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Convert means "to turn." as when we say "She turned Prodestant". meaning that she converted from some other belief. People raised in Christian homes often find it hard to concieve of being "converted" to Christ since they learned to know him gradually. However, whether one knows the time or not, ther must be a point when one turns from self and sin to accept the Lord Jesus. "Except you be converted [strepho]. and become as little children, you shall not ebter into the kingdom of heaven" ( Matthew 18:3). First, "You must be converted, you must be of another mind, and in another frame and temper, must have other thoughts, both of yourselves and of the kingdom of heaven, before you be fit for a place in it. The pride, ambition, and affectation of honour and dominion, which appear in you, must be repented of, mortified, and reformed, and you must come to yourselves." Besides the first conversion of a soul from a state of nature to a state of grace, there are after-conversions from particular paths of backsliding, which are equally necessary to salvation. Every step out of the way by sin, must be a step into it again by repentance. When Peter repented of his denying his Master, he was converted. Secondly, You must become as little children. Converting grace makes us like little children, not foolish as children, nor fickle, nor playful; but, as children, we must desire the sincere milk of the word; as children, we must be careful for nothing, but leave it to our heavenly Father to care for us; we must, as children, be harmless and inoffensive, and void of malice, governable, and under command; and (which is here chiefly intended) we must be humble as little children, who do not take state upon them, nor stand upon the punctilios of honour; the child of a gentleman will play with the child of a beggar, the child in rags, if it have the breast, is well enough pleased, and envies not the gaiety of the child in silk; little children have no great aims at great places, or projects to raise themselves in the world; they exercise not themselves in things too high for them; and we should in like manner behave, and quiet ourselves. As children are little in body and low in stature, so we must be little and low in spirit, and in our thoughts of ourselves. This is a temper which leads to other good dispositions; the age of childhood is the learning age. Children don't have to become like adults to come to Christ -- just the opposite!

In his defense against Agrippa. Paul spoke of both Repentance and Conversion. "They [Paul hearers] should repent [metanoeo] and turn to [epistrepho] God. and do works meet for repentance. (Acts 26:20 But showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judæa, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.) He preached throughout all the coasts of Judea, in the country towns and villages, as Christ had done; he made the first offer of the gospel to the Jews, as Christ had appointed, and did not leave them till they had wilfully thrust the gospel from them; and laid out himself for the good of their souls, labouring more abundantly than any of the apostles, nay perhaps then all put together. .