"Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3-4).

We've all heard the command from Jesus Christ to become as little children, and there are many angles from which to consider this instruction.

Recently I was struck by an insight into this, thanks to my 1 1/2-year-old daughter, Cadence. Lately she is very interested in the telephone and likes to pretend to talk on it (though her vocabulary is quite small). I was listening in to her conversation, which went something like this, "Hello? Hi! Um hum, yes, yes. Bye." The words and intonation were nearly an exact replica of what you might hear me saying to one of my friends on the phone.

How remarkable that a child, without really understanding the purpose, will mimic nearly everything his or her parents do. I thought this was an interesting thing to witness and apply to our spiritual lives.

God likewise wants us to mimic Him and develop His character. We may not always fully understand the great purpose that each bit of it has, but it is necessary that our actions imitate those of our Father to develop holy and righteous character.

In the same line of thinking, it also occurred to me, what if babies didn't mimic their parents? What if they decided that they didn't need to develop these characteristics and that their way was perfectly fine and perhaps even better?

How useless that would be—they would never come close to reaching their full potential as human beings.

Likewise, if we do not act as our Father and Lord Jesus Christ do and do not develop their characteristics, we will also never come close to reaching our true, spiritual potential. Just some food for thought!