The Lesson

Then Jesus took his disciples up the mountain and

gathering them around him, he taught them saying:

Then Jesus took his disciples up the mountain and gathering them around him, he taught them saying:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the meek, Blessed are they who mourn.

Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are they who thirst for justice.

Blessed are you when persecuted. Blessed are you when you suffer.

Be glad and rejoice, for your reward in heaven is great.

Then Simon Peter said “Do we have to write this down?”

and Andrew said “Do we have to turn it in?”

and James said “Does spelling count?”

Philip said “Will this be on the test?”

and Bartholomew said “What if we don’t know it?”

and John said “The other disciples didn’t have to learn this!”

and Matthew said “When do we get out of here?”

and Judas said “What does this have to do with real life?”

and the other disciples likewise.

Then one of the Pharisees who was present asked to see Jesus’ lesson plan and inquired of Jesus His terminal objectives in the cognitive domain.

And Jesus wept.

Sometimes it's too easy to get caught up in keeping records and trying to achieve goals or finish a curriculum. My prayer this week is to keep the main goal in focus. I'm discipling God's children.

Today I removed Cosmo from his gymnastics class before it had finished for poor behaviour. This meant he missed out on receiving a badge which he had been working towards because he hadn't finished displaying all the disciplines. I'm not really sure what happened if I'm honest, the whole class were out of control and the coach was not able to command their attention. Cosmo was by no means behaving any worse than the other children, but I hold him accountable to a higher standard. I was torn because he was receiving assessment and I was so tempted by imaginings of his proud little face when he would bring his badge home to show daddy. But in the end his character is more important to me than any qualification and his behaviour today was not acceptable.

Hopefully he will treat the coach with a bit more respect next week :-(