We are little children.

Excerpt from yesterday and expansion on that excerpt-

'To be humble like a child can be confusing for those who have experience with all sorts of young children. We have come in contact with many 2 or 3 year old children who seem to be anything but humble in any manner. 

The Greek definition in the Bible for humble in discussion here is--

Strong's -

From G5011; to depress; figuratively to humiliate (in condition or heart): - abase, bring low, humble (self).

Thayer's-

1) to make low, bring low   1a) to level, reduce to a plain 1b) metaphorically to bring into a humble condition, reduce to meaner circumstances 1b1) to assign a lower rank or place to  1b2) to abase

1b3) to be ranked below others who are honoured or rewarded 1b4) to humble or abase myself by humble living 1c) to lower, depress 1c1) of one’s soul bring down one’s pride 1c2) to have a modest opinion of one’s self 1c3) to behave in an unassuming manner 1c4) devoid of all haughtiness

To be humble like a child truly is to realize our dependence, our nothingness. To a society such as in Jesus' day- a child was expected to be obedient, their place in the grand scheme of things was very minimal, they had no rights, no voice to be heard, especially one of disrespect. They had no position of any authority whatsoever. Today we've elevated children to such a place they often think they have a lot of authority and they rule over their parents in a lot of situations. How often have we heard of children being disobedient to parents- we witness it for ourselves in the stores we frequent. We've begun to coddle children to such a point they've lost their position of humbleness.  And this has happened because of a misguided sense of sympathy for children being misunderstood. I say misguided because so much in our world truly is misguided and not always from a bad place but even in attempting to do good people can be misguided.

We need to HUMBLE OURSELVES.

We need to be HUMBLE as LITTLE CHILDREN.

Why? Because we ARE LITTLE CHILDREN - and our God is our FATHER.'

End excerpt from yesterday.

We are little children even in our adult guise.  It truly is a guise isn't it?  We do grow out of a lot of things but more of our youth remains than we tend to let on to children as they grow up.

I know personally, I thought there would be some (for lack of a better word) magical change that would occur when I became of age (18).  Yes, 18 years old was the magic age when childhood would disappear and I'd be consider an adult- back then it was the legal drinking age, it was also the legal voting age, the legal age to leave home, the legal age to marry as well any number of other legalities that were suddenly all mine.  Having all these new legal statuses surely meant I'd attained some sort of adulthood and change, right?  I was seventeen, underage, and then suddenly eighteen and of age. So why didn't anything magical happen? Why hadn't there been an overnight alteration in my brain to reflect my new attainment?

I was the same, the exact same as I'd been at seventeen without any sudden new maturity. I was goofy at times, silly, playful and to this day many, many years later I am still goofy, silly, playful etc.  What I have gained over the years is knowledge, experience and those two things have aged me, but I've never lost that person I was at seventeen, sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, thirteen. HOWEVER, and it's a big however, I am NOT at I was much younger than that. I remember my five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve year old self and I do remember my life changing, that childishness giving way to maturity.  In some cultures maturity is measured by the age 13,  or for girls with the coming of their cycles and I fully understand that. By age 13 or so we do have a defined sense of who we will be as adults don't we?  The rest is up to the experiences we have, the choices we make, the paths we choose to take.  Our essential self is there by the time we are over what we deem our childhood, and still some of the child we were and are, is always with us. 

Going back to being as little children, there is a sense of wonder in children, a sense of innocence, a special humbleness in the very little children.

We, just as those little children, need that special humbleness. We need to REALIZE as adults that we NEED to be as CHILDREN in humbleness.  We spend so much time as adults trying to be this elusive grown up person, that we've forgotten we NEED to be humble children!

We should NEVER forget our NEED to comprehend we are CHILDREN of God, not grown-ups of God. We are ever created by Him in a very unique way that goes way beyond our human reproduction- Father/Mother = Child.  God is the FATHER of all who have ever been reproduced, no OTHER can claim that. God is the FATHER of ALL ever created.  All created need to be in awe of such a CREATOR. We need to HUMBLE ourselves before our CREATOR knowing that we are HIS, and all we are is HIS, for HIS will. To take it upon ourselves that we have some sort of power within us on our own to control ourselves is lunacy. We can choose to deny God, to embrace evil and become very far from anything resembling humbleness. We can choose to serve self.  We can do this but still God is there and HIS plan will be realized. Nothing we do, no evil we commit will change God's plan.  God sacrificed His ONLY begotten Son and that will never change. Evil will have its end. Our being allowed to know the outcome of all evil is a blessing that our Savior came to give to us. We need to live in humbleness to the truth we've been given.

Humbling ourselves.  A constant recognition of our dependence upon our God for our life, for our eternal life, for all we are and may be. 

When life tries to demand we think of ourselves more highly than we should- something Satan will encourage at every opportunity- we need to bow down before God all the more and pray for humbling.

All by the love, the grace, the mercy of our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord!