As a husband I have been constantly slapped in the face with my immaturity & my boyishness.
There have been so many times where I have sat in bed & prayed, “God, how come nobody taught me this? How come I can’t have my needs met first? Why is it that I need to be so selfless?” However, I can hear God responding, “It’s time to grow up. It’s time to be a man.” Mature adults are responsible, selfless, sacrificial, hardworking, vision-oriented, & can put of temporary pleasure for long term gain.
Growing up is definitely not
an easy thing, especially with the age of “adulthood” in America being pushed
back later & later. You know, they say people aren’t really entering into
adulthood until their late twenties, early thirties? That is just crazy!
Our culture is perpetuating a
lifestyle of immaturity & people are accepting it; they want it that way.
Immaturity can be fun for a season, but it is devastating as a lifestyle.
Nobody wants to baby a 28 year old man; not attractive. However, this is often
what happens when we are meant to step into adulthood, but are constantly
striving to have our pleasures met before being responsible.
We’re 28 year old babies when
we are constantly shucking our responsibilities, trying to work as ‘few’ hours
as possible so we can have more ‘play’ time. We’re 28 year old babies when we
are constantly looking to our parents to pay for our bills while we use our
money to ‘hang out’, ‘party,’ or ‘date.’ How fake is that? How you going to have
your parents paying your bills & then you take some girl out & act like
you have money; that is teenage stuff.
Adulthood is not an age thing,
it is a maturity thing.
I have met some very mature 22 year-old adults & I
have also met some 40 year old boys. Trust me, adulthood does not have to be
boring; it is actually tons of fun! However, when we allow the fun of it to
overtake the responsibility of it then we enter back into the realm of
childhood. I don’t know about you, but I want to live as a mature adult, one
that my wife, family, friends, colleagues, & God can say, “That is a grown
man. He is a true example of what a man should look like.”
Let’s Do This Together:
Would you like to date or
marry someone who was your age, but still thought like a child? Where in your
life are you still thinking like a child & fighting adulthood?
Great post! I definitely relate. God continues to deal with the little boy in me, and he continues to demand that I grow up in every area.
ReplyDelete"Hecks na!" Glad I didn't!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I did have a smooth facade when it came to dating my wife. I put away all that was childish. At least for a while. When marriage came along, I realized my wife was very bothered by my "Child-like Temper Tantrums." I would snap out of my mind and say some of the dumbest most hurtful, but very child-like remarks a man could say. Here I was, a 30 year old man, slamm'n the doors, sighing constantly and making the same sarcastic statements I made at my Mom and Dad growing up as a teenage boy. Today, at 38 years old, I find myself dealing with periods of "pouting." The periods are less and less, but nevertheless they are immature and a condition that must be dealt with.
I find it hard to believe in myself at times and then "pout" my way around until the Holy Spirit puts me in check. It isn't so much the "pouting" that the Holy Spirit reminds me off, for we all deal with some type of pitty party from day to day hardships, but it is the periods of time wasted that He intends to encourage me to change from. The "idle-time is a waste of time! Patience is active. Idle-ness is stagnant.