Be-Attitudes Hop, Sept 30th-Oct 1st

Welcome to the Be-Attitudes Faith Blog Hop!  Every month we choose a theme with which to honor Christ and become closer to Him.  We then create a project to reflect that theme and boldly post it on our blogs so that the whole world sees that even our talents belong to Him! This month we have chosen the Beatitudes found on Mathew 5:3:12 and we invite you to hop through our blogs to see the Lord’s Glory manifested through the work of our hands and the stories He has written in our lives.  If you arrived from Diana's blog, you are in the right place.  If you just happened to land here, make sure that you hop on over to www.mypapertreehouse.blogspot.com to begin the journey.  Know that we have been praying for you and hope that the Lord would bring you just a bit closer to Himself…

In Matthew 5:3-12 we find the well known Beatitudes.  This portion of Scripture is very peculiar because every statement begins with “Blessed are those…” and yet the attribute that is mentioned right after is NOT something desirable before the eyes of the world. 

Look at the list of attributes along with the blessed reward:

Poor in spirit: Kingdom of Heaven

Mourn: comfort

Meek: inherit the earth

Hunger and thirst for righteousness: will be filled

Merciful: will be shown mercy to

Pure in heart: will see God

Peacemakers: called children of God

Persecuted because of righteousness: kingdom of heaven

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you

If we were to be honest, we would all say that none of us would like to be considered poor in spirit, or be caught in the midst of mourning.  Meekness is considered a sign of weakness and in America Hunger and Thirst for righteousness is replaced by hunger and thirst for worldly acceptance.  It is very difficult to be merciful and pure in heart for our hearts are always seeking to satisfy our own needs; and we are not willing to make peace if that peace requires that we would submit to someone else’s authority.  We do not want to be made fun of, or persecuted, or bad mouthed…  Yet all of these things the LORD calls blessed! 

The reason why they are Blessed is because only when we have these attitudes can we truly see ourselves for who we are and God for who He is.  Only when we see the depravity of our being and the sin that enslaves us, can we be set free by the only ONE that is Pure and Holy!  May He grant us the privilege of being called BLESSED by Him because in us are found the Be-Attitudes.

For my project, I chose to do a digital layout with My Memories Suite software. The verse that stood out for me was Matthew 5:9 that say "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." With school starting back up this is something that was laid on my heart. Let me show my page first and then explain:

You may notice the "No Bullying" around the edges of the page. Well, I really wanted to put it all over the page. You see, a bully is the antagonist to a peacemaker.  Our state has passed an anti-bullying law here. The parents can now be fined if their child bullies another. I think that this is a pretty positive thing and I will tell you why. I was a product of a childhood full of bullying. No one would stand up for me and there were plenty of people that witnessed the events. I have always educated my children that it is wrong to bully someone else into doing what you want, seeing things your way, or for profit. It is high time that we, as parents, accept the responsibility back for raising our children properly. One thing I do notice is that children that are bullied at home tend to bully out of the sense of having no control. Well, enough about that, the real point of this is to also encourage children that, if they see someone being bullied, that they should work to be a peacemaker. It is not always be easy but will be well worth it. It is ironic that I finished this page the same day CBS aired a special on bullying and its' devastating effects.

There is no greater gift than that of finding Christ, but we would like to bless a group of you with some Grand Prizes from the following sponsor.

We have a blog banner and button design that have been donated to us by The Shabby Vanity. Shabby Vanity redid my blog and I highly recommend her services. You can check out her blog HERE.

To qualify, like Paper Tree House Studio in Facebook, become a follower of their blog, and leave a comment.  Those that choose to participate by creating a project that follows the theme will have a greater chance of winning, so make sure that you create something or share your own story in your blog to then come back and share with us your creation and thoughts. 

Hop on over to Wendy’s blog to continue in this journey…  May you be filled with the “Be-Attitudes” this week.

Love in Christ,