Rev. Stewart Speaks!- Growing Pains

“Ouch, mommy….my legs are hurting on the inside!” As a mom of 3 small children, I often hear each of the kids talk about the pains associated with growing up. You may recall the achiness of limbs as a kid yourself. As a mother, I try my best to be gentle. I rub their limbs and I try to calm their spirits with prayer and encouraging words. Despite my best efforts, sometimes the pain lingers a while. There isn’t much I can do, except pray and be present during those moments of hurt.

You know, as Christians, we encounter growing pains as well. There are times that we hurt inwardly. There are also times when we cannot pinpoint the actual source of the pain but we know there is something going on. 2 Corinthians 12:10 says, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Strong…everyone wants to be strong. The reality is, in life, we will most certainly be shaken up. The untimely death of a good friend, the loss of a job, the sever of a relationship…these things can all shake us up in life. This week my twin sister said she was in her local grocery store and went to pick up the juice, when she noticed the label read, “shake well before drinking”. That statement shook me to my core. You know, like the ingredients of the juice,  sometimes in life, we must be shaken up a bit to become the best version of ourselves.

The juice in the store had all of the ingredients needed to be a tasty product already inside. However, if the product wasn’t shaken up, it would not be at its best. What I am saying is, as you experience the growing pains of life, we should “fret not”. If we have Christ in our lives, we already possess the needed strength inwardly that is only activated in moments of stress to settle our minds.

In Christ, we have everything we need to be prosperous and to make it through our storms of life.  We can overcome obstacles we face, we can win the race, and we can make it through our growing pains with the ingredient of faith mixed into our crazy lives. We must have faith that God has already provided for us. When you become a Christian, God has equipped you to succeed. Just as in the juice, sometimes in life the final product does not come through unless we are shaken up or are going through the process. Without the process, there is no promise. This week I challenge you to consider how you are handling the growing pains of life. Will you allow the Lord to shake you up so that you can become the best version of yourself?