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PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Jesus, help me listen to people's stories - even silly ones - without rolling my eyes at them! Amen.

"I am the bread that came down from heaven," Jesus said. The people answered, "You're a person, and you're from this town, not heaven!" But Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. People who believe in me will live forever with God in heaven."

When you listen to a story that doesn't sound true, it can be hard not to roll your eyes. "I fell off the monkey bars," a kid says, "and for a minute, I think I was flying!"

"Sure you were," you answer, rolling your eyes and laughing. It's obvious you don't believe the kid, and everyone else laughs, too.

In this week's Gospel (John 6:41-51), Jesus is the one people roll their eyes about. He's in His hometown, where people watched Him grow up - but He's telling them He came from heaven.

When a kid tells a story, sometimes they're just saying the way they felt. To the kid who fell, it seemed like time slowed down for a second, and he felt like he was flying. You don't have to believe he was, but it's better to be nice about it than to roll your eyes.

It would have been much better for people to be nice to Jesus, too. They were from His own town, but they hurt His feelings and wouldn't believe in Him - and in Jesus' case, His story was true!

Rolling your eyes at someone isn't as funny as it seems. First, you can make the kid seem like a liar, so people won't believe other things he says; second, rolling your eyes might encourage other kids to laugh at him, too. (When you're the one telling the story, you probably get frustrated if people laugh!)

For Jesus, people rolling their eyes meant He had to keep telling His story over and over again, until He found the people who believed in Him. The ones who waited to see what was really true instead of rolling their eyes were rewarded: They followed Jesus all the way to heaven![[In-content Ad]]

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