0:00Episode 4201, growing pains that still grow. Mom's, it's time to rediscover, rejuvenate, and renew who you are in mind body and spirit. Welcome to create your now your best selfie. The show that help you do just that. Here's your host, Certified Life Coach, personal trainer, and nutritionist, Christian Wardo. Happy every day. I hope you're having a fabulous week. I cannot believe it. We only have one more day. If you need anything done in this month for September of 2026, you got today. That's all I got is that you got today. It's September 30th. Can you believe it? We'll take a deep breath, growing pains that still grow. For those of you who are brand-new to create your now, welcome to this incredible family. I'm so delighted of your presence. If you already even had the opportunity, you want to head on over to createyournow.com where you can learn more and sign up for the Kisses newsletter. To keep it simple strategy, everyday solutions, to live, love, and impact.

1:01This episode is brought to you by AIM, Inspiring Connection, and Community. Woo! Can I just tell you it has been a week. It really has been. It's only home day and I am literally feeling like I've already gone through the whole week and I need a whole weekend to recover. Maybe a whole another week to recover. We have rain in the forecast and I'm not sure that I really want the rain, but we need the rain. We've been very, very dry lately. I welcome it in, but I want to stay in these mid-80s or so for a little while. I don't want it to be fall yet to where we can get cooler, but I want to keep like, let's not get back up there in the 90s again and I don't want to drop where we're only getting in the 60s because sometimes we just miss everything in between. The growing pains. The growing pains of life, right? The new season brings on new things, right? Our season of becoming. Here we are diving deeper. So you can love your reflection, right?

2:03Seeing who you are, who God has created you to be. I mean, because when you think about it, why does growing have to hurt? I mean, we talk about growth like it's this beautiful, sun-drenched thing, butterflies emerging, right? Flowers blooming, all of it wrapped in soft lighting and your favorite song playing in the background and you know, if it's the fall, which it is now, you know, the beautiful color leaves falling down and you're just running through the field and you're like, oh, and it's just gorgeous. And sure, sometimes it is that, but other times, it feels like you've been turned inside out. Like the life you built, the one that fits so perfectly last year is suddenly now two sizes too small and you can't breathe in it anymore. That's the part no one puts on the vision board, right? Growing pains, it still grow. And I know you know that feeling. Something in your life starts to shift and maybe it's your perspective or it's your priorities. Maybe it's your prayer life and suddenly the relationships that once felt like home

3:05start to fill a little, I don't know, off. Not because those people did anything wrong, not because you did anything wrong, but because you're not the same person who walked into those rooms now. And that's a strange kind of grief, isn't it? Grieving something that isn't gone, it just doesn't fit the way it used to. Or maybe for you, it's not a relationship. Maybe it's a role. The title you carried probably for years, the one that used to define you. And now it feels like a borrowed coat, too heavy, too stiff, too long, too hot, whatever it is, right? You keep wearing it because you don't know who you are without it. But every morning it gets a little harder to button up and pretend it's still yours. Well, this is what I want you to think about right now. This ache that you have, it's not a warning sign. It's not God telling you something went wrong.

4:06It's the exact opposite. It's the stretch marks of the soul. And they only show up when something inside you is expanding faster than the space you've been living in. Think about it this way. When a child has growing pains, we've all been there. Maybe, oh, let's not talk about growing pains when you're an adult. It's different. Like your hips are like, are they still there? I stand up now and I'm like, hold on guys, I get my hips in place because my thing is, I don't want to walk in all of a sudden. I hear, or I move and my leg is kind of like not right next thing. I know I'm on the ground and it's like, okay, trip to the emergency room. Yeah, no. So I stand up, I get myself centered and then I walk in. I'm a little strange, I know. But I just do that now because I want to make sure my body is where it needs to be before I go off running like a crazy person, which is most of the time. And you know it. You know you know it. That's why you're here all the time with me. And thank you. I'm so glad you are. You make me smile. But seriously, so let's go back to being a child, okay? Just for a moment. Remember when your kiddos, right, were grown up or even maybe you can remember when you

5:10were growing. I can remember a couple times and I'm not talking about, well, I mean we could talk about it, but you know the whole thing of going into the menstrual cycle and all of this. Yeah, all of this, no, I'm not talking about that. I'm just talking about my legs are hurting or kind of like my tummy hurts or my back feels weird, right? It's when the child has growing pains. It's those middle of the night throbbing leg pains where mama, it just hurts. And none of us like panic, right? Is a parent and you know quick makers stop growing. We don't do that. What do we do? We rub their legs, right? We tell them it's going to be okay that this is all right. This is what happens. You remind them that what hurts right now is actually proof that their body is doing exactly what it was made to do. Now that doesn't make it easier, right? But you're like, okay, well I'm not, you know, this is not that silly, right? I know it hurts. Okay, and sometimes you have to take a little bit of medicine, you know, it just depends on what it is. So why don't we extend ourselves the same grace as we get older? You know, I mean, it's their different growing pains, but they're still growing pains.

6:13And I think it's because we've been quietly taught that discomfort means disobedience. And I want you really to think about that. Where does that sit with you? Because honestly, I mean, discomfort and disobedience. Yeah, you kind of think about it. I was like, yeah, they go hand in hand. You know, that if we were really walking in God's will, the path of you smoother, right? But Scripture tells us a very different story. Romans 8.28 says, and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and who have been called according to His purpose, all things and not just the beautiful things, not just the comfortable things, but also the aching, awkward things. I don't even recognize myself anymore things. He's working in those two because it's all things. We just think that, oh, it's working for good and we see the word good and we start taking things out of context. Why? Because we want to feel better for whatever reason, right? We want to quickly put that bandit on.

7:14So whether it's to stop the bleeding, stop the hurting, stop the aching, whatever it is, we're like, we just want it to go away. But sometimes those growing pains that still grow is exactly the discomfort at what we work. And it's God saying, yep, I'm helping you. I'm going to stretch a little bit more because you're made for more. Now I can remember a season and maybe you've had one like it too, where I had to let go of something I loved and it was near and dear to my heart. It really, really wasn't. I did it for, oh, my goodness, over a decade or more. Actually more than that, I did it at three different churches, four different churches. Actually more than that. I will leave that for another episode, sit here, why I reminisce. But moving on to the whole point of the story, I had to let it go. And not because it was bad, it actually was really good. I mean, I was helping children learn music by teaching them actually the word, oh, okay,

8:16let's change a little bit around here. So I was helping kids get to know God through music. And in that music, we did musicals. And I did it all over in various states, et cetera. And it was fabulous. And the kids loved it and the parents loved it. And when we presented it to the communities, the communities fell in love with it. So it wasn't like it was bad. It was very, very good. It was familiar. But if I can be so honest with you, it became a hiding place. And God doesn't grow us in hiding places. Those hiding places, I'm not saying are negative. The hiding places are like, you just feel comfortable. You're like, yeah, I know it. And it becomes like almost sure identity. When God says, but you're made for more. And you're like, but you gave me this gift. And it's like, yeah, but there's more. Commercialist says, but wait, there's more. That's what God says. I have to kind of chuckle at that when I see that commercial. Because I do believe sometimes God looks at us and says, but wait, Christine, in.

9:16There's more, but wait, Sue, there's more. But wait, Christie, there's more. But wait, Pam, there's more. He grows us in open fields where the wind can reach us. Where we're exposed, yes, but also where we can finally spread out. That letting go didn't feel like freedom at first, did it? It felt like loss, honestly, because you're like, am I supposed to be doing something? I need to be doing something. I know I'm supposed to be doing it because you did it for so long. But on the other side of it, that's where the bloom was waiting. C.S. Lewis once wrote, it may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird. It would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining in an egg. I mean, I just sit there and I think about that. I'm like, I love that because it captures the absurdity of what we sometimes try to do. We want the wings without the cracking.

10:17Yeah. It's not all what it's cracked up to be, huh? Pun intended. We want the new life without the death of the old. But that's not how becoming works. Becoming is a series of holy interruptions. And if you think of it that way, sometimes maybe you'll give yourself a little bit more grace. And I'm saying, I'd love you so much to let you stay comfortable when I created you for something bigger, for something more. And if that makes your chest tight in your eyes, sting a little good, that means your pain attention. Grow through the ache. That is your kiss to keep it simple strategy. Grow through the ache. If you want that change, you have to be willing to feel it. And the feeling part of it is the pain. And I know we want the comfort, but sometimes we have to have the discomfort before the

11:22comfort comes. So what do we do with the ache? How do we keep walking when every step stretches us past what feels safe? Number one, name one area where growth is causing discomfort and resist the urge to shrink back to a more comfortable size. Name one area. Okay, we got a name one area. I didn't say name 12, one. This takes more courage than it sounds, doesn't it? Because you see shrinking is so subtle. It doesn't announce itself. It shows up as maybe I was being too ambitious or I should just be grateful for what I have. Or who am I to think that I could do that? And gratitude? Oh, it's beautiful. And humility is necessary. But there's a difference between being humble and being hidden. Isaiah 54 verse 2 says, In large the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide. Do not hold back.

12:23Link in your cords. Strengthen your stakes. God is not asking you to be comfortable. He's asking you to make room. Maybe right now that means staying in the hard conversation instead of backing away from it. Maybe you need to think a little bit more on what God has placed on your heart. Maybe it means keeping your hand raised for that opportunity, even though your voice shook when you said yes. Maybe it means simply admitting out loud, I'm growing, and it doesn't feel good yet, but I'm not going to stop. In the place, stay in it. And remind yourself that the ache isn't a stop sign. It's a growth marker. Think of it as the mile marker. One step at a time needs two miles of greatness. What is your mile marker land today? Number two, give yourself permission to grieve what you're out growing.

13:27And what I mean by that is like, you know, you might be out growing a habit or a role, right, a title, a position you feel, a version of yourself without guilt. Now this one is so important. And it's the one most of us. Well, we want to skip. We don't want to, we want to do it. We jump straight from the old season to the new season like there's no hallway in between, but there is a hallway. And it's called grief. And that grief is holy ground. You're allowed to miss who you were. You're allowed to mourn the friendships that shifted, right? The routines that no longer serve you. The version of yourself who had it all figured out, even a figured out really just meant under control. And I think about this back to my thing where I was like, oh, yeah, I was helping the kids and this was everything. And it was what I know I was called to do in that season. But then there was this middle, there was this gap because God wanted me to, you know, become someone else and he had to do some molding and shifting it.

14:32And you know, have you ever done that with clay? I mean, just think if you were the clay and you sit there, you're just working with play-doh even. I play with my grandkids all the time and we're playing play-doh all the time. They love to do things with play-doh. And so we're sitting there and we've got sometimes the old play-doh. I think, oh, yeah, that's a grandma play-doh. Because I'm like, oh, I've got to squeeze it harder, squeeze it harder. And then you got the young play-doh. I was like, oh, it's so malleable. I can move it and shift it and shake it. We need to be more like the youthful play-doh. We need to be the one that says, okay, I'm willing. I have a willing mind, body and spirit to allow you God to stretch me, to grow me in my season of becoming. Klesiastes 31, you know what? There's a time for everything in a season for every activity under the heavens. A time to plant, a time to uproot, a time to hold on, a time to let go. Reaving isn't weakness, it's wisdom. It's your heart's way of honoring what was real before making space for what's next.

15:34So if you need to cry about it, then cry. Oh, let me tell you, I have shed tears. Now, I haven't shed tears like real recently. I about the situation I was telling you because it was decades ago, okay, well, not decades ago. It's probably, well, let's see. It's not going to it. It hasn't been that long. I know it has been decades, actually, almost. Well, I've been doing it for over two decades. Anyway, regardless, there was some grief there. I didn't want to let go. But God says, you got to trust me on this. And so I found myself running with tears, literally running as it not running away from something, but exercising running. And I'm out there and I'm pounding the pavement. I mean, tears are just flowing. It's fine when it's spring, summer and fall, but in the winter, when we were living up north, oh my goodness, I could barely cry, but they would come and my face would freeze. But if you need to cry, it's all right. If you need to journal through ugly pages about how unfair it feels, do it. And then get up, wash your face, wash your hands and keep becoming.

16:40The tears don't disqualify you. They water the soil. And finally, number three, anchor yourself in one scripture that reminds you that stretching is part of God's design for your life. There's a lot of scriptures to choose from. But when that ate kits, and it will, you need something to grab onto that isn't your feelings. All right, feelings are real, but they aren't always reliable narrators. But scripture is. To find one verse that speaks directly to where you are and plant your feet on it. Maybe it's Philippians 1-6, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. He started this. He did. He's not going to leave it half done. Trust your Heavenly Father. Or maybe for you, it's James, chapter 1 verses 2 through 4, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing

17:43of your faith produces perseverance, let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything. Perseverance is finishing its work in you right now, even when it feels like falling apart. So write your verse on a sticky note. Put it on your mirror. Say it out loud in the car. Make a screen shot of it, right? If you have grandbabies, I mean, come on, grandbabies, they take up my screen, but I can still provide Bible verse on there with them. So it still shows, right? Say it out loud in the car when that familiar ache creeps in. Maybe you have a song that it is incorporated into or parts of it is. Play that song if it's something that speaks to you. Let it be your anchor when the stretching makes you want to snap back to who you were. It's about becoming who God desires you to be, right? Who you are and who you are becoming. We're not regressing. Now please remember this, the discomfort you're feeling is not a sign that you're failing.

18:49It's a sign that you're out growing. And the only thing worse than the pain of growing is the pain of staying the same when God has called you to more. My friend you're not falling apart. You're being reshaped, molded like that play dough, huh? Sometimes it's a little harder play dough, the grandma play dough, where you're like, oh, it's been sitting out for a while and you've got to really kind of squish it. And then all of a sudden it becomes more squishable, more malleable. And you're like, oh, yeah, I can get this going. And all of a sudden you're like, wow, I can really shape it into something. That's what God wants for you. And the woman on the other side of this ache. Yeah, that's you, my friend. I'm just going to look back and realize every stretch mark was a story. And every story pointed to a God who loved her enough to never leave her where she was. My granddaughter, I love my grandchildren, but my granddaughter is just absolutely positively infatuated with frozen.

19:52Specifically the songs, she just sings to her heart's content. One of these days I will bring her on just so you could hear. Hopefully I won't get flagged for it. I don't want her to sing the whole one. We may have to put it on something else so you can hear. Anyway, she's adorable. Where she's my granddaughter. So I'm going to tell you she's adorable, but she loves the song Let it Go. And so in honor of her, I'm just going to sing this little part. So don't, don't hang up yet because I want you to hear this for a minute. I'm going to change the couple of the words. Let it go. Let it grow. Don't hold it back anymore. Oh, sweet friend. Let it go. And keep growing. Even when it hurts. Go on peace. Be present. Be incredible. Be you. I love you so very much. I cannot wait to see you on the other side. Blessing's hugs and lots and lots of love. We'll talk to you real soon. Have a glorious blessed day. Bye-bye. Feeling inspired and ready to train for life and love your journey.

20:55Visit createyournow.com for more incredible resources to help you along the way. We'll see you next time on Create Your Now Your Best Selfie. And remember, always be sure you consult your physician before beginning any health and fitness plan. Create Your Now Your Best Selfie.