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Babies grow fast, but if you see one every day, you don't always notice the changes in them. It isn't until a friend or family member visits who hasn't seen the baby in a while and comments, "Wow! They're so big," or, "They've changed so much," that you stop and look. Then you recognize the ways they've grown and the new skills they've acquired.
Many of these new skills, like taking their first steps, stacking blocks, turning pages in a book, or saying their first words, didn't happen by chance. A parent or caregiver likely spent hours, days, weeks, and months doing tummy time, showing them how to stack, reading to them, talking to them, and walking them around the house while holding their hands. They made sure the baby was fed (usually many, many times a day!) so they would grow physically. All these everyday things add up.
Our Christian walk is like this too. Growth as a believer comes from the everyday discipline of time spent in prayer and in the Bible. We don't always see ourselves growing, but being consistent in small things adds up, so months or years later, we can look back and see that we aren't the same person we once were. We can spot all the ways God has changed us. Like a baby will never learn certain skills if someone doesn't teach them, we won't grow in our Christian faith unless we put in the time. If we only read the Bible when we feel like it, only pray when we're in trouble, only go to church when it's convenient, or only praise God when things are good, our growth will be much slower.
1 Peter 2:2 even compares believers to babies when it says, "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation." We're supposed to grow up!
If you look back at your life, can you see ways God has changed you since you were saved? I hope so! More importantly, can you see what He has been doing in you recently? Are you putting yourself in a position to grow? Are you putting in the daily time and effort even when you don't feel like it, even when it doesn't seem like it's working, to allow God to grow you over time? As we master new attitudes, skills, and disciplines in the Christian faith, we're like babies getting bigger. Hopefully someone we encounter that we haven't seen in a while will say, "Wow, you've grown so much. You look so much more like Jesus now!"
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