Little Children

The scriptures teach us that to be able to return to live in the presence of Heavenly Father once again we have to become like little children, and I would like to share the reasons why that is so. I will use my six-year-old as the example.

My son is a very strong-headed individual who sometimes has difficulty doing things that he believes get in the way of what he wants to do, and I sometimes think of him as a tough little boy. One night he was afraid of a movie he had watched and when it was bedtime and we were all ready for family prayer he had asked to say the prayer and he offered the most sincere prayer I have heard in a long time and it really touched me. I thought about how he had gone to bed confident that Heavenly Father would help him overcome his fears and he had no doubt that his prayer would be answered (which it was).

Children are so pure and innocent, even when they appear not to be (they can be stubborn, disobedient, disrespectful) but so are the rest of us. The difference is that children, especially little ones, are still learning and they are willing to learn, even more so when they are motivated by the love of parents who sincerely want to teach and help them to grow.

Heavenly Father is the exact same way. In the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord refers to us as little children, and that is exactly what we are: inexperience little children who are learning to follow and obey a much more experience and wise and loving Father who wants nothing for us but the best, the same way our parents did for us as we grew up.