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I
Growin’
Emily
puffed up her chest, patted herself on the tummy and said, “I growin’,
grandma, I growin’.” Whew,
isn’t that a relief! To not grow
is a dangerous and deadly predicament for a child to be in.
Little did she understand what a profound statement she had declared.
Each day Emily is growing. Her
bones are building more calcium and growing in length, skin cells are dividing
and multiplying at breathtaking speed, muscles are stretching and expanding,
vital organs grow in volume while working at full speed and brain cells are
expanding their capacity to learn and understand.
Even as we grow older there are aspects of our bodies that are maturing,
growing and rejuvenating themselves.
I had to think of some
verses on growing:
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Ephesians 4: 15
“…speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is
the Head-Christ-from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every
joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its
share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
When a person stops growing, they get sick,
incapacitated, and die. It not only
affects the afflicted persons but loved ones also agonize and grieve at what is
happening. We had two children who
were diagnosed with an incurable disease. We suffered greatly as we watched them
die.
When a fellow believer
stops growing in the Lord and falls into sin the whole community of faith
suffers. I remember a dear sister
in the Lord who succumbed to the lure of sexual immorality.
My cries were gut-wrenching as I grieved her sin.
Peter admonished us to
grow in our faith. “But also
for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue
knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to
perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly
kindness love. For if all these things are yours and abound, you will be neither
barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
(II Peter 1:5-8)
Maybe it isn’t proper
for us to puff up our chest and pat ourselves on the tummy to say “I’m
growin” but Paul said we must give earnest heed to the things we have heard
lest we drift away (and stop growing). Hebrews 2:1
Pat Hertzler
January 5, 2003
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Hertzler
Farm
and Feed Inc.