Saturday, January 21, 2006

What is an adult?

Just ran across this post over at A Place for the God-Hungry about what it means to be an adult (thanks to Scot McKnight for pointing it out).

Here is his list:

So what does it mean to be an adult?

* An adult is learning to take responsibility for her life. An adult learns to say, "I did it" or "I was mistaken" or "I was wrong." An adult is not forever blaming people for where she is in life. An adult does not spend the workday whining about this and that. An adult learns to take responsiblitiy for what she has control over and move on.

* An adult does not use people to prop up his sagging ego. An adult can focus on another person, compliment and affirm without always turning the conversation to himself. Even the person who is always denigrating himself may be doing that in an effort to keep the attention focused on himself.

* An adult considers the implications of his behavior on other people. "If I don't come through with my part of the project, how will that impact the other team members?" An adult considers the schedules of others instead of being consistently and regularly late (which communicates to others "I care more about what I am doing than causing you to always have to wait on me."

* An adult follows through. "I'll give you a call." "I'll put you in my prayers." "I'll bring this book right back." Do you follow through? Do people know that when you say you will call that you will call? Do they know that when you say, "Let's have lunch" that you are serious? Or do they know that you rarely follow through on what you say? I was visiting with a friend the other day. He told me of a mutual friend who one day said to him, "Let's all get together for dinner soon." My friend said, "I knew that would be the last I would ever hear of that unless I took the initiative to make it happen. That guy is always saying such things but doesn't follow through."

<idle musing>
I hope he grades on a curve :)
</idle musing>

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