Becoming Like Little Children

I am reading in Mosiah 3 about how we are supposed to become as little children to be saved (v.18). I was thinking about that this morning ad I went to church. Matt and I both got up late for church - it starts at 10:30am but I was just getting into the shower at 10am and Matt was just stumbling out of bed. We had a fight about going to church. It ended up that Matt stayed home and I went to sacrament meeting without a shower (yes, I put on clean underwear). I have Will the choice to stay home with Daddy or go to church with Mommy. He wanted to go to church. He was excited. He even stood still so I could put his shoes on, which is usually a HUGE fight because he hates putting shoes on.

When we got to church he was very excited. Sacrament meeting was exceptionally good, with a new senior missionary couple talking about the Atonement. It was a random thought, but as I was listening, the thought came to me about being like a little child. I thought about how excited Will was to come to church and how, given the choice of church or home, he chose to come to church. He LOVES to sing the hymns too. Sometimes I get annoyed at the organist and hymn leader in our ward because if the hymn has several verses that are underneath the music, we will sing those too. So, instead of singing the 3-4 verses we all know, we have to sing the 2-3 more, weird and obscure verses as well. That can really make the Sacrament hymn (which is already too slow because of the nature of the hymn) seem to last FOREVER. I love to sing but I get so annoyed when we sing more verses than I had planned, that I often don't sing the extra verses. I was thinking about the joy that William got out of singing they hymns and how I should be more like him. He takes a book, it doesn't have to be a hymnal, and opens it up and sings. It's off key and usually not real words, but I know the Lord loves and appreciates his joyful noise.

I was also thinking about how Will is so good a bowing his head and folding his arms to pray. If you tell him we are going to pray, he does those things automatically and with great joy. I love praying with him because he gets excited. He also gets easily distracted, but he's 2, so it's ok.

Another way that we can be like the little children is a few nights ago Will and I were watching TV and out of the blue he brought me his Illustrated Book of Mormon stories book and wanted to read. We read quite a bit and he was just fascinated. I struggle to read my Book of Mormon, even though I enjoy reading it once I get into it. Children are amazing. Will is already so knowledgeable about the Gospel. He loves to go to church, especially nursery. He loves to sing and read his Book of Mormon. He also recognizes pictures of Jesus in church and in his Book of Mormon. I worry about not teaching him well or not being a good enough example. I am learning that the Lord won't let Will suffer for my imperfections as long as I am striving to teach him.

I thought kids were just to help us learn patience. Boy was I wrong. Studying the behavior of children - our own or someone else's- teaches us what Christ meant when he told us to be like the little children. I am so lucky to have the gospel and to have such a beautiful family.