![\"What](\"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/What-Is-An-Adult-Really.jpg\")
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But that leads to the important question I think we need to ask ourselves: What is an adult, really?\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Being a youth pastor I\u2019ve seen it happen more times than I\u2019d like to admit. As teens grow up so many of them wrestle with that desire to not be seen as a little kid anymore. Physical maturity has brought them to a point where they want to express their maturity in other ways.<\/p>\n There will always be the usual answers, as much as teens tend to think they\u2019re original. You can drink, because that\u2019s adult. You can smoke and do other drugs, because that\u2019s adult. You can fool around sexually, because that\u2019s adult. You can be violent, because that\u2019s adult. You can watch trashy entertainment, because that\u2019s adult. You can curse like a sailor, because that\u2019s adult.<\/p>\n What a cheap excuse for being grown up! Why? Because these kinds of decisions often aren\u2019t markers of an \u201cadult\u201d but rather of an out of control person.<\/p>\n \u201cI can do whatever I want and no one can stop me,\u201d<\/strong><\/em> the rebel, wannabe-adult screams out. But they don\u2019t even see that they\u2019re acknowledging that just maybe someone would care enough about them to want to stop them from what they\u2019re doing to themselves.<\/p>\n So what is an adult, really? If it\u2019s not the above, what is it?<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what I think.<\/em> I think an adult is someone who takes responsibility for their actions. She uses her actions to make her life better. She then uses her life to make others\u2019 lives better. And, in making others\u2019 lives better, she discovers deeper meanings to life.<\/p>\n A child, characteristically, only sees things short-sightedly. It\u2019s all about themselves. They will live for the moment, crying when they don\u2019t get their way. Their concerns are all selfish and narrow. That is what marks a child.<\/p>\n On the other hand, the dictionary defines \u201cadult<\/em>\u201d as a person who is fully grown or developed<\/strong>. I suppose this would indicate that it\u2019s more than being a certain age or being able to participate in \u201cadult\u201d-type vices. Perhaps instead it\u2019s about developing into a man or woman who cares deeply for themselves, respects themselves, loves others just as much as themselves, and desires and works to leave this world a better place than they found it. Until then, we\u2019re just boys and girls who can shave. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The media outlets are going crazy talking about Miley Cyrus\u2019 performance at Sunday night\u2019s VMA\u2019s. For the moment, all eyes Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonathanbrooker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}