Candice Watters has an excellent essay here, opining that it’s folly to try bribing children to stay off social media. She wisely concludes,

“Kids need their parents to help them become the kind of people who want to do good and avoid evil, not because it’s profitable, but because it’s right. . . . Given the high-stakes and stark dangers facing adolescents living so much of their lives online, the pay to delay scheme is flippant and trite. . . Training children for maturity throughout adolescence is essential for surviving in the digital world. This takes time, intentionality, and relational investment. It’s a costly, 18-year sacrifice. No matter how much money you offer, it’s not something you can buy.”

Unfortunately, many Christians also constantly seek a shortcut to spiritual maturity, failing to recognize that there are no shortcuts. They believe the “right” weekend seminar, or the “right” book, or “right” mentor, or “right” church, or “right” video will magically and quickly bestow the elusive spiritual maturity they seek. Watters correctly points out that it’s an 18-year process to inculcate maturity in our children; similarly it literally requires a lifetime of sanctification for us to become spiritually mature.

Of course, we can engage in certain behavior and activities to accelerate the process, but it will still take a lifetime. Justification is the same for everyone—i.e., perfect, because God alone does the work (monergistic). However, the process of sanctification is synergistic, requiring our cooperation with the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is why sanctiication and spiritual maturity is different for everyone; some mature faster than others and some mature to a higher level before death.

Spiritual maturity takes time . . . and effort.