Come, Follow Me for Littles · November 9

Four cheerful healthy young men in modest ancient-Israel robes sitting at a low wooden table happily eating fresh vegetables and colourful fruit and drinking water from clay cups in a sunny room.

Monday

Daniel Asks for Vegetables

Today's idea Taking care of your body is one way of saying thank you for it.

Daniel was a young man who lived far away from home, in a king's palace. The king wanted Daniel and his friends to eat the king's fancy food every day.

But Daniel had decided something in his heart. He wanted to eat the way Heavenly Father had taught him. So he asked, very politely, if he and his friends could have vegetables to eat and water to drink instead.

The man in charge was nervous. What if they got skinny and weak? Then he would be in trouble!

So Daniel said, “Just try it for ten days. Then look at us.”

Ten days later, the man looked. And Daniel and his friends were healthier and stronger and brighter-eyed than anybody else there.

Heavenly Father gave you your body as a present. Eating good things, drinking water, running around, sleeping well — all of that is a way of saying, “Thank you for my body.”

Four young men in modest ancient-Israel robes kneeling together in a small circle with heads bowed and hands clasped, praying together in a sunny room with golden light through an open window.

Tuesday

Ask Together

Daniel 2

Today's idea When something is too big to figure out, ask Heavenly Father — and ask together.

One night the king had a dream that worried him. In the morning he wanted somebody to tell him what it meant. But he would not tell anybody what the dream was! They had to guess the dream AND explain it.

Nobody could do that. Nobody in the whole kingdom.

When Daniel heard about it, he did not panic and he did not pretend he knew. He went and got his three friends.

And the four of them prayed together. They asked Heavenly Father to show them, because He was the only one who could.

That night, Heavenly Father showed Daniel the whole thing. And do you know what Daniel did first, before he ran to the king? He stopped and said thank you.

When something feels too big for you, that is a very good time to say, “Can we pray about it together?” Daniel was smart enough to not do it alone.

A small smooth round stone rolling down a green mountainside and growing larger and larger until it becomes a great green mountain filling a sunny valley, with a child watching in happy wonder.

Wednesday

The Little Stone That Grew

Daniel 2

Today's idea Heavenly Father's kingdom started small and keeps growing.

Here is what Daniel saw in the king's dream.

He saw a stone. Just a little one, cut out of a mountain without anybody's hands touching it.

And then that little stone started to grow. And grow. And grow — until it became a great big mountain that filled the whole earth.

Daniel told the king what it meant. He said Heavenly Father was going to start a kingdom that would never, ever be broken or stopped or taken away.

That is the Church of Jesus Christ. It started with a very small handful of people. Now there are people in it in almost every country in the world, singing the same songs you sing.

You are part of the stone that is still rolling. Small things that come from Heavenly Father do not stay small.

Three calm young men in modest ancient-Israel robes standing peacefully and safely together with a warm bright golden glow all around them and a gentle fourth shining figure in white standing beside them.

Thursday

The Three Who Would Not Bow

Daniel 3

Today's idea You can do what is right even when everybody else is doing something else.

Daniel had three friends: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Can you say those names? They are wonderful to say.

The king built a tall golden statue and told everybody that when the music played, they all had to bow down to it.

The music played. Everybody bowed. Everybody except three people, still standing up straight.

The king was very angry and told them they were in real trouble. But they said the bravest thing: our God is able to keep us safe — and even if He does not, we still will not bow down.

So they were taken to a very hot place. And when the king looked, his eyes went wide. They were walking around perfectly fine, not hurt one bit — and there was a fourth person with them, shining.

They came out completely safe. Not even a hair. And the king said, “There is no other God who can rescue people like this.”

A kind man in modest ancient-Israel robes kneeling peacefully beside a wide open window with bright sunlight streaming in, hands gently folded, looking out at a clear blue sky over a sunny city.

Friday

Three Times a Day

Daniel 6

Today's idea Praying every day is a habit worth keeping, no matter what.

Daniel had a habit. Three times every single day, he went to the upstairs room in his house, opened the window, knelt down, and prayed to Heavenly Father. And he said thank you every time.

Some men at the palace did not like Daniel, and they noticed that habit. So they talked the king into making a silly new rule: for thirty days, nobody could ask anything of anybody except the king.

Now what would you do? You could pray quietly. You could shut the window. You could just skip it for a month — thirty days is not that long.

Do you know what Daniel did? Exactly what he had always done. Upstairs. Window open. Knelt down. Said thank you.

Not to show off. He was not making a big point. It was just that talking to Heavenly Father was not the sort of thing Daniel was willing to stop doing.

That is what a habit is for. You build it on the easy days so it is already there on the hard ones.

A kind gentle man in modest ancient-Israel robes sitting peacefully on the ground with several calm friendly lions resting quietly around him like big sleepy contented cats in warm morning light.

Saturday

The Lions Who Went to Sleep

Daniel 6

Today's idea Heavenly Father can keep you safe in ways nobody expects.

Because Daniel kept praying, he was put somewhere with lions in it.

The king felt terrible about it. He liked Daniel very much. That night the king could not eat and could not sleep. He just waited for morning.

But Heavenly Father sent an angel, and the angel shut the lions' mouths. So Daniel spent the night with a lot of very large, very calm cats, and not one of them touched him.

As soon as the sun came up, the king came running and called out, “Daniel! Was your God able to keep you safe?”

And Daniel called back — from down there, perfectly fine — “O king, live for ever! My God sent his angel, and shut the lions' mouths.”

They lifted him out without a single scratch. The scriptures say it was because he believed in his God. Then the king wrote a letter to the whole kingdom about how wonderful Heavenly Father is.

A beautiful bright golden kingdom city on a green hill with joyful people of every age in modest ancient-Israel robes gathered happily together in warm golden light with colourful banners and flowers.

Sunday

A Kingdom That Never Ends

Daniel 7

Today's idea Jesus's kingdom will go on for ever and ever.

Daniel had a dream of his own once, and in it he saw something wonderful.

He saw someone coming with the clouds of heaven. Daniel called Him “one like the Son of man.” That is Jesus.

And Daniel watched as Jesus was given something: glory, and a kingdom, and all people everywhere to love and take care of.

Then Daniel wrote down the part that matters most. He said it is “an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away,” and a kingdom “which shall not be destroyed.”

Kingdoms in this world come and go. Even the biggest, strongest ones eventually turn into pictures in a book.

But not this one. Jesus's kingdom does not have a last page. And you are already in it.