Child-like Faith: Honesty and Humility

In 2006, I wrote a post about humility.  I just went back and read it again because I was struggling to define it for this post.

The secular definition of humility connotes subservience to other people; the theological definition of humility means subservience to God. It may (and probably will) result in acting as a servant to others, but that is a result of obeying the will of God. Sometimes humility will mean standing against injustice – whether in a peaceful protest, on the playground or in the boardroom. Humility doesn’t always mean quiet and meek – sometimes it means loud and annoying – but I would guess that it always means obedience to God and often requires courage.

And then I found this on another post:

Dr. Jarvis says that, "Jesus taught us that children have the qualities necessary to enter heaven: joyful enthusiasm for life and humble dependence."

Compare that to this scripture from Matthew 18:2-4:

He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

So, one of the characteristics of a child-like faith is to live with honesty and humility, and perhaps the most humbling act of honesty we can make is to say, "God is God and I am not."