Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for my family and my faith. I am blessed to have been called to serve you. Let me work hard and know your love. Amen.
Reading: Matthew 20: 1-16 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: This is one of my most cited passages to my children. Anyone who deals with more than one kid in a group, be you a parent, teacher, aunt/uncle, or caregiver, knows that children go through a stage of comparing everything they see given to another to what they perceive they received. Come to think of it, I know a lot of adults who never grew out of that phase. This lesson reminds us to be minders of our own affairs. In this parable, the workers who put in a full day’s work received a sense of worth and purpose. Had they not measured the work they had gladly done against the briefer effort put in by the latecomers, they would have been content with their expected reward. There are those who are fortunate enough to have known God early, who have been raised in the embrace of the church from infant baptism, supported by a congregation and thus, in service to Jesus throughout their life. But even to those who are late to belief, God is ready to accept their discipleship, at any age and at any stage. Rather than feel jealous or judgmental of others, we should appreciate what we have been given for its own right. God knows what we need, He will provide, and His patience and generosity are infinite. --Heather LeBlanc
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