I'm 38. Here are the 4 areas God is growing me in.

I turned 38 two weeks ago and I’m just now sitting to write my birthday post. I don’t even fully know what to write, but I do know it is important that I document as I grow, so here I go! Here are the 4 areas God is growing me in:

Trust. Positivity. Responsibility. Humility.

Trust.

I did not realize how little I trusted. As God is growing me in this area, I look back and see that my hustle, bustle, make it happen attitude was a result of not trusting God. I’m still growing in these areas, but even now I’m making the connection between trust and rest. When we don’t trust, we are unable to rest. As we trust, we rest.

As God’s children, His will is for us to rest. We have to know that resting is a matter of trusting. We’re dependent on God to grow us in trust so we understand that we were not designed to take care of ourselves, or everything else. God created us to love Him, trust Him, follow Him, obey Him.

How do we grow in trust?

Spend time with Him.

It is as we prioritize spending time with God that we begin to better understand His ways. He renews our mind and opens our eyes so that we can see our fleshly, distrustful ways as they are. Spending time with Him lays the foundation that trust is built upon.

How can we trust who we don’t know?

The second area God is growing me in is:

Positivity.

God has allowed me to understand that I, my flesh that it, has some negative patterns. Negativity used to literally dominate me. It all started with my thinking. I used to think negatively. Not just the thoughts, but the thought patterns themselves would be negative. This would lead to negative assumptions about people and situations, negative attitudes, negative words, and negative moods. This is not good, healthy, or happiness!

Now, God has grown me to spot negativity for what it is, preventing it from having its way with me. Now, I spot negativity in its tracks and don’t feed it by giving life to the thought, or situation. Sometimes there are negative situations in life that we find ourselves in. When that is the case, God is not allowing me to magnify the negativity. He shifts my mind to the lesson at hand for me.

Thirdly, responsibility.

Whew! I feel like this should be #1. To whom much is given, much is required. It. Is. Real. So often, we don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into! I smile as I type this because as I reflect upon answered prayers, I asked for things not fully understanding what all the blessing would bring. Now, don’t me wrong, the blessings of God are just that- blessings. We just have to understand that everything that we receive requires management.

We must grow in responsibility to effectively manage our blessings. This means giving more, doing more, taking more. Right now, I’d rather be sleeping. In previous seasons, after church I would eat and then sleep. Period. Now, I can’t, because I have too much to do. This is not a complaint, but rather an acceptance of responsiblity.

Lastly, the area that God is growing me in is humility.

Honestly, this probably is what makes all the other lessons possible. This is me accepting that I’m jacked up, I am very immature in ways, and that God is truly doing a work on me. This understanding allows me to be more personable, accepting of feedback, and accepting of others.

Last year, when I turned 37, I remember God ACTIVELY teaching me that I was not in control. I literally remember times when nothing went my way! It was humbling and sometimes a little comical because I understood the season. I accepted it. Now, as we are entering a new year, I understand that I am not in control. The blessings and opportunities that come my way are because of Him- not me.

I’ve spent much, much time trying to make things happen and it didn’t. Rightly so. If things would have went my way, the story would have been: “Look what I did.” Now, I can humbly acknowledge that all that I am and all that I have and all that I’m able to do is because of the grace of God.

As I am blessed to see 38 and experience all that God has planned, I just pray that I stay close to Him, grow in these areas, and yield to Him as He continues the work on me that He started and will finish. I don’t desire to create any grand plans, but just simply walk in the plans that He purposed for me in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world.