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We all at some point or another have been in a place of discontentment. These feeling could be due to self-doubt, others putting you down, low self-esteem from lack of love, lack of encouragement, too much or not enough weight, dysfunctional relationships or simply because you never were taught to love yourself.

How many times have you found yourself heading the line of rejection, defeat, and feeling totally deflated from disappointment? Maybe you had your life all mapped out in your mind how you wanted things to go. Maybe you wanted to get married and have children. Or maybe you planned to complete college, work and travel the world. You maybe wanted to be uninterruptedly used by God, but life had another trail mapped out for you.

Disappointments are at the very heart of our growing process. Growing pains, just as children experience in their limbs and joints, without knowing the cause of their pain or how to handle them, happens when we are going from one level to the next. Our pains may or may not be physical, but the behavioral results are very similar. Just as children may get fussing, mean, sensitive, totally annoying or seemingly unable to control their feelings and behaviors, our emotions go on the same trip. There seems to be nothing anyone can do to help, so we just go with the flow.

Growing pains, in the natural, is a good thing. It is a demonstration that a child is getting stronger, developing properly, on his or her way to maturity. The set of pains may be experienced in different stages of their lives. The pains can go on for a few months to a few years, causing the child to sometimes cry. They cause discomfort at different times throughout day but become most uncomfortable during the night, keeping the child awake. Doesn’t that sound like the pain we carry, keeping us up at night? The best part about the growing pains, they usually disappear in the morning.

We too, like a child, must go through this process of growth. Although trouble come in our lives making us very uncomfortable, and at times unbearable, we will get through it. 2 Kings 4:1-7, tell us about a widowed woman who was obviously suffering from the loss of her husband. I can only imagine that the concern that she voiced to the prophet Elisha was only the surface of her sorrows. We did not read about her mourning, loneliness, depression from bills, fear of having to start a new life without her husband, or even her worry about the day to day care of her family. We can only imagine some of the thoughts and feeling she experienced. But even in her distress, God did as we know He can do, He showed himself strong by not just suppling her need, but assuring her that, THAT need, would be no more.

Won’t you trust God today with your growing pains? Read 2 Kings 4:1-44. Look at the ways God stepped into the lives of some in their time of need. They had to go through the growing pains of their various situation which even included death, but God was there in the end. Just trust His plan!