w/c 3rd July

Our reading this week is Matthew 10: 40-42

God Will Bless Those Who Welcome You

⁴⁰ “Whoever accepts you also accepts me. And whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me. ⁴¹ Whoever accepts a prophet because he is a prophet will get the same reward a prophet gets. And whoever accepts a godly person just because that person is godly will get the same reward a godly person gets. ⁴² Whoever helps any of these little ones because they are my followers will definitely get a reward, even if they only give them a cup of cold water.”

Prayer for the week:

Dear God,

Help us to be the best that we can be,

To be wise in the worst of times,

To endure through the struggle,

Amen

In school:

We thought about a story about a woman called Claire who lives in America, and who loves to go to her local department store. She doesn’t buy anything, but spends her time just looking around, and enjoying the live music they have on different floors, especially around Christmastime.

One day Claire was up on the top floor of the store where they sell the most expensive clothes. Then the lift doors opened and out stepped a dirty-looking woman with a rubbish bag in her hand. Claire thought, ‘Somebody is going to come and usher her out. Security will be called. She doesn’t belong here.’ The cheapest dress on that floor was $1,000. Surely this was no place for such a scruffy woman.

Claire watched as a very graceful shop assistant came over to the lady and said, ‘Excuse me, madam, can I help you?’ The scruffy lady said, ‘Yes, I want a dress.’ ‘What kind of dress?’ the assistant asked. ‘A party dress.’ ‘Well, you’ve come to the right place. We have the finest dresses in the world.’

Claire couldn’t help but follow the action from a distance, just to see what would happen. She couldn’t believe her eyes. The saleswoman took the lady over to a rack of beautiful dresses and talked about which colours would suit her, what would go well with her eyes and hair. They talked for about 15 minutes and together they picked three dresses off the rack.

Then the saleswoman said to the bag lady, ‘Would you follow me?’ They went into the dressing room to try on the dresses. Well, Claire went into the next-door dressing room to listen to what would happen next.

After trying on all three dresses, taking another 30 minutes, the bag lady finally said, ‘I’ve changed my mind. I’ve decided not to buy a dress today.’ The saleswoman said, ‘That’s quite all right, madam. Here’s my card. Should you come back to the store, please ask for me. I’d consider it a privilege if I could wait on you again.’

Claire was amazed at how the bag lady had been treated; she was obviously not going to buy anything but took up almost an hour of the saleswoman’s time. After the lady had left, Claire walked over to ask the saleswoman why she had been so kind to her. As she came nearer she saw a button on the saleswoman’s lapel that said ‘WWJD’. She politely asked what these letters stood for. They stood for ‘What would Jesus do?’ Why had she treated the scruffy lady so kindly? The saleswoman said, ‘This is what we are here for: to serve and to be kind.’

We linked this to the Golden Rule which is present in all major religions: 'Treat others as you would like to be treated'. 

We thought about ways we could help others. 

Questions to think about at home:

Is it better to help wash the dishes because you love the people who care for you or because you don’t want to be told off for not helping?

What difference does it make to: 

• The dishes? 
• The people who care for you? 
• You? (what would your attitude be in each case?) 

Do you think this is the same for followers of God? What difference would it make to a follower of God to serve him/ live as he showed because they love God in contrast to because they feel they have a duty?