Last night, when I was awake in bed for a couple hours and couldn’t sleep, I listened to the first couple chapters of Richard Rohr’s latest book, Falling Upward, on audio.

The book is very, very good. Its central premise is that the tools we use to build the first half of our lives are not the tools that will work in its second half.

This got me thinking about growth.

To me, our capacity to grow is one of the most interesting things God built into the created order. And so today, I thought we could reflect on the ways we’ve grown over the course of our lives and how that growth causes us to give thanks.

When it comes to the growth I’ve experienced in my life, I give thanks for the following:

I’m thankful for the ways my family upbringing shaped the listener and peacemaker in me.
I’m thankful for the difficult experiences I sustained in grade school that later shaped my connection to Jesus.
I’m thankful for the way pain in my life has made me a more sensitive being.
I’m thankful for a solid foundation of faith that paved the way for its deepening when I became a young adult.
I’m thankful God brought me to the end of myself when I was 19, even though it terrified me.
I’m thankful Jesus sat with me in the dark for two years, growing my trust in his patience and faithfulness toward me.
I’m thankful God has opened the doors of my heart to greater honesty and tenderness.
I’m thankful for the way my divorce experience helped me learn to receive grace.
I’m thankful I’ve become a person accustomed to taking risks.
I’m thankful for the relationships in my life that have helped me settle into an identity of being loved.
I’m thankful for the stripping seasons in my life the grace God has given me to say yes to them.
I’m thankful for the ways God has given me a greater and greater heart of love.

When you look at the growth in your own life, what makes you thankful?