Jill Hubbard Cleaver
3 min readJul 15, 2024

A Beautiful New Way to Meditate: Give Your Full Attention to a Little Child

A prechool-aged grandchild and I were sitting on the porch and noticed a honeybee working the flowers. We very slowly drew closer and watched, mesmerized. We could see the bee collect nectar from each flower. We could see the pollen on her legs and the little wings beating two hundred times per second.

Time stood still.

It felt like a sacred moment.

I stooped down to be at eye level with a four-year-old granddaughter, looked into her eyes, paused, and told her how much I loved her. She could feel the sincerity and put her hands around my face and told me that she loved me too. Another sacred moment.

Jesus said: “Suffer (allow) the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God,” (Mark 10:14).

If we behold our little children more carefully, we will learn from their examples of trust, humility, love, patience, belief, obedience, genuineness, forgiveness, creativity, imagination, and sheer joy.

We will learn to play again. Oh, the value of play!

Little children love to be outdoors in nature and prefer moving to sitting in front of a screen. If you are feeling sad or anxious, spend some time with a preschooler.

Examples of the joy of little children: 1) A four-year-old grandson who calls his mother “Beautiful”; 2) An eight-year-old granddaughter, when asked what she wanted to do, replied, “I don’t care, Grandma, I just want to be with you”; 3) A grandchild who rests her head on my shoulder or pats me on the back while hugging me; and 4) A grandchild, who, when told that Grandma had a couple of hours of homework to do, said, “I will just wait right here by your door, and you can tell me when you are done.”

We miss out on wonderful opportunities when we are rushing and distracted.

Look into a little child’s eyes for a moment and see the goodness, purity, and power. Pause and look, without an agenda of trying to influence the child . Just look. Gently look.

Oh, to be seen! It’s a rare gift. To see a child for just a few moments is a breath of fresh air for us and for the child. Have you ever noticed how much they say “watch me,” then keep looking back to see if you really are watching?

When you see another person, truly see them, it gives them life! We can give and receive life through our quiet awareness.

It is a beautiful form of meditation.

We all find delight in watching a child learn to walk.

When a young child is learning to walk, he focuses on the parent across the room with eager anticipation of reaching the parent. He doesn’t analyze or strategize how to walk. He just keeps his eyes on the loving, encouraging parent.

He doesn’t seem to mind or even notice falling down, which happens repeatedly. He is naturally peaceful and confident most of the time. When he falls, the loving parent doesn’t yell at him. The parent claps, delighted with the effort and progress.

If he gets hurt, he goes to his parent and cries, gets comforted and forgets the hurt, and moves on.

What if we copy this behavior — keep our eyes on our Heavenly Parent, not overthink how to do things, and not get discouraged when we fall? What if we go to Him and express our feelings, receive His comfort, and move on? He sees us.

When we fall down, our Heavenly Parent doesn’t yell at us. He rejoices in our effort.

We can become as a little child.

Little children spend a lot of time observing their parents, even memorizing facial expressions and certain walking patterns. What if we keep our eye single to our Heavenly Parent, observing Him every day, memorizing how He does things? What if we listen more intently to Him?

So much we can learn from children. So much joy and delight we can add to our lives.

A beautiful way to meditate: spending more time with little children, giving full attention, allowing time to stop, enjoying a sacred moment.