It’s back to school time. I’ve been enjoying all of the pictures my friends on Facebook have been posting as their kids pose with signs telling what grade they’re in.
Some of the photos blow my mind! We’ve served in four churches now, and I must have frozen everyone at a certain age in my head. I can hardly believe how tall kids have gotten in the years since we saw them every week.
They were just cute little boys and girls back then, and now many of them have matured and gotten taller than their parents.
I grin as I shake my head and say, “Wow! Look how much they’ve grown!”
Of course, it makes sense when I think about it. Years have passed and kids grow. That’s the way life works.
It got me thinking about spiritual growth.
It would be sad if we let the years go by and stayed stuck at a certain level of maturity in our spiritual lives.
It’s natural that we’ll grow as we study the Bible, talk to God, and spend time with other believers. If we aren’t growing, we may be neglecting one or more of those activities.
Take a look at your life. Hopefully, you can see growth from where you were one month, one year, or one decade ago. Give God the credit for that growth—even if it isn’t as huge as you’d like. As you move forward you can be deliberate about your relationship with him so you can continue growing.
When someone sees us years from now, let’s hope they’ll joyfully exclaim, “Wow! Look how much they’ve grown!”
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” (Colossians 2:6–7 NIV)
Can you see how you’ve grown in your spiritual life? How can focusing on God help you keep growing?