Spiritual Childlike

To be a spiritual child:

1) Trust. -- A little child is all trusting.
2) Forgiving. -- A little child always forgives.
3) Loving. -- A little child only knows love interiorly.
4) Innocent. -- A little child is born innocent.

We are born with all of these traits. It seems that "the world" works to take these from us. I myself am having to relearn these. I see all of these traits when I look at my infant nephew. He just looks up and smiles. Trust I won't drop him. Loves me without condition. Upon reflection of St. Therese's "Story of a Soul". I also see these traits.

Life is struggle. Life is suffering. Its what you do with the struggle and the suffering. St. Therese implores one to learn to suffer joyfully. In being little, we give all we have and are to the good God. We place all our trust in his will for us. We strive to love and forgive. We endevour to regain our lost innocence.

To see things with purity, simplicity, innocence, trust, faith and have unconditional love of God. To be childlike in our unconditional trust in God. To be like a baby when it sees the rattle and is astounded at how magnificent such a simple thing is. We should look at all of creation with awe, wonder and love like the baby does the rattle. Think about all the fine qualities we admire in babies and children and we are supposed to possess them though we have matured. We are not supposed to be tough, proud, macho etc. To be sinless like the child too. The child gives us the best example of what we're meant to be like because the child is without sin up to the age of reason, and possibly beyond. They are tainted by original sin but if we take this away we see how we should be, that is the qualities we should possess. Jesus is trying to show us a model of sinlessness and perfection that we can understand ( the closest model anyway ). This is meant to be our goal.

In the Gospel, Jesus said: Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever humbles himself like This Child... Whoever humbles himself like This Divine Child..., he is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

And the Divine Child shows us the way and that is to live each of our present moments fully, whole-heartedly with the eyes of faith. And this is how the Little Child is leading us to the Father’s House by showing us and calling us to live the present moment like a child who worries not of the past nor of the future.

God bless you all :)