{"id":104,"date":"2015-06-29T21:25:32","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T21:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/?p=104"},"modified":"2015-06-29T21:25:32","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T21:25:32","slug":"faith-like-a-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplyfabulous\/2015\/06\/faith-like-a-child.html","title":{"rendered":"Faith Like a Child"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do you remember how simple everything was when you were a kid?<\/p>\n<p>The biggest decision you probably had in a day was whether you should go ride your bike or stay inside and watch TV. \u00a0If you were like most of us though, you probably didn&#8217;t realize just how good you had it until much later. \u00a0That&#8217;s the funny thing about being a kid&#8230; all you want to do is grow up, when in reality, you should be thanking your lucky stars that you&#8217;re not grown up yet!<\/p>\n<p>But a big part of the reason why life seems so good when you&#8217;re a child is because you haven&#8217;t been &#8220;jaded&#8221; by life yet. \u00a0Of course, there are those that unfortunately have difficult childhoods and experience things they shouldn&#8217;t even know about when they are still very young. \u00a0But for the &#8220;average&#8221; child, innocence (or ignorance) is bliss.<\/p>\n<p>Children don&#8217;t overanalyze or stress themselves out over things. \u00a0They accept things as they are and often believe wholeheartedly in things even if they haven&#8217;t experienced them yet or seen them firsthand. \u00a0Like gravity, outer space or even the existence of countries on the other side of the world. \u00a0Adults on the other hand, have a million questions&#8230; look for the disadvantages or the faults&#8230; and &#8220;believe it when they see it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But what if we decided not to be jaded? \u00a0What if we decided to live our lives with the faith of a child?<\/p>\n<p>Luke 18:17 tells us, &#8220;<i>Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.&#8221;<\/i><\/p>\n<p>We are told in no uncertain terms that if we don&#8217;t receive the kingdom of God like a child&#8230; with wholehearted faith and trust&#8230; that we shall not enter it. \u00a0Yet, many of us still question everything. \u00a0Whether Heaven exists, whether we are truly saved, whether Jesus is really coming back. \u00a0We analyze and overanalyze. \u00a0We doubt. \u00a0We stress. \u00a0We wonder. \u00a0We basically do exactly the opposite of what Luke tells us.<\/p>\n<p>But we don&#8217;t have to have all the answers. \u00a0We don&#8217;t have to understand how it all works. \u00a0We simply have to trust and have faith&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Faith like a child.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you remember how simple everything was when you were a kid? The biggest decision you probably had in a day was whether you should go ride your bike or stay inside and watch TV. \u00a0If you were like most of us though, you probably didn&#8217;t realize just how good you had it until much&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":589,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[262,263,255,257,253,140,193,189,265,125,97,33,260,126,264,261,256,254,124,258,259,96],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adult","tag-adulthood","tag-child","tag-childhood","tag-childlike-faith","tag-christ","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-encourage","tag-encouragement","tag-faith","tag-god","tag-innocence","tag-inspiration","tag-inspire","tag-jaded","tag-kid","tag-kingdom-of-god","tag-positive-thinking","tag-simple","tag-simplicity","tag-trust"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Faith Like a Child - Simply Fabulous<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faith Like a Child - Simply Fabulous\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do you remember how simple everything was when you were a kid? 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