---

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Jesus, teach me to find excitment in every day, not just holidays! Amen.

John the Baptist was teaching that Jesus would be coming soon when he saw Jesus walking toward him. "There He is - the Lamb of God!" John yelled. "He's the person I was talking about. I saw the Holy Spirit come to Him from heaven like a dove, and God said, 'He's the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. He is the Son of God.'"

Isn't it weird that it's 2017 already? You spend months waiting for Christmas, with the excitement building up, and then wham! Christmas is done, your winter break is over and you're back to school -- and it's a whole new year.

Sometimes, time seems to crawl. When you're a kid, it feels like forever until you'll be old enough to do everything you want. You wonder if you'll be 18 and your parents will still be saying, "You are absolutely not going to stay up until midnight!"

Other times, things seem to happen in too much of a hurry. Now that the holidays are over, you might be kind of wishing you could go back to the pre-Christmas excitement.

In this week's Gospel (John 1:29-34), something seems to happen more quickly than expected. John the Baptist, who is Jesus' cousin, is telling everyone how awesome Jesus is and how excited they'll be when Jesus starts teaching about God. It sounds like John is thinking about the future, but just as he's saying all this, Jesus shows up!

Excitement doesn't have to be over just because the holidays are. The trick is to look for something in every day to be excited about, not just Christmas or New Year's. Then you'll always be ready to be happy, because you're always looking for something to cheer about.

When John saw Jesus, he could have said, "Hey, I wasn't quite ready for you. Now, all the 'Jesus is coming' buildup is over." But John didn't miss a beat. He said, "...And here He is: Jesus! He's the Son of God; the Holy Spirit is with Him. Wait until you hear what He has to tell you!"[[In-content Ad]]

---