The Wisdom Of Children: Trusting God Through Simple Faith
A friend was sharing with me recently that her four-year-old granddaughter is learning to pray. One night before she went to bed, she was saying her prayers and began talking to God. She raised her head up to Heaven and began shouting out her prayer. In exasperation, the little girl said, “Nana, I’m trying to talk to God, but he isn’t listening, he isn’t saying anything back to me, he won’t answer.”
Not sure how to answer, the grandmother tried to tell her granddaughter to be patient, and to trust that God will answer her in time. A week later the little girl told her Nana that God does listen. Her Nana replied, “How does God listen?” The little girl said, “God listens because He talks to me when I read the Bible.”
As my friend was sharing this story, the following verse came to my mind, “And he said: “I tell you the truth unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3 This little girl had recognized the greatest gift of all, that God does listen, we might just need to open up our Bibles to hear what he has to say.
The older I get, the more I realize that as parents we spend so much time teaching our children, and yet there are so many times when our children can teach us if we are willing to listen. Our children are optimistic they have no fear in tomorrow because they live in the moment of today. That’s a very powerful lesson to learn. Childlike faith means, no questions asked, just believe because I can. Do you have that same level of faith? Do you trust, believe, even when you don’t see or hear God?
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3: 5-6