spiritual_grownups

Spiritual Grownups, by Gini Kittle

“For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son …” — Romans 8:29

The other day, I had so much fun doing one of my favorite things — watching my grandson Jonas. He was so cute … making little smacking sounds as he pretended to eat his play food, playing dinosaurs while he roared, and making a low rumbling sound as he rolled his tiny toy garbage truck across the floor. How much he reminded me of my son, Ben. In fact, sometimes while I was watching Jonas I could see Ben in my mind doing the same thing. As those memories came flooding back, it was as if Ben was, for just a moment, a little boy again.

But of course Ben stopped playing with toy dinosaurs and hot wheel cars years ago. He has grown up to be such a fine young man — tall … handsome … smart. So now that Ben’s grown to more than 6’ 4” tall, is he really grown up? The answer is not quite! There’s still his high school graduation, college, marriage, and the list goes on and on. He has grown up, but he still has farther to go.

This same question is important for every believer to ask themselves, “Am I a spiritual grown up?” Or, as the Bible would put it, are we “… growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness” (Ephesians 4:13). When people look at our lives, do they see Jesus Christ? I’m afraid the answer for all of us is still no. Yet, we can ask if our lives are more like Jesus now than when we were first born-again. Or perhaps ask “Are we more like Him today than last year?” The measuring stick to see if we are becoming more spiritually mature is Christ-likeness. Let us strive to be ever more like Him, for He is what the world needs to see … and what we are called to become.