The Beatitudes

This week in Gospel Doctrine we are studying Matthew 5, the Beatitudes. How to teach this??? What a great Sermon, little admonitions of how to live/how to BE, but a hefty bill to teach. The Beatitudes were given to Jesus' Disciples, his most faithful, the ones who would carry on his work and go forth and teach the people. It was not given to the multitudes, although when we examine it, it is sort of a blueprint to "perfection", the essence of Christ, the attitudes if you will, to become more like him and bring eternal happiness, not fleeting carnal happiness. In the latter verses of Matthew 5, Jesus introduces several higher laws. Jesus came to do away with the Law of Moses, and in its place, gave many directives that were of this higher law. His wording is "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time"........"but I say unto you" Basically he is saying, "They used to say this," ....."but now I say this."

For example, verse 21, says (paraphrased) They used to say do not kill, BUT I say do not even be angry with your brother. The verse also says "without a cause" but in Joseph's Smith's inspired translation of the Bible (after all, the Bible has been translated hundreds of thousands of times), Joseph Smith was inspired by the Lord to remove the words "without a cause." So we can take this to mean, that EVEN if we have JUST CAUSE to be angry, we are commanded not to. Again, this is a higher law, a Celestial Law versus a Terrestrial Law. "He who refuses to forgive, burns the bridge he himself must one day pass." So knowing this, why do we still often not forgive those who have hurt us? We seek retribution, we seek our Justice. We want what is fair, (in our minds). I guess if Faith is like a little seed, which when planted in good soil, grows, and grows eventually bearing good fruit. Anger is also like a seed which when planted can grow until, if we don't repent of it, lingers, festers, and eats away until we can't shake it off. Advice of the Day: Pray for those who hurt you, and leave it to God! And pray for me that I can teach this lesson! :)

Homeschool

So it was with a heavy but decided heart that we pulled Twinkle Toes out of school a couple of weeks ago. Due to no fault of her own, there were some circumstances at school that I wasn't real happy with, and so we decided it was the best decision for her. She was sad not to get to see her friends anymore(at school anyways) and we tried as best we could to explain to her our reasons why. She seemed to understand and took it pretty well after some tears. The next day I gave her a new set of glue, some pencils, and markers and she decided homeschool was awesome and she had the "best day of her life!" ha. Kids really are adaptable. I have to admit, I don't miss the rush rush and cajoling to try to get her out of bed and out the door in the morning. So for the past week or so we have been homeschooling. We are going to transfer her to another school and hopefully by next year make some more concrete decisions about where we want her to go to school. It's been a really hard decision and for now, I haven't decided fully on anything- whether we will homeschool, charter school, or stay at this other school. At least there are options! We made cinnamon rolls this morning and glided into morning school with no glitches. I do, however, miss a little bit the break in the day and some more quiet time around the house, but the Lord has been calling me to this for awhile and so it's time to heed the call.

We've been playing this new game that Sweet Boy got for Christmas. It's called Cadoo and I have to say, we LOVE it! Think Cranium for younger kids. It does help if you can read, so this is really a game for 6 years and up, but Caleb can play if we help him. I think we are all enjoying it and it's a good gathering tool. You get to put on "Secret Goggles" and here's a picture of Grace cracking the code(okay, not really, but she is trying). You get to do things like acting, drawing, sculpting, finding things around the house, as well as solving little word puzzles.

Grace has been making progress potty training. The other day she went 3 times in one day. I think she is getting the hang of it because she seems to go faster now. But some days she just doesn't want to sit on the potty at all and so she doesn't. It's still pretty hit or miss, but I'm going to keep trying! Getting her in panties would be awesome!