My wife and I watched a nest of robins on our front porch hatch out and grow up this spring. The baby birds have grown to the size of their parents. The best way to tell them apart is by their behavior. Even though they are the same size, the mature birds set themselves apart from the babies by the way they act.

Just the other day, my wife watched an older bird try to teach one of the young ones to feed itself. The parent had brought a worm, laid it on the ground near the young bird and started pecking at the ground. She obviously wanted her baby to learn how to feed on its own. The young bird, however, just kept yelling for more food, the same way it had done all its life. Finally, the mama bird gave in and put the worm directly in the baby’s mouth, perhaps just to shut it up!

The mama bird can’t take care of her baby’s needs indefinitely. She will have another nest of youngsters to come along, and this one will have to start fending for itself. It’s time for it to grow up.

Some Christians are like the full-sized baby bird. They have been spiritually fed by someone else, and they have not yet learned to feed themselves, even though it is past time for them to do so. Instead of feasting on God’s word on their own, they squawk about how they are not being fed. It’s time for them to grow up.

“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.”—Hebrews 5:13-14.