I Quit! Acting Like a Child
The Patron Saint of our Day
Sufferers of the Peter Pan Syndrome:
- Talk like Star Wars wasn’t written for someone half their age
- Play video games into the early morning hours even though they have a job, and are over thirty
- Facebook and play Farmville into the early morning hours even though they have kids, a job, and are over thirty
- Have a group of friends they hang out with regularly at the expense of family time
- React to criticism with flashes of defensiveness, anger, or even rage
- Will bail on a commitment if it becomes difficult or uncomfortable
- Are gripped with indecisiveness when it comes to making commitments
- Often have some kind of an addiction problem
- Will continue flirting in public settings or on the internet even when they are married because this makes them feel young
- Don’t like taking responsibility for anything. Nothing is their fault.
- Don’t like having serious discussions, especially about the future, as they live for the here and now.
- Rarely have any thoughts about “giving back” to anyone or anything
- Make great parents as they are on the same level as their kids
- Turn all conversations to them. They are very ‘me’ or ‘look at me’ type people
- Speak often and fondly of their glories which are only in the distant past
We are most susceptible when we have been:
- Traumatized
- Lobotomized
- Idolized
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. (John 12:23-25)
If you want to be a grownup:
- Take responsibility for your self
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess
19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (Deuteronomy 30:15-20)
- Get over your self
Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. (John 12:24)
- Exercise self-control
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, (Titus 2:11-12)
- Define your self
James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), (Mark 3:17)
One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. (John 13:23)
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. (Luke 9:23-24)
