Children’s Story for January 30th, 2005

What makes us happy?

By Janet Penner, Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship, Winnipeg, MB

Bible Passage

• Matthew 5: 1-12

Theme

• Beatitudes and happiness

Display

• money, power ads, toy ads, toys, books, pictures of vacations etc.

What makes us happy?

When are you happy? What makes you happy? Everyone wants to be happy and we all have a little different idea of what that word means. Some older people think of happiness as having money, power, becoming famous, having interesting work, or having a family. Some like to exercise or go on vacations to keep happy. Others see praying and learning about God as the way to be happy. People work at being happy. They invest in it. Sometimes they spend a lot of money or they spend a lot of time and energy in training. For example, to be a great sports person or musician, you have to spend hours practicing. Sometimes rich people think they are happier than poor people. (If you know of some one who was poor and happy or lived through some hard times, feel free to use their story.)

At Jubilee Partners near Comer, Georgia, Christian families live in simple houses on a former cotton plantation and help families of refugees learn English and get used to shopping and cooking in North America. These people do not have much money, and they don’t watch television, but they eat supper together in a big dining hall every day. They raise rabbits and chickens. They make crafts and have talent shows. The children have lots of fun together. The teenagers are friends with young and old and like playing with the preschoolers. They are happy about living in a serving, rural community.

For Matthew, who wrote today’s famous scripture text, happiness meant being blessed. Some smart people think that being blessed is like being congratulated. Instead of saying ‘blessed’ we could say, “Congratulations to the poor in spirit, for the Kingdom of God is theirs! When you get congratulated, that means something good has happened or will happen to you. The reward or blessing that Matthew wrote about was the chance to be part of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is where God is in charge, where God’s ways rule. It is a happy way of living. It is worth giving up money and your reputation for. Participating in this reward is even worth suffering for.

The beatitudes are about people’s attitudes. They show us a Christian view of happiness that is different than way others view it. Jesus tells us we will be happy or blessed when we treat others with God’s love and fairness. He also calls it treating others the way we want to be treated. Would that make you happy?

Wondering questions

• I wonder how many kinds of happiness there are.
• I wonder what kinds of happiness Jesus would congratulate us for.
• I wonder what kinds of happiness TV commercials encourage.
• I wonder if there is something that you wonder about this story.