Giving people more time to learn

I woke up a couple Sundays ago thinking about how much I love my kids.

You know, there is something about kids that makes them so lovable, despite their obvious "shortcomings": picking their nose, not washing their hands, not speaking "correctly," unique clothing styles, needing naps :).   As I thought about this more, this "unconditional love" people generally show toward children, I realized we don't really consider them "shortcomings" when they are little...we just realize that there are certain things they haven't figured out yet and give them latitude (for the most part).  We just love and support them and figure that they will "get it" eventually.

But somehow we have put a time-limit to how long we can tolerate this learning process.  When adults--or even older teenagers--exhibit weaknesses (bodily noises, grooming patterns, behavioral peculiarities, deficiencies in education or experience), they are no longer cute.  Somehow, we stop loving the person quite as completely as we would a child in that same state and we judge.  "Surely," we think, "they should have learned this by now."

Why is that?

This realization has caused me to consider more deeply the admonition to "be as little children"; perhaps it could be extended to loving others completely, not "in spite of their weaknesses" but not even seeing their weaknesses?

45 And ^acharity suffereth long, and is ^bkind, and ^cenvieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily ^dprovoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

 47 But ^acharity is the pure ^blove of Christ, and it endureth^cforever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

It is so easy to be comfortable around children.  They accept you for who you are. They forgive quickly.  Their needs are met simply.  Their thought processes about others is not complicated.  We could learn so much from children: to be more like them and to love others as they do.  Let's stop putting a time-limit on when people should be "done" progressing, stop making a point at which our incomplete learning is now a short-coming.

Now, perhaps the hardest part is allowing this extended learning period for ourselves?  "I just haven't got it yet" sounds a lot better than "this is a weakness I have" or "I am just so stupid! Everyone else..."