Growth & Progress

Both of my kids are getting taller with each passing day. This summer when visiting my friend, Pam, I realized I was now much shorter than her oldest son, Quinn who is Jaret's age. And when Jaret came to hug me last night, I realized just how tall he is getting and he continues to see growth. I remember as a child, visiting my grandparents often. Every time we visited, Grams would open up the door to the pantry at the edge of the kitchen and we would look at all the markings on the door from our family. It wasn't long until my name was the lowest down and all my cousins passed me in stature. But even still when I visit, the pantry door gets opened and comparisons are made and my children's names have been added to the door. The door had been painted once over the years but before it was, Grandma made sure she measured all those marks and wrote them down in a book so that they could be transferred back to the door when the paint had dried. And now that I have my own home and my own kids, the tradition continues. Although, we measure on a ruler that is just meant for that purpose so that during moves, the markings can come with us wherever we live.

I know that many of you have the same tradition and when you read this it brings back memories of when you would try to appear just a little taller than you actually were by pushing your heels up just enough. Or maybe that is something that more petite people like me do? Or Jaret when he was so excited to see if he was tall enough to go on that roller coaster one summer? We measure our physical growth through height and even as we age in measurements before a new exercise regime or photos to see progress. PROGRESS.

We all want it. We want to see growth and progress and that is one reason why we also set goals in life or new year's resolutions. As a people, we want to know that we are advancing and that we are improving in different areas. Recently while visiting with girlfriends, I was reminded of this. Reminded that we want to see growth in different areas of our lives - spiritually, emotionally, physically. We want it all. To be good at everything. And sometimes we push ourselves so hard to meet all of life's expectations. Sometimes we try to live that perfect life rather than just being present in the moment, reminiscing back to a book I read last summer entitled Present Over Perfect. We need to remind ourselves that we will never reach perfection but today and moving forward, we need to look after ourselves (time with God in the Word and through worship, time to physically and emotionally look after ourselves through rest and exercise). When we look after ourselves, we can then look after others. And we need to remind ourselves, at least I do, that we aim for growth and progress, not perfection.

A recent devotion on YouVersion and from Gwen Smith both pointed me toward reflection on this. Gwen points us to Timothy's life and how he was encouraged to be intentional, move forward in growing his faith, and to impact others.

"Practice these things. Immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress." 

~1 Timothy 4:15

And isn't that how we ought to live? Immersing and practicing so that we see progress? So that when we are dealing with a difficult situation, we will react more Christ-like. That when our heart isn't in the right place, we will stop and take it to Him in prayer before speaking to others about it?  What progress are we seeing in our lives? How are you living today that shows others you are a new creation? How are we showing Christ's image in our lives?

"Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

Point out anything in me that offends you,

And lead me along the path of everlasting life."
~Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT)

Have a wonderful Saturday, my friends!