Welcome to 2021, BLISS fam! I pray that this year will be a blessing to your personal life and walk with God. I wanted to discuss this word that had been playing over in my mind: development.
In conversations with associates, friends, and colleagues over the past several months, the overarching theme of development or being in process stood out to me as not only a personal assignment for my new year but as a sign of hope for my fellow singles.
“Development: the act, process, or result of developing (growing, evolving, emerging…)”
On my end, I’ve learned the benefits of therapy for myself. I believe that therapy or counseling can be a good complement to one’s emotional/mental development or to process healing. Our relationship with God can lead us in those directions to get confirmation or practical tools to take on what God is calling us to next.
Some people suggest going to a Christian counselor or therapist if you need someone to include faith-based counsel, especially if you need to address issues tied to your faith walk, church hurt, etc. My counselor last year wasn’t a Christian therapist, but I was able to get some insight into my emotional health and boundaries that I wasn’t fully aware of before. I had to come to the realization that as much I have grown and learned over the years…I still have some learning to do.
This can be disappointing for some of us who are doing the work faithfully and not seeing the harvest yet—I can relate. However, this time for me brought a holy conviction about what I really want in 2021. I had to embrace the fact that I needed to make my emotional health and getting direction from God a priority for this season of my life. I wasn’t sad about it, just aware that this was work for me to do again, but it’s a needed and specific work. What does this look like? I’m walking it out now, and God’s gracious patience calls me to spend more time with Him. This is my development in 2021 so far, and I believe that the process will be worth it.
If you’re in a season of development, you may feel overwhelmed with what’s being asked of you, or get temptations from all kind of directions to get distracted, but I plead with you to stay focused and pass the tests. I’ve had plenty of moments when I said: “I’m going to focus on God,” then people and opportunities pop up to distract me.
Don’t participate in your delay anymore, invest in your development, and make the right decisions one day at a time.
Now regarding the sign of hope in the development process, I believe that there are a lot of quality, integral, and attractive single men and women who are intentionally in development. You may never see it in their posts, or you may not notice them because it’s not their time to be noticed.
People in development are going to get to that place where God wants them to be, the process just looks and feels uncertain. You have to face and confess to the Lord the insecurities and inadequacies that you feel, the disappointments and honest feelings that you have about where you may be, and the uncertainty of the future.
Development looks very vulnerable in private—when you’re on your own with just God.
Sounds like 2020 to you? God didn’t waste that year at all. He was and is still at work on your behalf and mine. Have faith in the seeds He directed you to plant in 2020 through your sacrifices, obedience, tears, moments of surrender, and pivoting in His direction. Have faith that those seeds were sown on good ground and will reap a harvest that surpasses your expectations, whether in this new year or later. It’s a beautiful act to raise your expectations for God in the beginning of the year, but will you in the development process? Let’s keep the faith and do the work, fam.
