Growing young I want to grow up and be like Madoka. She's in 7th grade and exudes innocent trust such as I have only seen in three-year-olds in the States. It's funny. She can only speak a few English phrases, but I feel more comfortable around her than many of the adults around me here that I can converse with in English. I think that those that trust allow others to trust them. That said, another quote from the book that is quickly climbing my favorites list: "...Our response to the love of Jesus demands trust...'Grace tells us that we are accepted just as we are. We may not be the kind of people we want to be, we may be a long way from our goals, we may have more failures than achievements, we may not be wealthy or powerful or spiritual, we may not even be happy, but we are nonetheless accepted by God, held in his hands. Such is his promise to us in Jesus Christ, a promise we can trust.'... "...'The desire to feel loved is the last illusion: let it go and you will be free.' Just as the sunrise of faith requires the sunset of our former unbelief, so the dawn of trust requires letting go of our craving spiritual consolations and tangible reassurances. Trust at the mercy of the response it receives is a bogus trust. All is uncertainty and anxiety...What the deisciple has not learned is that tangible reassurances, however valuable they may be, cannot create trust, sustain it, or guarantee any certainty of its presence...When the craving for reassurances is stifled, trust happens." (Brennan Manning, the Ragamuffin Gospel, pg. 112-113) Lord, make me as a child. I want, I need to learn to trust You as only a child can. Thank you for the beautiful child-hearts around me, and may I never fail to learn from them.