We have a motto in our home. I had my sister in law cross stitch it so we can have it on the wall:

In This Home, We Practice and Promote Growth and Development.

I wanted my children to know that growth isn’t an option, it is a requirement. I don’t know if you have noticed…..but growth is painful. One of my dear friends has children who experience growing pains as their bones and muscles change. They wake up in the middle of the night with leg cramps and sometimes they cry because of the pain. Just like our physical bodies grow and change, so do our spiritual bodies. We change emotionally, intellectually, and socially too. Sometimes that growth is imposed upon us. Someone in our family or a close friend dies or leaves for some reason and we have to learn to live without them. Someone moves. It can be simple or it can be complicated. But it requires us to change. Sometimes, however, we have to choose growth. We choose to take that new job, or jump back into school, or we are impressed to make a change that requires us to develop.

One of the biggest things I try to promote in our home is the choice to grow emotionally, to choose to make changes in who we are, how we think, and how we feel. I truly believe that is a large part of the purpose of this blog. Emotional growth is hard work. It is painful work. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like pain and I avoid as much as possible. But making that choice, keeps me from growing. It keeps me stuck. It doesn’t allow me to become. I don’t want to be stuck…..and I don’t want my children to be stuck either. I want us to become….to grow.

Become what exactly?

Well, that really depends upon each individual. God has blessed each of us with talents and gifts, and at my house, those are all different for each individual. Their learning curves are personally tailored because their spirits are unique and so none of their experiences are identical because each one needs something different to learn whatever it is that they are becoming. Today, I am grateful for growth, even if it is painful and it hurts and it requires me to change…..so I can become.

#GiveThanks