Becoming as a Little Child

Context: I gave this talk a few weeks ago. It says some things I really needed to hear and which I thought other people might need to hear, too.

Today I’m going to talk about becoming as a little child.

This topic comes from Matthew 18:3-4: “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

That’s pretty serious. It’s not just a recommendation. Becoming as little children is essential to our spiritual development.

I found a talk about becoming as a little child from 2011 by Jean A. Stevens. I would highly recommend this talk to you. She mentions several spiritual traits that children possess. However, two sentences in her talk really stood out to me. She says, “These precious children of God come to us with believing hearts. They are full of faith and receptive to feelings of the Spirit.”

When my older sister and I were young, our baby sister got pneumonia just after Christmas. My parents were worried sick and frazzled. When New Year’s rolled around, they were too tired (and possibly too poor; I can only imagine what Little Sister's care cost) to put together any kind of New Year’s celebration. Our mom told us that there would be no treats that night. To be honest, I wasn’t even five yet, and I wouldn’t have even known about New Year’s Eve if they hadn’t told me. But once I knew what I was missing, well, I was very disappointed!

Older Sister, who knew all about holidays, said, “If only we could have a cheese ball with crackers for New Year’s!” For some reason, she didn’t want candy or soda; she wanted cream cheese rolled in a ball, covered with shredded cheese and nuts, with crackers for dipping. Older Sister told me that if we prayed about it, Heavenly Father would give us a cheese ball for New Year’s.

On my own, I didn’t care any more about cheese balls than I did about New Year’s, but since Older Sister seemed to think it was important, it must be. So she and I knelt down in our playroom and prayed to Heavenly Father so that He would bring us a cheese ball. Not long after, a neighbor came to our house bearing a plate with a cheese ball and some crackers.

I’d say that’s a pretty good example of the faith and the believing heart of a child. A miracle of that purity is hard to come by when you’re an adult. I found a quote by Elder Matthew Cowley about this topic. He was specifically referring to miracles from priesthood blessings, but I think it’s still relevant when it comes to getting personal prayers answered. His exact words were, “I can bear witness to you … that God can work through His priesthood and that He does work through it. I know that without any question of doubt. I’ve had too many experiences. I’m an expert witness about these things. …Now, except [you] believe as a child, you can’t receive these blessings. [You] have to have the faith of a child in order to believe in these things, especially when you reach college age and your minds are so full of skepticism and doubt. I guess there are some things that you should doubt, but you can become as little children in these things. Miracles are commonplace, brothers and sisters.”

Miracles are commonplace. Heavenly Father is eagerly waiting to bless us, and I believe He looks for reasons to give us the things we righteously desire rather than reasons to withhold them. Unfortunately, I’ve seen too many situations where people, specifically adult people, are afraid to ask God for things, things both miraculous and simple. If they do ask for them, they justify to themselves reasons why they won’t receive an answer. If they do receive an assurance that they will receive their desire, but it doesn’t happen right away, they begin to doubt whether they even received that assurance. And, finally, sometimes when their desire is granted, they don’t have the faith to see the hand of God in it.

Let me take you through a few examples. You remember Nephi’s brothers Laman and Lemuel, right? In 1 Nephi 15, they’re upset because they don’t understand the parable of the olive tree. Nephi asks them if they’ve asked Heavenly Father for the interpretation. Their response? “We have not, for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.” Understanding is something that the Lord can easily grant if He chooses. Yet Laman and Lemuel lacked the faith to make such a simple request. They were afraid that the Lord wouldn’t answer them. It’s kind of like when you meet someone and you want to be their friend, but you tell yourself you shouldn’t try because they wouldn’t like you anyway! You don’t know that! And Laman and Lemuel didn’t know what would happen if they would have asked. It seems it was simply easier not to risk the rejection.

Contrast that to Joseph Smith who, although he wasn’t a little child, was still pretty young when he decided to literally ask the God of all creation to tell him which church he, a solitary uneducated teenage boy, should attend. Not even which church his family should attend…just him. Alone. It’s kind of an audacious request. But he knew that God had spoken to prophets of old, and he’d seen promises in the scriptures that God would respond to a sincere and faithful request. He chose to believe those promises. He chose to have faith. And he got an answer to his question. Wow, did he ever. Had he been afraid of rejection, had he told himself that God would make no such thing known unto him, so many things would not have been set in motion.

Another example is Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. Zacharias was obviously a faithful man. We know from the scriptures that he was a priest. We know that he continued to serve God throughout the long and bitter trial of being childless. We know that he was in the temple the day that the angel appeared to him. However, as faithful as Zacharias was, his faith shrunk in the face of the laws of nature. The angel told him that his wife would bear a child, which Zacharias thought was physically impossible.

Contrast that to the Savior’s mother. Again, she wasn’t a little child, but historical Jewish wedding traditions indicate that she was probably a teenager like Joseph Smith. Mary certainly didn’t have the rigorous spiritual education or the long lifetime of devoted religious service that a priest like Zacharias had. But when she was told that the laws of nature would be turned totally on their head, she believed. She accepted the angel’s explanation of the Savior’s birth without question. I think Zacharias is a classic example of the doubt and skepticism that Elder Cowley warned against. Doubt comes from trying to think about spiritual things in a logical way. I don’t mean that answers to prayers are necessarily illogical, but they do seem to operate on a different reasoning system than the one we human adults use. Sometimes they really do defy logic, reason, or nature as we know it. As the Lord said, “My ways are higher than your ways.” We can’t try to pin down His works with our flawed system of understanding. We don’t know enough. Mary understood that, it seems.

So what’s the cure? If we want to have a child’s faith, how do we get it? King Mosiah gave a great description of childlike attributes: “…becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”

I think the humility King Mosiah mentions is a good cure for the doubt that gets in the way of our faith. When preparing for this talk, I spoke with my little brother. He just barely left Primary, so he had a lot of insights about little children. He said that if little children are humble, it’s because they are still learning. I think he’s right. Being teachable takes humility. You can’t be taught if you think that you already know everything! So if you want to be humble like a child, it might be useful to consider yourself a lifelong student of things both spiritual and temporal.

I’ve personally also found that humility comes more easily when we acknowledge the hand of God in our lives. A while ago, President Eyring recommended recording how we see the hand of God in our lives each day. Since 2017 started, I’ve had that challenge reissued to me several times through firesides, conferences, and institute lessons. On the days when I remember to make that record, I am more humble. It’s hard to be too egotistical when you literally have a written list of the many, many things God has done for you personally. You can’t help but recognize how much He helps you through all that you do.

If humility is a good cure for doubt, I’d say submission to God’s will is a good cure for the fear that gets in the way of faith. There is great peace in knowing that you have endeavored to do all God asked of you. We know from countless scripture stories that our Heavenly Father doesn’t abandon the obedient. Abandonment is Satan’s way, not the God of Israel’s. For one thing, the laws of the universe dictate that obedience to commandments bring blessings. Aside from that, just as earthly parents want to give their children all they can, Heavenly Father wants to bless us for doing what’s right. So if you want a safety net to counteract your fear of things not working out, submission to God’s will through obedience is just the thing. Do what Heavenly Father asks, both of His children generally and of you personally. Don’t worry about the things you can’t control. Do what you can, and leave the rest to Him. You’ll be amazed at how things fall into place.

We are entering an age where, more than ever, we need answers to our prayers. We need to believe in the answers we do get. We need miracles if we can get them! I testify from experience that as we become as little children in our faith, blessings and miracles that once seemed unreachable and fantastic will indeed become commonplace for us. The great darkness of the world will be combatted by the fires of our faith. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.