When I was a little kid, I use to get pains in my leg at night. It didn't happen all the time, but often enough to make it hard to sleep. Everyone has had these pains before, because our bodies were growing. However, that never made it any less confusing. Being young and so new to the world of pain, growth and change, pain without reason was disheartening. I use to toss and turn for hours. Some nights my mother would try to help by massaging my leg and that would help, but only until the next one hit.

These are growing pains. Our bodies being transformed and shaped into what they were meant to be is a miracle, but it makes it no less painful. However our physical change is second to our hearts transformation. Just as it aches when our muscles and bones are stretched, so to does our hearts and our souls.

On an individual basis we go through the fire daily. When we were young it was easy to get lost in life changing moments. The girl you loved that turned you down, a friend that left you or the grade that wasn't what you expected. Maybe it was a job you loved and lost or a loved one that passed away. It could have been a broken promise, a betrayal, or even an insult. Maybe it was something fantastic, like a first kiss or the smell of the hot pavement after a rain. The grass on your bare feet, neighborhood baseball or your first time off the high dive is still as much a part of you today as it was when it happened.Whatever it was, it hit you and left a mark you now carry forever.

Everyday is a growing pain, good or bad. The days stretch us and make us think we will always ache. It aches, because we will never be the same. God asks us to change everyday, to stand up to the growing pains and move forward with a determination that can't be stopped. I've decided to follow God in everything I do and for that reason there is no amount of ache, caused by me or other people, that will prevent me from doing that.

If there is one thing to take away from all this, this is it: Peace is not the absence of pain, but the presence of power. That power is God.

You will have growing pains. We all do. Will they control you?

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