“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory”
1 Peter 1:7-8

The other day, my husband and I were planning the next big hurdle that we needed to attack as a family.  It is not something that just happened.  It is just something that we’ve been ignoring for far too long, and we can’t simply ignore it any longer.  For lack of better words, it is the most grotesque thing in our family’s life at the moment, so we made a plan and decided to start working on it.  As we began to walk off, my optimistic husband said something like, “All right, let’s do this.”  And I, with more of a defeated attitude, said something like, “Until we face our next overwhelming monster.”  Then, with just as much enthusiasm, he says, “Yes, we must embrace that as life.”

How does he expect me to 1) embrace that as life?  Life is supposed to be happy, easy, but most importantly predictable.  And 2) how does he ever expect me to say it with optimism?  I’m just holding on.  I don’t want any more obstacles.  But then I look back and realize that if God had given me what I wanted, I’d still be an immature and selfish child that threw a fit every time I didn’t get what I wanted and trying to make sure everyone around me was as miserable as me.

In my confusion, I was reminded that God often refers to Himself as a loving shepherd or father (1 Peter 2:24-25; John 10:1-5; Isaiah 40:11; 1 John 3:1; Psalm 68:5; Psalm 103:8-13).  As a shepherd, he loves us as innocent lambs and does all that He can to protect us from the lions, both physical and spiritual. And when He allows pain and suffering, He comforts us by providing insight into Him and His love.  This is fine, and God will continue to provide and care for us as Psalm 23 promises.  So what if we consider ourselves sons of God? I don’t know about anyone else, but my sweet and innocent children are growing into adolescents, and the loving shepherd role I’ve played as a mother is no longer working. It is requiring a strong father to correct and mature them into men (Proverbs 6:20-22).

This analogy works with us as well.  For whatever reason, we don’t grow and mature without this correction and guidance.  As a loving father, it breaks my husband’s heart to implement correction at times, but the boys will probably never know this until they become fathers themselves.  A father’s heart isn’t to break them but to shape them, no matter what it feels like to the child at that time. So, if you’re an adolescent Christian, meaning you’ve been through the loving nurturing phase that brought you to Christ for healing, it may be time for the growing and maturing phase.

Don’t panic.  He’s still the same loving father, but, just like us, He expects more out of us now (1 Peter 2:2; 1 Corinthians 13:11).  He’s cleaned our wounds from the past and shown us love, but we must now go and share that message to others (Matthew 28:19-20).  Like one of us getting our kids ready to leave the nest, He must prepare us so that we’re strong and able to bear the mantle He’s giving us.  We don’t know what is in front of us, but maybe we can be reassured that the more He refines us, the more He expects out of us.  Remember, He will never give us more than we can handle (1 Corinthians 10:13).  And, unlike school, we can retake the class as many times as needed until we understand the expectations.

I don’t know if I’m mature enough to say, “Thank you.  I’m ready for what’s next.”  But I can tell you that when I look back, I am so thankful for all that God has given me.  When I’ve let go of what I want, He’s filled in with love and compassion that I could not have filled in with physical things that would fall apart.  I am by no means done growing, and I’m not looking for retirement here on earth.  I plan to continue growing until I pass into the next life.

– Written by Kati

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