Tuesday @ Ten::Grow

Tonight I am linking up with Karen Beth...writing on her current word prompt - GROW.  I hope you'll take time to visit her blog Finding The Grace Within.  Perhaps you will make yourself a cup of tea and relax while you enjoy the creativity of the beautiful contributors to this link up with Karen Beth.

Grow.  According to Merriam Webster, the word has many definitions and applications. Here are just a few: 

1. to become larger: to increase in size, amount, etc

2. to become better or improved in some way: to become more developed, mature, etc

3. to pass from childhood to adulthood

To grow is to change.  To grow is painful.  To grow is exciting...and scary.

To not grow is boring...to become stagnant.  To not grow is death.

I remember one summer of my youth complaining - my knees hurt, my hips hurt, my shoulders and back hurt.  And I remember hearing, "You're ok, those are just growing pains."  

Indeed, at the end of the summer I had grown 6 inches!  Yes, physical growth is painful, and yet exciting.  As our "seeds" grew in height, we measured and marked their progress on a wall in our basement.  Each growth marker brought smiles, shouts and jumps of joy!

While growth from childhood into adulthood means that we become physically full grown, there's continual opportunity for emotional, intellectual and spiritual growth. To become better or improved in some way: to become more developed, mature, etc. from the Merriam Webster definitions above.

A tree grows from seedling to fruit bearing maturity.  New growth and bearing fruit are signs of life.  At times a little pruning may be necessary to further the growth and fruit production...to cause the tree to flourish in life.  

Similarly, we should be continually growing, maturing and bearing fruit - even into our old age.  I don't know about trees, but I know pruning in my life is painful.  And yet, pruning is necessary, at times a little fertilizer is necessary for growth as well.

Growth is necessary for life.  I want to live fully every day of my life.  And so, this is the desire of my heart....to continually grow, mature, develop gifts and bear fruit for the glory of God.

This is the encouragement I find in Colossians 1:9-10 ~

So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you.  

We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.  

Then the way  you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit.  

All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.