By Nia Moreau
When I was 8 years old, I lost my tooth. You are probably thinking, “So what?”. Everyone loses their baby teeth. Sure everyone does, but not while eating a sucker. I was sucking on a sucker, a common kid thing to do right? When my tooth got stuck to the sucker. I pulled on the sucker, until it eventually came out, along with my tooth attached to it. Thankfully it was a baby tooth! So while it was pretty uncomfortable to have my tooth yanked out, the discomfort was only temporary. The good part was it made room for my adult teeth to come in. Plus, I got money from the “tooth fairy”, so there really wasn’t any down sides.
Can you imagine never loosing your baby teeth? First off, I think it would be kind of funny to see a bunch of teens and adults walking around with little nubby teeth in their head. Secondly, it would be even funnier to try and watch them eat steak or anything chewy without having to blend it or cut their bites up in to tiny pieces. Baby teeth work for a little while, but their chewing power is kind of small. We get our use out of them and then they fall out to make way for the bigger and better adult teeth. It’s all comes with time and maturity.
Some people haven’t lose their spiritual baby teeth. They haven’t moved from eating baby food and formula to harder and, lets be honest, better tasting food. These people have received salvation. They enjoy coming to church, and fellowshipping, perhaps even involved in a small group. They may know bible verses by memory, but when it comes to application in their life. That’s another story. They bless their meals, and pray at church, but often use prayer in their daily lives as a last resort, not a first response.
READ ROMANS 12:1-2 | The Message Version of the Bible, a paraphrase, uses the word "maturity" and is very fitting! Find it in the YouVersion Bible App!
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to it’s level of IMMATURITY, God brings the best out of you, develops WELL-FORMED MATURITY in you.
I encourage you to write this down on index card, sticky note, or something you can just make visible. And plaster it somewhere this week that you will see often. Evaluate your spiritual maturity and pray for Holy Spirit to show you areas that you are already mature and be prepared for areas you are not. We are all in this together and will help build one another up!
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