Dear LWML Leaders,

Confidence in Christian leadership is being grounded in the Word.

“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mark 10:15).

It is hard to understand the concept of childlike faith until you have held out your arms to a child you barely know, and he comes to you. The child instinctively believes you will do what is best for him. As a toddler learns to walk, he may be more hesitant to take your hand, but he still trusts you not to let him fall. A school-age child will ask many questions and expect you, as the adult in his life, to know the answers. Sometimes you do but don’t think the child is ready to fully understand the answer, so you say, “We will talk about it when you are older.”

All of those steps are examples of the kind of childlike faith God wants us to have in Him. They are also the kinds of examples He would have us set as Christian leaders. As infants in the faith, whatever our chronological age may be, we instinctively know that God — our Father — wants what is best for us. As we continue our faith journey, we hold our Father’s hand by hearing His Word and receiving His gifts of grace and forgiveness through the Sacraments. The more we study, the more questions we have, and the more we pray for answers. Sometimes those answers come in the form of a timely sermon or counsel from a Christian friend, but sometimes our Father says, “We will talk about it when you are older — when you are more mature in your faith.”

during the times we don’t have answers that we must rely on our childlike faith. That is when we hold tight to our Father’s hand or fall into His arms and trust Him to lead us through the present darkness, knowing that, in His eternal light, we will have all the answers we need