To be childlike and humble is what pleases God; not taking the position of #1 or striving to be the greatest. What are the humble traits so precious to God? What are these traits that Jesus tells us are found in a child? Some important ones are: meekness, un-spoilable happiness, sincerity, quick forgiveness, gentleness, submissiveness, loving, trusting, honesty, un-assuming, un-worldly, contriteness and dependent (in this case totally dependent on the parents). How often do you see these traits in mature adults or mature Christians? You can observe some of these traits sometimes, but seldom if ever do you see a truly humble child-like adult. This is because adults (Christian adults too) are too busy trying to show everybody how neat they are. This behavior can take the form of the following personalities: professional business man, well educated/ adjusted intelligencia, clever, fun-loving swell guy, or even street-smart hard-working laity. Almost everybody puts on an act of one form or another to let others know why they should be so respected or loved.

Such behavior is borne out of pride and arrogance and is accompanied by some tell-tale traits. For Christians, these bad traits are not so easy to define but are nonetheless present beneath a veneer of goodness. Some of them are the following: unfriendliness, unwillingness to put one’s self out to meet, befriend, or edify new visitors or other brothers and sisters, self-righteousness (as in one who thinks they have their Christian walk right on track), arrogant facial expressions, long drawn-out prayers, full of rarely used words and fluctuating voice expressions, seeming more like an oration exhibit than a humble stand before the almighty God of the universe. More of these traits are the following: apparent increase in respect for those who are successful in business or have much education, superiority complexes stemming from a belief that material accumulation is proof of superior intellect/righteousness, lives completely spent providing and increasing self-comfort., quick criticism, stinginess with compliments, petty jealousy, phony pantomiming of humility, unwillingness to apply constructive criticism to one’s self (Note to reader: this means YOU), overly expressive speech, and finally, boasting of accomplishments made possible only by our goodness and hard work.

Some of these antics are obviously vile but some of them are often seen as maturity when they are nothing more than an outpouring of self-consumption and a sign of the complete absence of God’s precious spirit. God is not impressed with your great work ethic, your vast knowledge, your success in business, your superior intellect, or your tenacious attitude to “hang in there”. God delights in a demeanor and attitude of lowliness. He loves a humble servant who is totally dependent on Him, as a child is to his parents.

These ideas are meant to stimulate you to look within yourself. Try to see yourself as God sees you very openly. To those who recognize these ideas and apply them to themselves, they can only say “this is true”. We know that we are not righteous no matter what success has come to or through us. We deserve no reward as all the credit goes to Jesus. We should be happy to be one of God’s children and nothing more.

If you read these ideas and say “He’s right” yet do nothing about it. Or if you say, “He’s right… there are a lot of Christians who should heed his advice, myself not included” YOU have just been identified as the one who needs to examine yourself the most. You must look at yourself from God’s perspective. Stop playing the role of Rotciv Erutam (that’s Victor Mature spelled backward). God is not impressed with know-it-all, hot-dog, authoritative, Victor Mature types looking for First Place on the roost. According to Jesus there will be none of that in God’s kingdom. Hand over the reigns to Jesus and shake off your old self (Victor). Grow up and become like a kid again.