Blessed Are Those Who Mourn - The BeAttitudes

Happy are the sad! 

Wait… what?

The Greek word for mourn is Pentheo, and it is the strongest word that Jesus could have used for deep emotional grief, sorrow and mourning. I am willing to bet that Jesus’ message must have been a surprise to all of those listening within earshot, "Happy are those who are utterly consumed with grief for they shall be comforted." "Happy are the sad!"

Happy Are The Sad?  Wait. What? What did He just say?

I believe that 2 Corinthians 7:10 is the key to understanding this BeAttitude:

¹⁰ Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

This tells me that the sorrow that confers to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, and then that leads to salvation; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

There is a sorrow that is of this world and then there is a godly sorrow. Throughout our life there will be or have been times that we mourn (agonize, wail, fret, sob, weep) over adverse events in our life unless we are truly hard-hearted. Believe it or not, there are actually some people who are like that. But Not this type of Mourning. We can mourn, grieve or have sorrow over a wide variety of negative circumstances.

Pentheo implies much more. It is a verb which is a present active participle (whoa, how did I remember that?). This implies repeated action or an ongoing condition. So what Jesus is saying is that the ones who are regularly and steadily mourning over sin with repentance and no regret are those who will be comforted (encouraged).  This is an ongoing pattern of life. On another note, He is speaking to His disciples. Jesus is characterizing His true disciples. This is the heart of the beatitude. Jesus' true disciples never stop grieving over sin in this old world.  

While we are visiting this planet, we need to see ourselves as we really are - forgiven sinners who should be seeking to be holy. Those that mourn are Happy. They fully know the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. They continually seek the Holy Spirit to root out any remaining destructiveness. Heaven is the Joy of our Lord. A proverbial mountain of Joy. These mourners will be comforted by their God.

I know this next story will raise eyebrows and side-eyes. Please hear my heart. This is what God told Himself and I personally – for OUR Family. We don’t judge you, please return the favor.  

Our family of 5 did not celebrate Halloween. And likewise, we did not bash anyone who did. I could not celebrate this day. Before Jesus I was into every occult thing that you could probably come up with. Once I repented from my past life, accepted Jesus, was baptized in the Holy Spirit and delivered from OH so much junk… I did not tempt to set my foot even close to the fire. I knew the counterfeit that the world had, and now I knew the Truth. We did not even do the Hallelujah Parties. (my mom and dad did not even agree with this, but respected our decisions) I can now hear the 'epiphanies' going off in peoples minds as to why I am like I am now. (giggles.. It's okay.)

To us there was no alternative to a pagan ritualistic holiday. (Please hear my heart, I remember where I came from B.C. [before Christ]) We instead had instituted Family Night! We would go out to eat early together or order in pizza, then make popcorn and snuggle in with movies for the evening. (And still do to this day for any in town should they choose to come by.. yes, that means you who is reading this now)

We would also have family prayer time. My little cherubs starting praying for the ‘Halloween People’ to be safe while out and about tonight and to come to know Jesus in a personal way. They prayed this faithfully really almost every night. It will be amazing when they enter Heaven one day and there are lines of people waiting there to greet and thank them for taking the time to pray.

This is what this BeAttitude is to me. My cherubs cried and prayed and interceded for the darkness in this world to be lifted and taken away from people. God heard their cries and comforted them with His Joy.

Prayer Time

Lord, please help me to have a heart for the world. I want to intercede for the lost, the wandering, and the ones who have fallen between the cracks of life. Break my heart for what breaks yours. Encourage me to do what’s right, even when it is the hard choice. Thank you for your forgiveness, your mercy and your Joy… and your sweet, sweet comfort.

Copyright © 2015 Christine Osberghaus

(Gentleness) Momma Said There'd be Days Like This... But the Fruit of the Spirit is Gentleness

The Tale of the Shut-Up Jar  
 

Be gentle with words. Don't say something you can never take back

because sometimes a scar lasts longer than a single sorry.

~ Rito Ghatourey

Our three adolescents were having a terrible time talking to each other in an appropriate manner. I tried every suggestion that I had read about, and even winged a few. We were seeing no progress. They were pure delights to everyone who was not a part of our immediate family, but towards each other we were bordering on unchurched-heathen behavior.

Himself and I had prayed and prayed and were seeking guidance with this. We wanted them to learn a life lesson and build character. Goodness knows that they were being characters enough! I was at my wits end with this and passed it to Himself to deal with.

Himself came up with the best thing ever! He was always quite creative when it came to discipline. Just ask any of my sweet cherubs about losing rights to excessive power sources. That had to be my favorite one. If they were out of line on certain things, they would lose rights to any power source other than house lights. That meant no hair dryers, no curling irons, no hand-held anything, no microwave, no TV, no computer; no anything that used anything but house lights or the refrigerator and stove. Knowing me, I of course tried to swing it with the ‘what you CAN do’s!’ You can wear your hair in a ponytail, you can cook your food on the stove like we did at that age; you could use your brain to calculate your homework, and you could get more sleep or read a book! Life was really quiet on those days.

So I just knew Himself would again come up with something creative to help instruct our kids on the

proper way to esteem each other. And.. He did!  I first talked to the kids about the word ‘Shut-up.’  I hated that word from the time I was a wee one. To me it always seemed to degrade someone. It was rude. It hurts the person who it is aimed toward. In no way does that word edify or build anyone up. I called it the ‘S’ word. To me it was a cuss word.

That reminds me of when the kids were very young and they and their friends started calling each other the worst words they could come up with.. Big Fat Bubba! They said it with vehemence. They might as well as said something even worse. It was the attitude of heart again.

Himself pulled out a huge, and when I say huge, I mean HUGE glass jar labeled, ‘The Shut-Up Jar.’  Every Time someone said the ‘S’ word, they were required to put money into the jar. Obviously the kids did not like to lose their money that had earned. They did not get an allowance, so their money was very precious to them. We saw a deterrence from saying that after about a month. Himself had told me that it would probably take that long because it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. We expanded the jar to not only the ‘S’ word, but also for complaining for awhile. One day one of our sweet girls had a really bad day. She took a handful of money and dropped it into the jar and let out a string of venom that would make your toes curl. She not only earned the right to put more money in the jar, she also earned the right to scrub some grout for a few days. I explained to her that it was an attitude of heart, and using the jar like that was not going to be acceptable.

This ‘Shut-Up’ jar caught on in our youth group and several families set one up. Now mind you Himself nor I ever mentioned this to anyone, but the kids did!!!  They wanted their friends to be accountable just like they were I suppose.

It is so important to be intentional and responsible for our words. Our words can build up a nation, a person; encourage the faint of heart; find that one lost soul hiding in the darkness. That one word can safely bring the prodigal son or daughter home, heal a relationship, heal a disease. That one word is, Jesus.

Psalm 19:14

Common English Bible (CEB)

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you, Lord my rock and my redeemer.

Prayer

I only want to speak kind words over my family and situations. Please help me to only use positive words to build up my children and spouse. Please cleanse me of the dross of old thinking and speaking. I want all of my words to bring you joy, Lord. I want to see people beam due to the kindness that wells up in heart and out of my mouth towards them. Lord I want it to be real, intense, and intentional.

(Faithfulness) Momma Said There'd Be Days Like This.. But the Fruit of the Spirit is Faithfulness

What do you mean I am out of Ipecac?

“If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?”

~ Milton Berle

God is faithful. That is one thing I say just about everyday I am alive. He is loyal, constant and steadfast. Though we do things awry, he is faithful to forgive us if we ask him to. My heart always melted when my children would ask for forgiveness for some silly little thing they had done or said.

Ms. Chatty was 3 years old. She was a climber. She could scale an entertainment center in 3 seconds flat and be perched at the top; hovering over you, ready to pounce on you from above at any given moment. She also did not like to nap. My other 2 were very good nappers. Ms. Chatty would have none of that! We had to come to an understanding. Mommy needed downtime or she could become very cranky. Ms. Chatty understood this and normally would look at her books and play quietly in bed with her babies until nap time was over. My rule was, you must stay in bed and not awaken your sister. Most days she complied. Today was not one of those days.

I had been preparing all week for a singing performance with a group of ladies. We traveled around the Pacific Northwest singing at different Christian venues. There were certain things I had to get accomplished that particular afternoon while the cherubs napped. Laundry was the main task.

As I put Ms. Chatty to bed, I reminded her that she was not allowed to get out of bed and could not wake up her sister. Ms. Bunny was already fast asleep. Ms. Chatty assured me she would be a good girl. I remember seeing a glint in her eye, but dashed that from my mind because I had too much to do.

I headed downstairs to work on the laundry. With three small children, there was always a plethora of dirty laundry and I would be gone for several days and did not want to leave Himself with that task along with the kids and cooking too. While folding, I paused; I thought I heard something fall. I headed upstairs and checked on Mr. Rational and he was asleep. I walked into the girls’ room and Ms. Chatty had piled up every stuffed animal on top of her sleeping sister. Ms. Chatty was pretending to be asleep as I moved all of the stuffed animals back to the shelves. Upon leaving the room I whispered loud enough to be heard, ‘If you get out of bed one more time during nap time, you will be in time-out after nap and going to bed early without dessert.’ I heard an audible gasp because she knew I was true to my word, and I headed back downstairs.

About 20 minutes later I kept feeling like I should go upstairs. I kept telling myself that everything was fine, and I was being silly. Finally I hear that ‘still small voice’ rather loudly and headed up the steps. There was Ms. Chatty with orange all down the front of her! I just knew that she had gone into the fridge and took a swig from the orange flavored drink that was in the pitcher. She hauled it down the hall when she saw me and jumped back into bed. I told her I would deal with her after nap and she could just wear that messy shirt for the next 40 minutes while the others slept. With that I headed back downstairs smugly thinking to myself that she would not get up one more time today during nap time!  

Then it dawned on me mid-shirt folding. I had made green bug juice and not orange! I flew up the steps into the kitchen. While I had been downstairs the first time, Ms. Chatty had drug the chair over to the far counter and got onto the counter, pulled down a big bowl and had perched on that to grab a brand new bottle of Triaminic antihistamine syrup. This bottle had still had the plastic shrink wrap on it the day before. She was able to get the shrink wrap off, open the childproof bottle and swig down half of the bottle. She must have heard me coming up the steps and spilled and all I saw was her shirt and her hauling herself quickly down the hall.

 

I tried not to panic. I went calmly and got her out of bed and brought her to the kitchen and I called the Poison Control Center. I gave my name and address. They told me to give her Ipecac and then water and put her in the bathtub because she would start to bring it up. I had gone through my medicine cabinets 2 weeks prior and threw out the out-dated ipecac and had not replaced it yet. Now What?!!  They told me that they were calling the Albertson’s by me and they would have the Ipecac at the pharmacy counter, open and ready to go. I was to bring a bottle of water, a bucket and a towel, and of course Ms. Chatty.

I called my neighbor and she had her teenaged son come to watch the other two kids while she drove us to Albertson’s.  I grabbed up Ms. Chatty in one arm and had the rest in the bucket in the other arm. We hopped into her van and dashed off to the store. They had the ipecac awaiting us. (Some people would ask why we didn’t call for an ambulance. We lived ¼ mile past the Buffalo farm, in rural Snohomish county, and we could make it to the store faster than an ambulance could make it to us.)

I talked Ms. Chatty into drinking the sweet ipecac. I think she was thinking about how exciting all of this drama was and that it was all revolving around her! All of this special attention just for this sweet lil cherub! She downed the water and a little more ipecac and then more water. I was trying to get her outside, but then the ipecac kicked in. I saw her face wince, and just as we got to the doors, she started the projectile vomiting. It was amazing to me how much this little one could throw up! She kept at it for quite awhile too. By this time I had her outdoors. She never once made it into the bucket either. Amazing. I called our pediatrician and he said that we did everything correctly, and he did not have to see her. He did say to keep her hydrated, and she might not be able to blink or make spit for a little bit after ingesting all of that antihistamine.. (Laughing here now)

For the next 2 days, the Poison Control Center would call us to check on Ms. Chatty to see how she was doing. I was impressed as to how faithful they were to call every 4-6 hours.  Ms. Chatty took her naps quite well after that.

Psalm 91:4

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

He will spread his wings over you and keep you secure.

His faithfulness is like a shield or a city wall.

Prayer

Thank you for that ‘still small voice’ of the Holy Spirit. Thank you that you don’t let go, but keep speaking to me even when I am not listening. Thank you for your Faithfulness, Lord. Thank you for loving my children even more than I do. Thank you for surrounding my family with people who are eager to help in any season. Help me to listen for your call the first time. Thank you for your faithfulness with me.