Take time to relax

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK

Jesus, help me squeeze in some down-time around all my activities. Amen!


TAKE TIME TO RELAX

After Jesus spoke in His hometown, the people there said, “Isn’t He just Joseph’s son?” Jesus said, “You’re going to say, ‘Do miracles like we heard you did in Capernaum.’ But a prophet is never accepted in His own hometown.” People got angry and tried to throw Him off a mountain, but Jesus escaped.

It’s hard for a kid to be bored these days. You’re so busy rushing from school to Scouts to sports, you hardly have time for homework, let alone just hanging out at home.

Even Jesus must have wished He could just relax a little sometimes — for example, in this week’s Gospel (Luke 4:21-30).

Jesus is visiting Nazareth, His hometown. He probably wants to visit old friends and relatives, but He ends up teaching people about God the whole time. Worse yet, they remember Him as a kid and don’t believe He’s the Son of God, so they won’t even listen!

When you don’t have a minute to relax, it’s hard to do well in all your activities. You fumble in a football game; you could care less about Scouts, even though you couldn’t wait to become one.

It was hard for Jesus, too, when He wanted to help people get closer to God, but they were too distracted by the past to think about what He was teaching now. In fact, they got so angry with Him, they tried to kill Him!

It’s a good thing to take a little time at home to just hang out, even if it means you start your homework 15 minutes later. Relaxing helps your brain and body work better when you get active again.

Unfortunately, Jesus didn’t have that free time to relax. He tried to teach, but realized people weren’t going to believe Him, so He went on to another town. Jesus had a busier schedule than a kid!