I have kept a running list of the verses that have carried me. Some I found in a hard season and never let go of. Others I stumbled onto and they said the thing I could not say for myself. These are a few of them, in no particular order, just the ones I keep coming back to.

Matthew 18:3

And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

This is the verse the whole blog is named after. Childlike faith. Trusting the way a kid trusts, before they learn to need every answer first.

Philippians 1:6

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

When I am sure I have wasted my time or fallen too far behind, this reminds me the work was never mine to finish. He started it. He carries it.

Psalm 27:13

I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

Not only someday, somewhere else. Here. In this life, in the ordinary land of the living. I hold onto that on the days it is hard to believe.

Hebrews 6:10

God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.

For the quiet things nobody notices. He notices them, and He does not forget them.

Romans 4:18-21

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

Abraham had every reason to give up and believed anyway. Against all hope, in hope. That is the kind of faith I want on my worst days.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

I am a planner by nature. This is my daily reminder that my own understanding was never the thing holding my life together.

Lamentations 3:22-23

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

New every morning. However yesterday went, the mercy resets. I need that more than I know how to say.

Zephaniah 3:17

The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.

God rejoicing over me with singing. I do not fully understand it. I just do not want to forget it.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV).