Personal Growth

The last two weeks have been an tough exercise in personal growth for me. And that's been good - and bad. You see, I love to grow. I love that through God's transforming power, I am no longer a slave to my see, but am free in Christ. Free to grow and to change. Free to walk away from the things that are harmful to me - especially my own behaviors and attitudes and put on the clothes of Christ. 

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Col 3:12

I love this "outfit' - I pray each day I can make it fit better and wear it more often. I pray this verse as I am heading towards the girls room to break up a fight - or calm a restless child before she wakes up her sleeping sister. I pray it when I am on the phone and my husband is bugging me. I pray that these are the clothes the surly store clerk sees on me. I love those times when I feel like I am clothed for Christ.

But here's the thing about personal growth - it often hurts. It comes with the price of laying aside my pride to let the Lord work in me in ways that are often painful. The pruning of my pride and the circumcision of my heart. I think that's why I hold back - I don't fully lay out all of myself to let the Lord do His full and complete work in me. 

But Praise the Lord - I serve a gracious God - who is merciful with me. He is good to me through the work - patient with my reluctance, gentle with His correction. He created me and He understands my fears and reluctance - and walks with me though it. He knows the old creation is dying in me and being replaced by a new creation - albeit slowly! 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

2 Cor 5:17