Let childlike trust be yours today

By Dee Mahuvawalla

The words in the title are from Hymn 139, which remind us of the importance of childlike trust and how vital it is to exemplify this quality  in our day-to-day affairs. I found myself asking “What is childlike trust?”

Looking up the word trust, I found the following meanings –

“Firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing; custody; care; something committed into the care of another; the condition and resulting obligation of having confidence placed in one; one in which confidence is placed; to have or place reliance; depend on - as in Trust in the Lord”. ( www.answers.com}

Mary Baker Eddy writes in our textbook, “    Jesus loved little children because of their freedom from wrong and their receptiveness of right. While age is halting between two opinions or battling with false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards Truth.  .” (S & H Page 236:28)

Under the marginal heading “childlike receptivity” Mrs. Eddy continues, – “Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear, — this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony. The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress. "Blessed are the pure in heart:  for they shall see God."” (S & H Page 323:32)

Some of the qualities of childlikeness are: –innocence, purity, imagination, humor, spontaneity, joy, kindness, receptivity, freshness, wonder, obedience, creativity, honesty, teachability, innovation, resilience, energy, reliance, and intelligence. These are the qualities we all express at every stage in our lives. They are ageless and timeless. They cannot wax or wane, they are our birthright. “They are not subject to growth, maturity, and decay”.

These qualities remind us of our innate and intact childlikeness and trust. In a passage from Miscellaneous Writings, wherein Mrs. Eddy writes,

“When a hungry heart petitions the divine Father-Mother God for bread, it is not given a stone, — but more grace, obedience, and love. If this heart, humble and trustful, faithfully asks divine Love to feed it with the bread of heaven, health, holiness, it will be conformed to a fitness to receive the answer to its desire; then will flow into it the "river of His pleasure," the tributary of divine Love, and great growth in Christian Science will follow, — even that joy which finds one's own in another's good””. Misc.127:11

 In Mrs. Eddy’s writings, she places great emphasis on the word “let”. In Science and Health she uses the word “let” 87 times, in her Other Writings it appears 185 times, and in the Manual it appears 4 times. For example, “    Let us accept Science, relinquish all theories based on sense-testimony, give up imperfect models and illusive ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that one perfect, producing His own models of excellence.    Let the "male and female" of God's creating appear.  Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor material power as able to destroy. Let us rejoice that we are subject to the divine "powers that be."  Such is the true Science of being”. (S&H 249:1-10)

Our today is big with blessings “Let us endeavour to cherish this childlikeness whose “beginning will be meek, its growth  sturdy, and its maturity undecaying,” (S&H 463:15-16)