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PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Jesus, help me have faith that I can always be good if I try! Amen.

The Apostles asked Jesus, "Give us more faith." Jesus told them, "If you had faith the size of a tiny mustard seed, you could tell a mountain to move, and it would." He added, "If a servant came in from working, would his master say, 'Sit and eat?' No, he'd say, 'Wait on me, and then eat.' Like that servant, you should do what you're told and then say, 'It's only what I'm supposed to do.'"

Being good is not easy. Every day, you get annoyed at a teacher, tease your brother, talk back to your parents and forget to be a good listener when a friend needs you. Sometimes, you wonder: If God wants you to be so good, why doesn't God make being good easier?

Even Jesus' friends wondered that. In this week's Gospel (Luke 17:5-10), He's talking about faith, and the Apostles ask Him to give them more faith. After all, they think, wouldn't they be able to do God's work and bring more people closer to Jesus if He made it easier on them?

Jesus scolds them. He says that, while being good isn't easy, it's not incredibly hard, either - and it's what we're supposed to do. Jesus wants the Apostles to stop wasting time complaining about how hard it is to be good, and just be good! He points out that they know the right things to do; like servants, they should just do those things.

Some days are harder than others when you're trying to be good. Jesus understood that; He got made fun of, ignored and hurt a lot Himself.

His point was that everyone - Apostles, adults and kids - has the ability within him or her to be good. A tiny bit of faith is enough to keep you going, even on the hardest days.

You're supposed to be good and you're made by God for that, Jesus said, so don't worry about whether you can do it. You can![[In-content Ad]]

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