An Attitude of Being

The Beatitudes

This morning I had the privilege of being taught what the Beatitudes (found in Matt 5) were all about by seven teenagers. Each of my students drew a piece of paper with a beatitude on it and followed these simple instructions: Read through the verse, make a poster representing the beatitude, be prepared to teach the other members of the class about the beatitude.  Tell us what it means, how the poster represents it, and give an example of how you think it will lead you to greater happiness. They had 15 minutes to prepare.

I was impressed with the effort they were putting into the project.  One student even commented on how quiet it was in the room (a rarity for my class!) We worked, occasionally passed materials to each other, and munched on our Pop tarts (important brain food for creativity.) Finally, the time was up and we were ready to teach.

There is something special about seminary and teenagers who attend seminary.  One minute they are having a conversation that seems to be going no where and the next minute they are focused and presenting Beatitudes in a way that touches your heart.  Each poster was different, each student gave us insights into what Christ was trying to teach, and each personality was evident from their work.  I loved it!

Peacemaker

Hunger & Thirst for Righteousness

Meek

Pure in Heart

Mourn

Poor in Spirit

Persecuted and Reviled

Merciful

In footnote a for Matt 5:3 we learn that 'beatitude' means 'to be fortunate,' 'to be happy,' 'to be blessed.' I felt all of those things this morning. I am finally starting to understand why Christ would teach the Beatitudes to the people on the mount, He truly wants all of us to feel fortunate, happy, and blessed.  

We used simple formulas in the margins of our scriptures to help us remember the attitude we need to have and the corresponding blessing that comes with it like: PS = KH (Poor in Spirit = Kingdom of Heaven).  I have a new formula I want to write in my scriptures: True Happiness = a be attitude = an attitude of being.

What is an attitude of being? It is the willingness to be: poor in spirit, mournful, meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted for righteousness, and reviled by men and still find happiness though it all.  It is being the example of the attitude we want to see in others. 

I shared a quote from Charles Swindoll this morning.  I would like to share part of it in this post:
"I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.  And so it is with you... WE are in charge of our Attitudes."

My challenge to the class was to pick two beatitudes that they felt they needed to work on and try to use them in a missionary moment.  Have an attitude of being and share it with others.  We are bringing happiness to the world one beatitude at a time!