There is never a perfect time to start growing. If you wait for the perfect time to start growing chances are you will remain stuck exactly where you are at. The best advice someone ever gave me was"Just start right where you are. Even if you are at the bottom."

Let me also forewarn you, that growth with God demands a lot. Please don't read that mistakenly and think that God demands a lot. Read that again. Growth, WITH GOD, demands a lot. I've learned that:

Growth with God demands surrender

Growth with God demands pain tolerance

Growth with God demands you to accept that growth and comfort do not go hand and hand.

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I questioned myself which lead me to postpone my opportunities to grow. Unfournatley it came to a point where my only two options were to stay where I was at or "get up and grow."

Most recently, I went through a horrible break-up. Those 8 months included me putting God on the back burner. Those 8 months included nothing but lies and hurt & yelling matches and empty promises. Those 8 months included me slowly sinking into a lifestyle of sin (not to mention starting to struggle with sins that I have never struggled with before.) And lastly, I would be lying if I said those 8 months didn't include happiness because they did. But I also realized I started to look to that person for validation and comfort. I started to look at that person when I felt lonely. I started to look at that person when I felt insecure. Instead of looking to God, I looked at that person for everything. When they left I felt empty. This is when God relayed the message to me:

"Surrender, stop looking to the world and it's people. It and they will never fill you."

I tried for weeks after that to grow, in every area possible, but in my own strength. Filling my head with encouraging scriptures and just looking at other people in my life to fill me with words of affirmation to make me feel better about myself. Soon enough, I realized in order to grow with God and in my relationship with him I needed to take his advice and stop looking to the world and all of its people to fill me.

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Surrender: It starts with surrender. Even if you are reading this and thinking "God doesn't need to be apart of my personal growth," I am not going to say you're wrong because I don't want to preach at you. But I am going to say, that trying to face growth on your own is ten times harder. Relying on the people of this world to fill you is asking for hurt, heartbreak or disappointment. People will always let you down, disappoint you, or hurt you at some point. Trying to do everything for me and by myself was my first mistake. I personally, didn't find myself growing until I surrendered my struggle to that higher power in my life. Jesus.

Surrendering consisted of two things and two things only. Admitting I needed help & asking for it. Whether you admit that to God and or ask God for help is all on you.

But, that's the person I asked to help me grow and immediately it started raining.

When God saw me in my purest form of surrender and my weakest stage where I realized I couldn't become the person I wanted to be on my own. He not only started working to change my heart but he provided the things I needed to grow. Just like a plant needs water, fertilizer, and sunshine to grow. God provided me with an internship where I was surrounded by a huge Christian community. He provided me with multiple forms of income. He provided me with directions on where to go next. And lastly, he provided me with new friends & new opportunities. Sure, all these things may have come eventually if I tried to grow on my own. But, I feel like me waving that white flag of surrender to God, going to him in prayer and admitting I needed help and asking for it right where I was, really sped up the process.

Metaphorically speaking, trying to jumpstart my growth all by myself was like waiting for the rain in a drought. But surrendering my pride and ego, surrendering my emotions, surrendering my situation and ultimately myself and my life made the rain come faster.

As Luke Combs himself once said: "Oh Lord, when it rains it pours."

But the biblical version of that well-known country hit is:

"When he blesses you, he blesses you in abundance." - 2 Corinthians 9:8 (The Message)

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Growing Pains: Growth with God does not always leave you feeling like you are on cloud nine. In fact, if I can be real with you, if you do feel like that, you probably aren't growing. Don't get me wrong, growth has its moments where you feel like you are on cloud nine. It is not a totally miserable experience. For example: having those moments of reflection where you look back a few weeks, months or years earlier and think "wow my life is totally different now." That's where you feel the cloud nine feeling during your growth. Seeing your progress and feeling your progress will be the very thing, other than God himself, that keeps you motivated while you grow. It is important to reference your past but do not ever stay there or go back.

But, just as there are times when you feel that cloud nine feeling. There is also going to be times during your growth process where you feel as if you just hit a huge speed bump and not only did it slow you down but your tire blew out & your AAA membership expired yesterday. That feeling, the one where you feel like your stuck and don't know what to do. That feeling comes often while you are growing. It isn't even close to a cloud nine feeling, it is a painful one. In order to grow, you have to have to develop a high pain tolerance.

From a Christian perspective, just as Jesus doesn't promise us that our faith journey is going to be easy, he also doesn't promise us that our growth is going to be easy. We as Christians underestimate The Devil and his power to do what he was created for. His power to kill, steal and destroy is something he does very well. We underestimate how smart & manipulative he is. We underestimate how his voice can sound like Gods in our heads but in reality, he wants nothing more for us to believe his lies. As Christians, and I am learning this myself right now too, that the enemy see's your growth with God and he immediately does everything in his power to try and hinder that. Making your growth feel painful at times.

As I myself am in a season of growing to become the person God wants me to be, the enemy has stopped at nothing to try and stop that. He constantly reminds me of my ex-boyfriend in moments when I am alone by rehashing all those feelings leading me to re-read texts and look at pictures. He constantly lies to me and tries to instill in me that "I am not enough" in different areas of my life. Lastly, the most painful of them all is he uses the people that are closest to me to bring me down and try and make me give up on my growth. As Christians, the person we are allowed to point blame at for the pain we feel during our seasons of growth is The Devil.

Enduring that pain, removing those things and people that hinder your growth, and rebuking The Devil and all his malicious plans to see you fail is the hard part of growth.

The good news is, going through all that it is guaranteed to ultimately contribute to your growth.

Ironically enough, my most recent break up is something that I am trying to move on from and where I started this season of growth for myself. But, there was a saying that my ex-boyfriend religiously lived by that I now only see is a true statement and now holds a lot of meaning in my life: "Challenges are what makes life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."

But more importantly, Jesus has told me a lot of things about Growth during this season in my life.

"And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great." - Job 8:7

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." - 2 Peter 3:18

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." - Matthew 6:33

"knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." - Romans 5:2-9

"And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground" -1 Samuel 3:19

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." - John 15:1-5

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Growth & comfort do not go hand and hand: Reading that statement are you thinking "I am comfortable where I am at." Do you ever think to yourself that since "life is good" and since "you are content or comfortable" that there is no need to grow? Or maybe you've spent the last few months or years growing and you finally feel like you are in a comfortable spot so you just stop there? If you've ever played a sport in high school or maybe you are a college athlete reading this, you know very well that every coach you have ever had has always made sure you knew that perfect was unachievable and that there is and always is room for improvement (growth.) The minute you got "comfortable" where you were in the sport was the very minute your coach pushed you a little harder to help you grow in your skill. Also, if you were comfortable with your skill ability and didn't have the will to grow your will to practice died and without practice sooner or later you lost your skills. In reality, your comfort zone is made out to be and feel like this beautiful place but nothing ever grows there and neither will you.

This metaphor of being an athlete can relate to personal growth in so many ways. Those goals for the person you want to be, those goals for your next relationship, those goals that you have academically, those goals you have post graduation are not going to be achieved by you staying in your comfort zone. Your comfort zone is probably the most dangerous place you can remain if you have any sort of goals for yourself. Your comfort zone leaves no room for growth. Therefore, growth and comfort do not co-exist with each other. Growth begins outside your comfort zone never in it.

As a Christian, I find myself limiting myself to my comfort zone a lot. I argue with God when he calls me to do something out my comfort zone. Sometimes, if I am being honest, I ignore the calling from God himself due to my comfort zone. But, the very second I clench my eyes shut as I step out of my comfort zone I already start to feel like I am growing. In my moments where I am given the opportunity to grow God always reminds me that I have two options in those moments. I can either step forward into growth, or I can step back into safety.

Another way to look at it is, what if when God calls us to step out of our comfort zones maybe he isn't asking us to be comfortable in the situation. But, maybe he is asking us to remain comfortable in HIM despite the situation.

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So yeah, this thing called growth, the action of growing is really terrifying. It is terrifying because it demands us to surrender and not try to do everything by ourselves. It demands us to feel pain at times. It demands us to be uncomfortable and requires we leave everything we know and everything that we are, and everything we are used to and try something else.

As humans, we tend to fear change because change usually means growth. Going deeper than that, we tend to ignore and fear our relationship with God because we know that he usually pushes us to grow. But, to encourage you, though it takes some sacrifice of your own comfort on your part, when and while you are in the process of growing God is going to water you, fertilize you, and pull any weeds out that hinder your growth.