Imparting maturity

Now that I'm heading rapidly in the direction of parenthood, I'm wondering what goals parenthood should have. Is it to keep the kid alive and in possession of its limbs until it can go off and repeat the process?  Is it to create a prepared and acclimated member of the culture, so that when you "release it into the wild" it can do well?

Among these thoughts is the idea of maturity.  I've been evaluating my own maturity as well as what the goal of maturity is in evaluating progress into adulthood.  I've never really thought of myself as much of an adult, though I've usually assumed myself to be more mature than most.  This has backfired into humiliation a time or two, and I've looked back to see that I spent much of my life playacting maturity in order to seem superior to these odd creatures, these "other kids my age" with whom I rarely interacted.  So, I traded this cultural comparison for one a little less nebulous.

Paul almost interrupts the most famous text on love ever written with this description (1 Cor. 13:11):

When I was a child, 
I spoke like a child, 
I thought like a child, 
I reasoned like a child. 
When I became a man, 
I put aside childish things.


This is a little more of what I was looking for.  The context is incredible--instead of trying to get an idea of what love "is" in a futile description of an emotion that changes from person to person, it instead describes what love does.  This verse transitions from describing love to describing growth, then the chapter ends with the idea that faith, hope, and love remain, even though we only see God and these things like we're looking into a scratched mirror.

So, maturity can be put into three distinct categories: speech, thought, and reasoning.  We often laugh at or even delight in the simplicity of childlike minds...when they are present in children.  But in adults, we expect a development of selflessness, understanding, and communication that goes beyond what children naturally do.

Paul isn't simply talking about the human experience here, though.  He's encouraging the Corinthians to grow up and put aside their childish pursuit of their own lusts and inclinations and aspire to this more mature, selfless love.  And really, that's how I'd sum up maturity.  Selfless love that desires what's best (not just what feels best) for others.  You can see it demonstrated in speech, thought, and reasoning, as well as any other aspect of life--priorities, actions, what have you.

So then....how to make this happen?  How do you get from childish selfishness to mature, selfless love?  I think the example of Christ is an immense picture of ultimate selfless love, and we can mirror it in our day-to-day actions and setting of priorities.  But in the end, the heart is His to change.  We can work along with Him toward the goal, but without His enabling power, we are hopeless to attain this change on our own.  It's not just about actions and motives, it's also about strengthening our relationship with Him as well as with those around us.

Which means I'm not going to arrive today.  Drat.