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God does not apply adult standards to our small children. But as to being pure in heart, being merciful and forgiving, and loving when it is difficult, I absolutely see evidence of this in children. It's not all the time, but I've seen plenty of it. You have too. It's a miracle of God when I see them doing it and then remember myself at that age not resembling anything like that. God wasn't in my life then. But a child with God in her life can do amazing things.

But those "amazing things" aren't what save the child; what saves the child is the same thing that saves the adult -- Christ's redemption of them on the cross.

Infant baptism acknowledges the covenant of grace God made with His children that He would save them through Christ's atonement. Baptism, at whatever age, confirms this promise.

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life." -- Luke 1:68-75