(LifeSiteNews) — When you were younger, did you wonder what your mission in life was? Do you sometimes still wonder? The Baltimore Catechism teaches us that “to gain the happiness of heaven we must know, love, and serve God in this world.” Our goal on earth is to live so that we can spend eternity in Heaven, but we need guidance along the way. Mark Hart – Catholic author, speaker, and the chief innovation officer of Life Teen – explains that we all have a unique mission on earth. Because this mission is not always easy to discern, we must get to know the heart of Christ and listen to His plan for us. How do we do this?
We go straight to His words in the Bible.
The Bible – the inerrant word of God – gives us the valuable lessons that we require as we journey through our lives. It teaches us how to treat others and how to react in certain situations, and it gives us valuable examples of holy people to emulate. Because a huge part of our mission involves caring for the people around us, we need inspiration and guidance from those who also cared for those around them.
This is one of the many reasons why Life Teen’s recently updated version of the Catholic Bible is so valuable for families. With over 100 pages of teaching text to help teens grow in their faith, discern their place in the Church, and navigate the secular world, this Bible offers the encouragement that kids today need as they face disbelief, hatred, misquoted verses, a misguided understanding of what Jesus actually said, and the culture of death.
Build the Kingdom of Heaven
Mark explains that the teen years are when kids “have to make the decision of what to stand for.” If we want our children to understand their mission and to inspire them to also make it a pro-life mission, we must first set them on fire with love of the Lord and love of our faith. To do this, we have to give them the kindling to ignite it. That kindling is the word of God. As one of the Bible’s introductory pages says, “Every day of your life, you are playing a role. The question is whether that role is building up or tearing down the kingdom of God.”
We want our children to know and understand that the actions they take in school, on social media, at home, and within their communities can either build up or tear down the kingdom of God, so we must not only give them the tools they need to build it up, but we must help foster a love for those tools.
That’s what makes the Life Teen Bible so incredibly special. It’s a Bible, Mark says, that teens can be proud to carry with them to school, to a coffee shop, or to another public place because, with the elegant cover design of God’s hand touching man’s, it’s aesthetically pleasing. And that image – God reaching out to us – serves as a reminder of His immense love and the fact that He wants every single one of us with Him for eternity.
The cover is stunning, but the inside is even more beautiful. And when teens open this Bible and dive into the content, they will find it chock full of phenomenal information to guide them before they begin their biblical journey. Not only is this Bible easy to navigate, but it includes many valuable sections to help acquaint teens with the individual books inside. From micro studies to practical apologetics to a list of 50 verses to commit to memory to a list of truths that Jesus actually taught (and much more!), this Bible will set your teens on fire for our Lord and His Word.
When this fire begins to burn within them, they will not be able to contain it. That means their actions will reflect the love of God found throughout the pages and will manifest in their actions and in their words.
This is so integral today, for as we read in one of the pages within, “It’s not enough to say that we love God; we have to show that we love God through our daily actions. … Salvation does not come by faith alone. … We must also love those around us the way Jesus taught us to love.”
We are all unique and valuable
As adults, we know that the Bible is transformative, and we want to impart this to our children. But many of us lack the eloquence of Mark Hart and don’t know how to inspire kids to read the Bible, so he offers this advice for what to say to teens:
You were born with gifts and talents and skills that are unique to you. And God the author of your life has a plan that is unique to you, that only you can fulfill. And if you want the most exciting, most joyful, most rewarding life that you could possibly have, then it’s your responsibility to get to know the One Who created you. Because when you get to know the One Who created you and how He thinks and how He moves and what He says, then you’re going to begin to understand who you really are, who you’re designed to be, who you’re created to be, and then you’re going to understand what your unique mission is and why He entrusted the gifts to you that He did, so that you can fulfill your unique mission on earth.
Mark also encourages us to find ourselves in each story and explains that when we do so, we “start to see how God thinks and how God acts.” He continues, “The minute you know that there is a God, the minute you know you’re only here because of God, He formed you in the womb and He has a plan for you, the really fun part starts, and that is, ‘Now I get to figure out and discern what God created me to do and I can go do it. I can go change the world because I was created for greatness.’”
Aspiring for Heaven, leading others to Christ, and living pro-life values should be the mission we all have. The Bible encourages us to do all of this by teaching us to live a life directed to God, His goodness, and the truths of our faith. When we follow the examples within, we come to see that not only do we ourselves have inherent dignity, but others do too.
Because Mark knows the Bible so well, he often encourages others with verses that he knows will resonate with them. He thinks of it like a prescription pad, and he uses God’s words to soothe broken hearts, calm confused minds, open closed hearts, and bring comfort and joy to the afflicted.
Wouldn’t it be phenomenal if we could all do that? When we take time to read the Bible, to memorize verses, and to really get to know the heart of God, we too can become this salve.
But it takes effort, and it requires us to understand the truths of our faith. Mark laments that “we live in a culture and time now when everybody wants to reduce Jesus to a social justice hero but very few people want to acknowledge Jesus as a Savior.” Let us always keep in mind that Christ came here to build His Church – the Catholic Church – and to save us so that we can spend eternity with Him. The rest is up to us. Heaven is our choice, and our actions will either separate us from God forever or allow us to live in eternal glory with Him.
When we immerse ourselves and our children in God’s Word, we are taking that first step in living forever with our Lord and our Savior.
Susan Ciancio is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and has worked as a writer and editor since 2003; more than 16 of those years have been in the pro-life sector. Currently, she is the editor of American Life League’s Celebrate Life Magazine—the nation’s premier Catholic pro-life magazine. She is also the director and executive editor of ALL’s Culture of Life Studies Program—a pre-K-12 Catholic pro-life education organization.
