D ear Friends,

Jesus once said, ‘unless you become like a little child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’. So Jesus thought we could all do with becoming childish. How come, then, that we use the work ‘childish’ as a criticism? Something has gone wrong somewhere! The question is, what makes children ‘childish’ or ‘childlike’, and what is missing from our adult lives that we need to re-learn from them?

Two things are worth singling out – honesty, and fearlessness. I see both in my dealings with children – my own two at home, the children I meet through First Steps and Stepping Stones, those I talk to in schools. Children simply are not tainted by the self-deceit with which we adults bolster our self-importance. And they also lack the social inhibitions we learn as we grow up – they just say what they think. Any parents reading this will remember toe-curling occasions when their darlings have dropped them right in it. I recall one young man, a bit concerned about the other boys in a soft play area being too big and scary. Up he comes to his mum (sitting next to the bigger boys’ mother) and says, ‘Mummy, those boys are HORRID’! Growing up, we learn to put other people’s feeling into the equation, and to be more cautious about saying what we think – but Jesus seems to have preferred plain speaking and directness. So if we want to belong to him, let’s abandon our self-importance, and learn to be honest. Sounds easy, but we could spend a lifetime learning to become childish again.