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Eighteen
“Don’t grow up
Stay a child.
Kids have fun.
Kids are wild.”
So they said
So they told me.
“Don’t mature;
The young are free.
But I am grown,
And now they say,
”Grow up, step up,
You can’t stay.
Can you so fast
Leave behind childhood?
Can one run
Who never stood?
Grow up, child,
Be a man,
Serve the Lord
While you still can.
You won’t change
Over night,
So raise your sword
And join the fight.
Remember God
In your early years
Before your soul
Is crushed with fears.
Set your heart
Upon the Lord
Learn and trust
His holy Word.
If you die,
Then you will live;
God gave you grace
So you can give.
Being a kid
Is just so easy
Beware lest
It make you lazy.
All this world offers
Its childish toys
Cannot compare
With heaven’s joys.
What’s fun now
Won’t stay the same
And you’ll be trapped
By lasting shame.
This could be
Your last day alive.
You can flounder
Or you can thrive.
Enough of milk!
You should have meat.
Afraid to die,
You live in defeat.
With so many
Wandering sheep
Why is the church
Still asleep?
Because they never
Grew into men,
The pews are filled
With mere children.
Walk with the Lord
In your youth
And you will run
In the way of truth.
Years ago, children grew up so much more quickly. Boys embarked on careers at 12 and girls were often raising families by 16.
Maturity went the same way that high expectations did.
Last year, when I hit that magical age of eighteen which supposedly makes you suddenly mature and capable, I was appalled by how many people of my own age were still children. They live off their parents' dollar, they blow money on "toys", they hop from relationship to relationship, they don't even bother to vote. How childish! How immature! 200 years ago, they would be captaining ships and getting married or already raising families.
My generation--especially those of you who call yourselves Christians--have to grow up.
"When I was a child, I thought as a child, I spoke as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
"Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come."
