When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11
Real men are developed. Men are mature.
A child by definition does not understand everything going on around him. This is usually proven when a young person gets married and moves out of their parent’s household and starts “adulting”. When you move out of your parent’s house you quickly realize all of the things that your mommy did for you and that you now have to do for yourself. Children are not fully responsible for things in the household. But when you have your own place, you are now the one responsible, and you must develop maturity very quickly.
A real man puts away childish speaking and thinking and understanding and actions in many areas of his life. The problem in society today is that we have a lot of men who are really living like little boys. They are really children. They have not put away those things from childhood.
The words “put away” mean to “abolish, bring to an end, to stop”. There are too many men in our world today who have not brought an end to their childhood.
A child is often easily offended and slow to forgive. Do you know any men like that?
A child wants instant gratification in their life. They don’t want to wait for things – they want it now. There’s a lot of men like that. A sign of maturity is being patient and delaying the reward for the appropriate time.
But real men learn to put away these childish behaviors and operate on a higher level. Real men accept their responsibility and their calling as men.
In the next post, we will look at five key areas of development.