"It is Well" - Grow Well

Good morning, Five Minute Families. Welcome to week three of our “It is Well” series. We have talked about how to lead well and how to follow well. This week we will discuss how to grow well. Growing well as a family can be seriously tough. Here’s an example. Jim left for a weekend mens’ retreat. We had a one-and-a-half-year-old and lived in another country. Our son and I hung out at home because I am a homebody, but without Papa to break up the days, by the end of the weekend, our son was fussy, and I was exhausted and stressed. When Jim got back, he wanted to share all that the Lord had done in his heart that weekend; he had had a “mountaintop” experience. I wanted to want to hear it all, but I also wanted him to understand that his absence was difficult for us; I had been in the “valley” most of the weekend. And, of course, our little one just wanted his papa’s undivided attention. My response to one of the revelations God had given Jim shut down his authentic sharing and drove us further apart for a time. A time God used for His glory and our good. We needed to grow apart a bit in order to hold tighter to God’s hand - the One who would never leave us or forsake us. The One who at the end of a long weekend apart has nothing to distract Him. What we experienced in the weeks that followed were family growing pains. While we are one in God’s eyes and even with our family focus from the beginning of our marriage, we are still individuals who struggle and need God to show up and show off in mighty personal ways. If we had not seen that God was working, we could have been resentful (well, I was for a bit, but God is God and He is good All. The. Time.). Jim was responsive to the Word and leading of the Lord, and that is the key to any one growing well. Isaiah 43:18-19 tells us, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Now, there are numerous articl