Just inside the doors of Old Navy, I was confronted with mountains of green St. Patrick’s Day t-shirts. “Kiss the Irish,” “Lucky Me,” and “St. Patrick’s Day 2010” is apparently what we as United States consumers should be wearing March 17^th. I don’t know about you, but I usually have a super cute, lime green outfit planned (having insisted to my best friend: “Just wear it with me! We’ll take a picture!”) and then forget to wear it.

   I’d always wondered what the point is; why we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. “What’s the story behind this holiday?” I’d wondered when it annually occurred. Recently, however, I found out the story. And boy! Is it a story!

   Around 400 A.D., Patrick was kidnapped from his village in Britain and sold into slavery to an Irish chieftain. After six years of servitude, he managed to escape back to Britain. But he felt conflicted as he remembered the darkness of Ireland and decided to go back to free the Irish from the spiritual bondage that was imposed by their royals. Patrick journeyed back to Ireland to give religious freedom to the people that had enslaved him. And he succeeded! Patrick’s ministry in Ireland lasted 29 years and in those years he baptized over 120,000 Irishmen and planted 300 churches.  Rev. Sean Brady concludes, “He was a man who came to face and help his former enemies who had enslaved him. He came back to help them and to do them a great favor—the greatest favor he possibly could.”

   I don’t even know how the color green and Shamrocks work their way into the holiday, but after hearing his story, I was suddenly excited to celebrate the day honoring this noble man. His courage and faith are an inspiration and challenge to all of us to overcome trials and hardships that come our way—to persevere toward something greater than us. He lived out a glorious example of what it is to live selflessly and sacrificially for the joy and benefit of others.

   I was horrified to watch my little brothers sniping civilians in an airport yesterday.

   Kids these days! We entertain ourselves with violence, sex, crude jokes that aren’t funny at all, and breathe things into our lungs and minds that were never intended to be.

   Innocence and purity used to be applauded once upon a time. But at an age that is increasingly younger, both are regarded with scoffing and eye-rolling. I remember being a little princess, I mean, girl! Life was a joyful haze of dollhouse, slumber parties, gymnastics, soccer, building forts and reading book after book. It breaks the heart of my inner little princess…oops…girl! (Who is quite alive and thriving!) to look around at the little girls of 2010 and see virtually none of that.

   It’s all “Hannah Montana”, Webkins, iPods, and cell phones. (Not to mention the recent influx of preteen Facebooks.) And I don’t know about you, but I was generally steered away from PG13 movies before I was 13, not taken to R-rated movies at 5. We have all become so ridiculously desensitized; we are all a part of the demolition of childhood.

   Maybe I’m overreacting or “being a girl” (as my 11 year old brother put it as the blood of his fellow Russian terrorist splattered all over the TV screen) but recently I’ve wondered: Call of Duty, American Pie, Lady Gaga, the Saw movies…and all the other lovely, noble things we fill our minds with…

   Maybe it’s time we started edging the lines back to where they once firmly stood.

   Whatever happened to the Cleavers?

   We all know how it goes.

   When a new year starts, its “out with the old and in with the new” and people everywhere are suddenly frantically resolving to lose weight, get better grades, and become the person they’ve always wanted to be. We all start off with incentive…we are determined that this will be THE YEAR.

   But despite high goals and initial determination, more often than not, we slowly fade back into our old habits, until finally we become so disgusted with our epic failure that we write off our glorious goals as “dumb resolutions.”

   I’ve vehemently decided that this should not be! Yes, failure is most often ineveitable, but about all those awesome, inspiring sports movies where the team is just awful and they lose and lose and lose and lose and lose until…they WIN. Because they want it that bad. And quickly the movie will neatly and predictably wrap up with epic triumph!

   Guys, let’s be that this year! We’ve all got things that need changed; things that MUST change in order for us to become the people we can and SHOULD be. And at this specific time in our lives (high school) developing habits to reinforce productivity and effectiveness is so vitally important. There’s no denying it, we are on the verge of adulthood.

   So whether it’s conviction to change our attitudes, outlooks, demolish bad habits, cement good habits, or do a character 180, let’s do it! We will fall, and we will revert back to what we are trying to finally cast off, but “Why do we fall Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” (Thomas Wayne) With perseverance, we will change! And the triumph will be EPIC!

   “Great faith is the product of great fights. Great testimonies are the outcome of great tests. Great triumphs can only come out of great trials.” – Smith Wigglesworth

By Shelly Voss

   As a slight chill infiltrates the November air, I sip a pumpkin spice Starbucks latte and take in the beauty of the golden hues that now grace the leaves on the trees (…and the leaves on the ground…). Everyone’s favorite holiday is Christmas, right? No doubt, it’s the most wonderful time of the year; I’m a little girl again at Christmastime when the miraculous truth of that Holy Night gets a hold of me! But truth be told, Thanksgiving has an incomparable place in my heart.

   On this Thursday of thanks, the majority of Americans sit contentedly around a table laden with an abundance of turkey, corn, and cranberry sauce, reminded of the many things they have to be thankful for. What about you? I’m more than slightly convicted when I begin to realize all the blessings I’ve taken for granted this year. Besides good health, a cozy abode to call my home, loyal friends and a warm, close-knit family, I have had a year bountiful with daily joys and hourly rays of sunshine. What about you? What are YOU thankful for?

   There’s so, so much to be thankful for. I look around me and see so much pain and heartache. Children, ravished by starvation and AIDs, are dying in Africa. Men, jobless and homeless, stand on too many corners. Women, terrorized and fearful, nervously hide in shelters. But these are extreme cases of trauma; as I walked to 4^th period today, I was burdened by the masses of suffering spirits that I pass in the hallway every day. People are broken; hearts are lost.

    How do I, blessed, provided for and loved as I am, find the audacity to ever complain? And why am I so rarely moved to a place of action by the pain that I see? Our gratefulness for all we’ve been given cannot sit stagnant – it must create in us desire to give others a reason to give thanks. As I am minutes away from my favorite holiday break of the year, my heart is burning to alleviate the distress of so many.

   Help the hurting with me! Whether you work a few hours at a soup kitchen, take a homeless man a plate of Thanksgiving dinner, give a needy friend an hour of conversation or help Granny with the Thanksgiving dishes, give someone else a reason (however small) to be thankful this Thanksgiving. Be the change! “To whom much is given, much will be expected.”