The Heavenly Qualities of a Little Child: Lessons for Us Grown-Ups

Read the Blog Post for this episode HERE: The Heavenly Qualities of a Little Child

Mentioned in this episode: Dealing with Anger as a Mom: My Story

What did Jesus mean when He said we must “become like little children” to enter the kingdom of heaven?

In this episode, we look at the heavenly qualities found in a child’s heart—faith, humility, joy, and wonder—and how these traits reveal what God values most.

When life feels complicated or faith feels heavy, God calls us back to simplicity… to trust, to believe, and to rest in His love like a child again.

Join me as we look at Matthew 18 and rediscover the freedom and faith that come from walking with God with childlike trust.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 1:13

Hello and welcome back to Grace for My Home. I'm Audrey McCracken and I am delighted to be back with you again this week. I hope that you're doing well. We are. We're doing great. Lots going on right now. My middle son Luke, he is graduating from high school this year. This is his senior year, and there's so much that goes on during that senior year. Our first to graduate was David last year, our oldest son, and I didn't realize it hit me so quickly with David. I'm a little more prepared with Luke, but not much more. I just remember that deadlines come fast. So I'm trying hard to stay on top of those. But this Friday, he has his last, probably his last high school football game. He has a playoff game. And so we're traveling about two hours, two and a half hours for that. And then on Monday, we're taking him to a college he's interested in. And that's another two and a half hours in the opposite direction. And so we're we're busy, but it's it's a good busy. You know, it's one of those times when when you're just praying with with him, you're praying with, we're praying with him, we're praying, you know, for him, that God would make his plan sure, that God would show him the way, because of course we'll give him wisdom and tell him what we think, but we really want God to speak to him and show him his plan and where he needs to be and give him peace in that. And so we're praying now that the right doors would be opened and the wrong doors would be shut, and that we would know there would just be a peace where, yes, this is where what God has for you now. So please pray for us. Whereas we're in this time of transition, you know, it's never easy. Every you think the next stage is going to be easier, but it's it comes with its own challenges, it's a different kind of heart. And today I want to talk with you about the heavenly qualities of a child. And if you have little ones at home or grandchildren, or if you work with children, I think this will really speak to your heart. But it's really a message for all of us because Jesus did not direct it to one group of people, he actually gave this message or spoke these words to his disciples, and they were men. They were men who were not, you know, taking care of small kids. But um, I when I was home with my little ones, when they were little and and I was with them all day, this this word really encouraged me, and it helped me to get my eyes on um how God sees kids, how God sees these children, how important they are to him, and therefore how important they should be to me. But I want to read to you from the Gospel of Matthew, starting in chapter

The Question Of Greatness

SPEAKER_00 4:08

18, and I'm gonna read the first five verses, and I'm reading from the King James Version because that's what I had close. It says, At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. This seemed to be a theme among the disciples often through the gospels we'll read where they were discussing among themselves, even arguing among themselves about who was going to be greatest in the kingdom. Because at this time they're still expecting Jesus to set up an earthly kingdom, and they got Jesus has told them that they will rule and reign with him, and so they're trying to figure out how is this gonna work? You know, where am I gonna be in this hierarchy? And am I gonna be um important in the kingdom? What's my place gonna be in the kingdom? And so they often discuss this, argued it out amongst themselves, but this is an instance when they actually went to Jesus and said, Hey, just tell us, tell us, you know, who's gonna be the greatest in the kingdom? And so he does something that's, I'm sure, completely unexpected. He takes a little child, puts that child right in the midst of these men, and says, Unless you are changed, unless you are converted and you become like this little child, you can't even enter the kingdom. So it's not even a matter of being first in the kingdom. You can't even enter the kingdom until you become like a little child. He goes on to say that whoever humbles himself like this child, that is who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom. And whoever receives this child in my name, he's receiving me. So there's so much good stuff in here, so much powerful revelation in this scripture. Jesus is like he does so often, he turns everything around. It's not the kingdom isn't the way we think it should be. You know, it's not

Childlike Humility And Joy

SPEAKER_00 6:41

an earthly kingdom, and it's not, it doesn't go by the rules of this world. You know, in another scripture, Jesus said, in this world, those who are in authority lord it over others. And he said, Not so in my kingdom. My kingdom we serve, we serve each other. And so here he takes this child as and uses this child as an example and tells the disciples, This is what I'm looking for. This is what I value. And when you value the qualities, the heavenly qualities of this child, when you become like this child, then you're ready. Then you're ready to serve in the kingdom, then you're ready to do my will. And the quality that he highlighted was first of all the humility of a child. You know, a child, a small child, they're not self-conscious. They are just living life, you know, they're just living life, and they're not self-conscious yet. And they're humble because they're they're not thinking about themselves, they're enjoying their world, they're exploring their world, and they're not afraid to to experience life. They're not afraid to laugh, they're not afraid to cry, they're not afraid to just be themselves because they have not learned to be ashamed. They're living in the moment and they're not self-conscious. Children enjoy life. They laugh, they giggle, they enjoy life. And, you know, this week at the coffee shop, I'll just share something with you that really struck me. You know, when I'm working at the coffee shop, I'm I'm working, it's a job, and you know, I I want to make sure that that our customers have a good experience and that we are doing things as professional as possible. Well, and we have young women, young men who work with us, and sometimes I forget that they're they're kids. But I have a a young girl who's working with us and she's a homeschool kid, and so she helps us one day a week. She is sweet as pie, but sometimes I forget that I'm working with kids, and I shouldn't, but I do. This week she wanted to go somewhere. There was something downtown she wanted to go see, but she looks older, she's tall and she looks older. And I remember opening up the door for her to go down the street, and she skipped. She skipped all the way down the street, and my heart jumped because I thought, I don't remember the last time I skipped or had a desire to do so. And I was reminded she is a child, and she is enjoying life, and it did something in me, it did something in my heart, and I thought, Lord, to be a child again, to enjoy life, to be carefree. You know, it's easy to be heavy. That is my natural state of mind, is to be thinking about all the things that I need to figure out and all the problems I need to solve and all the worries. You know, that's my natural state of mind if I'm not conscious of my state of mind. It's easy to be heavy, but it's hard to be light. You know, for me to be light, to be carefree, it takes effort. And see, that's so that seems so contradictory. You know, it seems like it would just be easier to be light, but not for me. It takes an act of my will

Seeing Wonder In Everyday Gifts

SPEAKER_00 10:24

to say I will enjoy my life because my natural state of mind, my default mode is work. I'm gonna figure this out. I'm gonna get all my work done and then I'll rest. And guys, if we if we live that way, we'll never rest because there'll always be another problem to solve. There'll always be something to worry about, you know, and that that's what Sabbath is all about. Sabbath is saying, no, we're gonna rest now. We're gonna rest now. And a child, they enjoy it all. They enjoy it all, the work and the rest. And I think there's something in this scripture that, you know, but he's saying, these are the things that I value. There is something in a child. They're humble, they enjoy life, they love life, they love to live, you know, they enjoy the moment. They find the awe and the wonder in simple things. My children, even now, if it rains and there's a rainbow, everything stops. We have to go outside. We have to see how far the rainbow goes. We have to see if it's a double rainbow. Can we see both ends of the rainbow? I mean, we have to take photos of the rainbow and send it. And I have teenagers, and every one of us have to go on the porch and see the rainbow. And if it was just me and Michael, I don't know that we'd ever do that. We might mention it, we might say, hey, there's a rainbow outside. But kids make you pay attention to things, to gifts that we would otherwise miss. They believe us. You know, kids believe. When you tell a kid something, if you're somebody they trust, if you're somebody they look up to, and you tell them something, they believe you and they trust you and they will obey you. They trust, they love freely. They love freely. Another instance this week, uh, was at the shop and this family comes in pretty regular and they have a six-year-old, I think she's six, maybe seven. She's cute as a button, she is very um personable, she's um never met a stranger. And this week she saw me, and I've always seen her behind the counter, but this week I was on the opposite side of the counter. I was on her side of the counter, and so she walks to the door and she runs up to me, she throws her arms around my legs, and it melted me. And she just loved me. She just freely loved me, and that's what they do. You know, unless you give them a reason not to, they freely love and they forgive quickly. They they argue, they fight, but they forgive quickly. There's an innocence to a little child. You know, there's they're very honest. They're so honest that it hurts. You know, if you don't want to know what they think, then you you really shouldn't ask them. They have no filter. And they want to help. We have two

Loving, Trusting, And Forgiving Freely

SPEAKER_00 13:36

at the shop, we have two tiny aprons. And that's for the kids who come in who want to help. So many times we'll get kids in there and they want to pretend they're a barista, they want to pretend that they're making drinks, and we'll give them a job and we'll put that apron on them because they want to help. There's something about a child that reminds us of the best parts of ourselves. If you're raising children, or if you're raising grandchildren, or if you work with children, I just want to tell you that you are doing holy work. It matters. The work you are doing matters. And Jesus even says in verse five, you know, when you accept one of these children, he even says in this scripture, the last verse, verse five, it says, and whoso shall receive such a child, such a little one in my name, receives me. When you love that child, you are receiving Jesus. When you make time for a child, you're making time for Jesus. When you make room in your heart for a child, you're making room for Jesus. That's holy work, that's important, that's kingdom building. You know, in this world, we so devalue children, working with children, raising children. It it's it's one of those things that it's like, well, that's something we do if we have time. No, that's just they'll they'll make it. Jesus puts great worth on children and on how we treat them. Raising our children for the kingdom is godly work, it's holy work. Telling our children about Jesus, educating children, discipling children, that is kingdom work. It is not a small thing, you know. To the disciples, they were worried about the big things. I want to be big in the kingdom, I want to be important in the kingdom. What they wanted was to be important in the eyes of other people. But Jesus was trying to show them who is important in the eyes of God, what is important in the eyes of God, and that was these little ones. And so he's asking us to flip the switch of the things we think are important and the things he thinks is important. He wants us to think like he thinks, and he thinks these children are worth time and attention and energy and money and our life. And as you teach and train those children, just remember that the Lord is using those children to teach and to train you as well. I encourage

Children As Holy Work

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you, have ears to hear, have eyes to see the lessons that God is teaching you through children. That young lady skipping this week, it made my heart skip. And God was was speaking to me. Audrey, you need to loosen up, you need to enjoy something. You need to loosen up, you need to enjoy life, you need to be more light and not so much business. You know, when that young, when that little girl, that six-year-old, ran up and threw her arms around me, the Lord was reminding me, you need to love people, you need to love freely, like this little child. You need to take on the heavenly qualities of a little child. We can learn so much from them. Yes, it's our job to teach them and train them and and help them grow, but they help us grow too. They remind us what the kingdom looks like, they remind us what God values, they remind us what it what it's like to be humble, what it feels like to enjoy life and not be self-conscious, not be always thinking about what people think about us, but enjoying the life God gave us. There's so many lessons they teach us, so many more lessons. I've learned so much more from my children than I think I've ever taught them. They, and I I told somebody this this week, my children were the sandpaper of my soul. I had many rough edges. I still do. But they were like sandpaper, they helped to polish a lot of my rough edges. I remember a season when I struggled with anger. I did a whole podcast on it, and you and I'll link that in the show notes if you want to listen to it. But I had a season when I really struggled with anger when my children were very young, very little. And it was during a season when I had just come home. I just quit my nine to five to come home to be a stay-at-home mom, to be with them all day. You know, I was going to be with them all day long, and I did not realize the amount of energy, the amount of mental and physical energy it was going to take. And I was going through a little mini health crisis. I was having a lot of issues with my thyroid and my kidney stones, and I was dealing with um some heart issues, and and it was just it was like the perfect storm. And me trying to run around after these little ones, I just did not have the energy. And so there would be times when I would lose my cool and I would yell at my children. And I thought that, you know, there was the way I felt at the moment is there's chaos all around me. And I just somehow I have to get a hold of the chaos, I have to bring everything in order. And the only way I knew to do that was to raise my voice. And I just want to tell you if if you think that helps with the chaos, if you think yelling brings the chaos into order, it doesn't. It's like fighting fire with fire. You just get a bigger fire. And I knew I was wrong, and I knew it was wrong, and I love my children. And the horror in their eyes when mama would go off was just debilitating. And then I it was a cycle, it was just a bad cycle. Things would escalate, I would escalate, I would catch myself, I would repent, I would tell them I'm sorry, I would tell God I'm sorry. And then I would never, I would say, Lord, it'll never happen again. I'd tell them Mama is sorry, this will never happen again. And then it happened again. And so this spiral was going on. It was a really bad cycle. And the the longer it went on, the worse I felt about me. And and it was like every time it happened, I all I could hear in my head is, You are

How Children Shape Our Character

SPEAKER_00 20:51

a bad mom. You're a bad mom. I'm such a bad mom. And and it's like it built on itself. It was like a seed that kept growing and growing and growing. And I would pray and I would ask the Lord to help me, and I just didn't see a way out. During that time, a family that we know who had friends in Germany had asked if one of their friends' daughters could come and spend the summer with us. She was 18-year-old from Germany who wanted to come to the United States and live with a family and just see what you know what the United States is like. They had asked if she could stay with us, and I did not want to bring somebody in because of me. I was afraid that they would see the ugly, they would see me and see that I lost my temper and I didn't always know what to do with my children, and that I was a bad mom. I wanted to help out this family. I did not want somebody here because I was trying to get a hold of me. And I remember my husband saying, Well, maybe this will help. Maybe if she comes, she would be a little extra help for you, and it would take some of the pressure off. So, long story short, she ended up coming. But that month before she came, I was preparing, you know, for her and a room, and and I was praying and I was saying, Lord, please help me. Help me to be a good host. And most of all, Lord, help me with my problem, help me with my issues. And he gave me a scripture during that time, Psalm 145, 8 and 9. And it says, The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all, he has compassion on all that he has made. And that became my scripture during that season, during that month that she was here. Because as my anger would start, the Lord would remind me and he would say, and I would repeat the scripture, and it was a reminder to me that he is gracious, that God is gracious, that he is compassionate, that he's not mad at me, you know, he is slow to anger, and he is rich in love. And he would remind me that's how I think towards you, that's how I am towards you. And just knowing that that's how he felt towards me helped me to be that way to my children. And I would pray that way, Lord, help me like you are towards me. Help me to be gracious and compassionate and slow to anger and rich in love. Help me to have compassion on my children as you've had compassion on me. And it was like it, it it turned the cycle the other way. Instead of it being a negative cycle feeding on itself, it became, it turned into a positive cycle when I would feel my anger rise or what I would feel like everything was I was losing control instead of losing my temper, I would remind myself, he is gracious with me. He is not mad at me right now, he's not angry at me, he has compassion on me and he loves me, he's rich in love. And so I would be able to look at my children and have compassion on them and be slow to anger with them and be rich in love. And it was like he reversed the cycle, he showed me another way. And that was just one of many things he did to help me in that time period where I was struggling with anger and with my physical health and my mental health. But it it reminded me that God uses these children to change me. That that anger issue didn't just pop up because of children, it was there the whole time, but it was underlying. I didn't notice it. If you'd asked me if I'd had an anger issue, I'd say no. I'm I'm I don't

Breaking The Anger Cycle With Grace

SPEAKER_00 24:51

have an anger issue at all. But those things come to the surface when we're going through stressful situations, and the Lord used my children and my love for them. Like I would do more for them than I would for myself. And so I would change for them more than I would change for myself because I wanted to be able to give them the mom that they deserved. I wanted to be able to give them the love that they needed for a lifetime, and I knew that my anger was not doing anything but hurting them and not help, it certainly wasn't helping them. And it was making me feel condemned all the time. I was just walking around all the time thinking, I am such a bad mom. And guys, when we think that, when like that's the the words that's going on in your head, I'm such a bad mom, I'm such a bad mom, then we do things to make that true. Like it, it's we it's who we believe we are, so we act in that way. And what I had to do was reprogram my mind by the word of God that that's not who I am. You know, this is the God I serve, and by his grace, I'm gonna be like him because he's making me into the image of Christ. And so they they do so much more for us than we do for them. And our love for them will cause us to do things for them that we would not do for ourselves. It helps us to change and to go to another level and another level of maturity because you know, there were times when I had to realize I'm the adult in the room. I'm the adult, you know, I can't come to their level. Yes, they're immature, they're children. I'm supposed to be the mature one. And so it encouraged me, forced me, if you will, to grow up and to become the mature one. And and I'm not, even now, I'm not completely mature. I'm still growing. I'm still growing in Christ, but we all are. But he's gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in love. And I hope that this has encouraged you today and reminded you to look at children through the eyes of the Lord and imitate the good things you see there. Yes, there's immaturity, it's because they're children and they're growing up, but they know some things we don't know. They remember some things we've forgotten. You know, they enjoy life, they live light, they notice the little things, they believe and they trust and they love freely and they forgive quickly, and they're humble, and we can learn so much from them. You know, they open up the door to the kingdom in so many ways. And, you know, God's blessed us with them. They are a blessing. Children are a blessing from the Lord. I before we go, I want to pray with you today. Father, I thank you for these who are listening. I thank you that you have something to teach all of us through children. You use them as the example of what it looks like to enter the kingdom. And I pray, Lord, that you would remind us of that and that you would help us to want and desire to change and most of all to believe that we can. And Lord, I thank you for our children. I pray, God, that you would help us to grow as they grow and help us, Lord God, to see the lessons you're teaching us through them. And we love you and we appreciate you and thank you for loving us and and being gracious with us, even through our nasty attitudes. You still love us, Lord. In Jesus' name we thank you. Amen.