Becoming Like Little Children

Lately, Gavin has been having trouble with a neighbor boy who has been mean to him. Gavin really wants to be his friend, but so far no matter what Gavin does, this little boy yells mean things at him at which point Gavin usually just goes home. I tried to tell Gavin to stick up for himself, to yell something mean back so that he knows that Gavin's not an easy target to bully. Gavin said he didn't know if he wanted to do that, although one day he did tell him to quit being a bully and asked him how they could be friends. The little boy told him that if Gavin buys him ice cream he can be his friend. Gavin was really excited about this until I said absolutely not...that anyone who was a true friend wouldn't need you to buy their friendship. Nothing much more was said until one day at the breakfast table Gavin offered the prayer. This was one of those moments where I realized that I have so much to learn and how sweet and tender the feelings of little children can be...where I realized that no wonder Christ has asked to to become as little children. Gavin's prayer went something like this, "Dear Heavenly Father, Please help my neighbor to not be a bully anymore. Please help him to make better choices so we can be friends." The Spirit of that prayer was so sweet that I almost cried. Here was a little boy being so mean to my son and my automatic response was the mean-protective-mama bear that told my son to fight back. Wow was I wrong. Gavin has the right of it, and I know that with that kind of love in his heart for others only good things will come.