Mature Thinking

ThoughtsWeek of 08/08/05
"I could be wrong."
Mature thinking involves realizing that we can never be 100% accurate in how we interpret another's thoughts, words, or behavior. Even if we are 99% sure, there is always a 1% chance we are wrong. Thus, we must adopt a more humble, tentative attitude about the accuracy of our mind reading, and its resulting negative conclusions. We must ask ourselves if we might be being overly negative in our interpretation of our loved one's actions. Or we might have misunderstandings stemming from differences in their perspectives—and is not the result of some negative trait of the other person. (Smalley Relationship Center Online)

http://smalleyonline.com/articles/truth/thoughts.html

Mature thinking??? Hmmm...does mature thinking come with maturity?

My brother called the other day. He is having struggles with his marriage and his children. His kids are early teens (and the fun begins!). We were chatting about that-him sharing where he is at-me trying to encourage him. In that conversation, a transformation took place in me that must have been bubbling up for some time. I had NO answers for him! All I could tell him was that I didn't know, but I could pray for him. There was a day when I thought I did know. There was a day when I would have spouted off all the should do's, could do's, and of course what I did...but now my children are grown, and I honestly have no idea. I was wrong about so many things. We have spent the better half of the last few years, we being my husband and I, questioning what we did and what we could have done differently. I have looked around at other families we grew up with. Their children are grown too, some married, some not, but most of us would say that it didn't turn out the way we thought it would. Our kids aren't who we thought we were raising them to be. I did this Bible study once which had a section on child raising. It was called, "Your Baby Has The Bents." Children are born with a bent towards ___________. Fill in the blank.

I don't know if all the positive enforcement, all the moral training, all the freedom we gave them to explore who we thought they were (guitar lessons, Civil Air Patrol, 4H, piano lessons, sports activities, etc...) mattered much. They are who they are, which psychologists say was established before the age of 12. (Makes we wonder what we were doing from age 12 t0 18!). Mature thinking....maturity doesn't necessarily come from age, does it? I know older people who aren't very mature, so does mature thinking just happen as we age? Is it on purpose? More importantly, am I there yet?????