Growing Pains

This morning I am thinking about the day my grandmother told me I couldn’t go outside the house topless any more.  I was about five years old, and I was having fun in the back yard with my brothers, who were all shirtless as well on that summer day.  My grandmother, who often watched us children play from her window upstairs, called me to come inside.  She sat me down and explained how I was “not just like little boys” and how I was going to be changing and growing.  She told me that I’d need to put a shirt on before going back outside to play.  I was devastated!  I must have spent at least a couple of days looking at my brothers’ chests and thinking, “I don’t see any difference.”  At the time, there really was not a difference, and I wondered why I was being singled out.  It seemed so unfair.  As I began to mature, however, it all made better sense to me.  Lately, I find that the Holy Spirit has been dealing with me like my grandmother did on that memorable day.  He has been calling me in and calling me out.  He is opening my eyes to immature ways of thinking, speaking, reacting, and interacting…patterns of behavior that I’d taken for granted for a long time.  He is showing me that it’s time for me to stop “going outside” without being clothed in His wisdom, grace, truth, and love, even if others around me are spiritually shirtless.  He is teaching me that I was not created and ordained me to be just like everybody else.  Rather, I am changing and growing into the fullness of my own unique and wonderful purpose.  For these growing pains, I am grateful.