Being childlike

I have been thinking a lot lately about this scripture. It talks about becoming like a child. I remember back in my seminary days talking about the difference between being childlike and childish. For example, childlike qualities are like those in the scripture: meek, submissive, full of love, etc. Childish qualities are like whiny, immature, etc. Anyway, I have been really thinking about this because lately I have loved to just sit back and watch Kate. She has unknowingly been a really great teacher to me. On a day to day basis, she portrays all of the qualities described in Mosiah 3.
The first quality I really see in her daily is submissive; not just her willingness to be submissive, but her faith in being submissive. She doesn't quite get being submissive to the will of the Lord yet (she's 4), but she is submissive to her parents. It has hit me how important this is for her to learn now and that we, as her parents, need to teach her the parallels. For her, what mom and dad say goes. Why wouldn't it? She really has no reason to question. If mom says "don't go out in the road", she may ask why one time, but if mom said it, she's going to listen. She might need to be reminded a few times, but I think that's probably natural. Now stepping back, I wish it were as easy for me to be as submissive to my heavenly father. What He says goes. It's pretty simple. I wish I could be childlike and never question his instructions and lessons.
Another quality I see in her is forgiveness. The other day we were at McDonald's and she was playing in the Playplace with some other kids. She came to me in tears and said a mean boy pushed her. After a kiss and hug, her tears were gone and she was back playing. I didn't ever hear one more word about the boy that pushed her. This one kind of hit me hard. I put myself in that situation. Can you imagine if as an adult, someone just pushed you?! I would stand there, shocked, not knowing if I should laugh or be angry. I would probably confront the person, and knowing me, I would tell everyone I know about it. Can you believe this??... then, I'm sure Matt would hear about it for at least a couple weeks. Now, obviously, the odds of an adult just pushing me at McDonald's are pretty low, but the principle is still important. Childlike forgiveness is a quality I know I could use, and probably a lot of us out there could use. I need to learn to forgive and forget easily and not to sweat the small stuff.
Another thing I love about Kate is how she finds joy in the simplest things. She is such a happy person. She has a bounce and skip in her step all the time. When I tell her she gets to pick out a treat at the local Maverick, she reacts with the most genuine excitement. I wish I would find joy in tiny things like that. I imagine life would be a lot easier if I had more gratitude for what I have and if I found joy in the smallest things. Definitely something to work on.
Anyway, kind of a random post, but it's been on my mind and I am trying to do what the scripture says, and become like a child. Not childish, childlike.
Here is a great talk on the subject.

Thanks to my great teacher: