And a Child will Lead Them

Matthew 18:3

 And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

                As parents, we have a responsibility to lead our children. As the Bible says, we are to train them in the way they should go. That means that we are to lay a spiritual foundation for them upon which they can build their lives. Our goal is to equip them to be able to engage their world in God honoring ways.

                When it comes to our spiritual development, adults have some advantages and some disadvantages. These advantages and disadvantages tend to stem from the same source; our knowledge and life experience. As we mature in life, our knowledge of God, the Bible, and life itself grows. We gain a better understanding of theological truth. Our life experiences shape our theology. We view the promises of the Bible through our personal filters, which have been formed by our life experiences. All of this gives us a perspective that children and adolescents do not have. Those same life experiences also tend to hold us back. Our excitement and enthusiasm for our faith is tempered. We tend to over think things, which often keeps us from acting in faith and trust. We prefer the safe paths to the risky ones.

                Children, on the other hand, do not have all of those restraints entrenched in their lives. They tend to see life as a great adventure to be explored. They have yet to be disappointed or fail, so they do not expect that. Instead, they plunge into life with youthful abandon. This can get them into trouble in a general sense. But, when it comes to living out their faith in Christ, it is a great asset. They do not see barriers. They see opportunities. They are willing to take risks for the gospel out of faith and trust in Christ. Where adults hesitate, youth jump in with both feet.

                This past weekend I had a double blessing. I had the privilege of meeting with a couple to talk about their faith and I had the privilege of baptizing their teenage daughter. This couple is awakening to the reality of what it means to be a follower of Christ. They both had some religious experience in their background, which in some ways was a barrier for them. They eagerly asked me questions about what it really means to follow Jesus. It was refreshing and exciting. The catalyst for this spiritual awakening is their teenage daughter.

                Their daughter has been a part of our youth group and has come to genuine faith in Christ. Her parents have noticed a dramatic change in her life. That change has sparked a longing in their hearts. On several occasions, during our conversation, they mentioned that the reason they were meeting with me was because of their daughter’s faith. At one point they said, we feel guilty, because we should be leading her into faith and she is leading us into faith! At the conclusion of their daughter’s baptism, the dad came up to me and said, I’m next.

                Jesus said that unless we become like little children we cannot enter the kingdom of God. He did not mean that we should become childish, but that we should be childlike. Children tend to be trusting, open, and accepting. They have yet to have the kind of negative experiences that tend to make us closed, suspicious, and skeptical. The Bible is clear that we should have a reasoned faith, but we should never let reason get in the way of taking God at his word and trusting him.