DON'T SINK LIKE PETER

Jesus, help me trust that the rest of the summer will be good, whatever I do! Amen.

The Apostles were in a boat when they saw Jesus walking across the water toward them! Peter yelled, "If that's really you, tell me to come to you." "Come," Jesus said. Peter jumped out and walked on the water to Jesus -- but got scared and sank. Jesus caught him and said, "You don't have much faith. Why did you doubt?" He brought Peter to the boat, and all the Apostles worshipped Jesus.

If you're like a lot of other kids, you spent the school year daydreaming about all the cool things you'd do this summer. Once summer got here, though, your family may have had different plans.

Maybe you thought you'd sleep late every day, but your parents enrolled you in a summer program that starts early. You wanted to go camping, but your family vacation was visiting relatives. You wish you could have gotten all the things you dreamed about.

This week's Gospel (Matthew 14:22-33) is about one person who won't let you down: Jesus. He never makes a promise He doesn't keep!

There are a lot of reasons you don't do everything you wanted to during the summer: Your parents have to work; they don't have the money; they have a different idea of what would be a fun vacation. Maybe they just don't want to let you sleep all day!

In the Gospel story, Peter had a cool idea: He saw Jesus walking on water and wanted to do it himself. Jesus was all for it, telling Peter to go ahead -- Jesus would hold him up. But, when Peter tried it, he got scared and started drowning.

It's hard to trust people to hold you up, especially when things don't happen the way you want. It's good to know that Jesus doesn't let people down. Just because your parents don't choose the vacation you would doesn't mean they don't care. As Jesus said, don't sink into sadness over it; have faith it will turn out okay!

08/07/08