Maturity - Creating in Faith

 How do you teach maturity? how did we learnt it growing up, was it the reaction to responsibilities which we gained as we got bigger and the way we dealt with situations, the challenges we faced and how we overcame them. 

Some have responsibility forced on them at a very young age and so very quickly are dealing with circumstances and situations in which someone twice their age would have broken down.  They have a maturity that enables them to deal with the circumstance and informs their decision making. 

I learnt at 13 that my 50p a week pocket money was not going to get me as far as I would like and despite trying to negotiate a raise the answer was still no.  My father would tell me about life as a boy in Jamaica, having to get up at 4 or 5am in the morning, milk the cow, collect the eggs, take the goats out to the field all before walking 3 miles if not longer to go to school.

With this I took myself off to find a Saturday job.  My first was for a shoe shop called Saxones, and my level of maturity increased as I dealt with the many customers, those who wanted to try on 50 pair of shoes and in the end not buy anything.  Learning to deal with people, interacting and maintaining professionalism was something we had to grasp quickly in the busy store on a Saturday. 

The bible says that there comes a time when we no longer drink milk like children but go on to solid food, which tells us that we go through changes to deal with the more complex situations that will meet us in our adulthood. We have to use a combination of knowledge, insight, reflection, discernment and understanding with every circumstance as this will form the basis of our maturity.  And as our children grow, we don’t want them to have to deal with things too early, but we have to ensure we give them the tools necessary to handle themselves with confidence when the time comes.

Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death,and of faith in God,  Hebrews 6:1

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:14