Could You Please Just Act a Little Less Mature?

Could You Please Just Act a Little Less Mature? 

Everybody has a childhood. It may have been good or it may have been bad. But we were all children at one point.  My childhood consists of knocking our neighbors' doors for sugar and doing school work on the beach, making friends with the mailman, and rolling my hamster in a barbie car down the street.  I think it’s really interesting asking people, “what is your favorite childhood memory?”, because it really says a lot about them.  Where they grew up, what their hobbies may have been, if they were close to their siblings, if they had any pets, etc… For some, best moments of their lives are when they are young.  Young consists of less worrying, gas money, and cognitive thinking.   There is something special about kids.  I work at a bounce house where kids come to jump around in inflatables and host birthday parties.  It’s a great job, because I literally get to be apart of a family on one of the most exciting days of a kid’s life.  With my personality and its lack of social boundaries,  I’m talking to kids like their my sister or brother and parents as if I grew up with them.  Awkwardly standing by laughing at inside jokes that I am unaware and excluded from. I just casually start telling stories of the kid as if I knew him or her. People are beginning to ask questions, “Who is she?”.  But then I quickly start singing the celebratory song: “Happy Birthday”, and he or she blows out the candles.  All spirits get high and mostly because they know in less than three minutes their stomachs will be full of color dye and whipped sugar.  I look  at these kids as they open their presents and accept every single one.  There is never a four year-old who hesitates, “are you sure? for me? Really? I don’t know. This Polly-Pocket could look really nice on your new granite counter top”. No, they just take it and say, “thank you”.  As I watch them open and accept; it made me think: how much we change as we grow.  Yes, growing up is a beautiful thing, and I thank God every day for puberty.  And having a car is way cooler than learning to walk (Okay, mom? so next time Elle does something really cool, like jump off a stair, show her a picture of my keys. That’s all I ask).  However, kids really have an innocence that God wants us to keep.  The Bible says that children are a reward (Psalms 127:3).  And in the beginning God says we are all children of God through faith (Galatians 3:26).  So we are considered a reward to God.  He says “through faith”.  What does that mean?  Later in the New Testament it says, “unless, we change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).  The words “little children” do not differ in the translations.  It was very clear what God wanted.  You ask, well I thought growing up would help me mature and understand God.  But God doesn’t want “understatement” to have precedence over “faith”.  According to psychologist and social scientists, there are specific characteristics that describe children. 

• Trust without questions
• Seek approval
• Are confident
• Want to serve
• forgive easily and forget quickly
• are eager to learn and acquire skills
• want good to triumph over evil
• are emotionally sensitive and thus vulnerable

Now, put into context a faith that will trust without questions, wants to seek God’s approval, is confident,wants to serve others, forgives and forgets quickly, eager to learn, wants good in the world, and is emotional sensitive and vulnerable.  No wonder God wants our faith to be child like! Jesus tells a woman, “… for it’s not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs”.  He is literally describing His message and ministry as “children’s bread” (Matthew 14:26).  His goal is for His followers to be children of faith.  So next time you cry because there are no more fruit snacks in the pantry, or think your cover of “I’m Yours” is so unique, you post it on social media, remember- your vulnerability and confidence is appreciated.  I think Benjamin Button knew the secret the whole time.