Behold Your Little Ones

When the Savior blessed the Nephites at the end of His first day among them, He gave two instructions regarding their little children. First, we read that “he commanded that their little children should be brought.” In accordance with this invitation “they brought their little children and set them down upon the ground round about him, and Jesus stood in the midst; and the multitude gave way till they had all been brought unto him” (3 Nephi 17:11-12). It was at this point that the Savior prayed for them, and the people were so moved that they could not even describe the experience. Surely this invitation to them is one for us as well—we are commanded to bring our little children to Him. We do not have the opportunity to physically do that like these Nephites, but we can do this spiritually as we teach them and invite them to follow His example. And perhaps the most important way that we do this is to model for them how He would act—we invite them to come unto the Savior by trying to live like He did. This is essentially what He invited them to do in the next chapter: “Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up” (3 Nephi 18:24). We are to live so that His light can be seen and felt by these little children we love. The song A Window To His Love expresses this idea beautiful with these words: “I want to be a window to His love, so when you look at me you will see Him. I want to be so pure and clear that you won't even know I'm here, 'cause His love will shine brightly through me.” As we interact with our own little ones that should be our goal, that through us they will come to see Him.

               The second invitation that Jesus gave the Nephites that day was this: “Behold your little ones.” When they looked at that moment, they “cast their eyes towards heaven, and they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them” (3 Nephi 17:23-24). Perhaps the message for us is that we need see the spiritual beings that our children are and behold the glory they have as children of our Father in Heaven. They surely have angels watching over them, just as Jesus testified to those in Jerusalem: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10). We need to see their divine potential and then help them to live up to that, knowing that in their innocence they may be closer to heavenly things than we are. In a reversal of the first message, we can watch them to help us come closer to the Savior. I was given the opportunity to “behold” my six-year-old daughter on Halloween this year as I saw her act as Jesus would act. As we discussed trick-or-treating that day she had the idea that instead of asking for things we should take something to one of the widows in our ward. She was excited about this, and my wife latched onto the idea, and the two of them took flowers to three older ladies in our ward. These recipients were of course surprised and touched to find someone a brought a gift for them. My daughter wasn’t concerned about getting candy—she just wanted to give something to someone else to make them happy, highlighting the great truth that the Savior taught: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). I was touched by her love that night which is usually all about getting for oneself, and it was a reminder to me of her divine nature and status as a beloved daughter of our Father in Heaven. Surely as I “behold” her goodness I will see more clearly how I can become more like Him and find the joy these Nephites had as they watched their little ones be blessed by the Him.