The
Parable of the Wandering Sheep Matthew 18:10
“See
that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their
angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.
“What
do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will
he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that
wandered off?
And
if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about
the ninety-nine that did not wander off.
In
the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones
should perish.
Children
Never Forget: The Unyielding Mirror of Innocence
My
mother used to say, "Children never forget".
By WPPraise
We often navigate the world of adulthood wearing
masks. We have a "professional" face, a "social" face, and
a "polite" face used to endure family gatherings or awkward
encounters. We justify this duplicity as a necessary lubricant for the gears of
society. We tell ourselves that as long as the surface remains calm, the depth
of our intent doesn't matter. But there is one demographic—one tiny, observant,
and uncompromising group—that renders these masks useless:
Children.
There is a profound, almost terrifying clarity in the
gaze of a child. From their innocent gaze reads, "Children never
forget." But they don’t just remember facts or dates; they remember the
frequency of your soul. They possess an innate, celestial radar for
authenticity. To pretend before a child is to perform a play for a critic who
can see through the stage curtains and into the dressing room. Never pretend
before a children's.
The
Purity of the Rain
Children are like the rain that falls from the
heavens, cleaning and rejuvenating the earth. This isn't just poetic sentiment;
it’s a functional truth. Rain doesn't have an agenda. It doesn't choose to fall
on the rose and skip the thorn; it simply "is", It falls with a
singular, refreshing honesty that washes away the dust of the world. Water has
no enemy. It refreshed our taste and keep our fields blooms.
Children function in much the same way. Before they
are socialized into the complex lies of "politeness" and "saving
face," they exist in a state of radical presence. When a child looks at
you, they aren't calculating what they can get from you or how you fit into
their five-year career plan. They are looking at the now.
Because they are "clean," they are
hypersensitive to "dirt." Just as a single drop of ink is glaringly obvious
in a glass of pure water, a single note of pretension is deafening to a child.
This is why the statement I would rather pretend before devils than pretend
before children resonates so deeply. A "devil"—or a cynical
adult—expects deceit. They play the game. They understand the subtext. But to
lie to a child is to introduce a toxin into a pristine ecosystem. It is a
violation of a sacred trust.
The
Silent Detectives of Genuineness
We often underestimate a child’s intellect because
they lack our vocabulary. We assume that because they can't articulate the
concept of "passive-aggression" or "performative kindness,"
they don't perceive it.
They
do.
Children know if you are genuine or fake not through
your words, but through your energy. They feel the tension in a forced smile;
they hear the hollow ring in a condescending "sweetie"; they notice
the way your eyes shift when you’re saying one thing but thinking another. Yes,
they’re young and innocent but they never forget the eyes that look at them in
pretence or love. Stop maltreatment of children because they're young, thinking
they're too young to comprehend your actions.
The eyes are the windows to the soul, and children are
the world’s most dedicated window shoppers. When an adult look at a child with
genuine love, there is a warmth that radiates—a lack of judgment, a presence of
mind. But when an adult look at a child through the lens of
"pretence"—perhaps using them as a prop for a photo, or treating them
as a nuisance to be managed—the child registers that coldness. That
registration doesn't just vanish. It archives itself. It becomes the foundation
of how that child perceives the world. If the people they are told to trust are
the ones wearing masks, the child begins to learn that the world is a stage
where no one is who they say they are. Children are like a growing tree. It
either be a shield over your head at maturity or a thorn over your flesh. Let
be genuine with children.
The
Longevity of the Impression
The phrase Children never forget is often used as a
warning about trauma, but it applies equally to the nuances of character.
Consider the "incidents". An adult might forget a dismissive comment
they made to a seven-year-old thirty years ago. They might forget the time they
promised to play and then "got too busy," or the time they looked at
the child with genuine annoyance while pretending to be interested. But the
child carries that. Why? Because to a child, every interaction is a data point
in the experiment of "What is a human being?"
The Genuine Incident: A child falls, and an adult stop
everything to truly see them—not just to hush them, but to acknowledge their
pain. The child remembers the safety of that gaze.
The Fake Incident: A child shares a drawing, and the adult
says, "That's nice," without ever looking away from their phone. The
child remembers the feeling of being invisible despite being seen. Their
innocence acts as a high-contrast filter. It strips away the excuses adults
make (stress, work, fatigue) and leaves only the raw interaction. Because they
don't have the "baggage" of understanding why an adult might be
faking it, they only experience the fact of the faking.
Why
We Must Be Fearless in Our Honesty
If children are the "rejuvenators" of the
earth, then our role as adults is to provide the soil in which they can grow.
If we fill that soil with the plastic of pretence, we shouldn't be surprised
when the garden fails to bloom. To be genuine with a child is a form of
courage. It means:
1. Admitting when you are wrong: A child
respects an adult who says "I'm sorry, I lost my temper" far more
than an adult who pretends they were "justified."
3. Being present: Even five minutes of
"real" time is worth more than five hours of "distracted"
time.
4. Expressing true emotion: It is better for a
child to see a parent cry or show frustration honestly than to see them wear a
frozen, porcelain mask of "everything is fine."
When we are authentic, we give children permission to
be authentic. We validate their intuition. When a child feels that something is
"off" and an adult confirms it, the child learns to trust their own
gut. If we tell them "nothing is wrong" when they can clearly feel
the tension in the room, we teach them to doubt their own senses. We gaslight
their innocence. When a leader publicly accepts his mistakes the followers will
believe more in his authority.
The Moral Weight of Memory
Never forget because children innocent help them
understand every incident, whether genuine or fake."
This suggests that the child's memory is a moral
compass. They don't just remember "that" something happened; they
remember the "truth" of what happened. As they grow older, these
memories serve as the benchmarks for their own character development. The child
who was looked at with "eyes of love" grows up understanding that
love is a quiet, steady presence. The child who was looked at with
"pretence" may spend their adulthood looking for masks to wear,
convinced that "genuine" is just a word people use to sell things.
A
Call to Reflection
We must ask ourselves: What am I depositing into the
vault of a child's memory today.
Am I the rain, or am I the smog? Is my smile a bridge
or a barrier? We cannot hide from the eyes of a child. They are the only
audience that matters because they are the only audience that sees us without
the interference of ego. To pretend before a "devil" is a tactical
choice; to pretend before a child is a spiritual failure. We owe it to the
rejuvenating rain of their existence to meet them with the same purity they
offer us. We must be the people we want them to remember.
Because, make no mistake: they "will" remember. They will remember
the warmth of your hand, the truth in your voice, and above all, the honesty in
your eyes. Long after our words are forgotten, the "incidents" of our
authenticity will remain, etched into the bedrock of who they become. In a
world full of shadows and mirrors, let us strive to be the one thing a child
can always count on: "Something real."
A
child eyes is the mirror to their soul