Becoming More Childlike

One day my little girl had just finished her bath. I turned my head just in time to see her leaping gracefully down the hall in sheer ecstasy - buck naked.

“Oh, Momma! I feel just like one of those wild horses,” she said, smiling.

I stopped and wondered - when was the last time I leaped down the hall buck naked and felt like one of those wild horses? When was the last time I looked in the mirror and even smiled? When Christ told us we needed to become as a child to enter the kingdom of heaven, He was teaching us what qualities of character are important. Children have a fresh perspective that always delights.

One day my young son left for school wearing bright, rainbow-colored moon boots that were in style roughly two decades earlier - hand-me-downs from older siblings. When he got home he told me the boys at school had called him “stupid boots.”

“I’m sorry you had a bad day,” I answered.

“Oh, I didn’t have a bad day,” he said. “Just a bad ten seconds. The rest of the day was pretty great. I don’t care what those guys say. These boots are awesome.”

Children are naturally resilient and can be such great role models. Once while I knelt with my three-year-old as she said her prayers, she suddenly and without my prompting told her Heavenly Father a knock-knock joke. After her amen, I must have look a little stunned because she tried to reassure me.

"Don’t worry Mom. Heavenly Father likes to laugh sometimes, you know.”

Research shows adults laugh only a few times a day. Children laugh hundreds of times a day! When you look at that statistic it makes adulthood seem repressed and inhibited. Let’s appreciate children as the magnificent teachers they really are.

One of my children used to pray every day at the dinner table, “Dear Heavenly Father, please help us all be more huggable today.”

You know, I really tried to be more huggable after I said amen to her prayers. Children offer their affection without scrutiny. They live in the present and are curious, observant and look freshly at common things.

Children are our greatest teachers of love. My children have taught me the simple essence of a meaningful life.