The Faith Page - September
Our Father Who Art In Heaven
As a father, I always like when all of my children are home. When one of my children is away I pray that they will return home safely. God, our Father, wants the same thing for all of His children. We are all on a journey home to the Father. Jesus taught us the words to pray the Our Father. He told us our Father is in heaven and then proceeded to give us the us the directions to get there.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” Matthew 5:3. As children we place our trust in our parents. What parent would encourage their child to be poor in anything? We want our children to be succesful and to achieve great things. God, as Father, wants our children to be succesful and achieve the greatest thing, heaven. It takes a lot for us, as parents, not to control "outcomes” for our children. We want to take difficult situations away from them. It may be as simple as they aren’t playing first string on a team. They may not have gotten the teacher they wanted or their best friend in their class. They may be dealing with peer pressure. How do we as parents teach our children to be “poor in spirit” and accept that God is calling them to recognize a strength or gift within themselves? The answer is prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, is not up in the clouds leaving us to figure it out on our own.
“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” Once again I say who wants to think of mourning or sadness? Is Jesus just talking about mourning a death? I say its more that we mourn for “thy kingdom come.” Jesus doesn’t promise life will always be easy but that by keeping our minds focused on the kingdom and being with God, our Father, it can keep us on the right path.
It is important to remember that we are all on this journey together and that we must be accepting of each other. Every teacher, every student, every parent as God’s beloved child. The person who hurts us or offends us belongs to God also. We can’t be responsible for them, only ourselves. Try and keep this humble attitude and one day you will find yourself at home in the arms of the Father.
- J Ebberwein
September, 2010
