Maturity

It is really amazing how much we mature over the years, in ways physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Take for example a seventh grader. Fresh into a youth group, the seventh grader brings with them an immaturity that only the nurturing of others can help to end.

However, through interactions with others, namely older adults, youth leaders, and fellow older youth the young are able to come to terms with their immaturity and eventually grow into young adults.

I find it interesting how younger youth interact with each other when they are in the presence of older youth and adults, especially when there are more younger youth than older people.

It seems to me that the younger youth, when in the presence of their older peers only, attempt to try to “act up” to the older youth, showing just how mature they think they are. However, it is in the environments when there are more younger youth than older youth that this façade of maturity ends.

I bring this up because I have found that I have had experiences such as this when it comes to spirituality in that when I am around those who know more about faith than me I attempt to “act up” to their knowledge of faith.

Case in point: on the way to the airport in Sao Paulo last spring on missions, two of the guys on the trip with me were having a discussion on Calvinism, and I attempted to act like I knew what they were talking about and tried to stay in the discussion.

However, at the time I knew that there was Calvinism and that was it. I knew nothing of the tenants of Calvinism and just tried to pick up on them as the discussion went on.

This is a clear sign of immaturity in that I attempted to “act up” while later in an environment where I was more comfortable I was able to admit my lack of an understanding of the topic.

If I were truly mature, I would have been able to admit this lack of knowledge when the discussion had begun.

A recurring theme of this it seems is that there are areas in my life where I need to continue to grow, and this is definitely an example of this.

As I continue to grow in my faith and as a person, I hope that I will be able to grow out of the immaturity that I have talked about above, as well as the immaturity that I live in as a college student who in the past has been susceptible to stumble.

I freely admit that in the past I have made mistakes, such as gone out with friends and done things that I regret, namely going out and drinking excessively.

And the ability to come past that stage is just one of the ways in which I feel that I have matured, for as I mentioned in a previous post, I have attempted to distance myself from the actions that have caused me to stumble in the past.

Maturity. It is definitely something that is in the eye of the beholder, but I feel, no I know that there are areas I need to mature, and I know that I need to continue to work on maturing myself as I grow.