"And Becometh as a Child"

One scripture that I have always struggled a bit with is from Mosiah 3:19, the last half of the scripture says:

"...and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

The phrase "becometh as a child" has always been a bit of chafing point with me because I don't always see children as they are described in the scripture above.  In fact, a lot of times they seem to be less patient, less submissive, and less willing to submit to his father than adults.  And so it has been one of those scriptures that I read and have semi-ignored the phrase "becometh as a child" and just tried to be all of the things that it lists after that.

BUT as is always the case, Heavenly Father decided that I needed a good lesson or three or ten in why the scriptures say to become as a child, so here are a couple of experiences that I have had in the last little while that have taught me why I should be more like my children.

Almost two weeks ago, I was having a pretty crappy day.  I felt really sick, had a lot to accomplish and had done none of it.  I drove to pick my daughter up from school, was complaining away to my own mother on the phone about how crappy it was going, and watched as my son ran to give my daughter a hug after she'd been in school all day.  She rejected his hug, ran away from him, hid from him, and then came running to me and we all climbed in to the car.  I was annoyed with what she had done, but was so consumed with my own problems from the day that I didn't get off the phone, didn't correct what had gone on, and just kept complaining to my mom about things.  After climbing into the car, my daughter reminded me that I had yet to buy her a white t-shirt to be tie-dyed for field day. I was not happy, feeling sicker by the second, and yet she had to have it tomorrow and so, being a mom, I, feeling very selfless for doing it, drove to Target despite my sickness, to buy her said t-shirt.  Once we parked the car, I was finishing up the call with my mom and my daughter swung her car door open (we have a rule that they don't open the doors until the motor is turned off and it was still running) and smacked it right into the cart corral that was right next to our car.  And I lost it.  I got off the phone with my mom (because I didn't want her to correct what I already knew was going to be bad behavior on my part) and proceeded to yell at my daughter for shunning her brother, for opening the door before she should have, and for hitting the car door into something.  And we left Target as her "punishment" with me declaring that she wouldn't get a white t-shirt and continuing the lecture for the five minute drive home.  She ran inside crying and I went into the bathroom, shut the door, and proceeded to break down crying as well.

And less than five minutes later, my sweet little girl, who had heard me crying, knocked on the door and said, "Mommy, are you ok?"

I don't know about any of you, but when somebody has just yelled at me over something and made me cry, if I see them crying I don't generally think "I wonder if they are ok", I think "SERVES YOU RIGHT!!! WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND!!!"


"...and becometh as a child....meek, humble...full of love..."

Lesson #3,473,572 - Become as a child.  Forgive easily. Love fully and care for those who have hurt you.

Lesson learned.  Check mark.  I've got it.  Let's move on here.

Fast forward two full days (yes, it was two FULL days before I needed the same lesson to take place). To preface this story, I am the secretary in the primary right now, but we don't have a pianist currently, so myself and one of the counselors take turns playing on Sunday.  Because it's so hard to get everything done and play prelude music, our primary president chose to open that up to the children who are taking piano to play prelude for us while the primary presidency has a chance to finish getting everything done that they need to.  We're in primary and the primary president is asking children who would be willing to play prelude for primary, I'm at the back with my back turned to the primary finishing up some paperwork and putting stuff away in our closet.  I turn around to take down nameS (yes, I thought there would be plural) of children willing to play for us for the next few weeks.  And my daughter is the only one with her hand raised.  My sweet seven-year-old who has had exactly four lessons in the last year (yes, count them, 52 weeks) since I started giving her piano lessons. And she has her hand up offering to play prelude for the primary....and my heart plummets.  She can't read music, she doesn't know any primary songs by heart, and she has seven...SEVEN....seven? (yes I was whining in my mind at this point) days to learn something well enough to get up and play in front of all of her peers.  Yes, I realize that this is not a recital, but seriously no parent wants their child to fail miserably in front of all of their friends.  And so, being the good parent that I am, I proceeded to forget about her playing prelude until THURSDAY AFTERNOON.  Sigh.  Parental failure....again.  So I sat her down and started going through I Am a Child of God with her.  I made her a couple of things that would make it easy for her to find the notes and long story short, she played a beautiful prelude on Sunday, and she played it well enough that when the primary president asked whether they had heard what she was playing all of the children shouted out "I AM A CHILD OF GOD!"

"God does not begin by asking us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability!" 
                                                                   Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Obviously my child had learned this simple truth better than I had.

"...and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love,willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."