Growing Up as Grow Older

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. (Ephesians 4:14–15)

The longer I live the more I become convinced that our major battle in life is not with age but with maturity. All of us are involuntary victims of the former. There is no choice involved in growing older. Our challenge is the choice of whether or not to grow up. It was Jesus who asked, “Who of you by worrying can add one inch to your height . . . or subtract one day from your age?” (Matthew 6:25–31). In other words, don’t waste your time worrying about how old you are getting. Age is a matter of fact. Maturity, on the other hand, is a matter of choice.

You and I are growing older. That’s automatic. But that does not necessarily mean we are growing up. How important it is that we do so! And it will not happen unless we get control of our attitude, which turns us in the right direction.

Let me urge you not to feed your mind with thoughts like: I’m too far gone to change; or, Having been through all the things I’ve been through, there is no way I can alter my attitude. Wrong! It is childish to play in the traffic of fear or let the hobgoblins of habit impede our progress. No one can win a race by continually looking back at where he or she has been. That will only demoralize, immobilize, and ultimately paralyze.

God is for us. God’s goal is that we move toward maturity, all our past failures and faults and hang ups notwithstanding. I have seen many adults who thought they couldn’t change begin to change. So I’m no longer willing to sit back and let anyone stay riveted to yesterday, thinking, Woe is me. Some of the most sweeping changes in my own life have occurred in my adult years. If it can happen in me, there is an enormous amount of hope for you. Attitudes can soar even if our circumstances lag and our past record sags.

God’s specialty is bringing renewal to our strength, not reminders of our weakness. Take it by faith, He is well aware of your weaknesses; He just sovereignly chooses not to stop there. They become the platform upon which He does His best work. Cheer up! There is great hope. You won’t be the first He helped from puberty to maturity