1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

When do we begin to want to be an adult?

Notice I said want. Being an adult and wanting to be an adult are two very different things. If I were to examine my natural growth and compare it with spiritual growth, then I would say a common point in both would be love.

God made us because He loved us. We hear it in the law, summed up by Jesus so aptly, “Love God, love one another.” Love is a compelling force that seeks to pour itself out upon others. The love chapter of the bible is 1 Corinthians 13. The King James Version uses the word charity to emphasize the outpouring qualities of love. This is how love acts.

As a teen I wanted to love without understanding love. As a born again love once again is a compelling force without understanding love. Not because you cannot love but because it isn’t natural love. It is God’s love, perfect love, Agape love.

Romans 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

The distributer of love is the Holy Spirit. In the natural we choose to love those qualities of love which are represented by natural love, eros, philia, ludus, pragma, and philatia. None of those love descriptions are God’s love.

If you knew what each of those types of love were, and most do not, none of them would compare in performance as to how love acts in 1 Corinthians 13. Can I meet those standards of perfection? If I am going to be brutally honest with myself, the answer is no. As much as I would love to love like that, I do not.

The best I can do is in response to God’s call to put away childish things.

God will handle the rest.

Am I alone in this? What do you think?

Psalm 49:13 This is the fate of those who are foolishly confident, And of those after them who approve [and are influenced by] their words. Selah. (AMP)

I remember those teenage days and hanging out with my friends. If it sounded good, we would do it. I am the only one here that ever did that. Right?

“Everyone was doing it!” That never cut any weight with my mother. Enough said?

Spiritually it looks like this. Spiritual teenagers put their faith in activities wherein they are part of a group, included, because that is what fellowship is all about. Is it? Is that what fellowship is all about?

Philippians 2:1-2 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Fellowship of the Spirit, be likeminded, one accord, one mind, has everything to do with agreeing with the Holy Spirit, not each other. Spiritual teenagers find it easier to join the gang than to seek God’s will.

The opposite end of that same effort comes from hearing God and gathering others in support of what God has called you to do.  Lack of confidence, seen in many a teenager, will cause the spiritual teen to gather others around. If failure occurs, well, it wasn’t just me that failed.

Can you relate to any of this? Are there other teen qualities that might be seen in spiritual growth?