Come, Follow Me for Littles · November 23

A kind older prophet in an everyday striped tunic and cloth head wrap speaking warmly to a group of attentive listening people of all ages sitting on the grass in a sunny green field.

Monday

Heavenly Father Tells His Prophets

Today's idea Heavenly Father does not surprise us — He tells His prophets first.

Imagine your family is going on a trip. Would you rather find out when the car is already moving, or know about it days ahead so you can be excited and pack your bag?

Heavenly Father thinks about that too.

A prophet named Amos wrote down one short sentence that tells us something big about how Heavenly Father works: “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”

That means Heavenly Father does not do big things without telling somebody first. And the somebody He tells is His prophet.

So when the prophet stands up and tells us what Heavenly Father wants us to know, that is not just a nice man giving advice. That is Heavenly Father making sure we get to know ahead of time.

We have a prophet on the earth right now. When he speaks, Heavenly Father has already told him what to say.

A child in modest ancient-Israel robes kneeling and searching happily through green grass and flowers in a sunny meadow with a delighted look of discovery.

Tuesday

Seek, and You Will Live

Amos 5

Today's idea Looking for Heavenly Father is something you get to do every day.

Do you like looking for things? Hunting for the hidden egg, or the missing sock, or the exact right stick?

Looking for something is different from waiting for it. When you look, you are the one doing something.

Amos wrote down four words from Heavenly Father: “Seek ye me, and ye shall live.”

Seek means look for. So Heavenly Father did not say, “Sit still and maybe I will turn up.” He said: come looking. I want to be found.

Then Amos said what looking actually looks like on an ordinary day: “Seek good, and not evil.” Choose the kind thing. Choose the honest thing. That is what seeking Heavenly Father looks like when you are five.

And he promised what happens next — “and the Lord shall be with you.” When you go looking for Him, you find that He is already right there.

A child in modest ancient-Israel robes holding an open scroll in both hands and reading it eagerly with a joyful expression, a woven basket of bread beside them on a sunny garden table.

Wednesday

Hungry for Words

Amos 8

Today's idea Heavenly Father's words are food, and we have plenty of it now.

Have you ever been really, properly hungry? Not “I would like a snack” hungry — the kind where you cannot think about anything else?

Amos said there would come a time when people would be hungry like that, but not for bread.

He said it would be “a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.” People would wander around looking for Heavenly Father's words and not be able to find them anywhere.

For a long time, that happened. There were no prophets to ask. People were hungry, and there was nothing to eat.

But that famine is over. Heavenly Father brought His words back. Now there are scriptures on the shelf, and a prophet who speaks, and songs, and stories — as much as you like.

So next time somebody reads you a scripture story, remember that people once went looking for that and could not find it. You get it just by asking.

A big family of many generations in modest ancient-Israel robes standing together on a sunny green hill holding hands in a long happy chain: great-grandparents, grandparents, parents and small children.

Thursday

Helpers on the Mountain

Obadiah 1

Today's idea We can help the people in our family who lived long, long ago.

Obadiah is the shortest book in the whole Old Testament. It is so short you could read it before your porridge got cold.

But right at the end of it, Obadiah says something that has made people wonder ever since. He said, “saviours shall come up on mount Zion.”

Saviours — helpers. Coming up the mountain. Doing something for somebody else.

Here is what that means for your family. You have grandmas and grandpas, and THEY had grandmas and grandpas, going back and back and back further than anybody can remember.

Some of them never got to hear about Jesus while they lived. So we find out their names, and write them down, and take them to the temple — so that somebody can do something for them that they could not do for themselves.

That is being a helper on the mountain. And you can start right now, just by asking somebody, “What was your grandma's name?”

A large friendly gentle great fish like a kind whale with soft happy eyes swimming through bright sunny blue water, with a small wooden sailing boat floating on the surface above.

Friday

Running the Other Way

Jonah 1

Today's idea You cannot get away from Heavenly Father — and He would not want you to.

Heavenly Father asked a man named Jonah to go to a big city called Nineveh and tell the people there to be better.

Jonah did not want to. So he did something a bit silly. He got on a boat going in exactly the opposite direction.

Out at sea a great wind came up, and the sailors were worried. Jonah knew why, and he told them so, and he ended up in the water.

But Heavenly Father had already thought about that. He sent a great big fish, and the fish kept Jonah safe inside for three whole days.

Three days is a long time to sit and think. And down there in the quiet, Jonah prayed. He told Heavenly Father he was sorry, and thank you.

So the fish brought Jonah right back to dry land, and Heavenly Father asked him the very same thing again. He does not give up on people who run away. He just waits, and asks again.

A whole cheerful city of people in modest ancient-Israel robes gathered together in a sunny square listening thoughtfully to a prophet, everyone looking kind and attentive.

Saturday

The City That Listened

Jonah 3

Today's idea It is never too late for anybody to change.

So Jonah finally went to Nineveh. It was an enormous city — it took three days just to walk across it.

Jonah walked in and started telling people what Heavenly Father had said. He probably did not expect much. These were not his people, and he had not wanted to come.

But something wonderful happened. They listened.

The whole city listened. Ordinary people listened. Then the king heard about it, got up off his throne, and said everybody should be sorry together and stop doing unkind things.

And Heavenly Father saw it. The scriptures say He saw “that they turned from their evil way” — and He forgave them, every one.

Jonah thought they were too far gone to bother with. Heavenly Father did not think that about a single person in that city. He never does.

A leafy green plant with big broad leaves giving cool shade to a man in modest ancient-Israel robes sitting on a sunny green hillside, a large city visible below in the valley with cattle grazing nearby.

Sunday

He Cares About Everybody

Jonah 4

Today's idea Heavenly Father loves people you have not even met.

Here is the strangest part of Jonah's story. When Heavenly Father forgave the whole city, Jonah was grumpy about it.

He went and sat on a hill outside town in a huff. So Heavenly Father grew a big leafy plant over him for shade, and Jonah was very pleased about that plant. He loved it.

The next day the plant withered, and Jonah was upset all over again.

Then Heavenly Father asked him a gentle question. He said: you cared about that plant, and you did not even grow it. It was there one day and gone the next.

“And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons?” That is a hundred and twenty thousand people — plus, He added, all their animals.

Heavenly Father notices everybody. The people in the next street. The people in countries you cannot say the name of yet. Even, He mentioned, their cows.