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E111otional Maturity
D
you feel deeply about things or circumsta nces
thal are moving or important? Did you ever
check your emolional responses 10 know
whether you have attained emotional maturily
and slability?
Most people give little o r no though110 lhis matter of
their emolions. We humans start life as liule babies. We
have to grow up. But to fulfilllife's rea l purpose and
mission, we musl grow up not only physically, bul
mentally, spi ritua lly, and emotionally. Did you ever stop
to realize how many people think primarily only of
a ttaining physical maturity? lf it were no t for compulsory
public school education for children in our Western
world, how many wou ld take the initiative to develop
their minds? How many, in each hundred. have done so
in such nations as China, for example?
. Bul whal aboutspiritual devclopment?The average
person the world around a utomatically accepts the
eslablished re ligion ofhis parentsand hiscountry. Why a re
most Chinese Buddhists o r Confucians? Why do most
peopleoflndia follow thcHindu religion? Why do most of
theJapancse embrace Shintoism o r Buddhism? Whydo
mostArab peoples follow the Mos lem religion ; most Jews
followJudaism; mostlta lians, Spaniards, and French- as
well as South Americans- embrace Roman Catholicism; a
majorityofBritonsand America nscall themselves
Protestant Ch ristians? Howmany give any realthought to
why they believe the religious ideas they hold sacred?
How many of the e hundreds of millions of people
ever give serious though t to spiritual growth? Yet no
person attains true maturity unless he attains spi ritual
maturity, as well as physical growth.
But fewer st ill ever gíve so much as a passíng thought
to the need for emotional development.
Just wha t do we mean- emotional maturíty? Few know
the meaning of the term. Do you? Yet it is one of the rea
1
secrets of human happíness.
But, ífno one is truly grown up- really mature- until
he attains no t only physical, mental, and spiritual
adulthood, but emo tiona l maturíty as well, where will
you find ít taught?
The
PLAIN TRUTH August 1978
Do you know any school o r college which otfers a
course in "Emotional Development"? lt most certainly ís
something we need to be taught. Few will ever teach ít to
themselves.
No one is bo rn with ít.
lt'
must be learned- developed.
We need, contínua lly, to realíze that we are born as
helpless little babes, knowíng nothing at birth. We do no t
come equipped with ínstinct, like the dumb animals.
Eversee a líttle calf born? The mother cow doesn't go
toa hospi ta l to have her young delívered by an
obs tetrical physician, attended by white-capped and
gowned nurses. She has no delívery table. o one helps
her. The little calf come into the world by an instinctive,
natural process. Almost immediately it st ruggles to its
feet.
It
finds íts legs a little wobbly- but in a few minutes
ít stands on all four. No one teaches it to walk- and it
doesn' t have to wait ayear to learn.
lt
starts walking at
once. No one teaches ít where to go- it knows! It has
ins tinct built automa tica lly into its brain.
It
goes after its
dinner. No one tclls it or teaches it where the dinner is
located. The mothcr cow simply s tands stupidly by,
waiting for the calf to find ils dinner.
No newborn human knows lhal much. Yet the human
infant has somelhing the dumb animals do not possess–
human mind. Humans, however, have lo grow up. They
have lo lea rn- to be laught.
And one of the basic things every human needs so
vilally 10 learn is the right use of lhe human emotions. So
you see, the human mind has somethíng vital todo with
human emotions. Yet mosl people never give thought to
controllíng emo tions wilh lhe mind!
But our emotions need to be understood, taught,
1ra ined, and conlrolled by the mind!
Our minds were given us for a purpose!
Where is the logical and proper place to begin such
training? IL ought to be taught to one-. three-, and six–
year-olds, and in the early primary grades in school. That
means this teaching ought first to be taughl by parents in
the home. But how can parents teach children when they
themselves a re still emotionally immature? How can
elementary schoo lteachers
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