How did I mature relationally? This has been a long and often scary and painful journey for me. It has not been quick and easy. I am sharing with you some key individual steps that freed me to be able to mature from an infant and child to a parent and elder. These are not necessarily in order. The exciting thing about maturing is that I am never too old to mature relationally. Now, I better relate to everyone! I continually see new maturity traits emerging from my life struggles. This meditation is number 4 in a series.
Key number 4: My flaws aren’t because I am bad and have a bad heart. My flaws are because I am not relationally mature. I have a good heart ….. I just need to mature! When I understood this, it was like a light came on in a dark room. Scripture talks about this. “When I was a child, I thought as a child, I understood as a child, and I acted like a child ….. When I matured and became an adult, I put away childish ways and things….” 1Cor.13:9-11
I started seeing “infants” and “children” everywhere ….. I was embarrassed to see that I was the one who was not mature relationally. God wanted me to grow up and be a parent where I delight in giving instead of a child who is always taking.
My perspective has totally changed as I see and now understand the actions of others. For the most part they just need to mature and I need to be mature enough to respond as a relationally mature parent to them.