DREAM GREAT THINGS

There are many difficult decisions to be made when you are young. Tammie Richardson, aged seventeen, from Ireland shares how she is trying to decide what is right for her future.

THE FUTURE

I will be finishing secondary school in the next few months and that means that I will have to decide what to do with the rest of my life. For someone so young, this can be a very difficult decision. Something important to remember is that God has a plan for everyone, as it says in Jeremiah 29:11 "I know what plans I have in mind for you, declares the Lord, plans for peace, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." But how do we know what he wants us to do?

PRAY

One thing you can do is pray asking God what His plan is for you. Often, when we pray, we ask God for things but we forget to ask Him what He wants from us! Sometimes the plans that we have for our lives don't work out, but later we find that it was for the best in the long term and something better usually turns up soon afterwards! When we are choosing a career or a course we have to make sure that it is something that will make us happy, rather than doing it just to impress or please other people. Our family and friends are there to support and advise us but don't forget that we know what makes us happy and feel fulfilled. We are the ones who can dream great things for our lives and we can achieve great things with God’s help.

ASK GOD

God also knows what will make us truly happy even when we don't know it ourselves. Whenever I'm in Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, or just simply praying, I ask God what he wants me to do with my life. It is difficult when you don't get a response back but I have found that when my plans fall into place then I know that I am doing what God wants. When things don't work out then I know that it was not to be and maybe that wasn’t part of God’s plan. One thing to remember is to never give up on our dreams. As Pope Francis has said "Don’t be afraid to dream great things."