I don’t want to grow up I’m a Toys R us kid…
Remember this song?
Remember wishing you could just stay a kid?
Do you recall what it was like to be young? Remember how everything was fresh and new?
Every single day had endless possibilities awaiting with the rising sun?
Every single day had endless possibilities awaiting with the rising sun?
I was watching a movie with my husband the other day, which one is irrelevant. In the movie there two young boys who were growing up on the river. As I was watching this movie I was thinking about the resiliency of children. They bloom where they are planted. Meaning they adapt to their environment in which they live without any questions. Unless there is abuse factoring the equation most children don’t understand the differences of how they live that is different from others.
It is their normal.
I never recall thinking when I was growing up that my home was so much different from my friends. I’m sure there might have been subtle differences, like what they ate that we didn’t or how their homes were set up.The biggest concern on our mind was playing with each other. Planning adventures with castles filled with knights and princesses or being the greatest baseball player ever. Climbing trees, running through the woods pretending they were haunted. Riding bicycles until the Cicadas began to sing.
We just lived moment to moment.
Then as we began to grow older differences started to show and things we never noticed before began to become clearer.
Oh I knew there were some things different about my home because I was the preacher’s daughter.
A preacher’s daughter in a very small town.
A preacher’s daughter in a very small town.
I remember when we moved to this little town the lady at the post office remarked to my mom that everyone knew everyone’s business and they liked it that way. That should have been a red flag. My mother being the people person she is just smiled and said thank you for welcoming her to their town.
We went on to live in that town for about nine years and the post office lady proved to be true to her word.
Back to the difference in my home from others.
One, we had bible study drills every night. This wasn’t something that many of my friends endured.
Two, we were at church literally every single day. We hosted countless prayer meetings and had numerous revivals.
One, we had bible study drills every night. This wasn’t something that many of my friends endured.
Two, we were at church literally every single day. We hosted countless prayer meetings and had numerous revivals.
I loved the revivals best because of all the visiting preachers and singers that stayed at our house. There was always good music and endless after church fellowships with many deserts…
As I was meditating on the two boys in the film I begin to realize that God wants us, expects us to bloom where He plants us. We are made to thrive in our environment wherever that may be. I realize in the natural that this is impossible for some because of a multitude of abuse going on. Or maybe the circumstances around them are just bad.
Those questions I cannot begin to answer. I just know that the heart of God is that we are able to bloom where we are planted. He makes a way for us to live abundantly as He provides for our needs. Each one of have different places where will grow best.
The question is; why is it so hard? Why are we so caught up with life that we forget to live as children? Why do we make our lives so difficult and choked up with the cares of life? It is one thing for your circumstances to be forced upon you so that you can’t thrive. It is entirely another to have your every need met and yet still get caught up with despair, sorrow and heartaches of day to day living. Focusing rather on where you want to be rather than where you are.
Does heartache come upon us from time to time, yes it does? Will we go through things that are painfully hard to endure? Yes we will. It’s just that we come to Christ and accept Him as Lord and instead of growing up into His will, we want to launch straight through to full maturity.
Why is this? Why do we push growing up?
Is it because we have this hidden need to be in control? Do we feel the need to navigate even the simplest of things even though we are supposed to give the control to God?
I’m not advocating you stay in childhood mode for lengthy periods of time. I’m saying don’t rush the process. Give yourself time grow in God’s word. Give yourself time to allow His Spirit to overtake your flesh. Don’t rush your time with Him. Don’t rush His process of establishing you firmly in His word. I have four children, two who are grown, one who thinks they are and one that is just emerging from the seed of being a toddler.
It would be absolutely ludicrous for me to expect my youngest to get a job and provide for his basic needs. Likewise it would be foolish of me to expect that he wash his own clothes, cook his own meals and such. To be honest I don’t want to rush the stages of any of my children. I want them to progress as they should maturing with each step.
Parenting is a patient process of trial and error and finding what works for each individual person you are attempting to raise.
To be honest we don’t apply this same principle to our spiritual lives. God is trying to help us mature in the faith and we are wanting to sprout wings and fly, fly, fly.
Sort of like my next to youngest who thinks because she will be seventeen in a month or so that suddenly she will be an adult. She will learn as we all have that it takes time to grow into adulthood.
I often wonder if God is not saying “aye Chihuahua” slow down Shawn I’m working something in you that you aren’t ready yet to fulfill.
My daughter just got her permit and to her that translates I can get on the road and drive now. We all know the reasons this is impossible and honestly just plain idiotic. Reason being she doesn’t know how to drive. She hasn’t driven before so putting her in the car and telling her to go ahead is like putting my seven year old in the kitchen and telling him to cook supper. One, I would be putting her life and others in danger because she doesn’t know how to handle a car and two it just doesn’t make any sense which would make me an idiot of the worst kind.
So back to my thinking about children and their resiliency, how much better would it be if we could just be honest and say God, I’m chomping at the bit to grow up, but I trust You that You are working things out in me that I really need to learn before You turn me loose.
How many heartaches would be spared, how many lives wouldn’t be affected by wrong choices we will make because we are untrained.
My advice to you is to bloom where you are planted. Maturity takes time it is a process. You are not going to come to full maturity overnight. Allow God’s Spirit to work in you and out of you those things He needs to in order for you to thrive in the calling He gave you.
Don’t be discouraged by time tables and personal achievement goals. God doesn’t live in time He lives in eternity. He’s not sweating it out. He knows exactly what He’s doing and we need to trust Him.
Enjoy the journey.
I repeat ENJOY THE JOURNEY!
The one thing we forget in our haste to grow up is that we miss so much along the way.
Many times on road trips my husband and I will encourage our kids to put down the electronics and look out the windows. There is so much to see. You miss it in your haste to get there quick.
One day you will get to the place that you are ready and God will give you that nudge to leave the nest, until then relax. What better place could you be in than in the loving hand of God? The hand that is guiding you and teaching you things you could never learn otherwise.
He has so much He wants for us and we miss it in our haste to grow up.
In short, trust God enough to know that He has your life perfectly planned and there is a reason to what you think is madness.
Don’t look back one day in regret because you missed something important in the growing stage that could have helped you through the current stage.
God is good and He’s working good in you!
Lastly, not to worry if you hurried the process and squandered your inheritance. Get up and go home, God is waiting for you with open arms and Texas size BBQ with all the fixings and homemade ice cream on the side.
He loves you more than you can imagine and when you rush the process you rob God of the joy of teaching you and guiding you through life.
Just for strength to get you through the journey, read the Psalms. David was a excellent writer about how to go through the process of life.
Psalms 119:54 Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage
119:68 Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes. 119:73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments
119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
I’m hid with Christ,
Shawn
Searching Gods Heart 
