Read Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 with your family.

People are not all good and all bad. People have both good and bad in them, and it’s how we choose to behave that makes the difference.

In today’s story Jesus again uses the idea of sowing grain and helping plants grow. In this story the first sower puts good grain on the land while someone mean comes behind and sows bad grain. Then the two grains grow together and their roots mix together. The sower of the good grain knows if they try to pull out all the bad stuff, they will pull out the good stuff too.

People might be full of good stuff and bad stuff, but sometimes we don’t notice which is bad stuff until we are older and the bad stuff is easier for those around us to see. Then it becomes our responsibility to act on our good stuff and try to get rid of our bad stuff.

Jesus knows that’s not easy, but if we keep making choices to be kind and love others, it will get easier to know which is the good stuff in ourselves we want to keep and what is the bad behaviour we don’t want to follow any more.