Forgetting we are but little kids is dangerous

August 16, 2025

Maria Abiding, Dependence, Matthew 18, Prayer, Spiritual Warfare , Leave a comment

Then he (Jesus) said: I promise you this. If you don’t change and become like a child….Matthew 18:3 NASB

We stopped acting childlike, having grown comfortable in the routines of daily life vacationing in Italy. Today is a national holiday and everyone celebrates by eating out with family and friends. It dawned on me this morning that we should have booked a table for lunch somewhere, so we cast ourselves on Jesus and asked for help. I texted a local restaurant we had tried last Sunday. By grace they worked it out so we could enjoy a special four-course lunch in honor of ‘Feragosto’ and the ‘Assumption of  Mary’. We prayed for safety on the drive down the mountain and back up.  The Lord was gracious. Watching the ‘theater’ of Italian families laughing, chatting and savoring the cuisine entertained us.

After changing into workout clothes, we hopped in the car again, to walk along the river down in the valley. We cheerfully set off down the narrow lanes with blind hairpin turns, content and confident that we were getting the hang of these Italian roads. 

That’s when the trouble started. ‘Mr. Italian GPS’ routed us wrong. Harsh words emerged from my frustrated driving husband   and we ‘almost’ succumbed to disharmony among us. God be praised that we recognized our error.  We had forgotten that we are but little children who need our Daddy. We had not asked for His help. Obviously we didn’t think we needed Him. 

I’m so glad the Father brought us up short right away.  We immediately confessed our false independence and ran back to Him, asking for protection and help.  The enemy tried once more after the walk to mess with us in the car. This quirky rental car does the strangest things. Recognizing another probe from the enemy, we rebuked him and clung to Jesus.

When did you lose your sense of wonder?

January 19, 2024

Maria Colossians 4, Holy Wonder, Matthew 18, Matthew 26, Prayer, Psalm 18 , , 2 Comments

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3 NIV

What are little children like?  I picture little ones between the ages of 4 and 7, wide-eyed with anticipation, totally trusting the one they’re with. Sadly, it seems kids age out of that wonder stage. But do they have to?

I remember my last spontaneous, wonder-filled summer morning.  I was actually seven, or about to turn seven in July.  I lived with my mom and grandmother in an apartment in Devon, Pennsylvania. Mom and I shared a bedroom. That morning, she woke me up with a smile, saying ‘Get dressed! This is the day.’ 

We were off to Europe for a good chunk of the summer. That memory is painted in turquoise. For having had a bath the night before, I pulled on a turquoise top I loved and was ready for ADVENTURE in lickety-split.  I don’t remember the details, just those first 5 minutes of that day. Somehow, we travelled up to the port of New York to catch a trans-Atlantic ship bound for Southampton, England.

Most of us, as we move through childhood and adolescence into adulthood, lose our sense of wonder, our excited anticipation about a possible adventure. When we don’t feed that innate child-like ability and receptivity to being astonished, we grow dry, practical, no longer able to respond with spontaneity, having lost our taste, desire or expectation for new adventures and invigorating surprises.

I’ve been reading Oswald’s book, If Ye Will Ask. He poses four child-like questions we can personalize:

-“I wonder how God will answer this prayer?

-I wonder how God will answer the prayer the Spirit is praying in me?

I wonder what glory God will bring to Himself out of the strange perplexities I am in?

I wonder what new turn His providence will take in manifesting Himself in my ways?”

The first time I customized these questions to fit the needs of my day, I immediately relaxed. Psalm 18:9 came to mind – He brought me out into a broad place; (ESV).

This ‘wonder’ perspective shifts the focus off of my immediate needs onto the Lord’s purposes. It makes me curious. It lifts my gaze, my focus off of me and what I want to loop up and out.  That brings to mind two commands: one from Matthew 26:31 ‘Watch and pray!’ and the other from Colossians 4:2 ‘Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.’

Here are two fresh examples of how I’m applying these wonder questions to my needs.

My recent round-trip to Tampa to care for my granddaughters took place during terrible winter storms. Both travel days included delays with the high potential for cancelled flights.

Having read Oswald during my week in Tampa, the day I returned home, I felt totally calm with an excited curiosity of what God was going to do.

I realistically faced the fact that if I couldn’t make my connection, that I might have to spend the night near the airport. But that would be a new adventure, for sure. And I find adventures to be energizing, breaks from routine. The Lord obviously decided it was more important for me to arrive home in only one travel day. Mike was VERY grateful to have me back with him that night.

The bigger blessing was the calmness this approach brought to my day. At the airport and on the two flights, I was able to point several people to God’s goodness and total control over all details in our lives.

That was a short-term practical exercise in wonder.  Here’s a long-term one that is front and center in our lives.  Mike’s mom at 95 is declining rapidly and is scared about all the changes and losses she is undergoing.  She now needs more money to pay for assisted living. Of course, our Father knows here needs, but instead of narrowly focusing on the details of these two situations, I am praying the ‘wonder prayers’.  Just how is God going to be glorified in his provision? What is the Holy Spirit actually praying IN Mom? What is he doing IN her?  I’m curious to witness the creative ways will God use in Mom’s life to show his love. Finally, what will we, her family, experience as we accompany her on her last earthly adventure?

I’m seeing in a new way, the reality of how God’s purposes are bigger than any of my situations. And that relaxes me, for I trust his goodness, his love and his wisdom. May his will be done in my life and the lives of those I pray for.

How being like a clingy toddler is good

September 29, 2022

Maria Matthew 18 , Leave a comment

He (Jesus) called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:2-3 NIV

One summer day when I treated Graham and his little brother to a day at Water Country in Williamsburg, Virginia, Wes got lost.  This experience scarred him for about four years. I had put Graham in charge of his younger brother when they went into the men’s locker room to change.

Seeing Graham coming out alone, I said, “Where’s Wes?” He turned around puzzled then responded, “I thought he was following me.” I quickly sent Graham back. I wasn’t prepared for what he discovered.  This changing facility had TWO entry points.  We figured that Wesleigh must have gone out the other door, which meant that Graham didn’t pay much attention to his brother like I had instructed. Being only five years old, I often placed young Wes under the supposed ‘watchful eye’ of Graham who was ten.

With this news that Wes was nowhere to be found, I panicked, prayed and ran around shouting his name. Even with a security guard helping me it took about fifteen minutes before I spotted my youngest.  He was walking toward me as though coming from the ticket takers. “Wes!!!! Where have you been?” 

This little kid had gone out to the parking lot thinking we had left him alone. I felt horrified just imagining him among the hundreds of cars.

Hugging him tightly, I rejoiced in God’s goodness.  What I didn’t anticipate was the emotional impact this event had on Wes.  He had experienced it as trauma.  For the next few years, each time I dropped him off at school in the morning, he would seek hearty assurance that I would indeed return.  Now a nervous child and fearful of being abandoned, he would press me for an exact time I’d swing by to pick him up.  The waterpark experience had transformed him into a very clingy child.

The other day, pondering Jesus’ words about being as a LITTLE child, I thought of that long-ago experience.  I imagined a three-year old clinging to his daddy’s leg, not wanting to let him leave.  Don’t little ones feel safe when they are in the presence of their parents?  They don’t want to let them out of their sight.

Jesus is teaching us to be like the toddler who needs that constant reassurance. Physical nearness represents safety.

Of course, we want our children to grow up and develop independence.  But what if Jesus doesn’t mean for us to outgrow our need to be that kind of close to him? What if he prefers that we remain children who crave his constant company?

May we retain the best of being a child and stay glued to our savior and older brother.

Get used to uncomfortable!

March 10, 2022

Maria Child-like, Confidence, Control, Ezekiel 16, Matthew 18, Trials, Trusting God, Uncertainty , , 1 Comment

But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. Ezekiel 16:15 NIV 

I’ve been reading Andrew Murray’s book The True Vine. Earlier this week I came across this strong statement:

“Self-confidence is…..a great evil.”

What do you think?  Do you trust yourself?  Probably for some things you do.  Do you have confidence in some of your natural talents?

We all do, to some extent.  But according to many places in the Bible, that is not God’s way. He doesn’t want us to trust ourselves at all.  We are to put confidence only in him.

If I look back over my life, I can spot the times when the Lord deliberately put me in situations where I had no experience or training to handle the responsibilities. 

The earliest one happened one day when I was a young military intelligence lieutenant.  My boss called me to his office and said: ‘I have a new additional duty for you. You’re to manage our battalion’s budget.  Here’s the file. Call the budget office at headquarters for any help you need.’

Did I have an accounting background?  Not at all! I had majored in foreign affairs and Russian studies.  No problem.  Lieutenants are expected to learn on the job.  And I did. Could I depend on myself?  Nope.

Similar situations followed.  Having a baby was one of those.  I had grown up as an only child AND my mom never allowed me to babysit.  I had zero exposure to babies.  Imagine the hospital handing me and Mike this 2-day old baby.  They never even asked us for proof of training or experience?  More God-directed practice in depending on him. And Graham survived.

One of the most uncomfortable of these God-ordained experiences was when I was hired by a Christian school. NOT to teach French, but to teach US history and government. Okay, that didn’t scare me too much, for I had taken some history courses in college. Not American, though!

What DID rock me were the additional two courses:  Informal Logic for 7th graders and Formal Logic for 8th graders.  I didn’t have a clue to what logic was.  All summer before that school year started, I struggled to study and understand logic. I fumed with frustration.  There was no one to help me.  Was that first year hard? You bet!  Did I cling to Jesus? Without a doubt.

What I am slowly absorbing is that God’s best plan for us is to depend 100 % on him.  But the hard part is that I don’t naturally gravitate to what feels uncomfortable.  I’m seeing that he, in effect, is saying: ‘Get used to uncomfortable!’ Like you, I prefer clinging to my idol of comfort.  In fact, when the next thing on my agenda is the habitual, I don’t even think to depend on Jesus. That framework is sin. Self-confidence is wrong.

Yet, culture blares the opposite message: Believe in yourself!  Trust yourself!

It seems that we are to be more like little children who only ever trust their strong daddy or reliable mommy.  They don’t fake being okay on their own.  As long as their parents are with them, they feel secure.  And they are content. 

I anticipate more ‘adventures with Jesus’ as he keeps training me to lean only on him.

Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children….Matthew 18:3 NLT