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PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Jesus, help me complain less and thank people more! Amen.

As Jesus traveled, He met 10 men who had a disease. "Jesus, have pity on us!" they called. Jesus did, and told them, "Go see a priest" - and, as they were leaving, they saw they had been healed! One went back to Jesus, shouting thanks. "Ten were healed," Jesus said. "Where are the other nine?" He told the man, "Your faith has saved you."

When you meet someone who's always cheerful, you tend to admire that person, because most people aren't like that!

Almost everyone, adults and kids alike, complains more than we should. We don't like the weather, the fact that Mom's late picking us up or our family's plans for the weekend - and we crab about it.

This week's Gospel (Luke 17:11-19) is about putting complaints aside and being grateful. Jesus meets 10 men who have a skin disease so serious and contagious, they can't live around other people.

They beg Jesus to be merciful and heal them. But when He does, nine of them run off, rejoicing, totally forgetting to thank Jesus! Only one person remembers to come back to Jesus to thank Him and follow Him.

A person who doesn't complain can seem rare and admirable, like the one person out of 10 who remembered to thank Jesus. Jesus' point was that it doesn't have to be that way.

All the other nine men healed by Jesus had to do was turn around, go back and say "thank you" to Jesus, and they would have been much different people - more grateful, humble, closer to God. They would have been face to face with the person who had healed them; they would have gotten to know Jesus.

All you need to do to be like that non-complaining person you admire is to stop complaining! Jesus wouldn't expect you to be perfect, but just stopping and thinking before you complain that your mother is late or your family's plans are stupid might change your attitude a little.

We can find a lot to complain about. It's time to find just as much to thank Jesus for![[In-content Ad]]

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