Daily Thought for Thursday, May 12th

May 12, 2011

Youth – A State of Being or A State of Mind

 

“Youth is not a time of life – it is a state of mind.”

-  Samuel Ullman

Today’s Thought:

“If youth is a defect, it is one that we outgrow too soon.” – Robert Lowell

Today’s Question

Have you ever noticed,  “In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience?” – Oscar Wilde

Today’s Spiritual Thought:

“It takes a long time to become young.”

- Pablo Picasso

“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

- The Bible (1 Timothy 4:12)

“Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over a life of ease.”

- Samuel Ullman

For some of us, our journey in life is often interrupted with quests aimed at recapturing our youth.

Probably not many of us have not at some times said, I wish I could be a youth of a determined age, but still know what I know now.

Unfortunately time marches on and the sad reality of the physical nature of the world is I will not be as young tomorrow as I am today.  We cannot go back in time but we can, in some ways maintain a semblance of youth.  While physical youth may be beyond us, youth of mind, attitude and heart can stay with us forever. 

I’m sure you have met that person who is progressed in years but youthful in spirit.

For Christians I think this is an important concept for us to grasp. 

It is important to mature and grow up spiritually speaking but in so doing we need to maintain a youthful exuberance for service and child-like faith in trusting God.

We need to be youthful without being childish.

Stephen Vincent Benet wrote in ‘John Brown’s Body,’ “ Money is sullen: And wisdom is shy.  But youth is the pollen: That blows through the sky: And does not ask why.”

We need to have youthful resilience, child-like awe and childish acceptance when it comes to our spiritual lives; while at the same time we need to have the wisdom of the aged and the maturity of years of experience and learning.

La Rochefoucauld wrote, “Youth is a continual intoxication: it is the fever of reason.”

From a spiritual perspective youth is more a condition of the heart than it is a state of mind; but if we have the right perspective on it; it will most certainly influence our state of being.

Today’s Verses:

Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

Luke 18:17

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

                        1 Corinthians 13:11-12

  Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.

 10.  Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.

                        Ecclesiastes 11:9-10

Today’s Prayer:

Father, I know I will always be a child in your eyes, but when it comes to daily living help me to be child-like and youthful, without becoming childish and a brat.