President Michaelene P. Grassli (Primary General President)
"His invitation in verse 11 was neither casual nor inconsequential. 'He commanded that their little children should be brought.' (Emphasis added.) And notice what verse 11 doesn't say. It doesn't say never mind the little ones because they aren't accountable yet. It doesn't say the children were to be taken elsewhere so they wouldn't disrupt the proceedings. And it doesn't imply that the children won't understand. But it does teach that children need to learn the significant things of the kingdom.
"God's children share with all of us the divine right to spiritual enlightenment. ("Behold Your Little Ones," Ensign, Nov. 1992)
Elder Wm. Rolfe Kerr
"When the Savior invited the multitude to behold their little ones, was He speaking in the collective sense of a group of little children? Or was He drawing their attention, and ours, to the individual nature and importance of each of those little ones—each of those little individuals? I believe that by His example the Savior was teaching us of the individual and tender care we should give to each one of our little children—indeed to each of our Heavenly Father's children. It may be the lovable toddler or the wayward teen, the grieving widow or the grateful woman for whom all is well. It may even be your own son or daughter or your own husband or wife. Each is an individual. Each has divine potential. And each must be spiritually nourished and temporally cared for with love, tenderness, and individual attention.
"The prophet Lehi exhorted his wayward sons, Laman and Lemuel, with 'all the feeling of a tender parent' (1 Ne. 8:37). This is the Savior's way. This is as it should be in our families and in the Church." ("Behold Your Little Ones", Ensign, Nov. 1996)