I said goodbye this week to my oldest son, Spencer.  Jen and I drove him to Ohio, dropped him off at college and said goodbye to a whole season of our life.  It was an emotional few days.  This child who we had raised, and fed, and taught how to ride a bike, was off on his own.  This is what we have been planning for and preparing him for - to leave and succeed.  But it still wasn't easy.

The President of the University that he is attending told the new Freshman and their parents on Friday night that this was the "first step of adulthood, not the last step of childhood".  What he meant was that we needed to let our child figure things out for themselves, and that our children needed to step up to the plate and not depend on mom and dad to come to the rescue.  It really was about:

Personal Responsibility.

That's good for incoming Freshman, but it's good for us as well in our relationship with God.  We can't depend on a sermon, or a teacher, or a class to be the sole source of our spiritual growth.  We need to own it!  We need to take personal responsibility to grow in our relationship with Jesus.

One of the ways we say that at The Journey is that you have to learn to "feed yourself".  When Spencer was just a young child, we fed him.  Can you imagine if we were still feeding him now?!!  People would call him a baby.  They would wonder what's wrong with all of us.  The same is true in our spiritual life.  We have to learn to feed ourself.  To grow.  To spend time developing our relationship with Jesus.

That's one of the reasons we talk about Next Steps at The Journey.  None of us have arrived.  None of us are done growing.  All of us have a personal responsibility to keep growing, developing, taking steps.  That's what our Core Essentials are all about.  We've developed 6 Core Essentials that are key in helping us take next steps to experience our best life in relationship with Jesus.

So, what's your next step?  It's really about personal responsibility.  Own it.  No one can do it for you.  You can't ride on the backs of your parents or grandparents.  It's on you.  

Here's some more resources to help you take your next step with Jesus:

If you're looking to take some first steps toward a relationship with God, click HERE!

If you need to take a step to do life with others moving in the same direction as you - you might want to check out Running Partners or a local Network.

Say goodbye to childhood & hello to adulthood.  Take personal responsibility for your growth.  Only YOU can do that for you.

HERE'S SOME MORE ONLINE RESOURCES TO GET YOU STARTED