Who are God's "little ones"?

I have been studying pride a lot in the scriptures lately. Something about me having too much of it. While in the course of my studies, I was hit with a ray of inspiration I hope to make clear in this post.

First, we begin with a quote from President Ezra Taft Benson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means 'hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.' It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us." (April 1989) When I first heard that quote, it struck me that pride, the root of all sin, has a root. That root is enmity. Whenever we have pride, we have hatred toward someone. In my case, my hatred is usually directed inward.

In pondering over this thought, I was led to then look to see what attribute I need to acquire to root out this hatred. Humility is the opposite so I pondered what could be the central feature of humility. "Well," I thought to myself, "if hatred is the center of pride, love must be the center of humility." It makes sense, right? Love is the polar opposite of hatred.

Then that got me thinking even farther. Bring in the scripture found in Matthew 18:4-6.

"Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

Now I ask you this, God has a lot of children. Everyone who has lived, does live and ever will live on this earth is a precious son or daughter of God. Yet He is willing to protect His precious little ones by force if necessary. So now I ask myself, who exactly are God's "little ones"? This is the conclusion I have come to.

We are God's little ones. All of us. I am one of His little ones. Because I am one of his little ones, I have a responsibility to be kind to myself. Should I offend myself, "it were better for [me] that a millstone were hanged about [my] neck, and that [I] were drowned in the depth of the sea." Now that is not to say that God is going to punish me with fire and brimstone every time I have a displeasing thought toward this particular daughter of His, but it does show how strongly He feels about me. He expects us to show the same respect we show to others to ourselves.

This has been my thought for the past...pretty close to a month. I hope you enjoyed it. Now that the semester ends this week, I should have more time to blog and share new thoughts. :) Thank you for reading!