Maturity

“ That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:” Ephesians 4:14-15.

Mediating in this verse, I stopped everything I was doing and I started to think about what is happening to me.  Sometimes we want to fight with our own strengthen in little things, that are not worth it, I take a deep breath (In my mind I want to act, demand, etc.) but I think and I ask God for mercy and I move on, doing this I start to see in the future, I would have taken an attitude in that exact moment, everything would have gone wrong.

With time, I have learned to wait in the right moment to resolve each situation, and first I resolve it with God.  The answer is right! And how do I know the right time? When I put aside what I’m feeling in the moment and I put all those feelings in God’s hands.  We, humans are very anxious; we want to resolve things for yesterday.  If everything would be so quick and easy to be resolve, we would not gain maturity.

Time gives us maturity and to get it, we need to put all our anxiety in God’s hands, and is not easy because is our human nature, that’s  why it hurts to give but is not impossible when we want to please God, for me maturity  is like some lenses of measure to see far away, to see the future, to look later the situation that we see now that many times it makes you feel like taking away your hair, but when we walk our path we gain maturity, we have the capacity to deal with our own problems and with others in general.

Who likes to eat unripe fruit from the tree? It tastes good when we eat a ripe fruit, in the right moment, in the same way, God also has a plan for growth and spiritual maturity for those who decide (to give their anxieties) to do His will.

God has a very well-defined objective to guide us in the process of maturity; He wants us to participant of his work: "Be fruitful.”

But for that to happen, we need of maturity to be clay in the hands of the potter. Cease to be girls in the faith, not to accept the rebuke of lip service, but recognize that we need to change, put ourselves in the place of the people and stop thinking in ourselves and practice to be MERCIFUL.

Think about it. How do you know when the fruit is mature? When it falls from the tree.

Swallowing toad

Who have heard or said this expression? Surely all of us, but what is the meaning of the expression: Swallowing toad? Is to endure unpleasant situations without speaking or manifesting anything at all. Well, for me it has another meaning and has made a lot difference to me. I’m going to give an example before I get to the point I want to, so you can understand this importance.

Nowadays is trendy to get married and divorce, if you get married but you do not want to tolerate (Swallowing toad), you do not want to live “enduring” the imperfections of the person you wanted to get married, you only ask for the divorce.  It’s simple and fast, in the moment you resolve “THE PROBLEM” you would never have to swallow the toads of your spouse but  you would have to know that everything is going to take to lose.  Even the good things you had in your marriage would go to the trash.

This happens with everyone in our life (friends, co-workers and etc.) they have their imperfections like you and me. One thing I appreciate so much in these years serving God is to meet different people, with different cultures and different attitudes. I have swallowed toads with open legs and you know why? Because I have learned that being tolerate is one of the virtues that us, people of God have to have.  That does not mean we are weak people but that we are mature and merciful to understand the people and you know why I do it? Because I have cultivated values very special to me that exceeds the imperfections of the people, and also how many people have done that for me? It is barter.

When there is no such understanding, the imperfections are more visible than the qualities and most of the time we end up picking tragically emotional attitudes (Not wanting to swallow toads, not being tolerant, not coming down from the high, not being easy) and then we resolved the problem in the moment (we fight, we demand, we always have the right answer), we do not need to tolerate the imperfections, Done! But remember, is like a divorce, the problem ends, but the good things, the qualities also finish.

I’m not saying you have to tolerate everything! How can you see someone sinning and not doing anything? See an attitude against God’s word and tolerate? What I’m saying is that with our imperfections the day to day we have to relate with people.

I have learned to be more merciful and I have seen this is missing nowadays, it is a warning!

If we are not merciful with our relatives inside our home, imagine with the people outside.   Could it be that we have been imitators of Christ?

“We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.” (Romans 15:1)