Valerie Rae Hanneman
Hebrews 5:13 - 14 “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (NIV)
My two children were very different from each other from the very beginning. My daughter, Fawn, was born at a petite 6 lbs, 2 oz. My son, Steven, on the other hand was born at a whopping 9 pounds 15 oz. Fawn needed rice cereal in her formula when she was 4 months old and was eating baby food just after she was five months old. Steven needed the rice cereal in his formula at two months old and was chowing down on baby food at 3 ½ months old. I did start both of them on sweet potatoes baby food but with different results. Fawn wasn’t real enthused about making the change. For the first week or so more of the sweet potatoes ended up on her bib than in her stomach. Once she got the hang of it she would hold her little mouth open like a baby bird and just wait for me to feed her. Steven was completely different. He had trouble with the first couple of bites then he pounced on those sweet potatoes! I had to keep a tight grip on his spoon because he kept trying to grab the spoon and shove it in his mouth. I was afraid he was going to put that spoon through the back of his head if he got it out of my hand! (He still eats like this!) Fawn talked earlier and faster than Steven did, she was the tallest one in her kindergarten class and she surpassed my height when she was 12 - becoming the tallest one in the family. She has always been a good student. It took Steven awhile to start talking - I guess he just didn’t have much to say. But he was crawling one day, walking the next and running the day after that. For having such an impressive start at birth, everything slowed down on him and he was always one of the shorter kids. When he turned 15 this past February he was still several inches shorter than me. But what a difference a summer has made! When he started school this fall, Steven had claimed the title of the tallest one in the family from his sister. We will not talk about Steven as a student other than to say that he presents challenges I did not face with his sister. It is interesting to see how different my children are, how they each have their own particular strengths and weaknesses, their own likes and dislikes. After all, they had the same parents, they were raised in the same surroundings, same rules, and philosophies and ate the same food.
New-born Christians are not that different from new-born humans. When we born into our relationship with God we are a just-born baby of the faith and like a just-born human we are waiting for the experiences of our new life to shape us into the mature believers we will become. Some of us take to this new life in Christ like Steven took to sweet potatoes. We grab the spoon of this new life and try to get it into us just as fast as we can. Others are a little slower in how we grow and just like Fawn with her sweet potatoes - it just takes us a little longer to get used to the change. Some of us get involved in ministry like cannon balling off a diving board, others of us prefer to get our toes wet first. Just as there are no right ways or wrong ways for a baby to mature there are no right ways or wrong ways for a Christian to mature. The only important thing is that we mature. A human baby is not healthy unless it grows and matures and a new Christian is not healthy unless they grow and mature.
Children as they grow and mature develop their own personalities, interests and goals even if raised in the same surroundings.. They become unique in this world. The same is true for young Christians. They take their own personalities, interests, goals and gifts into ministry. They are as uniquely different from other Christians as we humans are different from each other. We do not want a cookie-cutter human world. God does not want cookie-cutter believers either. He celebrates our uniqueness in Him.
Although we all mature in Christ at different rates and in different directions, we must continue to mature if we are to live an effective life in Christ. It is in maturing that our life in Christ is strengthened and we learn to make choices that are pleasing to Him. Choices that turn us away from satan and towards God. It is in maturing that we learn to be consistent in making these choices. It is in maturing that we learn to stand solidly in the center of His will for us.
Do we ever reach the point in our Christian life where we can say, “I have learned enough about God and I have served Him enough. I am mature enough in Him and I can stop now.” Oh no, we don’t ever stop! We are meant to live a lifetime of adventure in learning more about God and serving Him better. The newborn Christian, who is learning what this new life is all about, grows and matures into the young Christian learning to find their unique place in God’s family, who grows into the middle Christian using their gifts and talents in kingdom ministry, who grows into the mature Christian, still using their gifts and talents but also using their wisdom and experiences to teach the younger Christians - sometimes in a formal setting - but even more often by being living examples of what a Christ-centered life is.
Choose to continue to mature and grow in Christ. Choose to continue to develop your gifts and talents to serve Him in a way that is unique to you. Choose the lifetime adventure of knowing Him more and serving Him better.
LORD God, to know You is a joy beyond compare. To choose to know You better is joy anticipated. We choose to live our lives with the goal of knowing You more and more each day. We choose Your joy.
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Contact Valerie at valerie@fresnofirst.org
Posted by Valerie at November 5, 2004 10:59 PM