What is 1 Cor 13:11 saying to you?

1 Cor 13:11 (NIV)

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.


When I was a child I developed defenses that would protect me and the mistake I made was bringing that protection into the adult world and expecting it to work. As a child I found that isolation equals safety. If I did not stand out then I could not be hurt. I was taught that I had no worth so to protect myself I never took a risk. I always strived for average for that was obtainable but feared moving beyond that comfort zone because if I tried and failed then it would only confirm those voices of unworthiness and I was trying desperately to hold on to what little worth I had left. I never gave myself permission to fail and did not understand that kind of thinking produced the very thing that I feared which was failure. My defense mechanism had become my enemy and worst of all I could blame others for my life and until I began to take personal responsibility things were destined to remain the same.