Become As a Little Child

In His first day among the Nephites, the Savior taught this: “And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things.” To emphasize this, He repeated it a second time with a slight reordering: “And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.” In the first of these verses He suggested that we must become like a little child before being baptized in His name; in the second He said that we must become like a little child after we are baptized in His name. And so no matter where we are on the covenant path, becoming like a child is a requirement. And then in the following verse He summarized with these words: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them” (3 Nephi 11:37-39). This suggests that a central part of His doctrine is that we become like a little child, and if we want to build upon His rock and be protected against the gates of hell, we must emulate certain Christlike qualities of little children.

               So what attributes are we to seek to imitate in little children? My youngest child, now three years old, exhibits I think some of these qualities that I should seek to have more of. First, she is quick to forgive. Little children simply don’t hold grudges for long; they are must faster at forgiving and forgetting than we adults are. She can be hit by her older brother one minute and be playing happily with him the next. Second, she considers all other children her friend. She describes her siblings to others with the preface “my friend” even though those same siblings fail to live up to that description at times. Yesterday she had the opportunity to spend a little time in a rec center with a cousin about her age, and her sole desire there was a simple request: “I want to do what Ellie does.” After we had separated and we were at a different house, when she found a teddy bear she loved her greatest wish was to show it to that same cousin we were no longer with. She is a true friend and shows me how I should love people: simply. Third, my daughter has an incredible ability to tune out the bad and focus on the good. We can be in the car with her older siblings yelling at each other, with everyone else in the car on edge, and she will be looking at the window singing a peaceful song as if nothing else was happening. Or she can be in the midst of a fight between her brothers and sisters at home and yet be completely absorbed in taking care of her doll without taking any notice of the contention and angst all around her. She simply loves life and has an uncanny skill for blocking out anything negative around her, not scathed or injured in the times when a fury of feelings are expressed in frustration around her. She is the Willard Richards when our house occasionally feels like it turns into Carthage Jail, symbolically fulfilling the Prophet Joseph Smith’s prophecy again: “That the time would come that the balls would fly around [him] like hail, and he should see his friends fall on the right and on the left, but that there should not be a hole in his garment.” Whether it is mean words or actual balls or other more dangerous objects being thrown around by her siblings in moments of contention, she somehow avoids them all others get hit, staying our joyful, peaceful little girl. She is teaching me that indeed we fight fire with water—not fire—as we learned in general conference, and that the answer to contention is to keep one’s own internal peace. I hope that I can learn to be more like this little child in forgiveness and love and peace so that I can indeed build on the rock of Jesus Christ who also showed us those attributes perfectly.