{"id":14944,"date":"2014-07-29T08:09:06","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T13:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/?p=14944"},"modified":"2014-09-09T12:52:18","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T17:52:18","slug":"how-to-measure-maturity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/how-to-measure-maturity\/","title":{"rendered":"How-to MEASURE Maturity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(creative
(creative commons photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/h3>\n

I used to think that people got better as they aged. They learned things and got more mature, and became better people.<\/h3>\n

As a kid, especially, I thought of how little I knew in comparison to\u00a0my mom and dad, and other adults. I was changing and learning and growing in every way, every day\u2013and I just supposed that growth and improvement were part of the deal in exchange for aging, and not being able to pull off wearing trendy clothes anymore and loose fitting skin.<\/p>\n

Nope.<\/p>\n

Now, of course, I realize that maturity has very little to do with time spent alive.<\/h3>\n

Hurts happen.<\/p>\n

Wounds can fester.<\/p>\n

People can grow bitter and nasty.<\/p>\n

People can\u00a0stay petty and insecure.<\/p>\n

They can get lodged in a cell of shame and self-protect or start a habit of attacking others.<\/p>\n

True maturity is rare.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wisdom is a gift received\u00a0through awareness and often through suffering, but it is not a pension\u00a0that is received across the board and acquired like Medicare.<\/p>\n

Time can work you over like a expert boxer works over a fresh challenger with body blows.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nevertheless, there is<\/strong> a kind of measure you can employ to see where you stand.<\/p>\n

Of course, the temptation will be to first, or more thoroughly, measure others<\/strong> with it. (The more the temptation to do it, or actually doing it, means what? Can you guess? Yes, the more you<\/strong> lack on the scale.)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

9 Categories Measure<\/em> True Maturity:<\/h2>\n

\u2022 love<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 joy<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 peace<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 patience<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 kindness<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 goodness<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 faithfulness<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 gentleness<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 self-control<\/span><\/h3>\n

Now, on a scale of 1 to 10, how are you<\/strong> doing?<\/em><\/p>\n

All 10s?<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

If you’ve noticed some gains and big improvements in these 9 qualities over the last few years, you are getting more mature!<\/p>\n

If others have noticed, you might actually be right.<\/p>\n

If you sense some problems with a few (or more) of them, then you might be stuck in arrested or delayed development. Ultimately we all should try to grow up…<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BUT,\u00a0that’s not to say “grow old”<\/strong> … There’s a big difference.<\/p>\n

The surprise twist<\/strong> is that a spiritually (and in all other ways) mature person usually\u00a0has a youthful timelessness to himself or herself.<\/p>\n

Mature people\u00a0have a humility that\u00a0keeps them in a state of\u00a0learning and growing. They don’t allow themselves to take themselves too seriously or\u00a0suffer from sustained flare-ups of self-importance. So, in them you see a lack of arrogance, self-righteousness, or\u00a0aloof disposition.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What should you do if you don’t measure up?<\/h3>\n

1. Admit it.<\/p>\n

2. Ask for help (from God and others).<\/p>\n

3. Keep trying and learning as you go.<\/p>\n

4. Never think “I’ve made it!” or “I’m better than someone else.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Galatians 5:22-23<\/p>\n

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These 9 Categories Measure True Maturity…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5626,76],"tags":[4378,451,735,4377,1116,4954,4744,1449,1472,1547,1550,5521,1616,1663,1671,1729,4716,1763,4081,5645,1974,1980,2158,2245,2367,2521,2704,4482,3054,3178,4859,6263,3315,84,3421,3444,3498,4075,3711,89],"class_list":["post-14944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spark-my-muse","category-spirituality","tag-be","tag-body","tag-clothes","tag-do","tag-employ","tag-expert","tag-fruit","tag-gift","tag-god","tag-growing","tag-growth","tag-habit","tag-help","tag-holy","tag-holy-spirit","tag-humility","tag-if","tag-in","tag-just","tag-kind","tag-law","tag-learning","tag-maturity","tag-mom","tag-not","tag-people","tag-problems","tag-scale","tag-shame","tag-spirit","tag-start","tag-stuck","tag-surprise","tag-temptation","tag-things","tag-time","tag-trendy","tag-true","tag-will","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14944"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15062,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14944\/revisions\/15062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}