YOU - A Bright Shining Star?

There are about eight stages of our development as effective "translators" of spiritual truth. Our lives shine as an ever brighter and brighter light as we move from one stage to another. First, we must give Jesus His rightful place at the center of our lives. Here we gain FAITH. As we become more aware of good and evil, and turn away from evil, choosing to do good - because Jesus is now abiding in us and giving us those inner nudges and prompts, we grow more virtuous. That is, you become a GOOD person. With that comes a deep desire to know more about God's words in the Bible. Not everyone disciplines themselves to dig into it as they should, but if you do, your light shines brighter as you understand more spiritual truths. Your basic KNOWLEDGE of God increases. Knowing God better makes you want to serve Him, and do things that please Him. Which means we want to serve and help others around us. Which also means, we have to deny ourselves time, attention, expense, and so on, resulting in SELF-CONTROL. Oh but when we try to serve others we'll soon run into situations where we are misunderstood. At times those situations turn into real trials by fire. Yet, if we hang in there and don't despair, we'll add ENDURANCE to our more and more lovely character. By responding in humility, like Jesus would, to those that wrong us, we grow in GODLINESS. That is, we're more and more like Jesus and God. That humility and godliness will cause us to be alert and begin to spot others who have been hurt. Intuitively we'll spot them, and know how to help them better. So that suffering we have from false accusations enriches us after all, with KINDNESS. Now we'll be trying to guide these weaker, hurting friends through these very steps to maturity, meaning that we are now reproducing ourselves, which is true LOVE and the essence of God Himself. Have you reached maturity in your character development? Or are you stuck at one of the earlier stages? Sometimes, just seeing where you are, relative to where you are headed, can be a big help to get you moving forward again. Let your light shine ever brighter and brighter!