A Prayer of Faith

According to my dictionary the definition for “Child” is:

“A young human being below the age of full physical development, or below the legal age of majority. -A son or daughter of any age. -An immature or irresponsible person. -A person who has little or no experience in a particular area.”

With that definition in mind Matthew 18:3-4 becomes a little confusing:

3 And [Christ] said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

We can’t physically become as little children, and we surely shouldn’t become immature, or inexperienced. And since we already are literal children of God, how precisely does one become “as a little child” in the way Christ directed? As a mother of a little child I feel that I am now well versed (or at least better than I was) in how small children behave, here are a few things I’ve noticed:

Wherever I am my son follows me. He crawls from room to room in our apartment seeking out my presence. He baps at the bathroom door until I come out. Even if he doesn’t want me for something he still wants to play wherever I am. We should seek to have Heavenly Father’s spirit with us all the time. Unlike me, He doesn’t want a minute to himself to shower; He wants to be with us all the time, and so we should seek Him out continually.

My son wants to show me everything he has and does. Every toy he plays with gets put in my lap at some point, either just because he wants me to see that he’s playing with it, or so that I’ll play with him. We should want Heavenly Father to be aware of everything we do. By praying to Him over all our dealings and thoughts we are, in a way, putting our ‘toys’ in His lap, seeking His approval and assistance.

Though he is walking now, my son always grabs for my hands when we go out. He wants my assistance though he doesn’t need it. How often do we pray for help only when we feel overwhelmed?

Whatever I do, he mimicks with no trace of embarrassment or hestiation. I could rub a sock on my forehead and he’d pick up a sock to try and do the exact same thing. He assumes that if I’m doing it’s worthwhile. We have been given a wonderful example of God’s behaviors through Christ, and we would do well to pattern ourselves after Him.

Now it’s your turn! Feel free to share ways you have seen little children model how we should relate to Heavenly Father.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 19th, 2006 at 6:00 am and is filed under Every Word. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.