! Sometimes that growth happens in quick spurts, and sometimes that growth is painful. The thing that matters is YOU’RE GROWING! Take a few minutes to enjoy where you are at in your own growth process today.