Ever feel like your spiritual growth is… slow?
- You’re reading Scripture.
- You’re praying.
- You’re doing the things you know to do.
And yet—something inside you whispers, “Why doesn’t it feel like I’m growing?”
If that’s you, you’re not broken.
Your growth isn’t stalled.
Most importantly… you’re not alone.
This is exactly where God does His best work— in the hidden corners of your faith.
Let’s look at why slow growth isn’t wasted, how the FRAME Tool™ explains those deeper (and often invisible) shifts, and how your Insight and Aspiration leadings reveal what God is forming beneath the surface.
Why Growth Feels Slow (And Why That’s Not a Bad Thing)
Most Christian women feel spiritually stuck not because they lack passion…
but because they can’t see their progress.
- You’re showing up consistently, but you don’t feel the dramatic “leaps” you used to feel.
- You don’t have the same emotional highs.
- You don’t feel as “impressive” as the women around you.
But here’s the truth:
Spiritual growth isn’t loud. It’s layered.
It happens inside you long before it shows up around you.
God often transforms us in ways that are subtle, internal, and deeply personal, especially in the places we don’t naturally operate from.
Which brings us to the FRAME Tool™.
The FRAME Tool™: How God Grows You Deeper Levels
The FRAME Tool™ is rooted in Mark 12:30, where Jesus calls us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
These four dimensions form the “corners” of your spiritual design—your Primary, Secondary, Insight, and Aspiration leadings.
The FRAME Tool™ maps out the spiritual design God wove into you from the beginning.
It helps you see not only how you connect with God right now…
but also where He is gently growing you next.
Each corner of the FRAME represents a different layer of your spiritual growth—
a pathway God uses to deepen your faith, stretch your capacity, and mature you from the inside out.
Top Left: Your Primary Leading
Your comfort zone.
Where connecting with God feels natural and easy.
If you haven’t taken the Faith Shape Quiz yet, this is where you’ll begin.
Your Primary Leading is the foundation of how God designed you to connect with Him.
It’s the first step toward understanding your unique Faith Shape™—and building a spiritual life that finally fits you.
Top Right: Your Secondary Leading
Your supportive strength.
It stabilizes your rhythms and practices to give your faith consistency.
The real depth in your faith life starts when you first balance your primary and secondary leadings. This is the foundation that allows everything else to grow.
Bottom Right: Your Insight Leading
This is where deeper self-awareness forms,
the place that teaches you to recognize your internal patterns, barriers, emotions, and motivations.
This leading grows slowly and quietly.
It never feels linear.
But it is essential for transformation.
That’s the beauty of creating a Personalized Faith Plan™ (PFP) you know exactly what your insight leading is and how to nurture it.
Bottom Left: Your Aspiration Leading
This is your place of surrender and stretching.
It’s the area that feels the least natural—but holds the most potential.
This is where God forms perseverance, humility, and depth.
It’s not about performance: it’s about dependence.
Together, these four leadings form your FRAME.
And when growth feels slow?
It’s usually because God is doing deep work in the Insight and Aspiration corners—
the corners that grow underground.
For more details about your Faith Shape and the FRAME Tool you can go to this video right here. Deepen Your Faith Today.
Where My Faith Growth Felt Slow
For me, once I was consistently practicing rhythms in my primary (Soul) and secondary (Mind) leadings, I began to step into my Insight Leading, which is Heart.
When God began developing my Insight Leading, it didn’t show up as loud breakthroughs. It showed up quietly. . . almost imperceptibly at first.
- I noticed myself listening differently.
- Holding space for women’s struggles with more tenderness.
- Not rushing to give answers, but really hearing what their hearts were saying beneath their words.
Instead of keeping my spiritual life private and polished, I felt God nudging me to let others into the unedited parts of my journey. To share the places I felt unsure, the seasons I felt lost, the moments when His faithfulness carried me more than my strength did.
Even my retreats shifted.
They became less about me “teaching” and more about inviting women into sacred, quiet spaces where God could meet them personally.
That gentle internal shift—that deeper emotional awareness—was the work of Insight taking root.
And as God began stretching my Aspiration Leading, the expression looked entirely different.
My Strength leading emerged in ways that required movement, action, and courage.
I said yes to leading mission trips—something far outside my comfort zone.
- Suddenly, I was creating dramatizations of Bible stories to communicate truth across cultures.
- I was serving as a translator, helping people connect beyond language barriers.
- I was organizing playful moments with children, using laughter and games as tools to express God’s love.
These weren’t roles I naturally gravitated toward.
They were roles God grew me into.
Insight softened my heart.
Aspiration strengthened my courage.
And both were happening long before I realized how deeply God was shaping me.
I was stretching way outside my comfort zone, but it also became one of the richest seasons of growth in my faith.
And that’s exactly what happens when you begin to embrace your aspiration leading. It’s where your passion and potential meet purpose.
The beauty of the Personalized Faith Plan™ is that it shows you exactly where your insight and aspiration leadings are, so you can take intentional steps into them—not in someone else’s way, but in the way that fits the unique design God gave you.
Where Your Hidden Growth Is Happening Right Now
If you feel “behind,” here’s what’s probably true: Your Insight Leading is waking up
- You’re becoming more aware of your emotional or spiritual patterns.
- You’re noticing where you drift.
- You’re noticing your resistance.
- You’re noticing what drains you or what brings life.
That is spiritual formation.
Your Aspiration Leading is stretching you
You are learning surrender.
You’re practicing trust.
You’re letting God lead instead of trying to orchestrate everything.
That is spiritual maturity.
Your FRAME is balancing out
You are growing in ways that don’t show up on a checklist.
God is integrating your whole design—
not just the parts you’re already good at.
You don’t need to see your growth for God to be growing you.
The hidden corners of your FRAME, Insight and Aspiration, are often where the Spirit does His deepest, most transformative work.
Even when you can’t measure the progress,
God is maturing your faith through awareness and surrender.
Spiritual transformation isn’t always something you feel. But it is always something God is working in you.
This is why I help Christian women grow their faith in the way God designed them—
so it fits their real life.
Practical Ways to Notice Your Hidden Growth
Here are some simple prompts you can use this week:
1. Ask Awareness Questions (Insight Leading)
- What am I noticing in my reactions lately?
- Where am I feeling resistance with God?
- What patterns keep repeating?
2. Ask Surrender Questions (Aspiration Leading)
- What do I keep trying to control?
- What feels uncomfortable but necessary?
- Where is God asking me to trust instead of strive?
3. Look for Subtle Shifts
- Are you pausing more before responding?
- Are you becoming more honest with yourself?
- Are you seeking God in quieter ways?
These aren’t small things. These are signs of spiritual maturity.
When growth feels slow, it’s not because you’re failing.
It’s because God is growing you in the places most people never see.
Your Primary leading gives you stability.
Your Secondary leading gives you strength.
But your Insight and Aspiration leadings?
They shape you into who God created you to become.
Even when you can’t see it, God is at work in your hidden corners, maturing you, steadying you, and strengthening your faith in ways that will last.
If you feel God tugging you into deeper growth—especially in your Insight or Aspiration leadings—don’t ignore that invitation.
This is the precise moment the Personalized Faith Plan™ was made for.
Inside the PFP, you’ll learn how to grow in alignment with your design, strengthen your hidden corners, and build a spiritual life that truly fits you and the season you’re in.
If you’re ready to go deeper, I’d love to talk with you.
Schedule a call with me and let’s uncover your next step together.
Let me know down in the comments: Have you ever felt like your growth was slow or unseen? Which “hidden corner”—Insight or Aspiration—do you think God might be growing in you right now?
Be filled to overflowing,
DeneenTB
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