Money, Money, Money

“Money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). I honestly agree! There is nothing in my life that causes more problems than money, whether it be earning it, spending it, or not having enough of it. Right now, the most frustrating part is trying to earn enough of it to pay all the bills that are coming up. Somehow, I need to find the money to pay for school in the fall, and so I’ve gotten myself two jobs, hoping to work 60 hours a week. Both jobs cut back my hours, so now I only work about 35 hours a week, which is not enough. So I applied for scholarships and grants, but nothing is working out there either. Now I have to get two different types of loans in order to get the money I need to pay for my last year of school. Until now, I have been debt free, but that won’t last beyond this summer, unfortunately.

Sometimes I wish I had more of it, but then I wonder what I would do with more money. First, of course, I would pay for school and finish that off, but after that, I would probably spend an excessive amount on expanding my already too large wardrobe. I love getting new clothes, and designing new outfits from the fun things in my closet. If I had more money, I’d get more shoes, and finally own that pair of red high heels that would complete so many of my favorite outfits. I’d get my nails done; French manicures every couple of weeks. I’d get a car, so that I no longer have to cruise around in my parents’ minivan. I’d go to Europe, and spend a summer there, seeing everything I could, learning all the history, taking a million pictures, and having the time of my life! Its fun to think of all the things I could do or buy, and all the places I could go, if only money wasn't an obstacle!...But money is an obstacle. A huge one.

Maybe, my current frustration with money is God’s way of teaching me to work hard to earn the money for the things I need and save money by leaving my vanity unsatisfied. Though it seems impossible to get ahead of the bills, maybe there is a lesson in it all. I have to save every penny so I can borrow less and pay off my student debt as quickly as possible, so I don’t have money to spend on nail polish, eyeliner, and red high heels (though I WOULD use them often, and make it worth the money I spend!). God knew all along that I wouldn’t get the number of hours of work that I wanted this summer, and that I would have to borrow money to pay for school, but I can only assume that he is trying to teach me something, through the frustrations. Somehow, some way, this fits into His plan for my life, as all things do. It doesn’t make sense to me now, but I have to learn to trust Him with my finances. Money is the most frustrating thing in my life, but it is really difficult to entrust it to someone else. As a young adult, I want to prove that I can do things by myself, even though I know that I can do nothing without God’s assistance. I have to learn to hand the little bit of money that I have over to Him, and to trust that He will take care of it, and help me to meet the deadlines and pay the bills, no matter how impossible that may seem. The only way to solve the problem is to give it to God, counter-intuitive as that may seem. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phillippians 4:13), but without Him, I am nothing (John 5:15).

Abortion

Abortion
Elizabeth Roelands
Three million deaths. One horror. One weapon of death. One word: abortion. Since it was legalized in Canada on May 14, 1969, abortion has taken the lives of so many in our nation. A portion of our doctors, lawyers, teachers, politicians, farmers, mothers, fathers, etc. are missing. They were not given the chance to live because their parents were not given the truth about abortion. Abortion is a monster, ruthlessly murdering millions upon millions of people through out our modern world of “great healthcare” and “great freedom.” We need to put an end to this atrocity’s legality in Canada; once and for all.
                  Our society tells us that we can do whatever we want; as long as we are not directly breaking the law, it doesn’t matter what we are doing. Teenagers are the most targeted age for this faulty philosophy. Teenagers are vulnerable because we are trying to figure out who we are and who we will become. Our culture of death takes advantage us at this crucial time in our lives, telling us to do whatever makes us feel good, even if it goes against our parents’ “old-fashioned” values.
We all need to feel loved, but no one tells us how much we are loved. Our parents love us, even when we break their rules to follow the “ways of the world.” Not everyone has parents, or parents that love them, but that does not mean that they are not loved. God loves them so much that He allowed His own Son to lessen Himself to the status of man, to die a horrifying death on the cross, in order to set us free from the chains of sin. But God has become another one of those “old-fashioned” values in our society, so people must look elsewhere for the love they need.
Many of the young people of this world turn to sex in their search for love. Sex is an expression of love; an act of union, specifically designed to procreate life, and to unite a married couple to each other in a free and complete gift of self. The act has become a toy in our world. It feels good, so it “must” be okay to use it for fun. Attractive young men and women use each other selfishly for the physical pleasure, without promising any commitment to love. There is no love in premarital sex, but the search for love is the reason the act is done.
Most of these young people in high school and university have no desire to have a child. They want to have sex for their own personal pleasure, but they are not at all interested in working with God to reproduce. When they do get pregnant, young women don’t know where to turn. The young men that got them pregnant are too selfish and afraid to stand up and be real men to love them and care for them. These women are hurt, and confused. This is where the culture of death gets them. They are told that they can just have an abortion. The “problem” will be “taken care of,” the woman can carry on with her life as though nothing had happened.
The “problem” is not the pregnancy, or the child. The problem is the idea that we can murder someone in the very place they should be most protected; their mother’s womb. Abortion does not take care of the problem neatly. There is a death, even though we are told that there is no baby, just a “blob of tissue.” There are after effects like depression, nightmares and sleepless nights, and feelings of guilt, not to mention later health problems such as infertility, haemorrhage, cervical lacerations, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), and many others.
Today’s youth need to become the leaders in our society, rather than the ones who are vulnerable to the lies and targeted by the greed of those we have been told to trust. We must discover the lies ourselves, rather than rely on faulty information. Catholic teens have the added responsibility of not only sharing the beautiful gift of Faith that we are given, but also to live it fully. We must reveal the lies of abortion and the love of our Heavenly Father. We must stand our ground, to be the light of Christ shining in this darkened world.