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PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Jesus, help me stick to my family's rules - and yours! Amen.

"When I come back at the end of the world," Jesus said, "I'll separate the good people from the bad. I'll say to the good ones, 'Come to heaven, because I was hungry and you fed me; thirsty, and you gave me a drink; naked, and you clothed me; sick or in jail and you visited me. When you did this for others, you did it for me.' But to the bad, I'll say, 'When you wouldn't help others, you weren't helping me. Now, you're left out of heaven.'"

Testing the rules is something every kid tries sometimes: You know you're not allowed to go out alone, for example, but you do it anyway; you know you can't spend the night before a test looking at Instagram instead of studying, but you do it.

This week's Gospel (Matthew 25:31-46) is about testing the rules. We all know exactly what God expects of us - it's right there in the Bible, and Jesus talked about it all the time - and yet, we all do the opposite sometimes.

When you test the rules, you usually get caught and punished, as you knew you would! And even if you're not caught, you know you've done something wrong. You had to sneak around or you end up with a bad test grade because you didn't study.

Kids test the rules because you sort of want to know whether your parents, teachers and other adults will really make you stick to those rules. If you do something wrong and don't get punished, you'll know the rules aren't really rules.

In the Gospel story, Jesus was warning us not to test God. Help people who are poor and hungry; visit people who are sick or in jail - basically, be nice to others and give as much as you can. These are not incredibly tough rules to follow, unless we're too lazy to do it.

According to Jesus, that's the way to get to heaven someday. Testing the rules too much, He added, can lead you in another direction![[In-content Ad]]

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