As Humble As A Child

About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 18:1-4

JESUS’ DISCIPLES wanted to be great. But they had a profound misunderstanding of greatness, seeing it in terms of human endeavor, accomplishment, and status. So Jesus provided both a visual and verbal rebuke, answering their question about who would be greatest in the Kingdom by demonstrating what is required just to get into the Kingdom. The requirement: childlike trust. Proud adults must approach God in unselfconscious dependence.

We, too, long for greatness. We want the day to come when our children tell us we were great parents. We want people around us to think we are great parents. We want to look in the mirror and be able to say to ourselves that we’re doing great at this daunting endeavor called parenting.

But what will make us truly great? How can we best point our children toward the Kingdom of God, which must certainly be at the heart of good parenting? Evidently it is not by always doing the right thing and never letting our children see us sweat. Evidently it is not about our greatness at all, but instead about recognition of our neediness. It is about living out before our children an ongoing childlike dependence upon our heavenly Father.

Lord, I recognize that even though I am a parent, I will never outgrow my need of coming to you as a child. I’m also seeing that what ________ needs most from me is not a parent who has everything figured out and does everything right. What ________ needs most is to see my childlike trust, my vulnerability, and my inability to make progress apart from your help, direction, and resources. Lord, I don’t want my self-reliance to cause any of your little ones to fall away into the sin of self-sufficiency. Please give me the grace to humble myself so that ________ will see that I live in childlike trust and dependence on you.