Why Personal Growth Should Not Be Optional

Are you a person who embraces change? Or fights against it? Do you look at change as an opportunity? Or as an inconvenience? For me, my answer depends on the day and the change I am facing.

Some changes are great and I look forward to. While other changes are hard and it is hard to see how any good may come out of them. However despite what the changes are or how we may feel, our reactions to and actions in and through change matter the most. We know that change is often not optional. Another thing in our lives that should not be optional either is growth.

Nothing stays the same. This is most evident when you look at kids. Whether you are a mom, an aunt, or have a friend with kids you cannot help but be amazed at how much and how fast kids change. I can look at my own daughters and I cannot believe how much they have changed and grown over the years.

I can still vividly remember bringing them all home from the hospital. With my oldest, I was almost afraid to bring her home from the hospital because I knew then my husband, Eric, and I would be on our own. Being a first-time mom can be overwhelming. Then when our twins were born 28 months later, that brought a whole new wave of emotions.

Now all these years later, the change and growth is evident in some ways more than others. Like the fact that my oldest is on her way to middle school this year. Then before I know it they all will be taller than me before I know it. All you have to do is take a trip down memory lane with pictures to see all the changes around you.

Then there are those changes that are less evident in the lives of our kids and our own lives that can cause to take more of a pause. As I watch my girls change and grow from being little girls to young ladies, what amazes me the most is not the change but the growth. For both them and myself.

They are not the babies I brought home from the hospital all those years ago and I am not the same woman either. I have grown as a woman, a wife, and a mom. My faith has been tested, stretched, and grown in so many ways. The same could probably be said for you as well.

When we are faced with changes in life, especially those like motherhood, we are also faced with choices. We may not be able to control or choose how and why things change, but we can choose what we do and how we respond to the changes.

We can choose to hold on to what was, wish things would go back to how they were, and stay the same resisting change ourselves. Or we can learn from what was, accept that things are now different, and look to grow during the change.

Wise men and women are always learning, always listening for fresh insights.
Proverbs 18:15 (MSG)

We can look to gain wisdom, insight, and knowledge that will help to change and grow us for the better. Knowing that change is often not optional, growth should not be optional either.

This past Mother’s Day, my girls bought me a sign that reads “bloom where you are planted”. I love it because it was as if they saw straight into my heart. We have been going through a lot of changes as family, individually and collectively.

Yet through it all, they have seen how Eric and I have started to lean more on God and less on ourselves. Trusting that God has us all going through these changes for a reason. And that regardless of where we are and what is going on around us we can bloom where we are planted. The same can be said for you. We all should be able to grow and bloom wherever we are planted.

Now do not get me wrong. I know that all change and situations we go through are not easy. We have and will experience different trials and storms in life that can rock us to our core. Things that can change us and those around forever. Yet even in those times, we can still choose to grow.

It is often during those hard times that we experience the most growth. We have to choose to look past our current circumstances or situations and look to how God may be using this to grow us.

You have to be intentional about growing. As a woman, a wife, a mom, a businesswoman, and a Christian. The list can go on and on. Embracing that growth is not optional it is the first step, now we are going to take the next few steps together.

During the next month or so we are going to take a journey to grow in a few of these areas. A journey embracing who and where you are today, while striving towards who God is calling you to be. Are you with me?!

I’d love to know in what area of your life you would like to grow more in
in the comments!