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LifeTeen.com Blog

The Catfish Crisis

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Scripture advises us, “let your acquaintances be many, but one in a thousand your confidant” (Sirach 6:6). This could be re-written for social media as, “go ahead and share that funny meme about the cat with your many acquaintances, but when you’re having a fight with your mom confide in your friend on the phone– not the whole world with a status update.”

When we post, we should always ask what our motivation is. Is it encouraging? Does it share the best about me and others? Would I stand up in front of my entire school and announce what I’m about to write on the world wide web?

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LifeTeen.com Blog

St. John Bosco: The Saint Who’s Praying for You

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John knew what it was like to have a tough childhood. Born to a poor family of farmers in 1815, he lost his father when he was only two. Though very intelligent and quite witty, John was forced to delay his dreams of priesthood while working as a shepherd and farmer, to help support his mother and siblings. At the age of nine, John Bosco had his first vision, one in which a man with a radiant face and flowing robes called him to lead a group of unruly boys behaving like wild animals. Years later John Bosco would fulfill this prophetic vision, feeling called to the missionary field of youth ministry.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

Anything But Ordinary Time

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Maybe God’s calling you to reorder in that way. Or maybe He has a different way of walking with you and helping you establish order. Let Him walk with you. Let Him speak truth into situations in your life and bring calm to the chaos.

We waited all throughout Advent. We celebrated all throughout Christmas. Now we have the beautiful season of Ordinary Time to settle into a routine – but a routine that looks different than it did last year, because we’re letting God in to our lives in new ways.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

The Pill: It’s Just a Cover Up

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However, the truth is this: the most commonly used birth control pill is nothing more than a mask.

Just like make up only covers up a pimple, the birth control pill only covers up the symptoms of a woman’s menstrual issue. Sure the pill might make a woman’s cycle seem regular, but in reality, it is only fooling her body and her mind.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

Everyone’s Doing It

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I want a love that’s strong enough to wait for marriage and commitment. Someone who wants what’s best for me and my body. I’m not looking for someone who’s okay with me chemically altering my body for the sake of pleasure without consequences.

I want the consequences – but I want them in marriage where they’re supposed to be. I want to feel bonded to another person, body and soul (Genesis 2:24). I want to be faithful to one person and give myself fully, freely, and allow that to bear the fruit of children.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

Chicks Are So Cool

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Women, you deserve so much better. You deserve to be honored and treasured as living, breathing miracles that reveal God to the world in a way that men never could. Scripture says that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and your bodies reflect God’s glory and his life-giving power in such an amazing way (1 Corinthians 6:19).

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John 10:10 [Wallpaper]

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“The thief only comes to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have Life.”

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LifeTeen.com Blog

I’m That Girl – That Girl That Got Pregnant

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The day I saw those two lines indicating a positive result, my whole world completely turned upside down. I was living every young girl’s worst nightmare. I was pregnant. At the time I found out I was pregnant, I was single, alone, and afraid. I literally felt I had no one to turn to. The weight of my own embarrassment, shame, self-hatred, and loss of self-worth was too much to bear and I never told a single soul I was pregnant and scheduled an abortion even though I knew to my very core it was wrong.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

Justice and Mercy: A Reflection on Les Miserables

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The question startled me. Do I do good things, avoid sin, and practice virtue because that’s just what devout Catholics do? Or am I doing these things out of love of God? I didn’t like my answer that day so I prayed for an increase in love for God. And God’s always going to answer that prayer. Immediately, I was overwhelmed with a sense of how much God loved me.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

When Heroes Fail

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If you’re anything like me, you’ve become pretty disenchanted with many so-called “heroes” and “leaders” in our world. The cheating, lies, deceit, and more have invaded my television to the point where I barely turn it on any more.

A few years ago, it was the scandal of Tiger Woods.

Just this past week, we’ve been bombarded with the confession of Lance Armstrong taking Performance Enhancing Drugs and whatever the heck is going on with Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

Contraception and Romantic Attraction

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It’s common knowledge that hormonal contraception is detrimental to a woman’s physical health, but there’s little discussion regarding how the same drugs affect the health of her romantic relationships. Hormonal contraception changes a woman’s romantic chemistry. How?

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LifeTeen.com Blog

“Help! I’m Pregnant!”: How To Help Your Pregnant Friend

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It seemed like in one moment, our sophomore year, (our whole life) was changed forever. Two minutes ago we only had to think about cute boys, classes, and our plans for spring break. Now I had to think about baby diapers, stretch marks, and helping Jessica face the possible ridicule and judgment of our peers.

How was I supposed to love and support her? The selfish part of me didn’t want to face this. But the only thing I knew was that my Catholic faith asked me to take courage and stand beside my friend, to believe that God would work it out, and to hope in His promises . . . But sometimes things don’t end as you think it should.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

Addicted to Birth Control

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I was off the pill for about three months when my cycles went crazy again (because the pill doesn’t cure anything, just masks it), and this time the pain was unbearable. I went racing back to my miracle pill for the next few years.

In our junior year of college, my boyfriend asked me to marry him. I of course said yes! I had only been waiting three and a half years! We set the date for two weeks after graduation – a year-and-a-half engagement (a.k.a. forever).

Near the end of eternity we went to our pre-cana (pre-marriage) class. When the subject of birth control came up, I clammed up. I didn’t want to hear what they had to say. I had medical reasons for being on the pill. I wasn’t hurting anyone by being on the pill, and we were so not ready for kids.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

Fearless: Life Teen’s 2013 Theme

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Spiders. Snakes. Darkness. Heights. Clowns. People wearing a fanny pack . . . Different things elicit different fears in people. Almost everyone has something that causes their heart to race or their nerves to sizzle with anxiety. It’s been said that the number one fear that most people have is, actually, public speaking — far outranking fear of death, which comes in at number two. This fact was not lost on Comedian Jerry Seinfeld who quipped, “Which means most people at a funeral would Read more [...]

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LifeTeen.com Blog

True Facts About Abortion [PDF]

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Check it out! We put together a fact sheet about abortion for you to download. It’s important to be aware of what’s really going on and you won’t know that until you look at the shocking numbers and data. Go ahead and print it out, pass it around, and educate yourself about this issue.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

Nature vs. The Pill

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I think this is a pretty normal trend — with maturity comes better decisions about our health. We realize fruit and granola makes a better breakfast than doughnuts and mountain dew and preservatives that enable food products to last until the year 3000 (I’m looking at you, Twinkies) should probably be consumed in moderation.

A glaring exception to this is our culture’s enthusiasm for hormonal contraceptives, or “the Pill” as it’s known on the streets. If you’re like me, you hear “pill” and think something that’s good for you and will help you feel better, like Aleve for a headache or Nyquil for a cold.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

Jesus and the 3 Wise Guys

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Have you ever noticed that the Bible doesn’t specifically say how many wise men showed up in Bethlehem? We’re told that wise men from the East followed a star, interacted with Herod, and made their way to the manger (bearing gifts) but nowhere does it say how many men there actually were. So, how exactly did this idea of the “three magi” begin if Matthew 2 doesn’t give an explicit number? Is this just the byproduct of an overzealous songwriter thinking that “We Three Kings” sounded better than “A couple of Kings” or “About Four Kings”?

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LifeTeen.com Blog

10 Ways to Share Your Faith

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What’s your New Year’s resolution? Are you going to study more? Eat your vegetables? Finally watch all those episodes of Honey Boo Boo clogging up the DVR?

How about a resolution to proclaim your faith a little more?

You know, proclaim. To state publicly, to announce, to shout from the rooftops. In his letter on the Year of Faith Pope Benedict XVI writes that,

“The Church on the day of Pentecost demonstrates with utter clarity this public dimension of believing and proclaiming one’s faith fearlessly to every person.”

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LifeTeen.com Blog

There’s No Such Thing as “Impossible” for God

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We have a God who deals in the impossible. This is huge, life-changing, and has everything to do with Christmas. I think we’re so used to the story of “Christmas” that we can easily forget to spend time just letting ourselves be amazed by the story.

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LifeTeen.com Blog

What Will He Say?: God’s First Word

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The people of the Old Testament were waiting 400 years to hear something, anything, from God. In our Bibles, it takes less than a second to turn the page from the Old Testament to the Gospels when in reality, there was about a 400 year gap.

So what would He say? When God finally showed up, when the Messiah arrived, what would be the first thing He says? A message of condemnation? Reminding us of our sins? Telling us to be more patient? Giving us new rules to follow?

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