Quotes about Maturity

When disciples are in stage three, the concept that sets them free is "God is in charge." They have to acknowledge grace and begin to work it into their lifestyle. This is not easy for most of us, but it is the one thing that will move us on to growth and maturity.

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

Proverbs 25:28 says, "Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control." In other words, if we do not control our own lives from the inside, somebody else will control them from the outside.

Where training and discipline are concerned, short-term pain means long-term gain. It may break our heart to inflict the pain of discipline on our children and to see their tears, but the long-term goal of preparing them to live responsibly as adults justifies the short-term pain of disciplining them while they are young.

We have to grow into Scripture, like a young boy inheriting his older brother's clothes and flopping around in them, but he gradually builds out and grows up. Perhaps it's a measure of our maturity when parts of Scripture that we found odd or even repellent suddenly come up in a new light. Our sense is overtaken by a sense of the whole thing, wide, multicolored, and unspeakably powerful.

It is true, then, that as soon as someone becomes a Christian, he or she can and must say `Our Father'; that is one of the marks of grace, one of the first signs of faith. But it will take full Christian maturity to understand, and resonate with, what those words really mean.

Perhaps, indeed, that is what "holy scripture" really is — not a calm, serene list of truths to be learned or commands to be obeyed, but a jagged book that forces you to grow up in your thinking as you grapple with it.

How would you describe a mature person?

Paul does of course want the young Christians to develop to the point where, as mature followers of Jesus Christ, they will gradually find that the Christian habits of heart and life "come naturally." But to get to that point they must learn

The older we get, the bigger the catalog of failures Satan can throw in our faces. You may think, 'I don't have anything to offer.' But you can teach out of your failures as well as your successes (p. 223).

I appreciate and enjoy my age.