Our 17 year old daughter,  Rachel,  is making her final preparations for her trip – Kilimanjaro 2012: climbing poverty mountain. In this series of blogs we wanted to share why we pushed aside our natural parental tendencies of protection to let her climb Africa’s highest mountain. More in this mini-series here.

4. Because we want her to grow

Accepting a challenge is always a stimulus for growth. Growth in character, personality, understanding of self and others. For Rachel the discipline of training, pushing her body beyond existing limits, meeting new people, working as a team and engaging in a physically and mentally demanding challenge will inevitably cause her to grow. Not least travelling to a new continent and a vastly different culture too.

If we never exercise or stretch a muscle it never grows. The same is true of all aspects of our lives. It challenges me to think today: where am I being stretched? What aspects of my life have remained unchallenged (un-stretched) for too long? Where am I being called to endure?

“But you must learn to endure everything, so that you will be completely mature and not lacking in anything” (James 1:4).