Blocks to Spiritual Maturity and Personal Growth

I love the topic of personal growth and development.  To pursue wholeness, it’s important that we understand a little more about what may keep us stuck from growing.  There are 3 main areas that block us from growing and maturing the way God intends.

The first of these is emotional wounds, that we will refer to here as traumas (not to be confused with the clinical diagnosis for trauma).  Traumas are categorized as Type A Trauma and Type B Trauma.  Type A Traumas are the absence of what “should” have happened (absence of good things we all need) which creates emotional wounds.  An example of a Type A Trauma is malnutrition.  I’ve been involved in clinical situations where the devastating impact of neglect is completely heart-breaking.  Malnutrition can cripple the body and create injuries psychological and relationally.  Type B Traumas are emotional wounds created by the presence of a bad event that should never have happened. An example of this is domestic violence between spouses.  Traumas can block or slow growth by leaving injuries in our identities which have us living less that what God intended when He created us in His image.  When we experience trauma, we can be open to believing lies about our self, others, or God.

Another type of blockage to maturity is sin.  Sin keeps us apart from living a life connected to God.  Sin takes away from living life in abundance and feeds into a lifestyle that creates more opportunities to sin, further dragging us away from the life we were made to live.  It creates spiritual bondage and a life unfulfilled because we are not living out our purposes and have a fractured relationship with God.

The third hindrance to personal growth is misdirection.  Sometimes we are shown bad examples of how to be a spouse or parent and we don’t have any other point of reference of what life could look like.  The template we have may be the one we have seen growing up or poor advice that we got along the way.

Removing these blocks to growth is important.  By addressing these major areas, you can feel the affects of healing and restoration to become more fulfilled and better understand your purposes for life.