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As humans, we like rewards. Everyone likes to feel appreciated and wanted. Who doesn't like a pat on the back? We like to win, especially in America. Pope Benedict recently talked about this on Ash Wednesday. He said, "The reward for repentance and good works is not the admiration of others, but friendship with God and the grace that comes with it, a grace that gives peace and the strength to do good, to love even those who don't deserve it and to forgive those who have offended us. That is a very powerful statement. It is definitely a guidepost for this journey of Lent. We naturally crave the admiration of others. But why is that so important to us? It really only causes us to be hurt and feel bad, especially when it doesn't come our way. We also feel jealousy when it ends up being given to others. It is an easy way for the devil to insert himself into our lives. But the grace of God can replace this need for admiration. That is definitely a good place to focus our time and prayer. We should ask God to give us the strength to do good. What exactly does that mean? Is it difficult to do good? Not to and for those we love. But the Pope presses us on this. We must love the people who don't deserve it. We must forgive the ones that persecute us. That, we all know, is very difficult. That is why we need the grace of God in order to carry out this extremely important mission. Our friendship with God must become a priority in our lives and what better time to start that relationship than during Lent. We have the perfect example in Jesus. During this time, as he prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus spent time more fully developing His relationship with God. Jesus spent time in prayer. Jesus prayed to his Father. God and Jesus took the time to engage in conversation and that serves as the perfect example of what we should also strive to do. We need to become God's friend and we know how to do that. We must spend time on the relationship and let God know how much we love Him. The admiration of God is the ultimate prize and very soon we begin to lessen the importance of receiving praise from others. We begin to lose the overwhelming obsession with defeating everyone around us. We instead deepen our loving relationship with God and build for the ultimate, unending life that we seek to live with God in Heaven.

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