Find a Friend in Everyone

“Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” // Matthew 18:3

My two year old’s vocabulary has really flourished in recent months, and so has his memory. It always catches me by surprise when he says something that my husband and I have only said in passing perfectly and without prompting. Most recently, I was taken aback by his reaction to other children. Quite a while ago, our neighbors were out playing and I offhandedly made a comment to him about his friends being outside. Apparently that made quite the impression because since then, any time he notices there are kids around, he stops whatever he is doing and says, “fwennnnd!” (that’s toddler for “friend”).

It doesn’t matter if he knows the child or has never met them before. It doesn’t even matter if he actually sees them. As soon as he hears someone playing or spots someone on a walk outside our front window, his immediate response is to call them a friend, to identify them in relationship to his sweet little self.

And every time I hear his tiny voice proclaim that word, I say a quick prayer for two things: “God, please help this sweet boy keep this adorable habit for as long as possible,” and, more importantly, “Please help me to see everyone I encounter as a friend.”

As a parent, you are working hard to instill respect and kindness and virtue in your children, but there are also times when they teach you and point you back to Jesus. “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).

Loving Creator, please teach me to be more childlike. Please remind me to see a friend in everyone I meet. Please help me to see You in the face of others. And sweet Jesus, may I never forget the wisdom that can come from the mouths of babes.

Loving Creator, please teach me to be more childlike. // Sarah RoseClick to tweet

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