Blog Response #8

1st Beatitude:  Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 The meaning behind this Beatitude is that people must confess their spiritual poverty before they can get spiritual riches from God.  If we follow this Beatitude, we will live with humbleness and grace from God's spiritual gifts.  What we need to give up is our poor spirit so we could be thankful for God's gifts.

2nd Beatitude:  Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

The meaning behind this Beatitude is that all people all considered the children of God and to reflect this characteristic, they need to be peacemakers.  If followed, we would live in a more peaceful environment where everyone would love each other and there would be less fights around the world.  What we need to give up is our negative attitudes so that we would be able to live peacefully as the children of God.

Experiment: After going a day guided by these two Beatitudes, I realized a couple of things.  I was definitely happier because I went through the day with serenity, peace, and thankfulness.  It was really easy because with peace there was no drama, with serenity I was calm and serine, and with thankfulness I realized how much I was blessed.   

Blog Response #7

15 Year Old Jesus:

          Jesus was like almost every other 15 year old boy, short and scrawny.  He was upset he was not as big and tall as some of his other friends.  Jesus had a few close friends, but was not the most popular kid around.  Jesus was determined to do big things and put more to his name besides the son of Mary and Joseph.  When Jesus walked home from school the older boys on the streets would pick on him and steal the snacks his mom packed him.  He would then go home to his room and cry himself to sleep.  His parents knew it was a private time and Jesus did not want to be bothered, so every night Mary and Joseph slipped a note under his door.  These were cute little notes that had a quick sentence of how much they loved him following a scripture.  Jesus woke up every morning and read his parent's little notes and learned a lot from them.  He got ready for school in the morning and went to his parents for breakfast.  Every morning he would neglect to talk to his parents because he would be so ashamed of crying the night before, but his neglect came off as rude and him being a smart alec.  Mary and Joseph would then give him a good talking to and punish him by not letting him go to the temple that Sunday.  For most boys in his town, this would be a blessing to not go, but Jesus loved the temple and hated his parents for doing this.  Instead, he would sit in his room and read the scriptures until he soon started getting his own views the scriptures.