Who do you think you are?

So as you all should know, Osama bin Laden was killed yesterday. I got on facebook and that was all people were posting about. I watched as many of my friends commented about how happy they were and they were going to celebrate. It kind of made me think. I thought "It is one thing to be happy, but to go party in the streets and in front of the White House." So I looked at one of my friends post and this is what it said:

"Let us remember what Divine Mercy is all about; Unmerited forgiveness. Yes, we should have hope that the death of a terrorist brings greater peace and security to the world and to our homes... but let us remember and attempt to emulate the words of the newly beatified pontiff, "Forgiveness is above all a personal choice, a decision of the heart to go against the natural instinct to pay back evil with evil."-Michael Villanueva

I was really intrigued by this because it is exactly what I was feeling so I posted the same thing on my status. One of my friends liked what it said and posted it on her status. Well her friend did not agree. She started to criticize me and told me to shut up because I was clueless.

I was offended.

I will not usually argue over the internet but I felt that I needed to stand up for myself and my beliefs. She proceeded to tell me that I was too young to know about these issues and my parents needed to have a serious talk with me.

So I stood up for myself. But I have a question. Who does this lady think she is? How can she tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about?

We live in an age where people think that it's their way or the high way. I have been catching myself doing the same thing even though it may not be as extreme. It made me realize that I need to be more conscious about what I choose to say to people.

So even though I was a little ticked at what the lady said to me, she taught me a life lesson, and for that I am grateful.

What does the future hold?

We have no idea what the future holds for us. In a matter of seconds everything we prayed, wished, and hoped for could be down the drain. With one slip, one mistake, everything that we had going for us could be gone. This is one of the main reasons that I try not to get to wrapped up in what I "know will be my future" and try to focus on now. I work to make the choices that I think will benefit me in the end.
I will be the first to admit that my life has not gone exactly as I planned it to. I have had ups and downs, happy moments as well as sad, but I wouldn't trade any of it. I may not know what tomorrow holds, but I know that I am happy with who I am today.
I wouldn't trade any of even the worst moments in my life, because without them I wouldn't be the person I am today. In junior high I was at the bottom. I didn't like myself, other people made fun of me, and I was generally unhappy with who I was. I started trying to please others instead of myself and it only made things worse. As soon as I decided that I didn't want that for myself, I started looking at my life one day at a time. I did the things that made me proud of myself, and it made all the difference.
You may not know what the future holds, but if you just work on being the best you can be one day at a time, you can move mountains.

Fact from Fiction

How do you know if something is true or not... We have the legends such as Bigfoot and the Loch Nes Monster, and we question those as children until someone explains to us how that can't possibly be real. Let's apply the same thing to religion. People tell us that there is an "Ultimate Being" (God) out there that created us and everything around us, the evidence that we have is a book (the Bible). Now, if we aren't willing to believe in a monster with abnormally large feet how are we supposed to believe in an all powerful God?

The answer is Faith.

I think I have posted about faith before, but it is my favorite word. Today during the confirmation class that I teach the kids started questioning if the bible was really true, and it made me happy that I was able to explain to them that faith is all that we can rely on.
I also started to think that this is the whole meaning behind confirmation. This is a step saying that this is what you truly believe and that if you want to take this step you need to understand. So this doubt actually turned into a lesson that I believe strengthened everyone's relationship with God.
Doubt is not bad, it helps you grow and build your faith!