The past few weeks of my life have been filled with joy, exhaustion and peace. Sounds pretty nice, but none of these feelings came from myself or what took place. They came as the consequence of the growth in my faith. 

At the start of the school year, I made a promise to God that I would become a mentor to some of the new kids coming to our youth group. This was a promise to try to be a mentor as Paul was to Timothy. I targeted a friend group of 7th and 8th grade girls to start a small group. We talk about our week, the lesson, share prayer requests and pray for each other. As you can imagine, a room full of junior high girls can get crazy sometimes, but they honestly have been a great representation of what growing faith should look like.  We are a group of ten to fifteen girls, sitting in a room, talking to and about Jesus. 

One random Wednesday night, one of the girls spoke up and said she was struggling with reading her bible and praying. Without hesitation, they started coming up with bible study topics, books of the bible that were good places to start reading and even tips on how to stay focused while praying. I was taken aback a little because I did not expect for this group of young teens to be so ready and excited to help a sister grow her faith in Christ.  The only thought that ran through my mind was, “These seventh grade girls are so hungry and fired up for the Lord…I want to be like them.” These girls encouraged me to improve my faith simply by growing their own and God used them to inspire today’s devotional. It’s funny how the mentor to mentee relationship works!:)

So my question today is what are you doing, not only as part of a group, but as an individual to grow your faith and get closer to Christ? 

God grabbed my attention this week with Proverbs 13:20 – “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”  We as teachers, leaders, mothers and friends should always pursue growing our faith. We should look for the opportunity to walk with the wise and to become the people who are walked with.  Seek out those who will encourage and support you, nurturing your growth.

As leaders, we are heard, watched and observed at all times.  Our lives and actions provide examples and outlines that impact the growth in our sister’s faith.  So what do your actions and words say about your faith? Are you a sister that is wise or a fool?

Growing faith requires investment, commitment and determination.  My encouragement to you is to not let the fear of, as my coaches say, “putting in the work” diminish your desire to grow your faith. A phrase my parents and I always use is, “when you pray for a hole and God gives you a shovel, don’t be afraid to get some calluses.” In other words, if you want to grow your faith and God gives you a time to pray or a time to read His word, use it to the fullest! 

No matter what your age, no matter where you are in your faith walk, we are called to continue to grow in our faith. Even more we should strive to help our sisters in Christ to grow their faith as we all walk this road together.