As God’s people I believe we have a great opportunity to help those around us treasure what God treasures. Many things that are valuable to God are not seen through His eyes by the people around us. We are His people and we need to see things through His eyes.

One of the greatest gifts God has given to us is the gift of children. They are precious to Him, and their value is far beyond what can be summed up here. But I would like to encourage you to adamantly seek to see children the way He sees them.

I just spent a summer caring for children and it helped me see even more than before how unique each soul is. Each one is worth the time it takes to lead them toward God. The mission of a mother is so incredibly important, as she has the greatest influence over her young children. I pray that those of you who are mothers would see the mission field right in front of you. I pray that the rest of us will do our part to love and encourage the mothers among us, and to bless their children however we can. I am thankful that my own mother took her job as a parent seriously and chose to devote her time to leading me and my siblings into a relationship with Jesus. Children are the only earthly possessions that are also spiritual, and thus can be taken to Heaven.

Just to give a glimpse into the value of children in God’s eyes, I want to point out a well-known piece of history from God’s Word.

Mark 10:13-16 And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, ‘Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.’ And He took them in His arms and began blessing them, laying His hands on them.

Our Lord knew, and knows, the value of children. He took time out of his busy day to love these little ones who were brought to Him. The disciples didn’t get it. They didn’t immediately realize the influence they could make on the future through these little children. Jesus knew. I can only imagine what an impact it made on the children and their mothers for their Savior to love them this way.

Children are not a burden nor are they an inconvenience. They are a privilege and a blessing from God. Psalm 127:3 tells us that children are a gift from the Lord and the fruit of the womb is a reward. As Christians, we need to treasure children the way our Heavenly Father does. We need to be the ones who treat children as if they matter. We need to see them as more than just a check mark on our life list. If we are parents they should be our mission. If we are not parents, our mission should be to help the parents around us with their children.

In the church, let us be sure that we aren’t tossing the children aside in our activities and worship. The world sees a great need to distract children and get them out of the way. The disciples thought Jesus didn’t have time to spend with the children–they assumed His work was more important. Jesus proved that those assumptions and thoughts about children are wrong. We must be sure that children are central to our work and worship in the church and that we don’t see them as just something else that gets in the way of our mission. We must encourage families with children and, yes, even those with crying babies. The church should be the last place that young mothers feel uncomfortable about bringing their babies. Let’s welcome children as the gifts that they are. Let’s be sure we never develop a worldly response to families with children. We can’t let the world define the worth of the little ones. It may be cliche, but what would Jesus do? We know what Jesus would do based on his actions and words when the disciples saw fit to keep the children from Him. “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

By Miranda Trujillo
Miranda Trujillo is a 21-year old homeschool graduate and preacher’s kid. She attends Pleasant Valley church of Christ– the church building was her playground growing up. She loves gardening, mixing up herbal potions, feeding middle schoolers (as a lunch lady), blogging and enjoying her family life in the beautiful Pleasant Valley– Bellvue, Colorado.