Personal Spirituality

Category Archives: Personal Spirituality

LifeTeen.com Blog

What Does Poverty Mean for Me?

By | August 24, 2012

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St. Paul says in Ephesians 4:4, “Live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” The reality is that for a lot of us the calling we have received requires us to have “things” in order to carry out what God wants us to do and be who God has made us to be. It’s different for everyone, because everyone has a different calling.

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Greatness Comes at a Price

By | August 22, 2012

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The fact is that every time I see a hero in a movie do something awesome, I want to do the same. However, thinking I’ll hit like Rocky or climb walls like Spiderman is not realistic and will likely get me in over my head. The heroes we look up to train very hard to be ready for the big moment. Firefighters train for a long time before getting on the truck and going to put out fires. The 2008 Olympics wasn’t Michael Phelps’ first time in a pool.

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The Secret to Sainthood

By | August 8, 2012

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Do you ever feel like there’s some big secret to becoming a saint and you can’t figure out what it is? What did they do to become so awesome? Was there a book they read? A certain prayer they prayed? Does a diet of bread and fish help?

That’s what I was wondering. (Not so much the bread and fish part.) God has been teaching me that you become a saint by . . .

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Fame, Fortune, and Faith

By | July 25, 2012

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Do you ever look around at all the actresses, singers, athletes and reality stars and wonder why you can’t be famous like them? Maybe you pray at night that you’ll get “discovered” on YouTube. Or maybe you want to get famous spreading God’s word. That can’t be bad, can it? After all, can’t you do more for him as a celebrity than as an average person?

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Now What?: Advice for After a Youth Conference

By | July 23, 2012

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When you wake up, you look at your floor, strewn with t-shirts, phone numbers of friends, and your journal. You remember the moments that challenged you, the resolutions you made to make changes in your life: to delete the songs on your computer, to change who you hang out with, and to basically be the Mother Theresa of the tenth grade.

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Baby, You’re a Firework… Sort of

By | July 3, 2012

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But then I thought about it more and I decided that the LAST thing I want to be is a firework. As exciting as they are, fireworks don’t really have a long life. There’s a high-pitched hum, a crackle, and then a really cool explosion of light that lasts for maybe five seconds.

And that’s all there is. Except for the smell of sulfur that lasts for another minute, and the charred out debris that lands somewhere. For all of their glory, fireworks burn out pretty fast. No matter how high they go, no matter how cool the colors are, they’re forgotten when the next one goes off.

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How to Have a Perfect Vacation

By | June 25, 2012

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Bad weather, theft, sickness – no matter how well planned a vacation is, it will never turn out perfect.

It was the shoes that did me in. The cheap fashion sneakers that were good enough for mall hopping but not for traipsing four days across the cobblestone streets of Rome, Italy. By the second day of my vacation my feet were throbbing and blisters were forming. Every vacation will go wrong somehow, but what are you supposed to do when it does?

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8 Ways to Cure a Bad Day

By | June 20, 2012

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“I stepped in gum . . . in my bare feet.” “My girlfriend/boyfriend moved to Europe and broke up with me over text.” “I can’t find a summer job; no one wants me.” Maybe you haven’t said one of these things exactly, but I’m sure you know what it feels like to have a bad day. Today my sister Maureen was telling me about her bad day and after I gave her my heartfelt and wise advice she said, “You’re really in the ‘just deal with it’ mode this week, huh?” So Read more [...]

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Pentecost Should Make You Uncomfortable

By | May 29, 2012

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It seems a little unfair honestly. There are all these crazy and dramatic details in the story of Pentecost, and my life is so mundane in contrast. I want the Holy Spirit to work in powerful ways in my life too.

So what’s stopping Him?

Me. I’m stopping Him. I’m scared and I’ll admit it . . .

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How to Stay Balanced During Finals

By | May 22, 2012

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Breathing doesn’t become less important as our physical tasks get more difficult; it becomes more important. It’s the same with prayer. It will most likely seem impossible to find time for a lot of prayer during finals week. I urge you to make it work . . .

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Heaven is Worth it

By | May 18, 2012

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Life is hard. We will feel pain, but the pain we face as we struggle along in our journey will one day make sense as we reach our “finish line” and experience perfect joy for all eternity in heaven. It is here where we will be welcomed for who we are, congratulated on the “race” we ran, and showered with an eternal feast the likes of which we could never have imagined. You see, no matter what we may face in this life, it’s worth it because of what lies ahead in the next.

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Beauty According to Beyonce

By | May 15, 2012

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A couple of weeks ago Beyonce was given the title of “World’s Most Beautiful Woman” from People Magazine. I feel like once you’ve got that award in your back pocket you can either:

  • A) Finally allow yourself to wear sweatpants all the time (at which point you wouldn’t actually have a back pocket), or
  • B) Gaze at yourself in the mirror for endless hours and let your pride shoot up like jack’s beanstalk.

No really, congrats Beyonce, you are gorgeous and have cleared up any confusion about how far I have to go to reach the plane you exist on.

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Dear Mary: A Mother’s Day Letter

By | May 9, 2012

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Please help me see and appreciate the ways that you love me. And can you show me how to love my own mother like you would? There’s a reason why your Son chose her to be my mother on earth; please pray for her that she can be more like you as well.

I can’t thank you enough for loving me and caring for me. My words cannot express how thankful I am that you have loved me unconditionally. It’s so crazy to think that God loves me so much that He would share His perfect mom with me.

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Stop Comparing: Jesus Doesn’t Like It

By | May 1, 2012

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Last week I ran in a race and a couple times I was reduced to the “I feel hot and nauseous; I’m so over this” jog that is very slow (if you’ve never experienced it for yourself). And you know who did NOT motivate me? The 70 year old next to me who was speed walking at the same (if not a faster) pace than me. Come on. Really?

It’s in moments like this, and other times when I feel like I’m not good enough, that I ask myself, “Why can’t I be more like that person? They must be so much better than I am.”

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Dating, Happiness, and Jesus

By | April 30, 2012

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In this particular relationship after my parent’s divorce, the girl I was dating became everything to me. I drew my worth from her compliments and her attention. I drew my joy from her company. I wasn’t simply finding joy in her and recognizing Christ in her, I was putting her first in my life before Christ.

She was the one I would go to with all my problems. I went to church to see her, not Jesus. And Jesus loved me through it all. When that relationship fell apart, so did I . . .

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The Miracle of Sound: An Interview With Sarah Churman

By | April 23, 2012

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Imagine what your life would be like if you couldn’t hear your phone ring, the microwave beep, or the doorbell? What if you couldn’t go to the movie theater or hear birds?

That’s what life was like for Sarah Churman until last fall. She was born deaf and last fall received an implant that allows her to hear. You’ve probably never heard of her before, but you might recognize her if you were one of the 12 million people who saw the viral YouTube video, “29 years old and hearing myself for the first time.”

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Praying for a Miracle

By | April 23, 2012

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I begged and cried and begged more . . . “God fix this. You have to. I know you’re in charge but come on, this can’t be what you want . . . right?”

That’s how my prayers typically went when I prayed for Catherine, my friend’s mom, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2009. Catherine’s health fluctuated in the following years and she never left the top of my prayer list.

Her family said it was time to pray for a miracle when Catherine stopped responding to treatment last fall. So I continued to beg God for a miracle. Every time I was miserable about something – the Arizona heat, a hard workout, the flu, or heartache – I offered up my suffering for Catherine.

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I Am Catholic

By | April 18, 2012

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Did any of your family or friends think you were crazy for becoming Catholic? How did you respond?
My family was supportive, but my friends were not in the least bit. Most of them doubted that I could ever change or stick with it. They were just waiting for me to fall again. In a way, that doubt from other people pushes you harder. I looked at their doubt in me as an extra source of motivation.

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Community Matters

By | April 12, 2012

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Although there may be times when we face loneliness, whether by choice or by circumstance, as Catholics we’re not asked to walk every aspect of our faith journey alone. This can be difficult for those of us who don’t have support at home or for someone like me who likes to do a lot of things by himself. I’ve discovered though, that as I strive for heaven everyday I need as much help as I can get. It’s your community that cheers you on in this life, encouraging you with their words and actions in the good times and the bad (Proverbs 12:25).

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Can God Heal Me?

By | April 10, 2012

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The problem with the self-help phenomenon is it can gives us the illusion that we can actually fix ourselves without the help of God. Instead of dealing with our hurt, sin, and deep issues, we learn strategies for coping and hiding. We’re just putting band-aids over our gaping, oozing wounds.

In high school, I hid my wounded-ness and deep insecurity behind my list of achievements. With three varsity sports, student council, shiny awards and leadership roles galore, I looked like I had my act together. But inside, I never thought I was enough. I was never pretty enough, smart enough, or funny enough. I believed lies about myself that bound me. I thought the shame and pain I carried inside from past hurts could never mend. So I just coped. I kept pushing through and pretending I was okay when I wasn’t.

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