Manners are for everybody

Jesus, help me to use my manners, because people deserve it! Amen.

As Jesus traveled, He met ten men who had a skin disease. "Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!" they called. Jesus told them, "Go see a priest." As the men were leaving, they saw they had been healed! One man went back to Jesus, shouting thanks. "Ten men were healed," Jesus said. "Where are the other nine?" Then He told the man, "Go, your faith has saved you."

Manners are probably a big deal to your parents. You're always being reminded to say "please" and "thank you," not to ask embarrassing questions of strangers, to be polite and respectful of people, and to help out when someone needs it.

With all that being drummed into you constantly, you might notice that some adults don't seem to have very good manners! You sometimes want to remind grownups that, if you have to say "please" and "thank you," they should be saying it, too!

This week's Gospel (Luke 17:11-19) points that out. Jesus meets a group of sick men and heals them, but nine out of ten don't go back to thank Him. Jesus is bothered by this, even though He's happy that one man did remember his manners.

Using manners -- saying "thank you," for example -- is really saying, "You did something nice for me, and you didn't have to. That deserves to be noticed." It makes sense to thank someone, because they'll feel good about being helpful and will do it again.

Jesus didn't have to heal the ten men. He was busy and had a lot of other things to do. But He stopped and helped because they asked (even though they didn't say "please!"). Not even getting a "thank you" from nine adults who should have remembered their manners didn't make Jesus feel very good!

Kids hear about manners all the time. Sometimes, you can even remind the grownups to use theirs -- if you do it politely.