Certain conversations leave a deep impact on our minds. Often, children are our biggest tutors of life. They teach us so much about life, faith and values through their innocent acts or talks. This is one such simple conversation with my 2-year-old, which made me pause and reflect on the words he spoke to me.
My husband had just given him a shower and I was getting him dressed. As I was buttoning up his shirt, he said: “Mummy, David is cute”. (Don’t you love it when kids refer to themselves in the third person!)
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yes, David is cute”, he replied confidently.
“Who told you that David?”
“Daddy says David cute”.
He sounded very confident and sure about the fact that he is cute and was not willing to believe anything else because those words were told to him by his dad.
Later, I looked at his pant and told, you need to change it. It doesn’t suit the shirt. His answer was “No mamma, daddy say wear this pant”.
I paused and then just gazed at the confidence in his tone when he said it.
His simple broken words elaborately put sounded like this to me – “My daddy told me I am cute. My daddy told me to wear this pant. I know what he is saying is the truth. I am not willing to listen or do anything else other than what he has told me. Don’t try to convince me otherwise. My daddy knows what is best for me. I am not going to trade this fact for anything else”.
I sat there wondering, if only we had the same confidence and faith in every word our heavenly Father has spoken to us! Many times, we suffer only because of the lack of trust we have in His words. The Bible is full of promises and assurances from our Father, to us. Yet, in our fast-paced life, we rarely find the time to open and read the Word, fill our minds with these life-giving truths.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139: 14
The Bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made! And yet, so many of us struggle with complexes, particularly because of our appearance. Some even look down on others, which means, that they do not accept that they too, are God’s handicraft. We long for acceptance from people. We rely on the number of ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ on our social media posts to determine our acceptance, relationships, and even our mood. The number of ‘likes’ on the posts can either lead to upliftment or depression.
If we Christians believed half of what God says about us in scripture, we would never need to prop ourselves up with cheap self-esteem – Greg Morse
Zephaniah 3:17 says “The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
What an expression of love! Yet, we fail to rely on this truth and instead seek in unwanted places to satisfy ourselves.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33 says the Word.
By ‘these things’, Jesus refers to ‘what we eat, drink and wear’. But we run after all the other things first and put the Kingdom of God behind. We constantly believe in the things that the world has to offer us.
These are just very few examples from the Word. Likewise, there are many such life-giving truths that we need to hold on to. The scripture tells us to develop a child-like faith. Just to trust His words, to believe it just like a child.
“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3
Faith comes by hearing, hearing of the Word of God. The more we soak ourselves in the Word of God, the more faith we develop. May we have a ‘My Daddy says so’ attitude while reading the Word of God and believe it without any doubts. This helps in guarding our heart against the deception that we face in everyday lives.
Here’s a simple, yet powerful song that expresses child-like faith in God’s words
Jesus loves me this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to Him Belong
They are weak but He is Strong
Beautifully written!
Thank you Jemy😁
Goooodd one😊👍
Thank you so much!
This is an absolute gem. Little David is indeed a herald who echoes the spirit and message of Psalm 8:2.
Thanks a lot Phebe for penning down your personal story at the majestic backdrop of God’s “opinion” of His Children. You have indeed touched the nerve of a regular christian’s daily fight in relation to identity and his dilemma to respond to an ever-changing world to conform to its standards.
In fact, from Genesis to Revelations, Holy Scriptures gives us the pictures of two kinds of people: Those who put their trust in YHWH and those who did not. Those who had their spiritual ear glued to hear from God and those who erred horribly in their futile efforts to please the society to get name and fame. And then, at the climax of each story, we get too see the eventual result.
Do we learn the lesson and apply it to our daily lives without fail? Well, not much. However, when such divine principles get revealed through infants, as the ‘OTHER David’ writes under the inspiration of Holy Spirit: “Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes You have established strength. Because of Your adversaries that you might silence the enemy and make the revengeful cease.” (Ref: Psalm 8:2), it gives great reassurance to have solid sense of ‘who we are’ only in light of what our Abba says about us.
Confession: Having lived most of my adult life manipulating own thoughts and altering decisions under pressure to respond appropriately to ‘Log Kya Sochenge (What will people think) Syndrome, the lesson of confidence in Daddy from your little one is truly liberating. Listening to and believing in my Daddy in Heaven according to His Word would have saved a lot heartbreaks and tears.
I remain grateful to God for orchestrating such an adorable scenario at your home through which he reminds us to get our priorities right and live this gift of life without worrying about another person’s acknowledgement, praise or applause. Hence, our response to any scheme from the battlefield of mind or the world can be rooted on The Truth and grounded on the Love of Abba Father.
Question: Who am I? / Who are you?
Answer: I am who ‘The I AM’ says I am. 🙂
Hey Phebe, really blessed by the though you brought forth.
God bless you and use you more in the days a head..
Tiny as a pebble, but precious as a gem! How easily we forsake the simplicity of faith that was hinted by little David!
Beautifully written dear…God Bless U!!