Thankful for the Holy Spirit

Parenthood is an amazing journey! The excitement and joy of holding your brand new baby is overwhelming.You feel life couldn’t be better! Then reality sets in and you realize it is hard and exhausting. I think every parent has said the words, "I can’t do this”. But love keeps us persevering. They grow up into little independent children who can stir every emotion in us. We can experience everything from pride to anger! The family keeps growing together and at times it feels easy and at times it is the most difficult thing we can do. Our minds get filled with family 'Kodak moments' and it makes every difficulty worth it. Then the teenager years begin. A whole new set of challenges presents itself. You have to take a lot of deep breaths and wonder if they will ever love you again. Sometimes you wonder if you will ever love them again! Then before you know it they are grown and out on their own. As you look back, your mind sees all the memories as a movie, showing the highlights and joys of being a parent. The pain that comes from parenthood looses its intensity and becomes a funny story you tell around the dinner table. It is the journey from infancy to adulthood. The journey has a lot of hills and valleys, and wide turns and u-turns, but there is never a doubt in your mind that if you had the choice, you would do every moment of it again.
That is like the journey we take as God’s children. We start out our walk as a baby. We take falls and he picks us up. We grow by making mistakes and by hitting home runs. It is a process of learning to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus left this earth, He sent the Holy Spirit to be with us and to grow us. Our maturity is measured by how much we let the Holy Spirit control us. Scripture describes the things the Holy Spirit does for us.
· He gives us our ability
· He enables us to witnesses
· He leads and guides us
· He teaches us Truth
· He gives us life
· He gives us peace
· He manifest in us our gifts
· He fills us
· He comes to our aid
· He bears us up in our weakness
· He acts on Jesus' behalf
· He is our teacher
· He reminds us of God’s Word
· He is our comforter
· Our counselor
· Our helper
· Our intercessor
· Our advocate
· Our strengthener

It is amazing that everything I need and want to grow in the Lord is provided to me through the Holy Spirit. I do not have to do it alone, I just have to surrender moment by moment and let the Holy Spirit fulfill Himself in me. When I do not surrender, my journey gets hard and I end up having to do a lot of u-turns. Our Heavenly Father works through the Holy Spirit to mature us to spiritual adults. Though there will be trials and tests along the way, it all teaches us dependency on God. We are so blessed. We have the love of our Heavenly Father, the redemption of a merciful Savior, and the guidance from a comforting teacher! I can't imagine trying to mature on my own, what a mess I would make. That is why I am very thankful that I have the Holy Spirit to lead me. May I give Him the control and may He fill every inch of me.

If we live by the Holy Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.

Galatians 5:25