Childlike good … childish bad
Line remains narrow between childhood, growing up
The Bible should come with a warning on the cover.
‘Before reading this book, you should be prepared to grow up.’ Paul the Apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:11: “When I was a child I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
I wonder where the line is between childhood and manhood? At what point do people stop acting like babies and start acting like adults? How do we stay childlike in our faith towards God without acting childish in our behavior?
I like babies that are babies - they are so cute. Goo goo ga ga as they smile having their bottle but there’s something wrong if you have to part their mustache to insert the bottle. It’s not cute anymore when you have to deal with a man by treating them like you’re talking to a child.
Paul points to at least two areas where we should see a difference in those that have grown up. The first one he mentions is in how people talk. It’s not so much how a person talks when things are going their way - everyone sounds grown up when life is celebrating them - but what do they sound like when they are in trouble?
I guess we could ask, ‘what does a toddler say when you find out that the cookies on the table are gone and the crumbs are on their hands?’ One little boy who was asked where the cookies went said that his sleeping grandfather must have taken them. Children deny even knowing that there were any cookies and then accuse someone else for taking the four and a half cookies that were on the table. How did they know that there were four and a half cookies on the table?
We can become older without effort and think that we are smarter so we don’t mention the four and a half cookies when we get caught. That’s not the point. It’s childish to deny what you did and then blame someone else.
The second area of change is in how we think. It’s very important what you think about and especially what you think about yourself. Proverbs 23:7: “as a man thinks in his heart so is he.”
When we were children we knew that we were children and we were treated like we were children. The problem comes when we are grown up but still acting like children and want to be treated like an adult.
One of the big points in who’s grown up is in their ability to accept responsibility for what goes right or wrong in their life. When a past due bill arrives at the house, when you go to your car and there’s a flat tire, when someone sprays you with the water hose. Who takes over inside of you? Is it your childhood or your manhood?
True, adults have had to put away some childish things. It’s not that true adults can’t act childish but they refuse to act childish. I have discovered that as long as I think like a child I will always be a child but once I start acting responsibly and think like a man, then with God’s help, I can become a man.
Find a good church to attend, God bless you all.