Growing Up to Be Your True Self

Most of us desire to live with more joy. However, one important barrier that often gets in our way is immaturity in the ways we relate to others. Are there relationships in your life that need mending? Do you have people with whom you long to go deeper? Perhaps the key to improving your relationships is to understand what God says emotionally and spiritually healthy relationships really look like.

Although God promises us many things that are positive, if we follow Him, He also tells us that we will all experience suffering (John 16:33). Though the degree and form of the trials we experience vary from person to person, no one leads a perfectly easy life. While we all experience hardship, we react to it differently, depending on our perspective on it. Will your suffering take from you, or will you take from it, seizing the opportunity to strengthen and grow?

People have an immense power to shape one another in profound ways, including spiritually and emotionally. God made us that way. Growing up, our families shaped us for better or worse (actually, for both). While our family of origin may have passed along good ways of doing life, what do we do with the broken ways?