





































11

and a Child shall lead them:  
the wise Child Folk motiF in mormon disCourse

sPenCer linColn green

Prevalent in folktales throughout the world and in popular media in America, the 
“Wise Child” whose innocence sees through the deceptions, greed, envy, and 
ingratitude of his or her elders flourishes in Mormon official and lay discourse. 
Paradoxical in its inherent reversal of hierarchies in a religion often noted for 
its hierarchies, the wise child, rather than challenging adults and exposing adult 
foibles to mockery, is used to gently remind all members of their shortcomings 
and encourage greater adherence to church doctrines. Since the wise child in 
folk and popular culture is most often a trickster figure who points out foibles 
and follies in adults, how has it come to be used so often in Mormon discourse 
by those very adults and authority figures who are usually the butt of its jokes? 
This paper seeks to look at the significance of the wise child in Mormon official 
discourse, the transformation it has undergone there, and what that has to say 
about Mormon culture.

While the wise child is prevalent throughout Mormon discourse, this study is 
limited to the examples in the Spring and Fall sessions of General Conference. 
General Conference is a biannual meeting consisting of five two hour meetings 
over a Saturday and Sunday in April and October when Church Leaders present 
doctrinal and exhortive talks to church membership worldwide. This has been 
occurring since 1830 and each General Conference is identified by season or 
month and number ordinal number. My texts then come from the 182nd Spring 
and Fall or April and October General Conferences of The Church of Jesus Christ 
of Latter-day Saints. 

General Conference is a time when the church General Authorities address the 
church as a whole. The General Authorities is a term for the highest authorities 
of the Church. At the head is the President or Prophet of the Church and the 
First-Presidency which includes the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson and his two 
Counselors. Beneath them, but still regarded as “prophets, seers, and revelators,” 
are the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who are ranked in order of when they 
entered the Quorum. Next comes a Presidency of the Seventy, a group of 7 men 
who help direct the work of the First and Second Quorums of the Seventies, 
known as Seventies because of Christ appointing “other seventy” to preach the 
gospel in Luke 10:1. There is also a ruling Bishopric who take care of church 
humanitarian efforts, and the different auxiliary general presidencies of the Relief 
Society, the church’s women’s organization; the Young Women and Young Men, 
organizations for twelve to eighteen year old members; and Primary, organizations 
for the children of the church. All these presidencies, like local presidencies and 
the First Presidency, consist of 3 members: a President and First and Second 
Counselors. 

General Conference is an important part of the year for active LDS church 
members and is often used in lessons and talks throughout the year by members 



And A Child ShAll leAd Them Green 

12

when they give talks in their local, weekly meetings. Further study on the 
wise child’s use in local meetings will certainly reveal local variations, General 
Conference talks represent the Church’s most public and widely recognized corpus 
of doctrine and knowledge beyond the “Standard Works.” The standard works are 
the Old and New Testaments, the Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, 
and the Pearl of Great Price. My citations for these scriptures follow the standard 
LDS conventions. 

The Wise Child in Folklore

The Wise Child, folk motif J120 in the Stith Thompson Motif Index, includes 
tales from many cultures describing how a child’s actions produce knowledge or 
wisdom in adults. Often it is the child’s naiveté that produces the knowledge, and 
often in the form of a rebuke, in their elders. For example, motif J121 tells of a 
certain son being reproved by his own son’s imitation of him. After a man gives 
his aged father half a carpet to keep warm, his own son keeps the other half, 
telling him that he is keeping it for him when he’s older. Sometimes the situation 
is reversed as when a father tells a son to only drag him to the threshold, but no 
farther, because that is as far as he dragged his father. The themes of old age, 
decrepitude, and a simple, naïve sense of justice are all features of these stories. 
The wisdom produced in these tales comes from both the child’s interpretations of 
his father’s actions and the father’s subsequent revelation of the justice of his own 
actions. The child then, knowingly or not, is active in creating the story’s moral 
(Thompson).

Motifs J122 and J125 follow this pattern. Motif J122 features the naïve remarks 
of children rebuking or uncovering the sins of their parents. In one a forgetful 
father wonders what he’s forgotten and his naïve son suggests that he forgot to 
strike mother, as he was an abusive man. In another a seducer is stopped short by 
a child lamenting that his mother is open to just the crime he aims to commit. In 
motif J125, children uncover their parent’s misdeeds such as an innkeeper’s wife 
who has watered down the wine, or the child who innocently reveals that the 
father’s secretary has been having an affair with his wife. While the targets of the 
knowledge often changes—though is always composed of adults—the revelation 
in these stories is also a dialogic act between the child and the adult (ibid.). 

Motifs J123 and J124 don’t rely on the child’s innocence and naiveté to uncover 
wisdom, nor do they rely on the child’s innocence. Here the children can be either 
a passive object lesson or the agent who actively produces the wisdom in the tale. 
A King who judges a lawsuit wisely after observing a child’s game and seeing the 
principles of justice present in the game earns his wisdom on his own without 
significant participation from the children. Here they seem to act more as object 
lessons rather than being involved in the meaning-making of the tale. But there 
are also the cases of a clever prince overruling the seemingly just decision of the 
King with greater wisdom, and the J124 motif which encourages the learning of 
virtues from children who can exhibit patience when their food is stolen. Adults 
can learn patience when they see the children search quietly for their food rather 
than crying or getting distressed. In these cases, the child is actually regarded 



Green  And A Child ShAll leAd Them

13

as wise either through having a rare wisdom beyond his years as the prince 
exhibited, or an innate quality that is seen as desirable in the adult world (ibid.). 

There seem to be two spectrums at work in creating the central action and 
conflict in these stories. One is a passive/active spectrum. Active children interact 
with adults in some way to create the moral of the story. Passive children’s actions 
are only significant when the observing adult draws wisdom from the child in a 
way that might be available to any observer. The other main spectrum is between 
the naïve and knowing child. Again, the bulk of stories feature children who 
possess their wisdom naively. Their sense of justice is innate, or their fears real 
and guileless, and it is simply in voicing those pure, innocent, and honest values 
that creates wisdom in the adults around them. In this way they are valued as 
speakers of widely known but unacknowledged truths as in “The Emperor’s New 
Clothes.” The lone instance of the clever prince whose actions are indicative of 
wisdom in and of themselves without the interpretation or transfer of that wisdom 
to a corresponding adult is an exception that seems to prove that most of the wise 
children in folktales rely on being active but naïve.

The wise child is a liminal figure that both divides and bridges the worlds of 
children and adults. A child is often seen as passive and naïve, as an object rather 
than a subject (de Schweinitz 126). As they grow more active, and more knowing, 
they come to enter more and more the adult world. As such, the best bridge 
between the two worlds are children who partake of both the childlike and the 
adult. These wise children exist somewhere between the wholly naïve and passive 
child of popular imagination and the active knowledge associated with adults and 
are indeed the most popular in folklore. This would suggest that the knowing, 
passive child would be the next most common, but there are no examples of 
passive, knowing children. This could be due to narratives preferring the more 
dynamic “active” child. Tales with passive wise children are more rare than the 
active because knowledge seems to presuppose or be indicated by activity. In 
other words, a child can act naively, but a knowing child will show it through his 
or her actions. Finally, the next most uncommon category seems to be knowing 
and active children as they partake too much of the adult world and or no longer 
childlike. Thus they are no longer liminal, trickster figures who can instruct and 
delight.

It is important to note that these categories are etic constructions and don’t 
always reflect the use of the wise child motif. The speaker and audience may not 
care whether child characters are active or passive, naïve or knowing, especially 
in the context of a didactic discourse such as General Conference. Within the 
General Conference talks I surveyed, the most common child was an active, naïve 
child, but there were also numerous examples of the knowing, passive child. The 
requirements of a good story or performance also influence how wise children 
are used in Mormon discourse. Active children are certainly more interesting than 
passive, while naïve and knowing children both have their narrative uses, and can 
both create interesting, artistically satisfying, story arcs and turnarounds. 

Other scholars have noticed some of these contrasts at use in Mormon culture. 
Kristine Haglund Harris studied changes in the Children’s Songbook and found 
“that early Primary songs presume that young people will play significant roles 



And A Child ShAll leAd Them Green 

14

in building the kingdom while later songs try to limit children’s activity (think 
‘reverence’) and suggest that children prepare themselves for future contributions” 
(qtd. in de Schweinitz 135). Harris found Mormon culture favoring passive children 
more recently, but the use of the wise child in General conference shows that LDS 
still prefers active children for use in official narratives. 

Categorizing wise children in Mormon discourse with these traits was 
sometimes unclear. Active or passive traits, while seemingly obvious, were often 
unclear in context, and naïve and knowing were even less clear, and sometimes 
less relevant. Henry Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency , spoke on 
the seeming difficulty in knowing or perceiving God in the world. In his address 
he relates the story of his three year old granddaughter visiting an open house 
of a temple, sacred structures to Latter-day Saints said to be a house of God. In 
one of the beautiful rooms, she asks her mother, “Mommy, where is Jesus?” Her 
mother responds that she wouldn’t literally see Jesus in the temple, but could feel 
his presence. After considering this, the child, Eliza, responds with “Oh, Jesus is 
gone helping someone.” Is this child naïve in taking literally the “house of the 
Lord” title Latter-day Saints use in talking about the temple, or is she knowing 
in her realization that this is a physical building where the physical presence 
of Jesus is expected to be found? Obviously the child’s mother interprets it as 
naiveté while President Eyring goes on to comment, “No pavilion obscured Eliza’s 
understanding…of reality” (Eyring, Pavilion), so President Eyring obviously sees 
Eliza as a knowing child, and yet the meaning of the story rests on Eliza being 
both a naïve AND a knowing child. It is faith that reconciles these two opposing 
forces. She is innocent and knowing in that her faith, or belief, in what she has 
been told is literal whereas her parent’s understanding seems more figurative, 
and yet, with faith, it is the literal that is favored. So the older, wiser-in-the world 
parent has come to interpret doctrine as figurative instead of literal and thus is not 
as knowledgeable as her daughter in certain spiritual truths. She has something to 
learn from her daughter. By including this in his talk, President Eyring implies that 
all Latter-day Saints have something to learn from this young girl.  

This dichotomy between worldly and spiritual things in Mormon thought is 
relevant to the wise child and one of the reasons that the Mormon variants differ 
so much from the folk variants. In The Book of Mormon, the prophet Jacob speaks 
of this dichotomy: “O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! 
When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto 
the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, 
wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not” (2 Ne. 9: 28). 
Paul, in his epistle to the Corinthians, echoes the sentiment with “If any man 
among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may 
be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, 
He taketh the wise in their own craftiness” (1 Cor. 3: 18-19). Paul’s words seem 
like they would support the traditional folk use of the wise child, as a figure who 
reveals the foolishness of its elders through mockery and ‘taking them in their 
craftiness,’ as it says. The differences become more fully explained if we look at 
its use in its performance context of General Conference. I will discuss this later, 



Green  And A Child ShAll leAd Them

15

but first another example where the division between the naïve and knowing child 
seems less relevant in the context of the story. 

Russell Osguthorpe, Sunday School General President, recounts a story of 
his son calling, wondering why Russell hasn’t told them one of his articles was 
appearing in the Church’s magazine, The Ensign. Russell responds with “I just 
wanted to see if you were reading the church magazine.” His son says it was 
actually his daughter who brought it to his attention. “She got the Ensign from 
the mailbox, came into the house, and read it. Then she came up to our room 
and showed us your article.” Russell concludes with “My granddaughter read 
the Ensign because she wanted to learn. She acted on her own by exercising 
her agency. The First Presidency recently approved new learning resources for 
youth that will support the innate desire of young people to learn, live, and 
share the gospel” (Osguthorpe, emphasis mine). It is obvious by his wording that 
Russell sees his granddaughter as an active child, but his wording also suggests 
she is a passive child. This desire to learn certainly exhibited itself in an active 
way, reading an entire magazine meant for adult members (young children and 
teenagers have church magazines aimed more at them), is certainly an active 
thing, but this desire Russell sees as innate, and thus is the source of knowledge 
coming from what she did, or the innate desire to do it? Depending on how one 
sees children, this granddaughter can be knowing or naive. Either she knows that 
she is doing a good thing, or she is simply doing what she likes, and that thing 
happens to be an action Russell wants his adult listeners to imitate. It is obvious 
that this action in an adult member would be seen as active and Elder Osguthorpe 
is seeking to instill the knowledge of the value of that action, but it seems clear 
that for children, the assumptions are different. That this is not as volitional, that 
it is more innate and thus an expression of personality rather than an indication 
of one’s use of free will. The message seems clear, that a desire to learn is a good 
thing that adults should learn but which seems to come naturally to children. 
Adults, the message is, be like your wise child. The cultural beliefs inherent in 
this dichotomy involve religious beliefs in the innate goodness of children and the 
cultural and religious beliefs that children are blank slates in need of instruction. 
Both of these ideas lead to assumptions in stories that divide how Mormons view 
adults and these wise children.

The Wise Child in Mormon Scripture and Tradition

Probably the most important example of the wise child culturally is Joseph Smith 
who, as a fourteen year old boy, had the wisdom to “ask of God” when he was 
confused about which religion to join. This act by a fourteen year old boy is often 
referenced and framed in a way that emphasizes both his youth and his wisdom—
particularly as opposed to the religious leaders in his area at the time. 

Other scriptural precedents include many prophets in the Book of Mormon. 
Nephi, the first writer in the Book of Mormon, is still a child of his father, a 
prophet in Jerusalem and begins the Book of Mormon with “I, Nephi, having 
been born of goodly parents (1 Ne. 1:1).” Later, when recounting his conversion, 
Nephi mentions that he was “exceedingly young” when he came to “believe all 



And A Child ShAll leAd Them Green 

16

the words which had been spoken by my father.” It is significant that he is able to 
convince his younger brother to also believe, but his older brothers, Laman and 
Lemuel, harden their hearts to his, and his father’s, words (1 Ne 2: 16-18). Alma, a 
later prophet in the Book of Mormon, is described as a wicked priest to a corrupt 
King when he hears the testimony of the prophet Abinadi. Alma, at the time, is 
described as “a young man” who “believed the words which Abinadi had spoken, 
for he knew concerning the iniquity which Abinadi had testified against them 
[meaning the wicked King Noah and his priests] (Mosiah 17:2).” Alma believes and 
must flee the court of King Noah and the older, still wicked priests who seek to 
kill him and put Abinadi to death. 

Later still, Captain Moroni, the Nephite leader in some of their most intense 
wars with the Lamanites is mentioned for being “only twenty and five years old 
when he was appointed chief captain over the armies of the Nephites (Alma 43: 
17).” While 25 can hardly be said to be a child, his youth is certainly emphasized 
and in the succeeding chapters his wisdom is demonstrated as he prepares the 
Nephites for war against the Lamanites led by a rebel Nephite. He prepares his 
soldiers with various armor, and constructs ditches, walls and fortifications around 
their border cities ensuring those cities which had been weakest were now 
strongholds. The invading Lamanites are at first too scared to attack these heavily 
fortified cities. Finally using a combination of spies and prophecy, Moroni traps the 
main Lamanite army as they cross a river and completely defeats them (see Alma 
43:17-44:24). When war returns a few years later, Moroni is again instrumental in 
securing peace from war and the stability of their main government. 

While the war Moroni is engaged in is started by a Nephite dissenter, it is the 
sons of Lamanite converts that help turn the tide. These converts are called the 
people of Ammon and, after their conversion, make an oath to never “tak(e) up 
arms against their brethren (Alma 53: 11).” When the war against the Lamanites 
gets long, they consider breaking their vow for the greater good. They are “moved 
with compassion” at seeing “the danger, and the many afflictions and tribulations 
the Nephites bore for them… and were desirous to take up arms in the defence 
of their country (Alma 53: 13).” Their spiritual leaders urge them not to, and they 
send, instead, 2000 of their sons, “who had not entered into a covenant that they 
would not take their weapons of war to defend themselves against their enemies,” 
so they are mobilized instead, and join the war under the command of their 
spiritual leader, Helaman (Alma 53: 16-18). Are these good examples of the wise 
child? Their youth is certainly a vital part of their identity. 

Rather than the wisdom, or cunning, exhibited by Captain Moroni, it is often 
their faith that is seen as praiseworthy and what continuously saves them. They 
are promised by their mothers, “that if they did not doubt, God would deliver 
them,” sure enough, in their first battle, “not one soul of them [had] fallen to the 
earth (Alma 56: 47, 56).” In a later battle, while casualties mount on both sides of 
the conflict, their faith in their mother’s words are confirmed again when “there 
was not one soul of them who did perish; yea, and neither was there one soul 
among them who had not received many wounds (Alma 57: 25).” While this may 



Green  And A Child ShAll leAd Them

17

not qualify as “wisdom,” according to the worldly/spiritual split mentioned earlier, 
the youth are indeed being set up as figures whose actions and faith adults can 
and should learn from.

The bible has its wise children too. Before Joseph becomes second only to 
Pharaoh in Egypt, he is the second youngest of 12 brothers, loved by his father, 
and envied and hated by his brothers. At 17, “the lad” tends sheep with his older 
brothers. He dreams dreams which indicate his parents and brothers will bow 
down to him. It may not be seen as wise to share those with said brothers, but in 
the end, the dreams come to pass, and Joseph is vindicated (see Gen. 37, 39-41). 

Samuel is promised by his mother, Hannah, to serve the Lord, and so she gives 
him to the High Priest of the time, Eli. Eli, while a good man we are told, allows 
his sons to mismanage the sacrifices of Israel, and so, Eli’s house is condemned. 
Samuel, while still a child, is called of God in the night time. He finally responds 
“Speak; for thy servant heareth,” and is finally told the calamities that will befall 
Eli and his sons and is set to be the next prophet (1 Samuel 3). Young Samuel, 
is remarkable in receiving revelations from Lord at a time when “the word of 
the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision (1 Samuel 3: 1).” 
Samuel however is innocent and good and honest. He even reveals God’s word 
of destruction towards the current Prophet, Eli, when asked to do so (1 Samuel 3: 
19).

Samuel is instrumental in anointing David as the King of Israel after Saul sins 
and loses his mandate to rule God’s people. When Samuel sees David’s oldest 
brother, Eliab, he thinks he must be the future King of Israel, but the Lord counsels 
him to “look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I 
have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as a man seeth; for man looketh on the 
outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart (1 Samuel 16: 7). This 
is even a “scripture mastery” scripture that is one of 25 in the Old Testament 
emphasized in Seminary, a daily spiritual study class many Mormon youth of High 
School age take. Seminary students will focus on and often memorize scripture 
mastery scriptures. 

As for David’s wisdom, his encounter with Goliath is telling. While all the 
armies of Israel fear the mighty Philistine Goliath, David asks “for who is this 
uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 
Samuel 17: 26) David, in opposition to his older brothers and King Saul who notes 
“thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth,” but David insists 
on his ability to defeat their champion and, without the traditional armor and 
weapons favored by the more experienced, he approaches Goliath with his staff, 
“five smooth stones,” and his sling (1 Samuel 17: 40). Goliath is insulted, David, 
undaunted, tells Goliath he’s about to die and that David comes in the “name of 
the Lord of hosts,” and that “this day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; 
and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee…that all the earth may know 
that there is a God in Israel (1 Samuel 45-46).” David does so, and is set up as a 
model of exemplary faith. 

Finally, Jesus is a prime example of the wise child when, at only 12 years 
old, he is left behind in Jerusalem after a Passover feast and is found, finally, “in 
the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking 



And A Child ShAll leAd Them Green 

18

them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and 
answers (Luke 2: 46-47).” Jesus is a wise child who is wise beyond his years and 
astonishes those around him at his understanding of the scriptures and the law. 
Further, he is the source of many teachings that emphasize what people can learn 
from children. In Matthew 18: 2-4 “Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him 
in the midst of them, and said, “verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, 
and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest 
in the kingdom of heaven.” In Matthew 19: 14, “Jesus said, Suffer little children, 
and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” The 
emphasis on wise children in General Conference may reflect this precedent and 
desire to emulate Jesus Christ’s example, and align themselves with his teachings. 

The wise child that Jesus speaks of, and that appears most frequently in 
scriptures, is strikingly different from the wise child of the folktales. These 
scriptural variants of the wise child share some similarities with the folk variants. 
The folk variants and the scriptural variants both emphasize rebuking elders, 
though those elders are less often parents. In the case of Nephi, it’s his older 
brothers, David rebukes King Saul, Joseph Smith rebukes the religious leaders of 
his area, and Jesus rebukes his mother. These rebukes are different in that the 
youths in these examples are both active, and knowledgeable although they retain 
a naiveté as well. They are able to be both knowledgeable and naïve by being 
naïve to worldy things, and knowledgeable about spiritual things. As such, they 
come across as less caustic than the folk examples in their efforts to instruct and 
exhort people on spiritual things. 

The Child in Mormon and American Culture

Scholars of American culture have identified two contrasting views of childhood: 
as a “tabula rasa” in need of “acculturation,” protection, or shelter, and the child 
as “specula naturae,” the mirrors of nature, or a type of noble savage. Gary 
Cross notes the connection between the Romantic era and the idea of the pure, 
innocent child. He quotes Wordsworth as saying children come “fresh from the 
hand of God.” Mormon speakers in General Conference are fond of Wordsworth 
and have quoted his Ode: Intimations on Immortality which includes “Our birth 
is but a sleep and a forgetting:/ The soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, / Hath 
had elsewhere its setting, / And cometh from afar: / Not in entire forgetfulness, 
/ And not in utter nakedness, / But trailing clouds of glory do we come / From 
God, who is our home: / Heaven lives about us in our infancy!” This quote has 
been used in General Conference two or three times a decade over the past three 
decades, twice by President Monson in 2012 and 2007. It portrays the child not 
as a blank slate, but a noble, pure, innocent being close to heaven and divinity. 
The rise of Mormonism during the Romantic Movement supports this connection, 
as do numerous Mormon scriptures. Rebecca de Schweinitz also sees evidence of 
an Aristotelian view of children where “the child is important, not for herself or 
himself, but for his or her potential” (136-7). 



Green  And A Child ShAll leAd Them

19

Support for this idea in Mormon doctrine is surprisingly hard to find. If asked 
for scriptures that indicate children’s innate goodness, many members might quote 
the prophet Mormon condemnation of infant baptism. However, his reasons don’t 
necessarily indicate it is because children are good, but because they are innocent 
and unaccountable for their actions. Mormon writes that “their little children 
need no repentance, neither baptism…But little children are alive in Christ…For 
the power of redemption cometh on all them that have no law” (Moroni 8: 11, 
22). Other reasons include the injustice of a God that would condemn innocent 
children to hell for failure to do something they have no knowledge of or power 
to do. His reasons focus not on children’s goodness, but their innocence or, the 
term I’ve been using, naiveté. 

There is, however, some scriptural support for the idea that children are 
innately good. Christ encourages his disciples to “become as little children,” 
and “humble himself as this little child” (Matt. 18: 3-4). Invoking the difference 
between the natural (or worldly) sphere and the spiritual, King Benjamin says that 
all men are enemies to God and in a fallen state “unless he yields to the enticings 
of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through 
the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, 
humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit 
to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3: 19). 

Looked at as a syllogism, if saints should be good, and saints should be like 
children, children must be good. The difficulty of differentiating between good 
and innocent children is still present however because the examples here, and 
elsewhere in Latter-day Saint scripture, could still be read as seeing children not 
as acting righteously, but as being innately righteous. While much maligned by 
other Christian sects as ‘trying to save ourselves through works,’ Mormon theology 
does require knowledge to act righteously and places prime importance on agency 
or free will. While Mormon theology asserts that “salvation was and is and is to 
come…through the atoning blood of Christ (Mosiah 3: 18), Joseph Smith reveals 
that “It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance” (D&C 131: 6). The goal 
seems to be a fusion of the inherently good qualities of a child—especially those 
of submission to a heavenly father—fused with the understanding, knowledge, 
and decision-making ability of an adult. 

The problem, finally, with the syllogism is a difference in expectations. Children 
are seen as inherently innocent, and so good or bad applies less to them—forget 
the conspicuous absence in any scriptures of the crying, willful children filling 
the pews each Sunday—while adults, with full agency, are expected to act good, 
knowing that those actions are good. The wise child in Mormon folklore helps 
clarify these expectations by presenting the naïve goodness of the child as an 
example to the knowing, but not always good, consideration of the adults. 

The child as a blank slate is prevalent in American culture and, if not explicitly 
stated in Mormon theology, implicit in Mormon culture. The child of the blank 
slate needs acculturation, needs guidance, needs protection. Gary Cross would 
say the child needs “shaping.” Mormon doctrine speaks of a “veil” that has caused 
people on earth to forget their premortal life where they knew and lived with God 
and Jesus Christ. The veil is there so that people can exercise faith, and so that 



And A Child ShAll leAd Them Green 

20

faith and obedience can be tested. The veil of the tabernacle Moses erected in the 
wilderness to “divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy,” is a 
symbolic representation of this separation between our world and God’s (see Ex 
26: 33). Scriptures speak of a Book of Mormon prophet, the Brother of Jared, who 
was so righteous he “could not be kept from beholding within the veil (Ether 3: 
19; 12: 19). Joseph Smith speaks of the veil being “taken from our minds” so that 
they can behold the Lord (D&C 110: 1), and later, explaining perhaps the physical 
workings of this veil, Joseph Smith records that “All spirit is matter, but it is more 
fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when 
our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter” (D&C 131: 7-8). While 
generally the veil is a kind of tabula rasa, a blank slate that erases the memories of 
people’s premortal existence, it is also used, folklorically, to indicate that children 
are inherently good—not just innocent—but that they have an “innate connection 
to spiritual realms” (de Schweinitz 134). You can often hear speakers speak of 
good children and end with something like ‘the veil is very thin for children, who 
have recently come from God.’ 

Looking at General Conference talks, Mormons would seem to agree. While 
the wise child folk motif is the subject of this paper, the protected child who 
needs shaping and the watchful care of parents is just as, if not more, prevalent 
in official discourse. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is 
old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22: 6), is more than just a proverb in 
Mormon families. After giving Moses the law, God commands that these things 
be taught to their children on multiple occasions (see Deut. 4: 10; 6: 7; and 11: 
19-21). Ephesians, in the New Testament encourages us to “bring up [children] in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6: 4), The Book of Mormon includes 
numerous examples of children being taught (like the aforementioned Stripling 
Warriors), Nephi and Enos both reflect on words they were taught by their fathers 
(see 1Ne 1: 1 and Enos 1: 1), and Lehi preaches to and corrects his children many 
times (see 1 Ne 2: 8-9, 1 Ne 8: 37), King Benjamin exhorts his people to “teach 
[their children] to walk in the ways of truth and soberness” (Mosiah 4: 15), and 
the Doctrine and Covenants include the injunction to “bring up your children in 
light” (D&C 93: 40), and a warning for parents who do not teach their children 
(D&C 68: 25).1 In any general conference or sacrament meeting, members hear 
counsel about the importance of and how to raise their children. Beyond that, 
there are two magazines especially for youth, The Friend for pre-teen youth, and 
The New-Era for teens. Beyond that, the first presidency—the highest authority 
in the church comprising the President and his two councilors—has a message at 
the beginning of each issue of The Ensign, a magazine for adult members of the 
church. The message is meant to be shared in month family visits by pairs of male 
members known as Home Teachers. These messages now include special teaching 
ideas and examples for “Youth” and “Children.” Obviously the training and 
teaching of youth and children is a high priority for the church, and the members 
that comprise it. All of which indicate a strong belief in and support of the child 
as a blank slate, the child in need of acculturation and guidance to become proper 
adults. 



Green  And A Child ShAll leAd Them

21

Methodology

While the current LDS Prophet, President Thomas Monson, is well known for his 
use of stories and anecdotes that would include the wise child, I have instead 
chosen to focus on the use of the Wise Child folk motif in the last two general 
conferences of the church when church leaders speak to members all over the 
world. Although the topics and discussions are often familiar, the messages in 
these biennial meetings represent the most current word of the Lord available to 
church members. I have looked at each talk in these conferences and noted each 
use of the Wise Child. 

The wise child in the folk motif stories were classified based on someone 
learning something based on the actions of a child, and the person who learned 
was usually an adult. Based on these broad similarities, the criteria for which 
stories I included as an example of the wise child included two main components. 
First, the story had to be about a child and secondly the child, knowingly or not, 
had to be the source of the knowledge the adult gained. Thus a story about a 
child who dies and the family who learns to cope with and overcome trials would 
not necessarily count as a wise child because the learning comes more from the 
child’s death, an event, rather than the child herself. There were other border 
cases. 

For example, David F. Evans spoke of a young man who was not a member 
of the church but had many friends who were and came to many ward activities 
as a youth. After high school, he became roommates with an LDS friend who 
had not gone on a mission due to certain issues he was working through. They 
spoke about it and soon the boy was meeting with the LDS friend’s bishop and 
was baptized. The purpose of the story was to show how conversion can often be 
a slow process, but many will eventually enter the church through the efforts of 
friends and church members. The teaching that occurs is from boy to boy rather 
than child to adult, but later, when the speaker talks of what he learned from this 
example, and makes the point to share that with church members listening to 
General Conference, it becomes a more obvious example of the wise child, as the 
actions of a young man are presented as exemplary, and thus something all can 
and should learn from. Even within the narrative when Evans remarks “What an 
invitation!” after the LDS boy invites his friend to come meet with his bishop, we 
see that he is being set as an example, and someone to learn from, a wise child 
(Evans). 

Some cases were not clear-cut. While parts of Joseph Smith’s story includes 
moments of the wise child, only references dealing specifically with him as a 
wise child were included. Jesus is an even more complicated example because 
his “Son-ness” is emphasized much more often than the wisdom and learning he 
had to offer when he was a child. I have not included any references of Jesus as a 
child of God, but have included any references made to his mortal childhood. This 
dual quality of Jesus as Father and Son, parent and child, will be discussed later 
in my interpretation of the wise child motif. Finally, I have included wise children 
used in talks aimed at youth or children as well as children as old as missionaries 
if the youth or “child-ness” of the missionaries was given as a defining feature. If it 



And A Child ShAll leAd Them Green 

22

was important enough to stress, then it seemed fair to include it as an example of 
the wise child.

In looking at the last two general conferences of The Church of Jesus Christ of 
Latter-day Saints, there were a total of sixty-seven talks, thirty-two of which used 
the wise child motif with forty-nine unique instances. So if a story of a wise child 
started at the beginning of a talk and was references towards the end, it still only 
counted once. However, if one speaker gave numerous stories about different 
children who taught or whom the audience could learn from, each instance was 
counted. So this year, the wise child figured in nearly half of all talks given by 
general authorities at General Conference. The unique instances shows that it can 
be used numerous times—five was the most—in a given talk and that depending 
on topic and speaker, it can feature quite prominently in a talk. When a primary 
president or a Young Men president speaks, or when the topic is what parents can 
learn from their children, the speaker often uses numerous examples. 

General Conference: The Authoritative/Exhortative Frame

At General Conference, leaders of the LDS church present talks of varying length 
to church members around the world and, implicitly or explicitly, to non-members. 
The purpose of general conference talks is to present doctrine and exhortations 
to live by gospel principles. Conference talks, like many talks in weekly church 
meetings, include exhortations, scripture quoting, personal experience, the 
experiences of others, and usually end with a declaration of testimony, or 
conviction of truth. Current events, references to magazine articles, or pop-culture 
references happen, but are less common. Like sacrament meeting talks, General 
Conference addresses are monologic, and are the most public speech act in LDS 
culture. 

As Richard Bauman says, in most communicative acts, an interpretive frame sets 
up how things are to be interpreted (292). While I have defended various aspects 
of the wise child in Mormon discourse on narrative grounds, General Conference 
frames the speech acts as authoritative and exhortative. General Conference is 
set apart as a very special verbal event in Mormon life. It happens only twice a 
year and overrides the usual schedule of weekly meetings. Rather than meeting 
in their regular church buildings on Sunday during the regularly scheduled three 
hour block of meetings, Latter-day Saints across the world watch online or via 
satellite the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. In supplanting regular worship 
services, General Conference is marked as more important and of more authority 
than regular worship services. Further, it places Salt Lake and the leadership who 
reside there as the loci of the LDS world. Not only is it authoritative, but possesses 
the most authority. Similar to any classroom or auditorium, the leaders of the 
church sit around and behind the raised lectern from which speakers address 
their live audience of 21,000 and their televised audience of millions. The General 
Authorities are raised, literally, above the crowd to address the entire church 
membership. 

This most authoritative and exhortative frame may be one reason why General 
Authorities employ children to communicate their messages. Tom Mould notes that 



Green  And A Child ShAll leAd Them

23

the cultural norm for humility in Mormon culture. By making the child the source 
of wisdom, even church leaders, those highest in the hierarchy, are able to achieve 
a level of humility by learning things from the humblest among us, children. We 
see this in fact, in the many examples of experiences that involve children in the 
third world in abject poverty. In terms of humility there is the added implication 
that even the “greatest” in the Kingdom have something to learn from the lowest. 
A message echoed in the New Testament. In one instance, Christ tells his apostles 
“Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me:…for he that is least 
among you all, the same shall be great” (Luke 9: 48). 

Boyd K. Packer’s talk in the April session of General Conference is a good 
example of this humility before children and even impoverished children. The title 
of Packer’s talk “And a Little Child Shall Lead Them,” references the wise child. 
Accordingly, he cites many examples of children he learned something from. 
He begins his talk with the story of seeing an orphan beggar in Japan freezing, 
dressed in rags, covered in scabies, and holding a rusty tin can and a spoon. He’d 
knocked on the door of his train. Elder Packer tried to open the door to give him 
some money but the train pulled out. Elder Packer ends the story by commenting 
“I will never forget that starving little boy left standing in the cold, holding up 
an empty tin can. Nor can I forget how helpless I felt as the train slowly pulled 
away and left him standing on the platform.” Elder Packer is not explicit in what 
he has learned or what he intends his audience to learn at this point, but the idea 
that children can help us understand and know the purpose of life becomes more 
clear as he continues. In Cusco, Peru, another “starving street orphan” enters the 
meeting house and tries to make for the Sacrament bread. A stern look from a 
woman causes him to leave, but he returns and, when Elder Packer opens his 
arms for him, comes to sit on his lap. Again, he offers little explanation beyond 
sharing it with then Prophet President Kimball, who notes “That experience has 
far greater meaning than you have yet come to know.” Next Elder Packer tells of 
a boy in Salt Lake running around in the winter with no coat. He concludes that 
story with the moral “At night, when I pull the covers over me, I offer a prayer 
for those who have no warm bed to go to.” He has learned, or hopes to teach 
something about compassion (Packer).

The wise children Elder Packer tells about in these stories are largely passive. 
What the children do is less important than who they are, poor, destitute, and 
children. Elder Packer’s next example includes a girl in Japan at the close of WWII. 
She goes about “busily gathering yellow sycamore leaves in a bouquet,” seemingly 
“unaware of the devastation that surrounded her.” Elder Packer is impressed by 
her ability to find “the one beauty left in her world,” and adds that thinking of 
her increases his faith, concluding “embodied in the child was hope.” The child 
is naïve in the wisdom she produces, which is produced in both active and 
passive ways. Her actions of gathering the leaves are the catalyst for Elder Packer’s 
revelation, but his interpreted focuses on an innate quality in the child (ibid). 

Later in his talk, Elder Packer notes, “one of the great discoveries of parenthood 
is that we learn far more about what really matters from our children than we ever 
did from our parents. The role reversal here is obvious, but done very differently 
than it would be in American culture or even many folk tales. In American culture, 



And A Child ShAll leAd Them Green 

24

there is more conflict and thus more victory for the child and more humiliation 
for the parent when roles are reversed. The wise child in folktales is also often 
a trickster figure who will turn the tables on their foolish, stingy, or conniving 
parents. Here the second most senior member in the church, and a father and 
grandfather himself, cites this role reversal. There is no trace of the trickster, or 
humiliation for anyone involved, but is presented more as a simple fact of life. 
Parents are not necessarily diminished by it, and yet, children do rise to the role of 
teacher in the reversal (ibid).

This role reversal is well known in scriptures. Jesus rebukes his disciples for 
keeping a child from him and uses the opportunity to teach them that “of such is 
the kingdom of God,” and “whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as 
a little child, he shall not enter therein” (Mark 10: 14-15). The Book of Mormon 
also has much to say on the matter. Mosiah 3: 19 reads that “The natural man is an 
enemy of God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, 
unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man 
and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as 
a little child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to 
all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit 
to his father.” Here sainthood, is equated with becoming like a child. And the 
child indicated is not the tabula rasa but, but the noble savage in direct contrast 
with the “natural man” who is the carnal aspect of people who prioritize their 
physical desires. The naturally innocent and pure child must be worked towards 
once someone has become an adult and their natural desires grow stronger. 
There seems to be a pre-puberty purity and post-purity tendency towards physical 
appetite and “the natural man.” As far as the wise child goes, this corresponds to 
the passive child in the folktypes whose wisdom is outside its own knowledge. 
The child may have things to teach, but those things are merely attributes of who 
the child is, and thus the child can teach simply by being a child, good, pure, 
obedient, etc.

Some speakers we expect to use the wise child. Primary, Young Women, and 
Young Men General Presidency members might all be expected to use children 
as examples of good action because their intended audience are children. Ann 
M. Dibb, 2nd Counselor in the General Young Women Presidency begins her talk 
with the example of a fifteen year old girl she saw standing in a line, wearing 
a shirt that said, “I’m a Mormon, are you?” Sister Dibb was impressed with her 
confidence in her identity. She was a passive but knowing child. Later she 
mentions a girl who joined the church because she finally found one that taught 
modesty and standards. Sister Dibb presents this young woman as having an 
innate knowledge of the importance of standards and modesty, she had a spiritual 
knowledge that general members, and other young women, can learn from. She 
even mentions Jesus as God’s son in the garden of Gethsemane being obedient 
and submissive to his father (Dibb).

Other speakers mention wise children similar in some ways to the wise 
children of the folktales who are naively wise. Quentin R. Cook, a member of the 
12 apostles, mentions a young man who is realizes that society recognizes many 
things Latter-day Saints see as wrong, but not when it comes to pornography. This 



Green  And A Child ShAll leAd Them

25

boy is set up as being wiser than much of American society, and Cook follows 
this up by citing himself the boy’s exhortation that primary is not too early to start 
warning and protecting children from society (Cook). Here we have a wise child 
being used by a General Authority to evoke the sheltered or protected child in 
need of educating by parents and leaders. Truly a dizzying interplay of authority 
and subservience. 

Rebecca de Schweinitz notes the sentimental use of children in Mormon 
culture and argues that LDS culture “(however unconsciously)…link(s) emotional 
responses to religious beliefs [] to reinforce adult agendas” (135). And certainly 
that is true. Children, especially the impoverished ones used by Boyd K. Packer, 
can produce powerful emotional responses, and in the hands of authority figures 
will not criticize the very people using the trope. Further explanation for this 
interplay comes from the earlier discussion of humility in Mormon culture, but it is 
important to note that the wise child is not just a way to borrow humility, but can 
also be seen as a democratic expression of heavenly virtues. Cook’s talk is a good 
example. Beyond quoting this unnamed 15 year old boy, Cook also quotes C. S. 
Lewis—a highly respected and often quoted Christian author—past presidents of 
the Church, Joseph Smith, George Albert Smith, Ezra Taft Benson, and Gordon B. 
Hinkley; scriptures from The Book of Mormon and both Old and New Testaments; 
English poet William Wordsworth; New York Times columnist Ross Douthat; 
Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan; and even Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., 
president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The inclusion of children 
into the cannon of both spiritual and worldly greats presents an incredibly 
democratic cosmology. In the Book of Mormon, Alma speaks of this democratic 
ideal when he says “and we see that [God’s] arm is extended to all people who 
will repent and believe on his name” (Alma 19:36). I will discuss further evidence 
and implications of this worldview in the conclusions. 

Craig Christensen shares the story of going through a temple open house—
before a temple is dedicated, anyone is allowed to go through and view much of 
the interior. His 6 year old son accompanies him and remarks “what is happening? 
What am I feeling?” Elder Christensen’s talk credits his son for the wisdom he 
exhibited in noting not the fine and beautiful art and architecture which he and 
others were appreciating, but the spirit of the place, the spiritual importance of it, 
that was more important (Christensen). 

Henry B. Eyring shares a similar story about his granddaughter who “illustrated 
the power of innocence and humility to connect us with God.” She went to the 
temple open house and asked, “Mommy, where is Jesus?” As the “house of the 
Lord” she had expected to see Jesus. Her Mother explained that she wouldn’t 
be able to “see” Jesus in the temple, but could feel his influence in her heart. 
Considering this, she decided, “Jesus is gone helping someone.” While her 
naiveté seems evident, Elder Eyring praises her for not having things obscure or 
obstructing her view of reality, that God is close, and can be felt by anyone. He 
adds that she had a good understanding of Jesus’s corporeal body, that he can 
only be in one place at a time, and that what Jesus was most often doing, was 
performing miracles. He adds that “the spirit could reveal to her childlike mind 
and heart the comfort all of us need and want” (Eyring). The point is that the 



And A Child ShAll leAd Them Green 

26

adults listening to Elder Eyring’s talk should be as childlike in their faith of gospel 
truths.

D. Todd Christofferson tells the story about a 14 year old boy in India who 
works two jobs, goes to school, and studies into the night to help support his 
family and prepare for a brighter future. Elder Christofferson praises the boy’s 
“diligence and courage,” and continues, “he is doing the very best he can with his 
limited resources and opportunities, and he is a blessing to his family.” The boy is 
wise and very active, an example of work and activity Elder Christofferson wants 
church members to emulate regardless of their circumstances. The boys hard work 
is central to Elder Christofferson’s talk which repeats numerous times “Brethren, 
we have work to do” (Christofferson). Clearly, this child is the example priesthood 
holders should follow.

Conclusions

Terryl Givens in People of Paradox reveals one reason why the wise child may 
be a popular motif in Mormon discourse. Givens identifies four fundamental 
paradoxes in Mormon thought, the first two relate to the wise child: authority 
and radical freedom and searching and certainty. The hierarchical structure of the 
church and the equating of priesthood power and authority with God’s authority 
has been examined and criticized by many writers and scholars who see the 
unquestioning obedience that often results. On the other hand the lay clergy and 
the emphasis on personal revelation support a radical individuality and disruption 
of those hierarchies. If any worthy member can hold a leadership position in the 
church, then there is something of a meritocracy in the power structure of the 
church albeit a meritocracy based on spiritual rather than worldly values. This 
mixing of clergy and member, officials and officiated, does establish a hierarchy, 
but a fluid one, where members can find themselves on either side. A member 
may be a bishop for a while, and called to the Family History Center afterwards. 
The wise child reveals a similar flattening between youth and adults, the knowing 
and the naïve, as categories are mixed or fluid.

The second paradox relevant to the wise child relates to the wisdom of the 
child. Givens notes that Joseph Smith’s experience in physically meeting God the 
Father and Jesus the Son, having actual angelic hands placed on his head to confer 
the power of the priesthood, and translating 50 lb. golden plates imbued him and 
Mormonism with a predilection for certain knowledge. Contemporary evidence 
of this can be seen in the monthly testimony meetings in any ward or branch 
in the church where members are encouraged to proclaim before their fellow 
congregants the things they know to be true. The emphasis is more on knowledge 
than simply belief. General Conference also emphasizes certainty as members hear 
testimonies from “special witnesses of Christ.” On the other hand, Joseph Smith 
also taught that knowledge and progression were a ceaseless struggle that took 
not only entire lives but were something to work on “a great while after you have 
passed through the veil (qtd. in Givens 30).” 

This paradox between certain knowledge in the form of testimonies and 
ceaseless striving for ever greater knowledge and righteousness extends the 



Green  And A Child ShAll leAd Them

27

spectrum between naiveté and knowledge out to eternity. When using such 
a measure, even the most elder apostles and prophets giving talks in General 
Conference can be viewed as little more than wise children themselves. Wilford 
Woodruff recorded some words of the Joseph Smith on this subject. At the 
conclusion of a conference Joseph Smith stated “Brethren, I have been very 
much edified and instructed in your testimonies here tonight, but I want to say 
to you before the Lord, that you know no more concerning the destinies of this 
Church and kingdom than a babe upon its mother’s lap. You don’t comprehend 
it” (Woodruff). This was the prophet speaking to the whole priesthood of the 
church at the time. While his comment was specific to knowing the destinies of 
the church, the comparison of even the highest in the church hierarchy to “a babe 
upon its mother’s lap,” is an aspect of the doctrine of eternal progression. Anyone 
in mortality can be seen as a child, but hopefully a wise one. Seen in this light, the 
wise child is not necessarily a trickster figure of role-reversals in Mormon culture 
and can be used with gentle humor since members share its naiveté and searching 
for truth.

Mormon teaching treats all people on earth as sons and daughters of God and 
thus spiritual siblings, but also focuses on the importance of the family consisting 
of a husband and wife, raising and teaching children. In a church where common 
addresses involve “brother” and “sister,” what is the role of the child in LDS 
religious discourse? For a religion that has been criticized for being patriarchal, 
and a Gerontocracy, what view of childhood emerges from looking at the official 
statements and faith-promoting stories given out by the church? 

The democratic nature of Mormon cosmology is even more profound. Not only 
are all people brothers and sisters, and not only are all beings on an eternal path 
of progression, but all have the most grand potential. Church President Lorenzo 
Snow is often quoted as saying, “As man now is, God once was; as God is now 
man may be” (Snow). Joseph Smith also stated that “God himself was once as 
we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!” 
(“God”). Latter-day Saints believe that this potential is open to all men, women, 
and children on earth. The prevalent use of the wise child—and possibly even the 
short shrift given to rowdy children in official discourse—is a consequence of this 
democratic and egalitarian cosmology. 

There is a flip side to this egalitarian view. Elder Packer’s talk, mentioned 
previously, notes that “the ultimate end of all activity in the Church is to see 
a husband and his wife and their children happy at home, protected by the 
principles and laws of the gospel, sealed safely in the covenants of the everlasting 
priesthood (Packer).” Although husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, are often 
reminded of the need to protect their children, here they are in need of protection 
as much as their children. This is not unique. If the sheltered or protected child is 
prevalent in American and Mormon discourse, the protected parent and adult, is 
just as, if not more prevalent in Mormon discourse. Scriptures are full of warnings 
for all people to continually beware temptation’s lure. Doctrine and Covenants 20: 
33 reads “Therefore let the church take heed and pray always, lest they fall into 
temptation;” the same basic sentiment is repeated in D&C 31: 12. D&C 75: 11 and 
88: 126 talk about praying always that people “faint not.” Matthew 26: 11 and Mark 



And A Child ShAll leAd Them Green 

28

14: 38 both exhort to “watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.” The 
lord’s prayer includes the plea to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from 
evil,” again indicating the ever-present nature of temptation and risk of falling to it. 
The Book of Mormon Prophet, Nephi when he is older, laments “the temptations 
and the sins which do so easily beset me” (2 Nephi 4: 18). Alma 34: 39 states “Yea, 
and I also exhort you, my brethren, that ye be watchful unto prayer continually, 
that ye may not be led away by the temptations of the devil, that he may not 
overpower you, that ye may not becomes his subjects at the last day; for behold, 
he rewardeth you no good thing.” Clearly the danger of sin is prevalent, and the 
solution watchfulness, prayer, and, as Elder Packer States, the protection that 
righteous living offers. All people are like the protected child, in need of shelter 
and protection. 

These connections between children and adults go further. Other conference 
addresses note that most things done in the church are begun when we are 
children. President Monson, in April 2012 conference, notes that “in one capacity 
or another, in one setting or another, I have been attending priesthood meetings 
for the past 72 years—since I was ordained a deacon at the age of 12” (Monson). 
Often, the comparison is made between the newest and most senior members of 
the Priesthood having access to the same or similar power, that it is all based on 
righteousness rather than age or experience. A great way to teach this basic belief 
is to use children as examples of power to prove that very point. It deemphasizes 
age, seniority, experience, other hierarchical structures for one that is more 
merit-based which, in this religious setting, means merits of morality, goodness, 
righteousness. 

Julie B. Beck, then president of the LDS women’s organization, The Relief 
Society, shared a similar message. She notes that “every year hundreds of 
thousands of women and young women become part of this ever-expanding 
“circle of sisters” [meaning the Relief Society]” and “wherever a sister lives and 
wherever she serves, she retains her membership and association in Relief 
Society.” At eighteen women go from being in the “Young Women” organization 
of the church to the “Relief Society” (Beck). This change comes at the cusp of 
adulthood and lasts the rest of their lives. 

Further essential rituals and practices of church membership are begun when 
children are young and continue into adulthood. Just as President Monson noted 
that he’d attended, and thus entered and continued in, Priesthood since he was 
12. According to the “Articles of Faith” penned by Joseph Smith, the first principles 
of the gospel are “first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, 
Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the 
gift of the Holy Ghost” (1:4). These principles are prerequisites for the ordinances 
of baptism and confirmation which commonly happen when children turn eight. 
Thereafter, as noted in 2 Nephi, Chapter 31, the main thing is to “endure to the 
end.” There are certainly other ordinances and rituals which only adults participate 
in, but the most basic and essential are done when members are children and 
simply continue on through adulthood and, as mentioned earlier, into eternity. 

The wise child is not a real child but a narrative device. As a narrative device, 
the wise child is based on cultural concepts of childhood and how children 



Green  And A Child ShAll leAd Them

29

differ from adults. The wise child of folklore, the trickster figure who ridicules 
and confounds adults, has been transformed in LDS culture into a common trope 
on par with almost any other source of wisdom. This transformation indicates 
Mormonism’s egalitarian ideals and cosmology as well as its unique views of 
children as agents and adults as young in an eternal perspective. In short, the 
wise child in Mormon discourse has been transformed from a trickster figure to 
a standard authority figure because Mormons already see themselves as liminal 
figures between a spiritual infancy and exalted adulthood. In such a worldview, 
the child as trickster loses its fangs and settles in as another member of the 
community.

NOTE

1. D&C is the abbreviation of Doctrine & Covenants, one of the standard 
scriptures of the LDS Church.

WORKS CITED

Articles of Faith. 2013. Lds.org. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 
http://www.lds.org/topics/articles-of-faith?lang=eng

Bauman, Richard. 1975. Verbal Art as Performance. American Anthropologist. 
77(2): 290-311. 

Beck, Julie B. 2012. The Vision of Prophets Regarding Relief Society: Faith, Family, 
Relief. Ensign. May. https://www.lds.org/ensign/print/2012/05/the-vision-of-
prophets-regarding-relief-society

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. 1981. Trans. Joseph Smith, 
Jr. Salt Lake: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Cook, Quentin R. 2012. Can Ye Feel So Now? Ensign. Nov. http://www.
mormonchannel.org/magazines/ensign/2012/11/can-ye-feel-so-now

Christensen, Craig. 2012. An Unspeakable Gift from God. Ensign. Nov. http://
www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/an-unspeakable-gift-from-
god?lang=eng

Christofferson, D. Todd. 2012. Brethren, We Have Work to Do. Ensign. Nov. http://
www.mormonchannel.org/magazines/ensign/2012/11/brethren-we-have-
work-to-do

Cross, Gary. 2004. The Cute and the Cool: Wondrous Innocence and Modern 
American Children’s Culture. New York: Oxford University Press.

de Schweinitz, Rebecca. 2012. Where Nothing Is Long Ago: Child and Youth in 
Mormon History. Journal of Mormon History 38 (2, Spring): 125-138.

Dibb, Ann M. 2012. Arise and Shine Forth. Ensign. May. http://www.
mormonchannel.org/magazines/ensign/2012/5/arise-and-shine-forth

The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: 
Containing Revelations Given to Joseph Smith, the Prophet, with Some 
Additions by His Successors in the Presidency of the Church. 1981. Salt Lake 
City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 



And A Child ShAll leAd Them Green 

30

Evans, David F. 2012. Was it Worth It? Ensign. May. http://www.mormonchannel.
org/magazines/ensign/2012/5/was-it-worth-it

Eyring, Henry B. 2012. Where Is the Pavilion? Ensign. Nov. http://www.
mormonchannel.org/magazines/ensign/2012/11/where-is-the-pavilion

God the Eternal Father. 2013. Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith. 
lds.org, https://www.lds.org/manual/doctrines-of-the-gospel-teacher-manual/
chapter-3-god-the-eternal-father?lang=eng

Givens, Terryl L. 2007. People of Paradox. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hansen, Chadwick. 1963. The Character of Jim and the Ending of “Huckleberry 

Finn.” The Massachusetts Review 5 (1, Autumn): 45-66. 
Monson, Thomas S. 2012. Willing and Worthy to Serve. Ensign. May. https://www.

lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/willing-and-worthy-to-serve?lang=eng
Neustadter, Roger. 2009. The Obvious Child. New York: University Press of 

America.
Osguthorpe, Russell T. 2012. One Step Closer to the Savior. Ensign. Nov. 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/one-step-closer-to-the-
savior?lang=eng

Packer, Boyd K. 2012. And a Little Child Shall Lead Them. Ensign. May. https://
www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/and-a-little-child-shall-lead-
them?lang=eng

Scriptures. 2013. Lds.org. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. http://
www.lds.org/scriptures?lang=eng&cid=rdscriptures

Thompson. Stith. 1955-58. Motif-Index of Folk-Literature: A Classification of 
Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Medieval Romances, 
Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books, and Local Legends. Revised and Enlarged ed. 
Bloomington: Indiana UP. 

Woodruff, Wilford. 1898. Conference Report, Apr. 57.


	Pages from CFR_2013_Part2
	CFR_2013_Part3
	CFR_2013_Part4
	CFR_2013_Part5
	CFR_2013_Part6



