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PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Jesus, help me to "wait a minute" when I'm asked to! Amen.
"The kingdom of heaven is like a farmer who planted wheat in his fields," Jesus taught. "When his workers founds weeds growing in the wheat, the farmer said, 'If you pull them up now, you might pull the wheat up with them. Wait until harvest time, and then you can pull everything up and throw the weeds away.'"

"Wait a minute" can be horrible for a kid to hear. Whatever you want, you don't want to wait; you want it now! You also suspect that "a minute" will really mean a lot longer than a minute. Why, you groan, do you always have to wait?

This week's Gospel (Matthew 13:24-43) is about waiting. Farmworkers find weeds growing in with the good plants and want to pull them out. But the farmer points out that the roots of the good and bad plants are twisted together: Pulling the weeds will tear up the wheat, too.

Basically, the farmer is saying, "Wait a minute!" He needs to think about the best thing to do and wants the workers to do the same.

When you're told, "Wait a minute," it usually means the person is busy with something else. But you want help or an answer right away!

If the person drops everything to pay attention to you, it might be the wrong choice: They'll be distracted instead of giving you their full attention. It can be better to wait a minute and get more attention or a better answer.

The farmer who told everyone to "wait a minute" came up with a good idea. He waited until all his crops were ripe, then pulled the weeds and wheat up together.

God does that with us. God doesn't take all bad people out of the world, but waits until it's time for each person to go to heaven to decide whether they're good or bad. Even weeds can turn out to be good sometimes![[In-content Ad]]

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