GROWN FOLKS BUSINESS

Written & Published by Lolita Buck

When I was growing up I can remember many of the adults in my life telling me to stay in a child's place, to "stay out of grown folks business". This was a saying in the African American culture that indicated that as a child I had no business participating in an adult conversation. According to the adults in my life I wasn't mature enough to talk about whatever was being discussed. Even though at the time I thought the adults in my life were being pretty brash about it, it was what it was. I knew as a child that if I even uttered a word of disgust or disappointment I'd be slapped back into yesterday.
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I actually think this is what prompts many children to want to rush into adulthood because they fill restricted, as though they're missing out on something. The funny thing is that once we become adults & see what it really means to be a grown up many of us want to quickly revert back to childhood. So I guess the grass isn't always greener on the other side. And then many of us advance in years but we still have a child's mentality. I think we've all seen an adult or two having a full blown temper tantrum. Only difference is that they're not kicking & screaming in the middle of the floor. They are a bit more sophisticated about it. They yell & scream; throw things; & in some instances they even throw up the middle finger. Jeez Louise....

Today I'd like to focus specifically on spiritual maturity. I want to somehow at least get us to Grown Up Boulevard. God really does expect us to grow up in our faith. In fact, in one of the scriptures below you'll see there is a group of individuals being reprimanded because they haven't grown up. According to the scripture they should be teachers of the word but they're still having to be given spiritual milk they haven't advanced to solid food yet. So as you can see God does expect us to go from level to level in our walk with him. Much like growing older in years we too should be growing spiritually.

There are definitely times when we go before God as adults asking for something that we can't handle. He too is probably saying that is "grown folks business" & he will not grant our request. Not because he doesn't love us. In fact, its quite the opposite he loves us so much that he's not going to give us something we can't handle. Something that will literally destroy us. I bet many of us are having secret temper tantrums behind the scene with God than will ever admit to it. This is a safe zone, a hiding place of sorts where we can throw the biggest fit ever & God will love us just the same. And besides, who wants their peers to see them spazzing out?

So I suppose staying in a child's place is even a thing in Gods eyes too. "Grown folks business" is some heavy duty stuff that even some of us adults can't handle.
It requires something of you & of your faith to walk with God spiritually. So then the saying does have some merit, afterall.

You certainly can't walk down Grown Up Boulevard until you are spiritually sound enough to do so. Perhaps there was something instinctively our elders knew back in the day that protected us from the heaviness of adulthood. Oh what i wouldn't do today to go back to a child's place. Where i no longer have to carry the weight of the world on my shoulders. The beauty & innocence of youth just got that much prettier. I now have a much greater respect for "grown folks business" because adulthood is no joke.
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Luke 12:48
"But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required."

Corinthians 13:11
"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."

Hebrews 5:11-14
"We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."

As you go forward in your daily journey I extend love & peace to each of you. I pray that you find your "it" and that you OWN IT. That the chains of this world be broken off of you & that you walk in the light that God intended you to walk in. ​

​With dedication & servitude​
​-Lolita