Poor in spirit

To be poor in spirit means to have a humble opinion of yourself. I’m not surprised that this beatitude comes first. To enter the kingdom you have to humble yourself before the Lord. You have to acknowledge your sin and ask Jesus to forgive you. You must admit that you are spiritually poor and morally bankrupt. God loves a broken spirit and a contrite heart. When this virtue is present it makes apologizing easier. One evening last week I was irritated and grouchy with my daughters who had done nothing wrong. I was studying these beatitudes and the Lord “spoke to me”. Not literally. But it’s like he said “Jeff you’re studying about these attitudes of the heart and your attitude stinks.” No matter how hard I tried I could not concentrate. My conscience was bothering me. I felt like the Lord was telling me to apologize. So I left the office in my garage and walked into the house. The girls were in the living room watching TV. I said, “Girls, I’m so sorry for raising my voice at you. You did nothing wrong. I apologize. Will you forgive me?” They said, “OK dad. Can you move out of the way so we can see the TV.” Now it wasn’t a big deal to them but it was a big deal to me. As I walked back to my office I wondered - How many times do I ignore this feeling of contrition and miss out on the blessing of God?