Thursday, January 06, 2011

To Be So Lucky

Yesterday morning in our SACT time, which is a 22 minute time slot allotted for meetings and tutoring, April Yang came up to me and asked me a question." Why did that have to happen to Mr. Marsh? He is such a good man with a good family." My answer was simply, "I don't know." Mr. Marsh is Mike, one of our church members who was seriously injured in a skiing accident last week in Nevada through no fault of his own. On Tuesday, all my students made cards for him and I told them a little about Mike's life. We are looking at the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' most famous teaching, and I reminded them that Christian author Phillip Yancey wrote that the Beatitudes could be rewritten as Lucky are the Unlucky. I asked the kids what good could have come from Mike's injuries and we came up with two. One is that there are more people praying for Mike right now probably than any time in his life. Secondly, we are sure he is rejoicing that neither his wife or young son, standing with him on the slope, were hit by the careening snowboarder, which could have proved fatal. With that as a backdrop, the kids rewrote the Beatitudes according to what they see in their own lives. The boys are in blue, the girls in purple. We will look at some more tomorrow.

"Blessed are the orphans for God will always be their father." Chelsea

"Blessed are you when people say you can't do it for in heaven you will satisfy their doubts." Warren

"Blessed are those who are teased in school because in heaven, there will be no bullies." Princess

"Blessed are the red light runners for there are no traffic lights in heaven." Corbin

"Blessed are those who are ugly for they are beautiful on the inside." Emily

"Blessed are those who learn to listen to others for they will understand." Tony

"Blessed are the children with unsupportive parents for God will be their everlasting father." Caitlin

"Blessed are the climbers for in their pursuit they find the heavens." Tom

"Blessed are the people with few friends for they will be surrounded in heaven." Elissa

"Blessed are the unnoticed for God will admire you." Cody

"Blessed are those who are single because God isn't ready to share you yet." Julia

"Blessed are those who can't talk because they will become the Lord's consultant." Patrick

"Blessed are those who are hated on because it will be their motivation." Imani

"Blessed are the mute for they will not curse one another." Jacob

"Blessed are they deaf because they can hear God in their heart." Minna

"Blessed are the ugly for God will not judge your appearance." Bruse

"Blessed are you when you're famished for God's food is everlasting." Jada

"Blessed are the nerds for they will run the world's economy." Christian

"Blessed are those who are shackled for they will dance for God in heaven." Laura

"Blessed are the lame for they will run to God's arms in heaven." Carson

"Blessed are you who lost your job for God will find your value again." Danielle


God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com

4 comments:

Lisa said...

What a blessing this.. I have tears at what the children wrote. How very moving beyond words.
I lost my brother to Cancer in November and so many prayed for his illness to go and the Lord knew it was time. He is happy and running free.
Im blessed to have found your blog.
Blessed are the Children.

Clint said...

Wonderful exercise. Thank you for sharing. God bless.

Tracy said...

What a nice post. What a great thing to have the kids do.

Marie said...

some good stuff :) I really liked this one: "Blessed are those who are single because God isn't ready to share you yet." Julia

love it.