I'm teaching through 1 Corinthians for B H Carroll Theological Institute at Legacy, and last night we were supposed to cover 1 Corinthians 13. If you remember, Paul explains that love is supreme to any claim to spiritual giftedness. One of the ways he did that was to write that when he was a child he talked like a child, he thought like a child, and he reasoned like a child. (v. 11)I had kept a note from Storey when she was 7 with my notes to illustrate child-like reasoning. Check out the scanned note attached here. That IS an example of both child-like spelling AND reasoning. Cute, but inaccurate. Cherished by a Dad, but her reasoning would never win a national mock trial tournament.
Paul went on to say that now that he was a man he put away childish things like public displays of ecstatic utterances to prove one's spirituality. (v. 11, 12) He had picked up the adult-like work of love, which was not as cute, but made a difference in the lives of those he served.
It was great to run across a note from my child who is 25 years old, married, and pregnant with our first grandchild, but I am also pleased she has learned to spell and reason to fit her age. I wish some Christ followers would do the same.