I love 1st graders! Week 21

About what do you pray? What do you say when you talk to God? Do you only talk to Him when you're sad or angry? Or do you let Him in on the fun when you're happy?

This is a sampling of what our kids said:

This girl is the sweetest

That last one says "Casey and Elizabeth"... us!

This boy wanted to pray for pie, pizza, God, bugs, gold and games.

We went outside in the gorgeous 80 degree (about 27 C) evening to observe the things for which we are grateful.

Besides some ants-in-the-pants issues with one of the kids, it was a good class with a lot of discussion about why we thank God. The "innocence of a child" came to fruition in these sharing sessions.

This innocence became even more prevalent when we read the Passion story from the children's Bible. We learned about Judas and how he betrayed Jesus, even though he was his friend. The class clairvoyant made yet another poignant statement, "I can't believe he would do that to Jesus when he was His friend."

Choking back a severe case of the "Awwww"s, I agreed and told her about the pharisee's reward to Judas for his betrayal.

"I would rather have Jesus than 30 pieces of silver," she said.

Of course, Jesus needed to die so our sins could be forgiven, but we all choose the silver over Jesus on a regular basis.

Abortion is choosing the silver (the life you once foresaw for yourself, which this baby threatens). Taking the job that combats your ethical or moral conscious is choosing the silver. Yelling at or physically abusing someone is choosing the silver. Skipping Mass to go to a concert, to go to a movie, or to sleep in is choosing the silver.

"I would rather have Jesus than 30 pieces of silver," she said. Thirty pieces of silver seems pretty trivial compared to the great banquet.