My grown-up not-Christmas list

Hebrews 5
Warning against falling away 

11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

I personally say this is no porridge. It is five-course dinner for my spirituality. I almost dropped writing this post today, like I usually do every other day. But as I force myself to write something the truth speaks more loudly to me. I need to face the fact that I am not a baby anymore. Like Britney Spears expresses it, "I am not a girl, not yet a woman". You know what I mean, I have grown, I am supposed to receive more responsibilities, and what I do is to refuse this new identity: an almost woman. Oh my goodness, really, why do I love the idea of Neverland, of not wanting to grow up, of being Peterpan. 

Sooner or later, I realize that I will not be able to escape from the reality. And, instead of waiting for the reality to knock me down all over again, I should better get ready for it. I need to face it. To face my fears of the sad reality and unfairness of life. How am I supposed to do it? 

Based on the scriptures reading above, the way I am supposed to grow is by: 

1. acknowledging that I am no longer a baby (I hope I have done so). A grown-up in many essence has more influence in other people lives than a baby. In this case, I think, we should be willing to embrace the 'grown-up' identity. 

2. eating solid food. Pursue a healthy diet. Make the effort to seek nutritionful intake and avoid junk foods (both for spiritual body and physical one). 

3. constant training. My favorite part (not true, lol): training. Not everyone loves training. It requires a whole lot of dedication, planning, energy, and certain physical fitness. But it is a requirement to be really mature; as the scriptures have said so. It is an active act to get better at something, in this case to get better at understanding a matter or getting wiser. 

I figured, when we were younger, we wanted to grow up so badly, and when we have grown, we want to stay young. With all due respect, I am completely in with being 'young', 'fresh', 'enthusiastic', 'playful', 'cheerful', 

and 'carefree'. Moreover, having faith like children. But in many sense, when we were younger, we were maybe more selfish, naive, witless, reckless, fearful and sometimes foolish. And these are the characters that we should not cultivate as grown-ups.

I think, above all, as we have more Christ-like characters, we will be more ready to step into more of God's promises. In other words, seeing more of 'a whole new worlds'. 

Are you ready for the adventures God is preparing you to take parts in? Embrace the stage of your life right now, make everyday a masterpiece for God, and smile! God is in our side, why fear, why worry?

Sincerely,

R