In Tim’s family, everyone is little no matter how big or old they get. I don’t know why or how it started, but his grandma calls everyone little. He and his brother are Little Tim and Little Jeff. I’m Little Susan. The girls are Little Caitlin and Little Courtney. The list goes on. I supposed she started calling them little when they were actually little and it just stuck.

It’s kind of the same with her own name. When Tim, the oldest grandchild, started speaking, he mainly heard his mom and her sisters call her Mother, so he jumped right in. The next grandchild heard people calling her by her first name, which started with a B and began calling her Mother B. It stuck. The entire family – three generations – now calls her Mother B.

Mother B doesn’t live close to us, so when we visit, it’s a big deal. Like most grandmas, she has plenty of food options when we’re there. On one particular trip, I was trying to pace myself. I was sticking to a small taste of several dishes instead of a heaping plate. Mother B asked me repeatedly what else she could get me, and I repeatedly replied, “Nothing, but thanks, Mother B.” After several minutes, she exclaimed, “Little Susan, how do you stay so big?”

What she meant was “You’re eating so little. How are you possibly surviving?” But of course, that’s not the way it came out. We all laughed hysterically as Mother B tried to explain herself. Rarely does a large family gathering go by that someone doesn’t now ask me how I stay “so big”!

It doesn’t matter how “big” we act. It doesn’t matter whether people called us “little” or “big.” What matters is how much we’re growing.

Reflect on your life. Recall a situation or season in which you were particularly immature. Of course, you were more immature when you were little. Think of it more as being more immature for your age than you perhaps should have been.

What about a situation or season you approached particularly maturely?

Now consider your life right now. What’s one area in which you need to grow up?

Most of us would like to fit into smaller pants, but spiritual maturity is an area where you need to be growing. Put the pacifier away. It’s time for real food.

Anyone who lives on milk is still a baby and knows nothing about right teaching. But solid food is for those who are grown up. They are mature enough to know the difference between good and evil. Hebrews 5:13-14