2. A Simple and Lowly Heart, Like that of a Child

World Scripture

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them, and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”²
Matthew 18.1-3

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and puts off the natural man and becomes a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becomes as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord sees fit to inflict upon him, even as a child submits to his father.
Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3.19 (Latter-day Saints)

The great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart.
Mencius IV.B.12 (Confucianism)

Within the world the palace pillar is broad, but the human heart should be modest.
Moritake Arakida, One Hundred Poems about the World (Shinto)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon

What kind of person does God choose to carry out His works? There are eminent and powerful people who are ambitious to influence the world, but God does not choose them. He selects ordinary people, even laggards. God does not choose the people on top, but people on the bottom.
(102:300, January 21, 1979)

Jesus said, “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to babes.” (Matt. 11.25) He was lamenting over the spiritual ignorance of the Jewish leadership of his time, while on the other hand, he was grateful that God bestowed grace upon pure and uneducated believers by revealing His providence to them. In today’s Korean Christianity, at a time parallel to Jesus’ day, similar phenomena are taking place, albeit in more complex ways. Through pure and innocent lay believers, God has been revealing many heavenly secrets concerning the Last Days. However, because they would be chastised as heretics if they were to proclaim them in public, they are keeping these truths to themselves. Meanwhile, like the priests, rabbis and scribes of Jesus’ time, many Christian clergy take pride in their knowledge of the Bible and their ability to interpret it. They take pleasure in the reverence they receive from their followers; they are content to carry on the imposing duties of their offices; yet, to God’s grief, they are entirely ignorant of God’s providence in the Last Days.
(Exposition of the Divine Principle, Second Advent 3.3.4)

May we lay down before Thee, Father, all the rituals, ideologies and concepts of the world.
We ask that Thou dost grant us meek, humble minds like those of children.
May we have humble minds that can be molded as Thou wouldst mold us. (7:7, July 5, 1959)

Father! Allow us to open our hearts, and to have hearts that long for Thee,
like hungry babes longing for their mothers’ milk.
(20:7, March 31, 1968)