Walking through a season of growing is hard. Often I find that when the Lord is walking me through seasons of growth there are growing pains, a lot of them. Coming into the race I had hoped that I would grow without fully understanding that meant experiencing these growing pains. There are times through the various lessons the Lord has taught me and is currently teaching me that I have begged for His mercy to speed up the process. Of course, some lessons are quicker than others and His timing is perfect. If He sped up the process, there would be so many sweet moments that I would have missed.

This morning as I sat with God, He reminded me that there is a purpose to the process He walks us all through. He invited me into a time of just sitting with Him. Listening to the nature around me. That choosing to lean into the hard things and the growing process is not always easy but that the creator of the universe has a plan. As I sat with Him I could hear the birds chirping in the distance, bees nearby collecting pollen, dogs barking, and the wind rustling in the grass.

God’s grace and rest are astounding. Coming into this week my team and I prayed about what the Lord had for us for our time together in Costa Rica. We all got a lot of growth in that time of listening prayer. God is fun too. He brought us to an organic farm here in Costa Rica where we are literally learning how to grow all sorts of things. It is also a time of spiritual growth and pressing into the silence. That we are getting the opportunity to essentially be on this retreat together learning new things. Seeing the resilience and just the perfect way that God created things to work together has been encouraging.

I want to encourage you to press into the hard things. Press into the growing pains you are feeling. Trust me I know that it is not always easy, but we can trust God knows what He is doing. That He is walking before us in these battles, and they are already won.