We have heard people say many times that being childlike is a quality that everyone should develop, but one must not be childish. Have you ever thought what the difference between the two is? These two may sound very similar, but what is it that makes them so different from each other?

Childlike is a quality. A child is pure at heart. It doesn’t pretend. If it’s hungry, it will say that. If they want something, they directly ask for it. They also say it when they don’t like someone or something. They don’t pretend to be what they are not. These qualities are something we all should cultivate. We don’t need to pretend to be someone we are not.

The most important quality of a child is being pure by heart. We should never do something with a bad intention. If someone hurts us, it’s best to say it to that person at that very moment itself. They may not have caused us pain knowingly. There are chances that the person has no clue about it. So, saying it out at the very moment helps prevent two things — firstly, saying out loud will help us take it out of our heart and lessen the pain, and secondly, it will help clear any misunderstanding. If the person knows that his deeds have caused us pain in any way, they will take care not to do it again. This simplifies life at the very instant itself.

A child won’t remember what you did last summer. It forgives and forgets. It acts at the moment, and once the factor that is bothering it is removed, it forgets all about it and becomes happy again. In other words, it doesn’t hold grudges. If we are able to cultivate this quality, life will become much more beautiful. We need to learn and forgive people. This is one of the child-like qualities that people take years to master. But, once we are able to master it, nothing in this world can stop us from being happy.

When we throw a child high up in the air, it laughs. This is because it trusts us by all its heart that we will catch it. This is yet another child-like quality that we should try and cultivate. Though blind-trust is not good in today’s world, but trusting our near and dear ones, will ease our life to a great extent. If we don’t trust anyone, it becomes very difficult to even live. So to live, we need to trust at-least few people in our lives.

A child may demand for some toy it likes. It may already have a lot of other toys, but it may still cry for the new one. This is because, as a child, it doesn’t know the difference between want and need. It knows nothing about its parent’s financial status. This is because it is too young to understand such practicalities of life. But, when a grown up demands for something it may not require, this behaviour is known as being childish.

A grown-up is capable of judging the difference between need and want, understanding the importance of saving for the future, still, if a grown-up doesn’t seem to consider these practicalities of life, its behaviour will be considered to be childish.

An intelligent person is one who understands the difference between want and need. Need is the necessities that are required to lead a comfortable life. The basic necessities of life are - food to fill our stomach, water to quench our thirst, cloths to cover ourselves and a roof to stay safely. Beyond these, whatever we spend in is ‘want’.

‘Want’ has no limit. It can never be satisfied. We may think that if we have a beautiful house, we will be happy. But once we have the house, we may begin to feel the need of some furniture. Till we don’t buy that furniture, our mind won’t be at rest. Once we have purchased the furniture that we so felt was really required, we may start wanting a car. So ‘want’ doesn’t have any end. It just goes on and on. If we believe we are going to be happy once our wish is fulfilled, this is where we are wrong. We may feel happy for some time once our wish is fulfilled, but the next moment, our heart will be yearning for something else. Those who give in to this ‘want’ are childish. In such scenario, what is the difference between a child and a grown-up? What is considered to be innocence in a child is ignorance in a grown-up. Childish is a quality that is expected and accepted in a child, but not in a grown-up.

The beauty of being childlike is very well explained in the below quote:

So be proud if someone calls you childlike, but if someone calls you childish, remember childish is equivalent to being immature, and that’s not a quality you would like to have. So being childlike and mature is the best combination.