Our three year old, Kaylee, said, "I made God sad." - The Kingdom of God and Children

[James Nored]

Our three year old daughter Kaylee said something not nice this morning and my wife, Becki, corrected her. Then Kaylee said, "I made God sad. Jesus doesn't want me to talk like that."

Wow--either we have laid on the guilt, or she is just very tender and cute. I am hoping the latter! :) Wouldn't it be great if we all thought about every "not nice" thing that we said or were tempted to say--every gossip, slander, or harsh word--and realized that this makes God sad--and did not say it?

Would that not be a good church to be a part of? A good community? A good company? A good family? A good country?

I think that is what the kingdom of God looks like. Jesus said, "Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it" (Luke 18:17).

This kind of makes up for Kaylee saying during our Sunday night devotional on this passage that she would "have a picnic and eat the baby." Almost!

How do you think that children demonstrate to us how to "receive" the kingdom of God? What kinds of things do we say that make God sad?