Just Shine On

Posts Tagged ‘faith-for-teenagers’

*****Prelude Note: This is a fictional short story I wrote, inspired by a still photo I had seen of a name tag. When searching for an appropriate video to accompany my short written piece, I was blown away to find this song/video that is SO perfectly fitting.  It’s as if they were somehow made for each other. I don’t even know what to think of the that. But I do hope you enjoy both.*****

Name Tags

by Alexis Grace

I stuck my name tag on my shirt.

It had an orange border -my favorite color- and read “Hello, my name is Alexis.” I took a survey of the room full of people, but didn’t recognize one single face. Taking a deep breath, I walked up to a small group of people, and introduced myself. I listened to their chatter for a few minutes, but said little. Apparently, they all knew each other from school, so I couldn’t relate to their conversations. I excused myself, and went in search of a drink.

That’s when I saw Read the rest of this entry »

This past Spring, I went on an amazing retreat with my LifeTeen friends. We were located at a camp with multiple cabins, all kinds of sports fields and courts, a lake with a boat dock, and a balcony on the ‘mess hall’. It was beautiful.

But even more beautiful was how we ended our time at the camp before going to celebrate Mass: we affirmed each other.

While all of our favorite Christian songs played, we each were given a poster to wear on our backs. (I kind of felt like a little turtle walking around.) Once we all chose a marker, (in our favorite colors of course!) we all began to write little messages on each other’s posters. The messages could be a short complement, or a longer note, and they could be signed or anonymous.

I had a blast doing it.

I wrote on all of my friends’ posters, posters of new people I had met, people I didn’t get a chance to meet, and all of the CORE members. Of course, they all wrote on my poster too. After maybe 45 minutes, we were told to find a quiet place and read our posters.

I chose to sit on my cabin’s steps, Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever read the book ‘Maniac Magee’ by Jerry Spinelli?

One of my favorite parts of the story is when Maniac takes on the challenge to untangle Cobble’s Knot. It started out as a baseball-sized, tightly packed, weather-crusted knot. Sounds pretty hard to untangle, right? With patience though, Maniac works until it becomes “a gigantic hairball”. Then, ‘around dinnertime’ he had successfully defeated Cobble’s Knot.

Sometimes, in the course of our life, we can find ourselves in situations that resemble Cobble’s Knot. For a while, it may seem that we won’t be able to untangle it. The mess is too big, and we’ve weaved so many loops to hide the truth.
Let me use a real life example, as somewhat embarrassing as this might be.

When I was 12 Read the rest of this entry »

*FYI: If you have never read “The Summoning of Everyman” (author unknown) I want to let you know that the characters are often named after virtues or objects, similar to Pilgrims’ Progress. Also, any direct quotes from the story will be italicized and bolded.*

‘The Summoning of Everyman’, often shortened to ‘Everyman’, is an allegorical moral play that was written around 1485 A.D.

‘Everyman’ represents all of mankind, in a single character. As a Language Arts assignment, I was directed to read this play. At first, I was not intrigued. I have never been good with the funny word orders and spellings that were used in the Middle Ages. But as the story went on, I realized that ‘Everyman’ had a lot of truth in it, that was a good reminder for me.

When the story starts out, God laments on the fact that Read the rest of this entry »

You may have wondered what the story is behind the name of my blog, Just Shine On.  If so, then you will be happy to know that I’m about to tell you!

Ever since I was little, others have verbally associated me with light and sunshine. The first memory my parents have of this, is when a lady from our church told them that she had enjoyed watching two-year-old me, week after week, and that she thought I had ‘such a sunny disposition’. When I was older, my Gramma would sing ‘You Are My Sunshine’ to me all of the time.  As I grew older still, complete strangers continued to tell my parents about this ‘light’ they say I seem to emit.

I’d be lying, if I said I didn’t I know what this light is in me is, that others are Read the rest of this entry »

Do you know some witnesses?

I have been blessed to meet some along my journey in life. The Witnesses posts are interviews with various people who live their lives in a way that brightly reflects Christ’s love, through their actions, ministries and vocations. Whether clergy, lay people, or young people doing hard and good things, it is my hope that their living example might inspire us all in our own Christian walk, closer to Christ.  ~Alexis Grace