Until today, I thought Davy Crockett was merely a fictitious raccoon hunter. This afternoon, however, fact dislodged my fictitious understanding of the Tennessee native as I read a Crockett biography to my 6-year-old son and 5-year-old foster child.

With the two small boys sitting by my side, I learned that though many myths surround the “King of the Wild Frontier,” beneath the coonskin cap lived a real American hero—a longstanding member of the United States Congress, and a legendary soldier.

Among the most exhilarating gifts that accompany raising children are the opportunities that we, as adults, have to learn and discover. Through children, we have opportunities to master subjects we once considered dull, relish the messages in fairy tales, and delight in simplicity. In terms of faith, though, God doesn’t suggest that we return to thinking and reasoning as a child (1 Cor. 13:11). But He does exhort us to return to “childlike faith” and to simply trust in Jesus.

He longs for our expressions of faith to echo those of the psalmist who declared, “I love the Lord because He hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!” (Psalm 116:1-2).

The same God who “bends down to listen” to us experiences pleasure when we look up to Him. “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank You for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased You to do it this way!” (Matthew 11:25-26).

God desires that we once again view Him with credence versus skepticism, with trust instead of fear, and with hope rather than apprehension.