Be Like Children | Ep. 111

In today's episode of Order Within, I, explore the profound teachings of Jesus on being like children, as discussed in Matthew Chapter 18. Through personal anecdotes and scriptural insights, I delve into the importance of childlike qualities - innocence, curiosity, openness, and trust - in our spiritual journey.

This episode highlights the healing and joy that embracing our inner child can bring, and how aligning with these virtues can lead to a fulfilling life rooted in faith.

Join me as we unravel the significance of being childlike in our relationship with God and Christ, and how it can transform our lives for the better.

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview

00:16 The Importance of Being Childlike

02:02 Scriptural Insights from Matthew 18

11:04 Lessons from Matthew 19

14:43 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

22:06 Closing Prayer and Wrap-Up

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Transcript

Be Like Children | Ep. 111

[00:00:00] Brandon Ward: Hello and welcome. I'm your host, Brandon Ward. Back with another episode of Order Within.

[00:00:11] Hope you all are doing good. 2025. Rolling a long.

[00:00:16] Today, we're going to be talking about children in being child like. This is a component of what Jesus taught that always stood out to me. Is being like children. And I think it's a really powerful. Lesson. To lean into and learn from. I know personally. It's helped a ton in my life in terms of healing and recovering a lot of the joy and freedom and expression and creativity.

[00:00:55] All these wonderful things that I have been able to experience as adult. Has come from a lot of this work that I've done. Around healing and around reconnecting with my inner child. And so I wanted to look at some scripture and talk about why this is so important. And how I can help us in our day-to-day lives. To be more faithful, to be more aligned with God, to be more aligned with Christ. And to live a fulfilling life, ultimately at the end of the day. Because we're here to serve our Creator.

[00:01:30] We're here to find His glory. To connect to him and to be instruments of His will. I struggled with that for a long time and was caught up in the ways of the world. And this shift in my life here as, I'm, Turning 40 this year has been incredible. And I hope to inspire others to find the same strength and courage in God and Christ. To, to heal and move forward in your life.

[00:02:00] So we're going to start with.

[00:02:02] Matthew. Chapter 18.

[00:02:06] And then look at how we can apply some of these things in our lives. You know, it's interesting because the inner bonding work I've done some episodes on this in the past.

[00:02:14] Also had Dr. Margaret Paul on my episode. She was one of the first interviews that I did, which is still such a huge accomplishment for me. I'm so thankful and grateful for her and the work that she's done, her work has helped me tremendously. And so seeing how that layers in and, and connects to this biblical aspect of it, of our inner child and being like children. Is is beautiful.

[00:02:38] It's a wonderful thing.

[00:02:40] All right. So Matthew. Chapter 18. I'm at verse one, it says the greatest in the kingdom.

[00:02:49] At the time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Then he called a little child over to sit among the disciples and said, I assure you that if you don't turn your lives around and become like this little child, You will definitely not enter the kingdom of heaven. Those who humble themselves like this little child will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one, such child in my name welcomes me.

[00:03:20] And then it goes on to say,

[00:03:23] Falling into sin. So this is now verse six. Jesus continues. As for whoever calls us these little ones who believe in me to trip and fall into sin. It would be better for them to have a huge stone hung around their necks and be drowned in the bottom of the lake, how terrible it is for the world, because of the things that cause people to trip and fall into sin, such things have to happen.

[00:03:49] But how terrible is it for the person who causes those things to happen? If your hand or your foot causes you to fall into sin, chop it off and throw it away. It's better to enter life crippled or lame than to be thrown into the eternal fire with two hands or two feet. If your eye causes you to fall into sin, tear it out and throw it away.

[00:04:11] It's better to enter into life with one eye than to be cast into a burning hell with two eyes.

[00:04:18] All right, so I'm going to stop right there. He continues to go one, but I'm going to stop right there.

[00:04:24] Because there's a lot of good, a lot of power in, in those statements that Jesus was sharing. But I think the biggest thing for me, like looking at this. Is understanding one, how much God values children and being like children and the little ones. Jesus was very clear about what should happen to those that may cause other people to trip and fall into sin, particularly children, right?

[00:04:53] He's saying that if you do that, you should have a stone hung around your neck and drown in a lake.

[00:05:02] The narrative of. Jesus being this meek and passive. And they claim so many times people claim that Jesus would have been a liberal in the world. And I can assure you, he would not just from that statement alone. Because one capital punishment is not something that the modern world really looks to anymore. Which is ridiculous because all that's done is give a free pass to criminality without any kind of serious consequence, no matter the detrimental and terrible crimes that that person may commit.

[00:05:38] Jesus is telling us here that. If you cause others to trip up, particularly if you harm children and caused them to live sinfully. You shouldn't have a life. You should be drown. That's pretty harsh. But to me it's strong. This is love. This is courage. Why should people who do wrong in the world have no consequences whatsoever.

[00:06:03] I don't understand that. It doesn't make sense to me. And here Christ is telling us they shouldn't. But secondly though, The. notion of being like children. He is telling His followers that if you want to be the greatest in heaven, then you need to be like children. Not. Rich, not powerful, not like a specific adult, not like Caesar.

[00:06:30] He doesn't even say himself. He says like children.

[00:06:35] So it's telling us right there, Christ is telling us the power in living like a child, the power in being innocent. And being curious and open and free and trusting.

[00:06:51] Because the thing that's powerful about children is when you spend time around them.

[00:06:56] They are honest. They're open. They're courageous. They're confident. They challenge things that aren't truthful. Have you ever seen a child do that? When you present to them, something that's false or not true. They challenge it. They call it out, even simple things. They call it out. It's inherent in our nature in a child's nature, to be honest, to be truthful, to be open.

[00:07:22] Now they may do things, right. They make stuff up, they manipulate things. They embellish, there's all kinds of things that children do as well. That we have to look against. Right. But ultimately when I read this and when I listen to what Jesus is saying, He's telling us that we need to become like children that we need to have that kind of innocence and openness and trust that children have.

[00:07:44] And we need to have that innocence and openness and trust with our heavenly father for he is our creator and we rely on him, the idea that we become adults, and now don't have to rely on anyone, but ourselves is a lie of the modern world. That's not true. We should always rely upon our Creator. We should always rely on God.

[00:08:05] And we should always ask for Jesus to guide us on this journey, this path, so that we may live honorable and truthful lives. And being like children. Activating that innocence again in our life is so powerful. And when you look at the greatest in heaven is what Jesus is saying. Our childlike. That childlike nature, that inner child that is still within all of us is the foundation of becoming aligned with heaven.

[00:08:36] And God. So our work, if we are older and adults, which most of us probably are, who are listening to this podcast. Is, we have to do the work to heal, to recover and to reclaim that childlike nature. And that comes from our inner child that comes from that little being, that little human that we were when we were 5, 6, 7, you know, even maybe younger, if we reflect back, we can look at ourselves as children.

[00:09:04] And remember the things that we enjoyed. Remember the interests that we had. Remember the childlike wonder the way we viewed the world, the innocence that we carried about. About us. All of those things are incredible qualities to hold. And to activate. And when we do the work of loving our child of becoming more childlike, we heal those parts of ourselves, the purest parts of ourselves, which puts us in alignment with God that puts us on the path of being the greatest in Heaven.

[00:09:36] Right. Is a child. That to me is crazy. He's not saying good or, okay. He's saying the greatest in Heaven. So to be the best of all, the way God views you and us is to be like children. So that is encouraging. So remember those things that you enjoyed. Bring them back into your life. Bring that joy, that innocence, that curiosity, that openness. Back in to your life where you can.

[00:10:05] It's a process. Many of us never learn to do this. Many of us never learn how to love ourselves, how to embrace who we are, but here Jesus is telling us. The way forward it's permission. To be like children it's permission to activate those innocent qualities that we had when we were young and bring them into our adult life.

[00:10:26] And if we do this, if we get good at this, if we start to practice this. That means if you enjoyed writing, write. If you used to enjoy painting, paint, if you like music, make music, find those things. That you had as a child that you have lost over the years. And activate them. It can be life-changing.

[00:10:48] I know for a fact, because I've done it in my life. I've seen it work in my life by doing the inner child work. And then seeing here, what Christ is validating for us is empowering. This is empowering information that we can take and we can apply in our life.

[00:11:04] The next piece of scripture we're going to look at is also in the book of Matthew, but chapter 19, starting at verse 13.

[00:11:13] Jesus goes on. This is again regarding Jesus here in blessing the children. It says some people brought children to Jesus so that he would place his hands on them and pray. But the site, but the disciples scolded them. But Jesus says, allow the children to come to me. Don't forbid them because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people like these children.

[00:11:36] Then he blessed the children and went away from there. So very simple passage, right. But again, Reaffirming that. Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the people like these children.

[00:11:50] Again, Jesus is telling us to be like children. Activate that childlike nature. And living in accordance to that is aligning ourselves with Heaven, aligning ourselves with Christ, aligning ourselves with God. We get so serious. So burdened by responsibility.

[00:12:10] So heavy in our way of living that we forget the joy, the pleasure, the freedom. Of expression that God has given us to live in his light. We've taken all this shame and suppressed our desire to express joy. In heaven's name.

[00:12:34] And we don't want to mistake. Being proud of our created nature, being proud of the way that God has made us being proud of the fact that we are created in God's image.

[00:12:47] We don't want to mistake that for the shame of materialism, for the shame of sin, right? We don't want to negate sin and getting trapped and caught into the materialism, but we don't want to throw out all the goodness.

[00:13:00] There is a lot of glory in wonder. And expressing that childlike nature and a loving, open and honest way. God is calling us forward to do that. By honoring that call we are honoring God by being childlike by activating that inner childlike nature and allowing it to live and be present in our life that is going to be if we lead our life with that notion.

[00:13:27] We are putting ourselves on the path of living the greatest life possible from heaven's perspective.

[00:13:33] And that is the aim, right? Not the world, not status of the world, not to please the leaders of this world or the materialism or the, the material chase. The keeping up with the Jones is not to appease our neighbors, but to appease God. To live right by Christ to follow their way. And Christ is telling us directly. To be like children for children, for people that are like children the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. That is an incredible thing.

[00:14:07] And that's a prime example. The apostles are trying to block the people from bringing their children. They're being serious right there in their, no, this is not a place for children. And Jesus corrects them and says, actually the people that are like children. The kingdom of Heaven belongs to them. So you're incorrect in saying that. They're welcome here.

[00:14:27] I will bless them and you all need to be more like them. So it's a wonderful thing to realize this, and to allow that joy, that innocence to permeate our life and to move through it in a very powerful way.

[00:14:43] So what's interesting here is there are several pieces of scripture. For Matthew, mark, Luke. That all share this similar story. About Jesus and children interacting with the children and His statements about it. And so they're all very similar in different books. So that tells you the importance of it from a biblical perspective is that you have multiple witnesses sharing this event, how much of an impact it made on them and how each of those different perspectives made it into the Bible in Matthew and Mark and Luke. So at different points, different chapters in those same books too.

[00:15:22] So there, the story is reiterated multiple times that tells you the importance of this. When we are reminded of things multiple times over and over again, in a variety of books. The stories are repeated and shared from different witnesses. And different eye witness accounts, right? Different testimony. That shows you how important it is. So we have to know this and we have to take this at heart and realize that Jesus is telling us something very powerful here, because right now I'm looking at Luke. Chapter nine. Verse 46.

[00:15:57] And it's talking about an argument that arose among the disciples about which of them was the greatest. So which one was the greatest of the disciples?

[00:16:04] Aware of their deepest thoughts. Jesus took a little child and had the child stand beside him. Jesus said to his disciples, whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever is least among you all is the greatest.

[00:16:25] And so he's talking again. About how important it is to be like children and that the one who welcomes Jesus and the one who sent him is God, right?

[00:16:38] So welcoming God, welcoming Jesus and welcoming this child because in our world, children are often the least regarded. They're considered very low they're at the mercy of their parents. They may be at the mercy of states depending on the countries that they're in. A child doesn't have sovereignty over its own life until they're 18 years old in the United States.

[00:17:01] So again, they are the least amongst us. And Jesus is saying that they are the greatest it's because of that innocence. That purity. That openness. Their heart is right. Often children's heart are so pure. But we get caught in these things. We get caught in the world. We get very grown, right?

[00:17:24] We've got to do everything ourselves. So we do away with these kinds of childish notions. But here we have the greatest human to ever walk the earth. A man, that literally became God in the flesh. Telling us. That the most high is those that are like children. If you want to operate at the highest level of humanity then be like children.

[00:17:51] That doesn't mean we shirk responsibility. That doesn't mean that we throw away accountability, that we don't pay our bills, that we become like literal children. But we have to take those qualities of children and apply them to our life. And know that. It's the component of humility of innocence, of trust of receptiveness that makes these, that makes being childlike so powerful. And that that is what Jesus is teaching us.

[00:18:24] He's teaching us to be like children to carry these qualities. To be like kids so that we may be humble that we may be innocent. We may be teachable. We may be open to new things because if we're going to accept Christ as our savior, and we're going to go out and disciple in the world. Even if like the thing is, is. We all do this in our own way.

[00:18:48] We all have the capacity to do this in our own way. You don't have to be a pastor. You don't have to be a preacher to help people come to God, to teach people about God you, we live our lives. We lead by example. We apply these principles in our lives. We teach our families. We teach our friends. We teach our community. This is how we go out and we live a life aligned by God and all of us who accept Christ as our savior, have the capacity to do this in some form.

[00:19:17] So we are being told the model for how we can live to lead by example. So when we combine that responsibility, that growth, that adulthood with the qualities of children and we activate and cultivate those qualities in our life, we become forces of God living in the world, serving Him in a very powerful way. That is the most glorious thing that we may do.

[00:19:45] The joy that can come from living joyous lives, living like a child, activating that curiosity, activating that inner joy, that playfulness, that openness to information and allows us to be led to, right. That allows us to work with our Creator. It allows us to be instruments of God in a meaningful way. Because what can happen as we get older, we get set in our ways we get closed-minded.

[00:20:10] We get bitter, we get envious, all these qualities that can turn us hard. Close our hearts off. So make a stubborn. And unmoving, that's not qualities that God can work with. That makes us almost unusable at that point.

[00:20:27] Now we know by reading the Bible, when you think about Exodus as a prime example, that God can use people regardless of their positions, the Pharaoh is a prime example of that. He had a hardened heart. God was using that to help free His people and to teach them and to show them how powerful He was during Exodus with Moses and the events that happened between him. And the Pharaoh, but God knew of the Pharaoh's heart.

[00:20:55] He knew of his stubbornness, his hardheartedness, and He used it in a way to prevent, to present his people, the miracles and power that God holds. So again, That doesn't mean that God won't use people like that. But if we are going to align ourselves with Heaven, if we have a desire to be a great servant of God, Jesus is telling us here, the way to do that is to become like children is to become innocent like them and to live our lives in alignment like children, so that we may be humble instruments of God.

[00:21:26] I really encourage you to lean into your inner child to really lean into that childlike nature and allow God to lead your life, to pray for Him, to ask for His guidance, for His wisdom, to pray to Jesus, to lead you, to help Him activate that innocence, that childlike nature in you so that you can bring that into the world and bring the light of God into the world so that others may know it as you have.

[00:21:48] If you, as you have come to know, and to be blessed by God, which is an incredible thing, it's an incredible , privilege to be able to, to share the word of God and to help other people come to God in a meaningful way. It's a beautiful thing to do. So I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm gonna say a quick prayer and then we'll wrap it up here.

[00:22:10] So Heavenly Father, we pray that you may help us to activate that inner joy that You may teach us the ways to be like children so that we may become empowered instruments of Heaven to teach us how to own that innocence, that openness, that trustingness so that we may lean into You and rely on You forever more. We, we pray Father that You will show us the ways that You desire of us.

[00:22:35] We pray that You will. Enlighten us with Your wisdom and that You will guide us with Your courage and Your direction and Your discretion. We pray that You will help us to know what it means to really be childlike and to activate that wonderful. Divine, joy, childlike nature that You have put in all of us.

[00:22:55] And we pray Father that You will lead the way in that you will be ever present in our lives. So that we may be instruments of Heaven here on earth and Jesus name we pray, amen. All right, y'all. That's all I got for today's episode. I hope you like it. I'd love to have you on the Substack.

[00:23:11] If you're not there yet, please. A lot of, a lot of good engagement there. A lot of, a lot of commenting, a lot of good, good discussion there. So if you're not on the Substack, I'd love to have you sign up there and join. Be great to have you. I hope you're having a good 2025 so far with that being said, God bless and until next time.