Erosion

This morning, our adult Sunday school class was watching a video and the pastor was talking about erosion in our lives. He commented about erosion being a gradual process. Sometimes, we aren't even aware that it's happening.
I began to ponder that...We can think that we are doing just fine, tell ourselves, "I'm a good person, I don't have anything to worry about." Convince ourselves that we can take a shortcut, overlook something, behave in a way that does not bring honor to God. "Just this once, it won't matter." But, those small occurrences start to add up. We can find ourselves on a slippery slope. Over time, the erosion takes place. And suddenly, we look back and wonder how we have drifted so far from where we started, so far from our Heavenly Father. We wonder how we can ever make it back up the steep incline to the place we want to be.
I was curious what the opposite of the word erosion is. And thanks to my smart phone and google, it was a quick answer to my question. But also an answer that made me think even more. Two antonyms for erosion that really struck me were "fortifying" and "strengthening." How appropriate. I don't want to look back over my life and see a disintigration of my faith or my character. Instead, I want to see growth and development in my relationship with God, to build a deeply intimate relationship with Him. My desire to become fortified and strengthened through Him is growing.  I'm learning (slowly) how important it is to make God the priority. As time passes, I want to be able to look back and see that the initial foundation of my faith has been built upon, reinforced, and is absolutely unshakable. I want to keep the "erosion" of this world out of my life.