Come, Follow Me for Littles · October 19

A small child in modest ancient-Israel robes standing tall and brave in a sunny green field with a warm golden glow of light around them, looking upward with a confident happy smile.

Monday

He Knew You First

Today's idea Heavenly Father knew you before you were born, and you are not too little.

There was a young man named Jeremiah. One day Heavenly Father spoke to him and said something that has never stopped being amazing.

He said, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.”

Before Jeremiah was a baby. Before anybody had ever held him or named him. Heavenly Father already knew exactly who he was.

And that is true about you too. You were not a surprise. Heavenly Father knew you first.

Now, when Heavenly Father asked Jeremiah to be a prophet, Jeremiah said, “But I cannot — I am only a child!” Have you ever felt that way? Too little, too young, not big enough yet?

Heavenly Father told him, “Say not, I am a child.” Then He said, “I am with thee.” Being little was never a good enough reason to say no — not for Jeremiah, and not for you.

A child in modest ancient-Israel robes kneeling beside a clear bubbling spring of fresh water in a sunny green meadow, with an old cracked empty clay jar set aside on the grass nearby.

Tuesday

The Spring and the Cracked Jar

Jeremiah 2

Today's idea Heavenly Father is a spring that never runs dry.

Imagine you are thirsty on a hot day, and there are two things in front of you.

One is a spring — cold, clear water bubbling right up out of the ground, all by itself, all day long. The other is an old clay jar with a crack down the side. You can fill it up, but by the time you carry it home, all the water has leaked out into the dirt.

Which one would you pick?

Jeremiah said Heavenly Father is the spring. He called Him “the fountain of living waters.” He never runs out. You can go back a hundred times.

But sometimes people walk right past the spring and choose the cracked jar instead. They try to fill themselves up with things that leak — and then they are thirsty again by lunchtime.

You do not have to carry a leaky jar. The spring is right there, and it is always running.

A child in modest ancient-Israel robes running joyfully up a sunny path toward a warm open doorway where a kind parent in an everyday striped tunic waits with both arms open wide.

Wednesday

Come Home

Jeremiah 3

Today's idea No matter what happened, Heavenly Father always says, “Come home.”

Have you ever run away? Maybe just to the end of the yard, or behind the couch, because you were upset or because you did something wrong and you did not want anybody to see your face.

And then, after a while, you wanted to come back. But you were not sure how.

Jeremiah's message was for people who felt exactly like that. They had wandered away from Heavenly Father, and they thought maybe He was finished with them.

Do you know what Heavenly Father said? One word, over and over: “Return.”

Return unto me. Come back. He said, “I am merciful,” and He promised to heal them.

There is no walking so far away that the way home gets closed. He is standing in the doorway with the light on. He always is.

A kind parent in an everyday striped tunic and cloth head wrap and a small child in modest ancient-Israel robes walking side by side along a clear sunny path through green fields, the child copying the parent's steps.

Thursday

Walk in the Way

Jeremiah 7

Today's idea When we walk the way Heavenly Father shows us, things go well.

Have you ever walked behind somebody and put your feet exactly where their feet went? In deep snow, or in wet sand, or along a narrow path?

It is easier that way. Somebody already found the good places to step.

Jeremiah told the people something Heavenly Father wanted them to hear: “Obey my voice… and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.”

That last bit is the important bit — “that it may be well unto you.” Heavenly Father does not give us rules to make life smaller. He gives them so things go well for us.

It is like a grown-up saying “hold my hand in the parking lot.” That is not a mean rule. That is a rule shaped exactly like love.

So today you can put your feet where His feet went. He already knows where the good places to step are.

Cheerful fishermen in modest ancient-Israel robes happily pulling in a big net full of shiny silver fish from a sparkling blue lake, with children helping on the green shore.

Friday

Bringing People Home

Jeremiah 16

Today's idea Heavenly Father gathers His children home, and you can help.

Have you ever helped look for something everybody lost? A missing shoe, a missing puppy, a missing cousin at the park? Everybody spreads out. Everybody helps.

Jeremiah said Heavenly Father was going to do something like that with His children — gather them back together from everywhere they had scattered.

He said He would send fishers to gather them, the way fishermen gather up a big net full of fish, and hunters to search for them over every mountain.

That means Heavenly Father does not want to lose anybody. Not one.

Today, people who help gather are called missionaries. Maybe you know one. Maybe someday you will be one.

But you do not have to wait. Every time you invite a friend to come with you, or tell somebody they belong, you are helping gather. That is the whole job.

A big healthy leafy green tree with strong deep roots growing beside a clear sparkling stream, with a child in modest ancient-Israel robes sitting happily in its cool shade.

Saturday

The Tree by the Water

Jeremiah 17

Today's idea Trusting Heavenly Father makes you strong, like a tree with deep roots.

Picture two trees. One is out on dry, cracked ground with no water anywhere. Its leaves are brown and crackly, and when the wind blows it wobbles.

The other one grows right beside a stream. Its roots go down deep, deep, deep, all the way to the water.

Jeremiah said that a person who trusts Heavenly Father is like the second tree. “He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreadeth out her roots by the river.”

Then Jeremiah said the best part. When the hot weather comes, that tree is not worried. Its leaf stays green. And in a dry year, it keeps right on growing fruit.

Notice he did not promise the hot weather would never come. He promised the tree would be fine when it did — because of where its roots were.

Every time you pray, or listen, or choose the kind thing, your roots go down a little deeper toward the water.

A kind potter in an everyday striped tunic and cloth head wrap shaping a smooth clay pot on a spinning potter's wheel with gentle careful hands, a small child watching closely with delight.

Sunday

The Potter's Gentle Hands

Jeremiah 18

Today's idea Heavenly Father is shaping you, gently and patiently.

Heavenly Father told Jeremiah to go down to the potter's house and watch. So Jeremiah went.

The potter had a wheel that spun round and round, and a lump of soft wet clay on top of it. His hands moved on the clay, and slowly a pot began to appear.

Then something happened. The pot did not turn out right. It went lopsided.

Do you know what the potter did? He did not get angry. He did not throw the clay away. He gathered it back into his hands and made it again, into something good.

And Heavenly Father said to Jeremiah: that is what I am like. “As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand.”

You are the clay. When something goes lopsided, He does not throw you away. He gathers you up in warm, patient hands — and keeps going.