Behind Me

I Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

It’s funny, in another part of the bible we are told to come to the Lord as a child.  But here see that we are to mature into manhood.  Of course, we are to always retain that childlike faith and trust in God, but we cannot remain as a child in our thoughts and what comes out of our mouths.

Children blurt out what they feel at the moment, with no filter.  They think and reason on a very elementary level, unable to solve large problems because they don’t yet have the knowledge to use to solve those problems.

However; if children do not mature and learn how to manage money, how to care for a home, how to walk in truth, and how to love their neighbor, then we see what those children become in our society – the ones who contribute nothing and take it all.

The same happens to us spiritually, if we never mature and learn to walk in the truth we learn when we come to him in our childlike faith.  We must grow in maturity in our love for God and for others so that we function healthily in the body of Christ.

Children are beautiful gifts from God, and their antics and silliness are a delight.  But adults who play on the floor and babble without ever rising to serve will miss out on the completeness that comes to those who know what it is to be loved…and to love.