Prepare: Bring something with you that is “broken”, but that a child could obviously fix.  Something really simple, like two pieces of wood that fit together.

  As the children gather be trying to fix whatever it is you that brought, and then ask them for help.  Once it is fixed be sure to NOT say thank you!  Just grab it back, maybe be even a little rude.

  Wait, was that what I was supposed to do?  Shouldn’t I say something to (name of child who helped)?  Yeah, what is it that I should say?  Oh!  “Thank You!”

We all know to do that, right?  We all say “thank you” when someone helps us, right?  Here’s a question for you, though – how often to you say thank you to God when you ask God for help?  I don’t know about you, but I pray most often when I am scared or worried, or when I just want God to do something for me.  I pray for God to give me good weather when I want to be outside, I pray for God to help people feel better, I pray for God to comfort people who are scared.  You know what else I say when I pray?  I say, “thank you.”

In today’s Gospel story there are ten people who are really sick, and the disease that they have is really easy to give to other people, so they are not allowed to live in town with all the other people.  They ask Jesus to heal them so that they can go back home, and Jesus does it.  What should they do next?  They should say thank you, right?  Well, only one of them comes back to Jesus and says thank you, just one!  That’s not good!  I said thank you for help with a simple toy, Jesus healed them!  They should all say thank you, and so should we.

Let’s try it together.  I’m going to start a prayer and then I’m going to stop talking so that we can all say thank you to God for something that we prayed for.  (If you children’s sermon happens as part of the main worship at your church invite the whole congregation to do this!)  Ok, think for a minute of something that you prayed about that you would like to say thanks to God for. . . ready?

  Gracious God, we pray to you all the time for help and comfort, but sometimes we forget to say thank you.  Please accept our thanks for these wonderful gifts you have given us ___________.  Amen.

  Make the sign of the cross and say, “God be in your head, God be in your heart, God be on your left, and God be on your right.  Amen”

~GB

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