Maturity

Think to yourself, what makes one mature for certain activities or events and such?
Most of the time, as we grew up, we figured that once we reached a certain age, we became mature.
Wrong-o.
Matthew O. Richardson, in his book called The Relationship Seasons, said that "While a young person may be considered an "adult" according to a legal standard such as age, or because he or she participates in traditionally adult behaviors, this does not necessarily mean that he or she is mature or fully developed." Just look at our world today: because one gets a driver's license does not make him or her mature or even ready to drive; same goes for dating, consuming alcohol, getting married, etc.

He lists four ways that we can determine if we are mature.

1.) Ability to see beyond oneself.
Take out the 'I'/ 'my' in your decisions and use 'we'/'our' because what you do will more than effect just you. Have you ever heard of a child, teenager, or an adult thatadmitted that he or she was not yet mature enough to do something? If so, tell me! What we are closely familiar with is the exclaimation, "But I am mature enough!"
"Self- centeredness is synonymous with immaturity. One of the things that prohibits the maturation of high- school and college-age youth is their focus on self," said Richardson.
2.) Willingness to consider new ideas.
Everyday we see others who have a quality or trait we would like to have. What's stopping you from acquiring it? Nothing is impossible.
"Future possibilities are dwarfed because immaturity impairs one's ability to appropriately connect with anything outside his or her own world and with the future. When a person can see the importance of connecting with a larger work and can think through new options, maturity is on the rise... As they mature, individuals gain the ability to adapt to change rather than balk at it." [Richardson]
3.) Foresight.
With this, people can accurately see what is ahead in their future because they know where they are today.
Richardson said, "It is easy for the immature to talk about the future in terms of a disconnected "someday," as when a five-year-old says he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up. A mature person sees the future in reasonable ways and can connect the present with the future."
4.) Patience.
"That the soul be without knowledge, it is not good; and he that hasteth with his feet sinneth." [Proverbs 19:2]
"The immature feel they need to express their desires now." "'Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die' [2 Nephi 28:7]. The immature aren't so much concerned about getting things before they die as they are about getting them while they're still young, single, or able. Like maturity, the patience spoken of scripturally is not realized overnight but developed over time." [Richardson]

Are you mature?

Sure, I'm mature enough to physically feed myself.

But am I mature enough to eat the brownies my mom recently baked? Hmm.