Wonderful World

This youtube is fantastic -Louis Armstrong, What a Wonderful World

I’ve been reading in Matt. 5 this week, what we refer to as the Beattiutdes. What I saw in Matt. 5 was so beautiful, especially from The Message. Here’s just a couple of my favorites  -

“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who your are - no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.”

My husband is the perfectionist in our home but there are some areas where I tend to obsess. Like quilting. I want to do it RIGHT (aka PERFECT). I’ve ripped out pieces so much that I’ve worn out the fabric, which drives me nuttier as I don’t like any waste. This perfectionism drives my quilting friend, Diana, nuts. I’ll bring a finished quilt in to show her and I will point out all the flaws. All she sees is all the rights and the beauty. I just typed - “Yes, I want to learn how to quilt right.” And then I realized that’s not a true statement and had to backtrack. The truth is I want to quilt right, right NOW. In learning how to quilt right I would acknowledge the flaws and focus on the rights and beauty of what I’d created.

 ”You’re blessed when you work up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.”

The name, BeAttidues, always bothered me. It should be called the Be-Live-Its. Attitude makes it sound like a mood outside of what is really you. A good friend, who was also a physcologist, said that if you feel an emotion long enough it becomes part of your charactor. Someone who is choosing to be constantly angry will become an angry person. The other side is someone who is choosing to be constantly happy or joyful will become joyful. It BECOMES part of you same as the food you eat becomes part of you.

“You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,” you’ll find yourselves cared for. “

This one is probably my favorite for now. Who doesn’t want to be cared for? I grew up in a Leave It to Beaver mentality. My Mom was definitely not a June Cleaver (she seldom wore pearls while cleaning house) but 99% of the people we knew were two parent families, the same two parents all the kids started with; Dad worked and Mom stayed home and took care of the house and kids. Day care was unheard of and babysitting seldom heard at all.

I love being a wife, a homemaker, a less than perfect housekeeper, a provider of home things for my husband. I love feeling cared for by my husband. John has always been the breadearner and I’ve always been the breadbaker. We choose this way and it works for us; I’m not saying it should or would work for anyone else.

So how do I get cared for? According to this Be-Live-It, it’s when I care for others. When I am full of care for others or when I’m NOT full of care for myself.

I’m basically a selfish person so this idea of giving away what I want to have has always baffled and aggravated me. And to be honest, it took most of my life to finally accept and try it, but when I did I found it works! Amazing how true God’s word is, especially when He told me upfront He can’t lie.

This past week in class while reading a book to one of the lower grades, I saw a little boy quietly talking to his table mate. I stopped reading and asked him if he had something he’d like to share. He said, “Yes,” and then proceeded to say the word ‘gay’  that I had just read had two different meanings. I said, “Yes, some words do mean different things. What did it mean in our reading?” His response was, “It means happy and the other meaning is ……” a frown wrinkled his forehead as he thought and thought. I just waited quietly. Finally, he finished truthfully with, “I don’t know what the other meaning is.” I just smiled at him and went on reading the story.

So, I found out what I want to be when I grow up

“..on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.” Matt. 4:16b

Please pray that I can be a true light in the land of the shadow of death.

This entry was posted on February 22, 2009 at 07:08 am and is filed under Homestead living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.