I believe the beatitudes are a model or pattern for spiritual maturity with one building on another and ultimately looping back again in a continual path toward spiritual perfection. Rather than looking at them separately as if describing different types of people in the Kingdom of God, they lay down a blueprint for how to become a disciple. This seems to make sense within the greater context of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7.

For those who’ve been following my story, you know how big a deal my next statement is going to be. For those who haven’t, you can catch up here and here. Go ahead, I’ll wait. In the meantime, here's a fun fact that'll be relevant later: "When geese fly together, each goose provides additional lift and reduces air resistance for the goose flying behind it.  Consequently, by flying together in a v-formation, scientists estimate that the whole flock can fly about 70% farther with the same amount of energy than if each goose flew alone." (source)

I saw Beauty and the Beast recently. I know, I know, spear me. I’m not going to get into the whole ‘gay’ thing, because that’s not what I’m here for. Besides which, I think, if anything else, the gay community should kinda take it as an insult that of all the characters, Disney picked Le Fou, an idiot, coward, and a villain, to represent them. Anyway. There was another message, buried much deeper, that will hurt our children and our society much, much more in the long run. Spoilers coming, but since the movie really hasn’t got much new on the old one, I think this is safe water to tread.
 

Have you ever heard the saying that when you pray for patience, God doesn’t give you patience, but opportunities to work on being patient? Well, I’ve been thinking about that this last week a lot. Last week my doctor called to tell me that I had gestational diabetes, and I cried like I had gotten some cancer diagnosis.