Making room for new growth…

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 1 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

We don't grow old. When we cease to grow, we become old. Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I was recently working on spring clean up for one of my garden areas, I was cutting away some dead plant parts so that the new growth could grow unencumbered. It made me think of how we sometimes need to do the same thing in our lives.  

Over time, we grow in new ways as we learn new ways of handling life, taught by experience and gained through maturity. We leave behind ways that were meaningful and/or necessary at the time but are no longer relevant to our current life and who we are. Many of those things are good things, but things that were a part of a season of our life. Things such as first going out on our own or caring for our newborn children. Other areas include leaving behind negative behaviors, such as gossiping or becoming easily angered. Some behaviors and attitudes are easy to leave behind while others feel like we are leaving a part of us behind, yet we must move forward.  Though the past is part of what has made us who we are today, we are not the same person that we were at any previous time of our lives.

 Spring is such a good reminder to leave behind old, unnecessary ways and embrace new growth. So, this spring, I encourage you to make a new friend, try a new activity, and spend time discovering and sharing God’s love in new ways!