Bearing the heart of a child, how are we to do that? I believe having the heart of a child means having unconditional love for God, and for others as well. But there are many things associated with that.
Matthew 22:37-39: Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself."
But how is that having the heart of the child? I'll tell you what I believe the qualities of a child's heart is that we should bear. I will explain these with the help of a little child I'm familiar with, her name is Abbie and she is three years old.
- Unconditional love
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34 & 35)
"We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19)
Whenever I do something mean, intentionally or unintentionally to Abbie, she will cry and tell me that I am being mean. She makes me feel very bad, so I tell her I'm sorry and for her to forgive me. She immediately brightens up and gives me a hug and says, "Aww it's okay." As if I had never done anything to offend her.
Of course when someone does something, depending on the circumstances, we sometimes have to gain back trust from them; but nevertheless, we are to forgive them, even if the same trust is not there, which brings me onto the next thing.
- Forgiveness
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. (1 Peter 3:9)
As Paul wrote in Ephesians, we forgive because God forgives us. That's the whole reason we're called to forgive, and not just forgive others orally, but in our hearts, our minds, and our spirits. Forgiving others as Christ forgave us lifts a huge load off of us, because we can forgive others for their offenses, and we don't have to dwell on it anymore! Not forgiving someone is only going to bring hurt to your own heart, you're not infiltrating the heart of the person you need to forgive. We are certainly not to return that evil with our own evil, but with blessing. (Refer to 1 Peter 3:9.) Doesn't this sound like jibberish? If someone took my McDonalds ten dollar arch card and acted like a jerk, I'm not going to bless them! As ludicrious as it sounds, God would want us to bless them instead of curse them. Maybe not something like going up to them and saying, "God bless you." In spite of them. But in your own heart you must decide for yourself what would be the better option, to add to the fire, or to extinguish it. Most times we don't need to say or do anything, but to forgive them in our hearts and let God deal with them, and He will, but we are not to feel loathing on the inside while thinking, "God will get them." Because that is not bearing the true essence of forgiveness.
- Being pure in your speech
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen (Ephesians 4:29)
Me and my family have to hold our tongues in front of Abbie at times. We accidently say, "Shut up." or "Stupid" in front of her, and we do not want her to be saying those things. But we do not have to correct ourselves anymore. Whenever we accidently slip, and say "Stupid." She says, "Hey don't say stupid, say silly!!" Same with when we accidently say shut up. Haha, silly Abbie. But she knows it is wrong for her to say those things, because it does not sound nice, and does not, as the verse above says, "build others up according to their needs." and it does not, "benefit those who listen." I joke a lot with those words, but when I am serious with them, Abbie corrects me when I say them in front of her.
What comes out of your mouth has a lot to do with what is on your heart. So if you're not speaking as you should, you need to ask God to change your heart.
This also includes something many of us struggle with, and that is gossip. For the longest time I was told that if it's in a family, then there's nothing wrong with it. Sometimes, we should correct the ones who have brought us up, but of course with respect. I had to do that on the matter of gossiping. If what you say about someone is not something you could not say with them in the same conversation, then it is gossip. Many times I am tempted to say something about someone that I just can't believe they did, or what they said. Many times I have to hold my tongue, and sometimes I will forget about it altogether before I say it. I've struggled with this subject, with hearing so much of it from some of my friends and relatives. This is something very important though. Just think how you would feel if someone were saying something bad about you. Whenever I hear someone has been talking bad about me behind my back, it hurts me deeply. Which brings me onto my next subject.
- Practicing the Golden Rule
"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 7:12)
Just think how things would be if we practiced this. Many times I have seen others acting with no care in the world in regards to how others feel, even the little things. Like how I was sitting in a certain seat, then someone comes and sits next to me, I leave, and then the buddy-buddy of that person comes and sits in that seat. It makes me feel like the person who came and sat next to me didn't give a care I was sitting there, because their buddy is much more important to sit with than I am. As you can see, people like me can take small things very personally. That situation did anger me, but it did teach me something, and that is how that person would feel if I did the same to them. I went and sat in another seat, next to one of my friends. She got up to get something, and someone with Abbie came by. There was empty seats on both sides of me, one with where my friend sat, and one where no one was occupying. The someone with Abbie says to themselves under their breath, "Is anyone sitting here? Oh well, they aren't now." Then to me, "Abbie is going to sit here next to you." I say, "OH NO SHE ISN'T. My friend is sitting there." And I sat Abbie on the other seat.
I'm not taking my situation as an example of how we should act, because my friend simply could have sat on the seat on the other side of me. I was using it as an illustration of how we can learn for ourselves what it is like to be treated bad, so we can know how it feels, therefore know how the person feels to be treated in that way, and therefore not treating them the way we would not want to be treated.
- Loving Unashamedly
"If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." (Luke 9:26)
"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. " (Matthew 10:32 & 33)
"Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act." (Proverbs 3:27)
Whenever I'm out in public with many people around, little Abbie is the same way she always is with her affection to me, even with many people watching, she hugs me and kisses just as she always does wherever we are. She is not ashamed with loving me, and it's a good feeling.
Have you ever had that feeling of being neglected? Ever been picked last on a team? Not being invited to a get-together with a bunch of your friends? No one likes feeling like that, neither does God. He doesn't like feeling left out of your life, and He does not like it when you are ashamed of Him, therefore leaving Him out. And when some subject is brought up and you know God wants you to say something, (Refer to the verse above) and instead you ignore that nudge from God, that in a way is being ashamed of God. How?
If someone tells you they do not like coffee, are you going to withhold the information that you like it because you know they don't like it? That sounds ridiculous. In most cases people will express that they like coffee, because they are not ashamed to say it. In the same way, we should be bold when we express what we feel when it comes to subjects that we know we need to say something that God wants us to say.
I did not write this to consult you or to correct you, but to inform you with valuable information. I do not mean to convey the message with the reason that I bear all these qualities, which if you knew me it would be obvious that I do not, but I believe these things are qualities we should all bear. If you read this, I hope you got something out of it, and I'm thankful you took your time to read it.
I would strongly appreciate comments, suggestions, or even constructive criticism.
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