A Child at Heart

Jesus Says Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God. Matthew 19:14

He also says unless you are converted and become like a child, you cannot inherit/enter the kingdom of God. Matthew 18:3-5

What is it about children that Jesus would like us to embrace?

Definitely there are aspects of Children's character that we cannot afford to carry with us but there i s a lot we can learn from them when it comes to walking by faith which is what Jesus encourages us to do.

Children are easy to persuade. They trust and buy into ideas quickly almost with no effort. The more experience you have, the more difficult it becomes to convince and persuade you otherwise. Little children can still be influenced because of the openness of their hearts. How open is your heart before God?

Children are authentic. They live from the centre of their being. They do not know how to live a shallow life. Everything they do is sincerely from their hearts. They do not care about making impressions or appearing in a particular light. With them what you see is what you get. If they have any skeletons, they are out in the open and not hidden out of sight. Would you call your life an open book? Some of us in our minds hide ourselves from God. We try to be cute and collected before Him who sees everything.

They are easy to please. It takes very little to touch a child’s life and unleash their glow and happiness. Something as little as candy is enough to keep them excited for the whole day. The older we become, the more difficult it becomes to please us. We tend to expect people to work very hard to impress us. We find it difficult to enjoy the things that are before us in this moment and look out for that which is out of our reach. When was the last time you were grateful for ordinary, mundane, everyday stuff? For children everything is awesome.

They are easy to fascinate. Closely related to the previous point, the threshold for fascinating children is far much lower than that of any average adult. We tend to save our fascination for the very big moments of life. We have been conditioned to react and respond only to the spectacular in life. It is difficult for us as adults to embrace the fascination of simple things. We need to reclaim the ability to be fascinated by the simple stuff.

They are trusting. Children are by nature trusting. They have complete faith in adults and life and their parents. They take you at your word and run with it. They have had no experience of disappointment to introduce doubt in their minds. Whatever you tell them, they take it as gospel truth. That is why you have to be very careful what you teach your children because it will be challenging to undo it later if it is not right. Our dealings with men have conditioned us to be wary of their promises and that is ok. Men are capable of disappointing us. The problem comes when we project our experiences with men on God. Do not confuse the unreliability of men with the faithfulness of God. If you want to experience God working in your life, like a child you must take Him at His word.

They don’t rationalize. They do not have time to sift through things before they embrace them. As adults we weigh everything we hear and take it through several layers of thought processes in our minds before we accept it. God makes a promise or he asks you to do something but you hesitate until you are sure about the move. Sometimes you fail to move and people get hurt by your inaction. With children it is different. They execute on instructions with little to no resistance. It all boils down to the faith they have on the instructor. Can you execute on God’s instructions or must you rationalize before you do?

They live in the moment. Children have no concerns for what will be happening in the evening. For them the only thing that matters is this present moment. When they are playing, it is all they are doing. When they are eating, that is all that matters. Whatever it is they are doing, they are presently present in this present moment. They do not reflect so much on the past at the expense of the present moment. If they do at all, it is in relation to how they can enjoy this moment even more. They do not also pause to think about what tomorrow will be or bring. All that matters is that they are savoring this present moment. What a beautiful life! When was the last time you just got lost in the moment and forgot all else?

They have no cares/worries. Children carry no worries around with them all they know is that someone will take care of it all. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:25-34 that we shouldn’t be overly burdened with worry about the things we need. We have a father who cares for us and to whom we need to cast all our cares. They have needs like us but they don’t allow those needs to freeze their lives. They know where to cast their worries. How beautiful it would be to relate with God our Father, the way our own children relate to us. The beauty is that God the Father has no limits on his resources like we earthly fathers. This therefore means that it is not beyond Him to give us everything we need.

They have boundless energy. Children seem never to run out of energy throughout the day. If you asked them, they would go on and on and on. They only drop once their energies have run low. At this point no matter what you do, they won’t move a finger. They know when they are done and take time to refuel. As adults we are strange in the way we act. We do not expend our energy freely as though by preserving it we will be able to use it tomorrow. In the same vein, we don’t realize and accept when our bodies are worn out so that we give them time to recharge. There is so much we can learn from children in this regard.

They are not calculating and crafty. Adults are constantly thinking about their words, actions and the impact they will have. Not so with children. Children will be as open with their words as their actions. They do not know how to hide behind certain words when they mean something totally different. Adults will be stepping extra cautiously into new territory but children will have no such qualms. Invite a child to a new adventure and they will embrace it almost immediately. Do the same with an adult and the calculations will begin. How much joy do we deny ourselves courtesy of our calculations? Jesus asks, ‘who of you by worrying can add a single second to his life?’

They live unfiltered lives. The older we get the more the filters we add to our lives. Filters are about appearances. We are overly concerned about people’s perceptions of us rather than what we are. Children do not worry about such things. When they are hungry, they will make it known without apology. When they have to answer the call of nature, they don’t think about where they are. How many filters are there in your own life and how necessary is it to hold on to them? How often are you acting out to suit the expectations of people at the expense of living your life? Many of us are living for others. We are conformists who do not want to disturb the peace.

Their devotion to anything is total. Children also don’t do anything half-heartedly. When they are up for something, they go all in. they have difficulty doing anything with hands on the brake. You should see them playing out there. They do not think about anything else. How different would our lives be if we chose to go all in whatever it is we were doing? When we believe in what we are doing, there is no other way to do it but to go all in. the problem with us is we keep second guessing ourselves. This is why we will commit and let go. Children are so persuaded about the merit of what they are doing that they do not go in haphazardly. In this regard we need to be like children. 

Part two comes up This Friday. Be sure to: 

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