Maturity starts with the willingness to give oneself.
Interpretation
Maturity involves selflessness and the ability to give of oneself for others.
Elisabeth Elliot's quote suggests that true maturity is characterized by our willingness to share and give to others, rather than being selfish or self-centered. This selflessness indicates emotional growth, understanding, and a readiness to engage meaningfully in our relationships and responsibilities.
In practice
In a graduation speech emphasizing the importance of community service.
We are not asked to SEE," said Amy. "Why need we when we KNOW?" We know--not the answer to the inevitable Why, but the incontestable fact that it is for the best. "It is an irreparable loss, but is it faith at all if it is 'hard to trust' when things are entirely bewildering?
Prayer lays hold of God's plan and becomes the link between His will and its accomplishment on earth. Amazing things happen, and we are given the privilege of being the channels of the Holy Spirit's prayer.
What sort of world might it have been if Eve had refused the servants offer and had said to him instead, βlet me not be like God. Let me be what I was made to be - let me be a woman'?
Worship is not an experience. Worship is an act, and this takes discipline. We are to worship ''in spirit and in truth.'' Never mind about the feelings. We are to worship in spite of them.
Restlessness and impatience change nothing except our peace and joy. Peace does not dwell in outward things, but in the heart prepared to wait trustfully and quietly on Him who has all things safely in His hands.
If your goal is purity of heart, be prepared to be thought very odd.
Whoever is in a hurry shows that the thing he is about is too big for him.
Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.
It is easier to act yourself into a new way of feeling than to feel yourself into a new way of acting.
Be patient, for it is from doubt that knowledge is born.
First, meditation should be of a negative nature. Think away everything. Analyse everything that comes in the mind by the sheer action of the will. Next, assert what we really are-existence, knowledge, and bliss-being, knowing, and loving.
Honest error is to be pitied not ridiculed.
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