Forward Motion

"when i grasp the concept
then i'll sleep where you slept
when i know i need help
when i allow myself (allow myself)

to experience the bittersweet
to taste defeat
then brush your teeth
experience the bittersweet
to taste defeat
then brush your teeth

cause i struggle with forward motion
i struggle with forward motion
we all struggle with forward motion"

- Relient K, Forward Motion

Personal growth, and how it is achieved. I think that is a question a lot of us ask ourselves often but can truly struggle to reach an exact answer. Honestly, I don’t think there a set answer because I feel a lot of factors come into play in order for full personal growth to be realized. It starts with stopping for a moment of self-acknowledgement and understandment. It is acknowledging and understanding various aspects of your own life.

Let’s start with the easy one, the positive aspects. We all have some aspect in our lives that is positive. There is always some degree of worthiness to build from; some more than others, but we all have at least some form of it. Now before you get ahead of me, don’t boast those things you do right, or the good things happening to you, but rather acknowledge them, understand and accept, and build on them. Your positive attributes are building blocks for you to be a better person. You have a foundation on which to build off to further better who you are. Understand, but don’t boast because you didn’t get them or do them on your own. God has blessed you, and provided opportunity for you to demonstrate what He has instilled in you. He does to show you, or pick you up, to hopefully motivate you to grow more in Him.

Now for the tough one, the ever so awesome negative aspects. These are the aspects people tend to ignore, reject, hide, or pout about. Listen none of us are perfect, we all have our faults, but we’ll never grow or move pass them if we’re just pouting or ignoring them. This is where God provides us with true opportunity for personal growth. There are bad things about us and bad things happen to us, but it all pends all we choose to carry ourselves about it. Are we going to be selfish in our thinking, or are we going to seek God?

The negative characteristics about ourselves are things that should be focal points for us to work on, not for us to ignore like they’re not true. Be accountable for yourself, and admit it. Be honest, don’t lie, just realize and accept them. Once you’ve accepted those things about yourself, submit before God. Now this is where we fail. We can’t just submit it to God, and sit back, like we tend to do. God is not our magic genie to grant us wishes, and make things happen on the spot when we command. No, we got to work at it. Once we submit to God, we have to act upon our submission for Him to help us. I believe it is the process, not the product that gets us to develop that personal growth. So if we were to just get the product and skip the process what would we learn? So if you got something about yourself that you need to work on, first admit it and submit before God, and try to work on it. And remember it’s a process, so it won’t be fixed overnight but rather development over time.

Now the negative situations that happen to us are what I believe the perfect opportunities for personal growth, but it all depends on your outlook or perspective on the matter. We need to realize everyone goes through rough patches in life. Some people’s lives are a lot clearer patches than some, and other seems like their patch is a natural disaster site. Listen we all go through stuff, we have all experienced stuff in our past, are experiencing in our present, and will experience in our futures, but how do you view those experiences. Do you pity yourself, do you blame aspect of yourself on those experiences, or do you just give up? Once we view negative situations as opportunities and as a blessing then we give ourselves a chance for personal growth. Listen I’ve gone through a lot in my 22 years of life, and I know other people that have experienced more than most, but no matter the degree of the experience it was all opportunity to grow from it. There is always a purpose, or a reason, but we have to seek God for it. Notice I said seek Him, not question Him. Oh, the cliché, “Why God why?” rather than “Alright God show me and guide me through this”. He has a reason for every single thing, His providence reigns over all. When we get that, those things will allow us to build character and attributes that can help us; then we can begin to experience personal growth.

Look life is a nonstop opportunity to grow, you are given your past, and your right now, not your later on, and with every passing second comes a second chance; a chance to embrace every opportunity at hand, and work at it. Why should we? First as His, we need to bring Him glory. We’re no good, no matter how much positive you have, when it comes to the glory He deserves. So we must strive to realize and accept, and strive to grow. It won’t be easy, and I don’t guarantee it’ll get done. But that’s when you remember it’s the process, and not the product.

with love,

-adam