Support instead of divorce

Jesus, help me be supportive of other people instead of pushing them away! Amen.

Some people asked Jesus, "Is it okay for us to get a divorce? Moses let us have divorces." Jesus told them: "Moses taught that divorce was okay because you were going to do it anyway. But when God created people, God made men and women different so they could be together."

Does your teacher this year have a "no bullying" policy? Some teachers tell their classes that being mean to each other isn't allowed. They want you to support each other, to cheer on your classmates when they're doing good things instead of being hurtful.

Jesus had the same kind of rules. In this week's Gospel (Mark 10:2-16), He talks about supporting each other and how much He hopes adults will do that, too.

Teachers created "no bullying" policies and classroom rules around being supportive to make sure kids didn't get teased every time they made a mistake or someone didn't like them. Even when you're annoyed with someone, the teachers knew it was important to be patient.

What Jesus taught wasn't very different from that. He said He knew that some married people wouldn't be able to stay married, but He hoped that before they got divorced, they tried to be as supportive of each other as they could to see if that would help.

Classroom rules do get broken -- for example, a kid gives a wrong answer and other kids laugh. But Jesus didn't want adults to end up alone if they could help it, and He wanted everyone to cheer on good things and not be mean about bad things.

People shouldn't be "divorced" by hurtfulness, whether they're grownups or kids!