None of us starts at the end. We’re
born as babies before growing into adults. We crawl before we walk. We learn
the alphabet before reading. We earn a driving permit before a license. In
short, we must journey through multiple stages before we fully mature.
This process also applies to
discernment. When we become a Christian, we don’t instantly become
mature with the ability to separate good from evil. Rather, like our physical
counterparts, we start out as babies. Then we must journey one step at a time
toward the discernment that comes with maturity:
Stage 1: Infancy. New
to this whole spiritual thing, infants have little or no discernment at this
stage. This requires them to have very strict boundaries and much “adult”
supervision.
Stage 2: Childhood.
Discernment is now slowly developing, and a child’s true “north” of good is
being set into place. As a result, the stuff of life is primarily seen as either
right or wrong, with nothing between. Boundaries
rapidly expand at this age, but children still require a fair amount of
supervision.
Stage 3: Adolescence. Knowledge
comes to full bloom at this stage, and adolescents become aware of all that could
be. However, personal boundaries are still being figured out: just because you
can doesn’t mean you should. As a result, adolescents have a fair amount of
discernment, but tend to stretch the boundaries to their maximum, sometimes to
the point of being unsafe, and accountability is helpful in learning to navigate
gray areas.
Stage 4: Adulthood.
Maturity is reached! Having consistently trained themselves, adults know (for
the most part) what is right, what is wrong, and how to handle gray areas. They
still have blind spots and must keep learning, but they’ve reached the point
where they serve, rather insisting they be served: it’s time to turn around and
help the next generation grow up in their discernment!
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