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PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Jesus, help me worry less about money and more about love! Amen.


Some people were trying to trap Jesus into saying they could break the law, so He'd get in trouble. "Teacher," they asked, "should we pay taxes to Caesar?" Jesus looked at a coin and said, "Whose picture is on this?" "Caesar's," they said. "Then give Caesar what's his, and give God what belongs to God," Jesus told them.

A lot of kids care about money. It sometimes seems like, whenever you want something, your parents say, "Have you saved up enough of your allowance for it?" Then you have to admit you haven't.

You might even start obsessing over getting enough money, because suddenly, you just have to have that video game or toy. Somehow, it becomes more important because you can't just buy it today.

Money doesn't matter much to God. That's obvious in this week's Gospel (Matthew 22:15-21), when people ask Jesus about money. He basically answers, "Who cares? Go ahead; pay your taxes. We have more important things to talk about."

Most people Jesus met were incredibly poor. They worried about money all the time - and if Jesus had told them they didn't have to pay taxes, so they could keep more of the money they earned, they probably would have cheered.

It's hard, whether you're a kid with a small allowance or a poor follower of Jesus, to forget about money. But Jesus wanted people to remember that money isn't as important as you think it is.

Without money, you can't buy a video game - but after a while, you might forget you even wanted it. Jesus hoped people would focus more on other things, like time with friends, appreciating what we do have and helping out people who have even less.

Loving God and other people is the most important thing, and that doesn't involve saving up your allowance![[In-content Ad]]

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