The Unoffendable Nature of a Child

Watching my children always teaches me so much about the kingdom of God. I’ve written a blog before on the fearlessness of a child before they know they can get hurt. My son, Aero, has taught me another attribute of the kingdom lately that I’d like to share with you.

He just recently learned to walk. He will be at home roaming around, when all of a sudden, his brother or sister runs around the corner, and the next thing he knows, he’s on the ground, because they accidently bumped into him. Never once have I seen him cry in offense over it though. If he ever does cry, it’s because he’s hurt. Most of the time he just hits the ground, looks around at his situation (the floor), has no idea how he got there, and just gets up. He moves on.

I’ve spent some time wondering why it is that he never gets upset or offended about being knocked over, and I’ve seen it with many other young children as well.

Young children don’t assume.

As adults, when we get hurt, we often assume we know why someone hurt us and offense starts to fester. Young children don’t think or assume anything about falling down. They simply stand back up and carry on with their lives.

Once, I remember going into a meeting with a person who was doing some questionable things in our ministry. Before I went in, feeling frustrated because I was sure I knew why they did what they did, I was ready to talk to him about what I knew.

But then the Lord whispered to me, “Curiosity will keep you out of offense.”

I decided to go into the meeting and ask him why instead of assuming, accusing, or blaming. Amazingly, all of the assumptions I had made about his intentions were incorrect. I wound up leaving the meeting apologizing to him. My assumptions had caused me to judge him, which caused me to be offended.

It’s the curiosity similar to that of a child which keeps us from assuming we know what’s happening inside other people and even inside of the plot line of our lives.

It’s easy to get offended if we assume.

Remember, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:4)

Refusing to assume, to accuse, or judge like little children do is the ultimate key to greatness.