I am still thinking about that well-worn saying, “God won’t give you any more than you can handle.”

Yesterday, I thought about re-phrasing that saying, “God won’t give you any more than you can handle in Him.”

This morning, I am considering how we grow in character and maturity. If I look back on my life, my character has been shaped and I matured by facing “more than I could handle.”

When our babies are born, we are constantly ‘encouraging’ them to handle more. They learn to hold their head up, sit up, crawl, walk, run. They learn to master a spoon, then a fork, and hold a cup.

As they go to school, they are constantly confronted with problems to solve, relationships to establish, physical agility in sports. We sometimes even “challenge” them with new experiences and things they don’t want to do. (Always with us by their side!)

God did the same with me! The greatest periods of growth in my life were usually facing the times of greatest adversity. Many were things over which I had no control and I had to learn how to turn those things over to God’s control. In some things I needed His wisdom. Other things were the consequences of my own stupidity!

All were things I could not handle on my own. Yet I would not trade those experiences for anything! I am who I am now because of them. (And I continue to grow and mature because He is still with me as I experience new “more than I can handle” on my own situations.)

Philippians 4:13: “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”