Grow, my child!

Have you ever seen a child educating its parents? Some children are extremely successful at imposing their will on their parents, but in most cases it is the parents who educate their offspring, not the other way around. We know our children need to grow and we go through the steps with them. As babies, they are completely dependent on us and we care for them. The older they get, the more they learn to take on their own tasks and the responsibility that goes with them. Until one day they grow up and are able to raise their own children.

We also go through this process spiritually. At the beginning of your life of faith, you are still selfish. You accept that Jesus has saved you and learn every day more about what it means to be a child of God. At the same time, you react suspiciously to challenges and don't want to be raised by your heavenly Father. You know in theory that he wants the best for you, but when you have to put this knowledge into practice, you fall back on your own desires.

As a spiritual teenager, you have learned that you can trust God even when it is storming around you. You learn to fight with God's weapons and to reach out more and more for what your Father's will is, even if your desires look different. You still rebel against him and are far from trusting him always and in every situation, but your spiritual foundation is now much more solid.

And when you have understood from the bottom of your heart that God always means well with you and that you can trust him in all situations, no matter how hopeless and dark the circumstances may seem, you have reached spiritual adulthood. You are firm in your faith and can still convince other people of God's goodness even when you are in the middle of a desert time. This is because your spiritual roots are now so deep that you are like an evergreen tree by a stream: it bears rich fruit even in the most arid times. Growing pains await you on your spiritual journey from child to adult. But pain is not there to keep you small, but to make you stronger.

Next Step: Have a conversation with Jesus and ask him what phase of your spiritual growth you are currently in and what the next steps are that he has planned for you.