Life is strangely unpredictable.

Most times, I feel like I am the unpredictable thing in life.

I don't know anyone that has a harder time overcoming difficulties than me. And maybe I am being hard on myself, but the Holy Spirit is seriously the strongest and most faithful guy because He is constantly walking with me to become an overcomer. But even in this fast-fading, happy-feeling 2018, we have to be on our guard to not let the remembrance or the current tests that we did not pass dictate where we are able to go.

For when the test comes not all of us will pass. (No one does at first.)

I don't think our growth, however, should be determined by our passing.

Growth happens in our hearts, whereas passing comes in our being.

Example: A disagreement occurs with a loved one. If you divulge your information with love and kindness, perhaps everyone in the conversation would say that you passed, that you did well at communicating in a Christ-like way. If you, though, fail to be kind and are angry or condescending in uttering your information, than perhaps all would say you failed at communicating, or did not pass.

But inside your heart, where the Holy Spirit is doing all good work (according to Himself), we partner with Him. He speaks and we listen, He asks questions and we work things out. We work out our salvation to become the women and men we can be in Him. And this my friends is growth.

I would even dare to say, that it is the important thing, the first thing and the continued thing.

Let us understand that every trial and testing period that crosses our path this year was meant to spark growth in us. My goal is in fact to pass, to pass in how I speak with loving words, in how I live with generosity and empowerment, in how I act with forgiveness and strength that can't be broken. And this goal is not easily achieved. 1 Corinthians 13:2 in The Passion Translation says if I have never learned to love, then I am nothing. I freaking love how that is worded. I love that love is not something immediate and automatically perfected in us. It is something that is learned.

So wherever you are in the process of learning, know that you are walking with so many others, that you're not alone, that you're perfect Creator created others just like you who have to go through the growth of learning before passing is perfected in us.