Faith Like a Child

I wrote this in my journal today, and it just seemed too important to let “slide” without the world seeing my view on this particular subject.

I watched young children playing in the middle of a College campus by where I live. They were supervised by some adults and it appeared to be something of a day care or child care for some of the parents that were in school. Probably served a two-part purpose, offer future teachers some time with kids, and give the parents a break from worrying about where their kids were during the rush of college courses. I was pleasantly pleased to see these kids running around. I will set the scene for you.

You are me, you are sitting in the middle of a popular walk-way at the campus. Between you an old, vintage castle looking building which was probably just another class room amongst the many castles that appeared on this campus, was about 1oo yards. There were ten yards from me to the grass, and about 50 yards of grass. It was an oval shape and honestly looked like a rugby stadium that had been shrunk a little in size. It is glorious grass. The grass soccer players dream about when they play. Maybe a little too tall for some soccer, but a soft place to land no matter what sport you desire. There, in this grass that ran 100×50 in an oval-shaped manner, were about twenty kids just running and playing.

My first thought, as I am sure many of yours would have been; oh to be a child again. I immediately was taken to a place where things were much easier to dream, no snow hill was too big, not bike was too small, no worry was in my head. A dream for many of us that walk through the world now. Worrying every minute for this or that to happen. In a sense, we have lost a portion of ourselves to being grown up. Peter Pan is probably the best description of the fight to not grow up.

All of this to say, in the moment where these children are running around playing on a beautiful day, with the sun shining but the heat not overbearing (about 70 degrees F). The children laughing and doing their best at every endeavor, even when the teacher tells them to run in a big circle. This must be what Jesus meant when he told us that we should have faith like a child. Faith that runs hard, even when the end point is to be right where we were in the first place. Faith that lives every second out loud without the thoughts of what might bring them down, even if it is their own feet. Faith that laughs when thing are fun and yells out of sheer enjoyment of the situation. I desire such faith.

It will be my personal goal to try to achieve that faith as much as I can. The world may be against me, and life may throw its best at me, but at the end of the day, I want to do everything I can, as hard as I can, as long as I can, without the worries of what people think as much as I can, to become as strong as I can, so I can help everyone that I can, all the while giving thank to God, who gives me the abilities to do what I can. May I never forget where my strength and faith come from.
————-
food for thought: Do you know what kind of faith that is? What is the biggest thing holding you back from that faith? Why?

Miss Reader, faith like a child will get you closer to God than you ever thought possible. He will take care of the rest.