Listen

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

1 Corinthians 13:11

Think

I couldn’t wait to be a teenager. I wanted to seem older than I was. I would say to a younger friend, “Just wait until you’re in sixth grade . . .” By the end of my high school days my friends and I would reminisce about “the good old days” of childhood. Sometimes we longed for simpler days and childlike ways. When we’re in the thick of it, growing up can be hard. But it is good, too!

This is true of our faith. When we encounter Christ in Scripture, in worship, and through our neighbors, we are invited to think about God and live out our faith in new ways. This is a challenge. Growth means parting with old ways and ideas, and it’s hard when we’ve outgrown faith as we knew it before.

We are called not to leave faith behind, but to mature to an adult faith.

Meredith Forssman

Pray

Loving God, I don’t know how to be an adult yet, but I’m leaving behind childish ways. Stay close by and show me the way. Amen.

Go

There is a place for you and a time for you.
In the moments when it seems the world is a very awkward place,
Remember that it is still your home.

Gather with your friends;
Open your hand to strangers.
Determine that even in the tensions between
What is and
What could be,
You will trust in the Maker of time and space,
The One who is keeping you to the end.