Growing

Recently my daughter has grown to big for her newborn, 0-3 month, and most of her 3 month clothes.  At her doctor appointment when she was 2 months she was 12lbs and 23 1/2 inches...well she just turned 3 months and weighs 14lbs now.  So there's lots of growing up and out and all of that going on in our house right now.  So it was time to pull out a bin and put all the clothes she's outgrown away and in the storage shed *I'd give them to charity or a pregnant friend but we plan on having more children and if we have a girl I figure we'll be using it so it's my way of recycling hah* it was surprisingly difficult to pull all these little things out and look at them and think of the first time I saw her wearing this or that.  It was breaking/melting my heart.  She's so different now compared to the day she was born sometimes I just can't wrap my mind around it.  So somewhere in the oohing, ahhing and yes a few new-mommy tears I started thinking of growing up in general.  Not only growing up but growing In Christ, growing in my personal relationship with him, my faith, etc.  It's hard to grow in any sense of the word, physically you get actual growing pains that can hurt very badly, and when you're growing in the Lord those growing pains may not be physical but they can hurt just as bad.

In my own experience the closer I get to Jesus the harder my circumstances, situations, and just things in general become.  I know that being a Christian does not mean bad things won't happen and difficult stuff won't come my way.  It means that I will be better able to deal with the hard stuff, the disappointments, and the rough patches of this life.  It means that I know better than to give up and give in.  I may get dangerously close to it but that's always when the Lord lets me know he is there.  He never gives us more than we can handle.

What he does give us is the strength to pick ourselves up and keep going.  He gives us peace, his truly unconditional love, and so much more.  It's hard when you're discouraged.  Maybe your job is making you absolutely miserable.  It feels like your marriage just isn't where it should be and isn't what it should be.  Maybe you feel like you'll never get married.  Maybe the life-altering call you'd been hoping and praying for just never came.  Or your paycheck just doesn't stretch half as far as you need it to.  There are so many hard things in this life.  And they're not going to go away Christian or not.  But like I said the Lord gives us the strength to get through.  As hard as it is sometimes you just have to keep praying, and keep waiting.  I think growing up means dealing with the hard things.  As an adult you deal with things you never thought about as a child.  Getting groceries  paying the electric bill, car insurance, etc.  And growing in Christ means dealing with all kinds of things and keeping the faith anyway.  The everyday little things and then sometimes the really big things.

Sometimes all you can do is accept your circumstances, change your attitude, and keep going.  You have to take all the hard things in life to get to the good.  You need to make sure to always remember no matter what happens there is always some good no matter how small it is.  And if we really stop to think about it life is a lot of small good things, random wonderful moments, the everyday kind of stuff we don't always think of as good or special or nice broken up by the bigger more difficult things.  You just can't focus on the big things, try and meditate on the Lord and all the little daily blessings he gives you.