Grow Up Girl!

Looking at the calendar, they see themselves at age nineteen or twenty-three and declare that they are adults. Watching them from a distance, as they pine for homes and husbands of their own while neglecting to fulfill the mundane duties of service that lay before them, we have no choice but to conclude that they are yet children. More than that, like Miss Halifax in the story, they long for the privileges of adulthood while still claiming the exemptions of youth. Absorbed with thoughts of what they know, what they need, and when will they be moving on, they neglect to ask themselves, “Why am I here?� and “What can I do?� I applaud every young lady who has decided to remain in her father’s house, but I must tell you this. Your father’s house was meant to shield you from a life of independence, not from responsibility, disappointment, or the difficult task of self-denial that brings one to maturity.

At this juncture between childhood and womanhood you may, like the maiden in Longfellow’s poem, experience a reluctance to relinquish your hold on childhood. You may “pause with indecision�, as she did, seeing that “life has quick-sands, life hath snares�. Until now, you have been a child in many ways, but it is time to “put away childish things�. (I Cor. 13:11) We have all observed children in store checkout lines demanding, begging, pleading and crying to have that moment’s desired object. Are you that child? No matter what you may have thought, the distinguishing features of womanhood are not husbands, homes, or children. Womanhood is not a physical place that you one day arrive at. It is a deeper place that you spend many years growing toward. Maturity, as defined by the dictionary, means to be fully developed or ripe, to move from latency (having potential that is not evident or active) to fulfillment (satisfaction, contentment, or success). Maturity is characterized by responsibility, reliability, wisdom and good sense? Ask yourselves, ladies, “Is that where I am heading?� No amount of passing time will make you an adult. Arrange your days and make deliberate choices that will move you in that direction.