The Quest for Spiritual Maturity
Written by Rev. Dr. Scott Paczkowski
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ”
Just because you are a person of faith does not mean that God has blessed you or me with perfect emotional maturity. We remain imperfect people and in need of God’s support throughout our lives. Working on our emotional maturity is a spiritual exercise. Writer Nick Wignall helps the reader find new ways of addressing emotional development in his article “3 Small Habits That Will Make You Mentally Strong.” Wignall states, “Mental strength is the ability to control your mind instead of being controlled by it.” Learning how to control your mind is a lifelong challenge.
Wignall offers three ways we can address our emotional maturity in a meaningful way. His first recommendation is to “1. Be honest about how you feel emotionally.” Emotional honesty sounds so easy but is so challenging. It takes courage to be honest with yourself without sugar-coating what you consider the negative attributes. However, when we do express honesty, we can make healthy changes and experience deeper emotional maturity.
Wignall also provides tangible actions to address emotional maturity with his second recommendation. He calls us to “Resist unnecessary mental time travel.” Living in the moment is an essential part of dynamic growth. Living with the regrets of the past leaves us emotionally neutered because we cannot do anything to change the past. Likewise, traveling to the future through fantasy often has too many variables to be effective, yet we mistakenly believe that obsession will work.
Finally, “3. Distinguish wants vs values” is a mark of a mature person. Our complex society inundates us with wants and makes them appear as values. It requires profound emotional maturity to distinguish between a want and a value. Focusing on values reminds us of who we want to be and who God made us to be. Pray for God to give you the courage to address Wignall’s three questions for yourself with honesty. It will be worth the effort because it is the way to emotional and spiritual maturity.
