Thursday, November 15, 2007

Should we delay adulthood?

Admittedly, I'm a new parent. My daughter will be 5 months old in 2 days. I pray for her often; I think my prayer life has been infused since her birth. I pray...
- That God will awaken her heart & mind to repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ.
- That she will grow to be a woman of character (truth), making wise choices.
- That she will find friends that will strengthen her committments to walk in Truth.
- That she will date/marry a godly man (dating, yikes!)

I pray things like this. I've noticed that my prayers more often than not relate to her growing up and things in the future. At this point, as her father, I am not scared of her growing up, maturing and becoming an adult. I think this is a good thing. Some of my observations in parenting is that parents attempt to hold on to children's childhood for as long as they can. This lingers into a child's teen and twenty' years, delaying adulthood and thus creating what one has "adultolescents". I encourage you to read this article and background material on this topic. It's interesting when we consider some of these questions:
- Why are teens graduating from their faith when they graduate high school?
- Why are the twenty somethings missing from churches?
- Why are churches predominantly greying, plateauing and declining?
- What can student pastors do to slow, pray cease, such facts?

What thoughts do you have? What would you add to Piper's list?

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