{"id":445,"date":"2012-02-17T11:00:57","date_gmt":"2012-02-17T15:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markbordeaux.com\/?p=445"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:01:10","slug":"are-you-growing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markbordeaux.com\/?p=445","title":{"rendered":"Are You Growing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Some of my earliest and fondest childhood memories are of watching, “The Wonderful World of Disney” as well as early Disney movies. In the childhood classic, \u201cPeter Pan,\u201d there is a part where Wendy falls in love with Peter. Under the moonlight, in the forest of Neverland, she tries to talk seriously to him about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeter, what are your real feelings?\u201d She asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeelings?\u201d Peter responds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you feel? Happiness? Sadness? Jealousy? Anger? Love? She probes.<\/p>\n

\u201cLove? I\u2019ve never heard of it.\u201d Peter replies.<\/p>\n

Wendy continues, “I think you have, Peter. I daresay you’ve felt it yourself\u2026for something, or someone.”<\/p>\n

“Never. Even the sound of it offends me.” Peter retorts.<\/p>\n

Wendy reaches for Peter in a loving gesture, and suddenly he runs away, shouting, “Why do you spoil everything? We have fun, don’t we? I taught you to fight and to fly. What more could there be?”<\/p>\n

“There is so much more,” she answers.<\/p>\n

“What? What else is there?” Peter replies.<\/p>\n

Wendy pauses and says, “I don’t know. I think it becomes clearer when you grow up.”<\/p>\n

In response, Peter firmly declares, “Well, I will not grow up! You cannot make me! Go home and grow up. And take your feelings with you.”<\/p>\n

“I will never grow up,” is Peter\u2019s motto and he never does. But in his quest to always have fun and never become a man, Peter Pan must guard his emotions closely. He can never truly love anyone, for if he did, he might take responsibility for their care, and responsibility is too grown-up for Peter Pan.<\/p>\n

Far too many Christians, or maybe better, \u201cproclaiming Christians\u201d feel the same way as Peter, “Well, I will not grow up! You cannot make me!\u201d<\/p>\n

By choosing to avoid responsibility and pain, God\u2019s work in our lives is hindered and our potential is limited. We cannot fulfill His will without being fulfilled in His will.<\/em><\/p>\n

Some may blame others for their lack of growth. This is the same \u201cblame game\u201d that started in the Garden when Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent.<\/p>\n

The truth is, we are as close to Christ as we want to be.<\/p>\n

God uses both good and bad people as well as good and bad circumstances to conform us to the image of Christ. Whether we learn and grow from people and circumstances is up to us.<\/p>\n

God created you, loves you, and has given His life that you may know and experience Him in a real and personal way. He created you to enjoy a relationship with Him and glorify Him before the world. It is true \u2013 God has plans for you!<\/p>\n

You may choose to live in a \u201cfairy tale\u201d world and say along with Peter, \u201cI will not grow up! You cannot make me!\u201d and avoid dealing with eternal realities. Or you may come to Christ humbly and determine to deal with feelings, attitudes, and behavior with His help.<\/p>\n

Allow Him to show you where you need to grow. Then depend on Him to make you like His Son (Romans 8:28-29).<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t kid you. Growing is often painful \u2013 but not as painful as immaturity.<\/p>\n

Growing,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of my earliest and fondest childhood memories are of watching, “The Wonderful World of Disney” as well as early Disney movies. In the childhood classic, \u201cPeter Pan,\u201d there is a part where Wendy falls in love with Peter. Under … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,147,3,8,4,100,32,114,110,10,26,51,1],"tags":[151,248,152,255,77,149,150],"class_list":["post-445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambition","category-career","category-challenge","category-discipline","category-encouragement","category-faith","category-gods-will","category-inspiration","category-motivation","category-perseverance","category-romans","category-success","category-uncategorized","tag-avoidance","tag-challenge","tag-christ","tag-gods-will","tag-growth","tag-immaturity","tag-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markbordeaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markbordeaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markbordeaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markbordeaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markbordeaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/markbordeaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":456,"href":"http:\/\/markbordeaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions\/456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markbordeaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markbordeaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markbordeaux.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}