I am often amazed at the knowledge, insight and creativity of children. We, as parents or parenting persons, feel we need to educate, lead, explain, and protect our children.  And of course this is true.  But we also need to LISTEN to them.

It is amazing what you can learn when you listen. We parenting persons often make the mistake of relating to our children as they were 6 months or a year ago. Our parenting does not keep up with their growth. It is important that we frequently how we see our kids and adjust our parenting techniques to who they are today and who they will be in 6 months. We want to be parenting into the future, not holding them back and relating as though they were 6 months or a year younger than they are which can be the source of much anger in kids.

In many Christian Churches around the world, one of the scripture passages read yesterday was Psalm 105:1-6. It is a beautiful Psalm that sees God in all of life. As I meditated on these verses coming to work on the train this morning, I saw three things that were helpful to me.

1. "Give thanks to the Lord."
   
   The so called "attitude of gratitude" is very powerful. When you start thinking "thankful" a smile comes on your face and tensions ease. Other people pick it up and smile back. Thankful helps us be humble. It gets us out of ourselves. We can see what God has done, what others have done for us, and that life is good. Even on bad days.

I like birthdays. For all of the obvious reasons, of course; gifts,  food, parties, family coming together, laughter, teasing. But birthdays are more than this. They are a time when we can press the "pause button" of life for a day.

From late August to early September, we have four birthdays in our family. And as I hit that "pause button" and think about each of the four persons, I was very moved by what I saw.

Our 14 year old granddaughter was no longer a little girl. She had become a beautiful, thoughtful, sensitive, caring young woman. Our mid 40's son does many of the soccer trips, understands the barbs coming from their teenage kids he loves dearly, answers their questions, loves their mom, and runs a business... all with deep caring. Our 18 year old grandson... taller than me, with definite views and goals, and a refreshing sense of humor. And my birthday, to stop and see the love all around me: my wife, our sons, daughters in law, and 7 grandkids. The gifts, parties, are great, but the connections are the source of life.

Recently, my wife Judy took me out for my birthday dinner. She made the reservation at a lovely restaurant on the banks of the Hudson River just north of the city. Earlier in the day, the radio and TV were warning that Hanna is on her way, but the sun was still shining so we headed out. Up the Garden State Parkway, across the Tappanzee Bridge, and down the Sawmill. The rain was in sheets, blowing parallel to the road. The road was flooded with manhole covers blown off looking like geysers. During dinner the rain would ease and we could see across and then just as quickly block any view of the the bridge or the city.

It was a beautiful evening, I love a storm.

The next morning, the sun was out to greet a wonderful new day. The trees, the grass, the air was clean and fresh. The tension of the storm was gone. There was a wonderful calm.

How do you end a vacation? You look forward to it all year. The excitement grows the closer it gets. And this year it was perfect. The sun shone, the water in the pond at the end of our yard was warm and inviting, the ocean smiled as the waves rolled in, and Cape Cod Bay delivered breathtaking sunsets. We laughed, we played, we ate ice cream; and then we did it all over again.

You know in the back of your head it will end but you do not think about it. Sort of like grandaughter Sara who this year decided that every day this summer was June 18, the day vacation started. The clock stopped.

The day to go back home did eventually come. The end of something good. The end of a wonderfully playful time with our adult children and seven grandkids. They were going home, we were going home. It would be a while until we saw each other again. It would be a year until we saw the pond again.

The Beatitudes are to the New Testament what the 10 Commandments are to the Old Testament. These seven pithy statements, the stuff of my summer BLOG, puts a whole new spin on living the Christian life.

The Ten Commandments are rules to govern behavior. The Beatitudes speak to attitudes and our internal belief systems about life. Behavior follows proper attitudes... humility, empathy, openness, integrity, compassion, pure motives, and now this week, peacemaking.

There was a great deal of fighting in my childhood home. When my father married my mother, she moved into the family farm house. I was raised by my parents and my fathers parents. Two women ran the family, and this does not work. Two or three times a week after supper (on the farm we had dinner at noon and supper in the evening), a discussion would start about some event of the day. And this would turn into a loud fight between my mother and my grandmother (her mother in law). The fight then spread to my father and mother, her being angry that he brought her into this situation. It ended with threats of divorce, everyone crying and finally going to bed. As a child I would feel an anxious tightness when they were both together in the kitchen after supper... it didn't even take a fight, just a presence.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" This is probably the most musical or poetic sounding Beatitude. Almost sounds like a line out of the prayer of St Francis. And yet we do not want to lose the challenge by getting caught up in the poetry.

I am so grateful that throughout the Beatitudes the "reward" is not from having achieved, but from the striving. To achieve this Beatitude is humanly impossible. Pure in heart means singleness of mind, no ambivalence, never an ulterior motive, an open, clear, childlike sincerity. There are always secondary motives, another agenda, a political strategy, figuring how to put a good "spin" on it. "Jesus, what do you mean, 'pure in heart," did you not... do you not live in the real world?"

Last week Jesus introduced a revolutionary idea in "thirsting for forgiveness, fairness, equity and humanity for all persons." In other words to see every human being as a "this is my beloved son... daughter." This week he introduces another revolutionary idea. "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy"

Mercy was not a high value in Judaism and it was despised by the Romans. To be a person who extends mercy is to go against the culture, to be seen as weak, and certainly not someone who is upstanding and respected. And yet Jesus touches a profound human reality.

When we do show mercy it kindles an amazing feeling within. Blessed does not quite describe it... "whole, peace, warmth, love." One translation of Blessed is "happy, to be envied, deep satisfaction.

I am continuing with the Beatitudes; these bedrock statements of the Christian faith. They are the seven commandments for living that Jesus gives us. Unlike the 10 Commandments which speak to behavior; the Beatitudes speak to the way we think, the way feel, how we view life. 

The 4th Beatitude is "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." There are two striking features in this Beatitude. First, "hunger and thirst for righteousness." The sense of internal fulfillment or satisfaction does not come from achieving, it comes from "hungering for."

God never expects us arrive. We are constantly growing and changing. In a sense the object of life is not "getting there" or "achieving," it is experiencing and enjoying the trip. Probably the key word here is "thirst." The experience of thirst is much stronger than hunger... it drives us, compels us. Imagine Jesus today where there is little water and dry hot land. To be thirsty is not a causal "Oh I think I'll have a drink"... water becomes a singular focus.

During the summer, I have been thinking a great deal about the Beatitudes, the opening statements of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, Chapter 5. In many ways, these statements are the bedrock attitudes of the Christian faith. I think we tend to give lip service to them but often do not understand them.

In previous weeks, I have talked about "the poor in spirit...the truly humble", and "those who mourn... able to empathize with the pain of another."

Today is "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Let's look at three words, "blessed,"  "meek," and "inherit."

The Greek word for "blessed" means "joyous, spiritually prosperous, life of joy, finding satisfaction in God's favor." It is more than happy, more than joyful. Often they are for the moment... blessed is for the long haul. It is that inner spiritual connectedness that sustains us through the good and the bad; the light and the dark; the fulfilling and the empty. It is that essential oneness with God.