When I grown up

My five year old is constantly talking about "When I get big....".  What he is trying to say is, when I grown up....
He literally comes up with a whole long list of things just about everyday of what he wants to do "when he gets big".
Today, while waiting in the car, in a parking lot, there parked beside us was a big black truck, and he says, " Momma when I get big I am going to buy that truck and drive it".
His wanting to grow up reminds me of the theme verse that was picked for my high school graduating class.  It was 1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 
As my mind went back to that verse today, I remembered that when this verse was picked out we thought we had arrived.  We thought this is it, we are graduating from High School and we are now adults!  No longer are we children.  Then when I got to my twenties, I thought the same thing all over again, this is it, I am no longer a teenager, now people will notice that I am an adult. The twenties proved to be a difficult time in life.  It is when you are not a teenager, but you really are not considered a adult either. It is very hard to fit in anywhere except with other people that are in their twenties just like you.  Next came the big  thirty, which some people dread, and some people like me, look forward to.  Things start coming into perspective.  No this is not it, no we haven't arrived.  There are always people who are older, and who will look at you as a child.  Well, because to them we are.  They have lived longer and have experienced far more then we have in our short thirty some years of life.
What this verse is talking about doesn't have to do with age at all.  It has to do with maturity.  When we start putting away childish things we start realizing that there are more important things to life.  More important things than owning the newer cars, the name brand clothes, being with the popular people or even being the popular person.  We start realizing that there is far more to life then that.  There are people out there in this world hurting, and longing for someone to just love them for who they are.  There are people, although they dream of owning that newer car, and they work hard, they end up living pay check to pay check, never being able to own that new car.  There are people out there that are dying and going to hell.  Yes there are a lot of childish things to put away.  Maturing is not easy to do and never will be.  With maturity comes loss of friendships, loss jobs, loss of good health.  However that is not all.  With maturity come new friends, new jobs, and although the loss of good health may not come back with maturity we can except it and go on. 
Maturity comes at all ages, it is up to us to decide if we want it, or if we would rather go on being childish and selfish, or mature and selfless