When my teenager was about 7 or 8 years old, she would often have leg pains at night. I remember waking up to her tears and sweet, innocent voice asking me why her legs hurt her so much. There were no set time frames to the occurrences, so we could never speculate when the pains would come and when they would go. It was truly strange, until I started learning about growth spurts. Her body was growing at a different pace than her muscles were and what we believe happened was that her muscles were playing catchup in the growth process, causing her aches and pains. It hurt my heart when it occurred.
I've never forgotten about that season in our lives and I often refer back to that story when I am going through something tough. Sometimes, growth isn't so bad, though, as long as we embrace it and grow stronger from it.
My child is now a teenager and her growth spurts look quite different these days. They are emotional more so than bodily. And, I, might add, have growth spurts, as well. The ones that I've experienced in life are caused by various factors. Sometimes people cause them, sometimes my own choices cause them, sometimes things occur outside of anyone's control that cause them. But, the reality of it all is, I've learned to take those opportunities and look at them in such a fashion to try and be positive in my life journey. I try to actually GROW from them. It's a choice of either getting bitter or getting better. I hope we ALL get better!
Today, I'm having a growth spurt. I wonder what the other side will look like. I wonder how much emotional and spiritual growth I will have from this. I really feel like 2011 is going to be a growing year for me. I'm excited, and yet, a little unsure of what the growth will look like. I don't like aches and pain, but I like growth. Let's all choose to make this a GREAT year, despite how our growth spurts look like.
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