Don't point that finger

Jesus, teach me to work on my own mistakes, not point at anyone else's! Amen.

"Two men went to a temple [like a church]," Jesus said. "One stood up front and prayed, 'God, I'm so glad I'm a good person. I obey the law and give money to the temple -- not like that terrible tax collector!' But the tax collector, who was seen as a bad person, stood in a corner and bowed his head, saying, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'" Jesus finished, "The tax collector was the one God was happy with. Those who show off will be humbled, but those who are humble will be made great."

Telling on someone can be the high point of a kid's day. You know you do things that you could get in trouble for, but tattling to get your sister or classmate in trouble makes you feel great.

Kids tattle because it feels good to compare themselves to another kid who's being bad right now. But that isn't what Jesus wanted us to do -- and He tells us why in this week's Gospel (Luke 18:9-14).

When your friend or your brother is doing something bad, they probably feel guilty about it already. In the Gospel story, the tax collector took money from people who didn't have much, so they hated him. He felt guilty about what he did, too.

It's easy to point at someone else's mistakes to make yourself feel better -- like the man at the temple who boasted about how great he was, comparing himself to the tax collector.

But Jesus wanted us to look only at our own mistakes, and try to fix those and become better people. That's why He said God was proud of the tax collector, but not of the boasting man. The tax collector knew he'd done things wrong and wanted to change; the other man just wanted to talk about how great he was.

If we're going to point a finger at anyone, Jesus wanted it to be ourselves!