Saving Private Bosco

Bosco, a child soldier in Africa, marched for days without food or water. Bosco did not dream of the future. He only focused on the immediate present, as he knew he might not live another day. Armed with an AK-47 to loot and kill, he recalls his abduction from his Northern Ugandan house by the Lord's resistance army. He recalls the sight of his parents, shot dead, lying lifeless. He recalls the adrenaline pumping as he felt the barrel of a pistol pressed against his forehead. He recalls the desperation he felt as the officers forced him into their  jeep. He hears a gunshot, and snaps out of his recollection of the past. If he wants to stay alive, he needs to stay alert, even without the food and water to do so. He doesn't want to end up like one of the tens of thousands of children murdered within the last twenty years in the small African country of Uganda.

The Invisible children is trying to stop this from happening to any child. This non-profit organization, run by a group of young adults, aims to stop Kony, the leader of the LRA, the organization responsible for these kidnappings.
The Invisible Children organization looks to make this problem in Africa viral. If more people know about this problem, more people will contribute towards stopping Kony. If Kony is stopped, these children will be saved. As seen in the graph below, 80.6% of the funds going toward the Invisible Children organization is contributed directly towards stopping Kony.

These proceeds will go toward several projects funded by the Invisible children. Radio towers will be set up in African villages, allowing for communication between the villages regarding the LRA's whereabouts. The economy of Uganda will be restored through investments in education, defense, and economic recovery programs. The invisible children is also using their funding to make movies and documentaries to make this problems even more viral. However, this problem can't be solved without your help.

This problem is happening right now. Many African children have AK-47's mounted on their backs. They're marching without food or water, searching for African schools to abduct more children.

Why? These children don't deserve this fate. They need our help. We are the only people who can help the invisibles. WE can donate our time, notifying others of this problem. We can donate our money, helping set up radio towers. We can donate our efforts, making sure this ends. We need to make this happen.

The Right Path

Should you drink beer with your friends at the party or stay on soft drinks? Should you look at the test answers for this test you didn't study for on the teacher's desk when she's out of the classroom? Should you take the money in the wallet left in the locker room or return it to it's owner? Should you have sex with your girlfriend or boyfriend or wait until marriage? Should you go to your friend's party, knowing that your mom disapproves of your friend? These are just some of the moral dilemmas that a teenager faces in their everyday life. With all these expectations and pressures suddenly burdening teenagers, they often lose sight of what's really important in life; Faith, hope, and love. These Theological Virtues guide teenagers to the right answer. Each question has a right answer, with its reasoning behind the First Commandment "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3).  Who is God? Why should we put God first? How would teenagers live the first commandment? These questions will be further examined.

Who is God? Teenagers might be tempted to say that he is our superior, our creator, and a presence. To an extent, this is true, but God is more than just that. God is everything and everybody. Think about that. Everything in this world has been created by one, and only one God. All the stars, the planets, the sun and moon, every living and non-living being. All created by one God. I feel pretty small just talking about it. Along with being God's creation, we are all apart of God. Everything has a bit of God inside of it. Every person you talk to is one of God's. Everything you use is one of God's. Even the device you are reading this blog on is God's. This observation makes it obvious why we should put God first.

We should put God first because he is everything. He created everything. There is a little bit of God in everything. It would be like going to a friend's house just to play on his Xbox 360. People should go to their friend's house for the company of their friends, not for their possessions. Even though this seems completely logical, people still don't see this simple truth. Some people preach heresies, denying the truth of our faith. Others, will flat out deny the existence of God. These atheists, those who deny the existence of God, in my opinion, are cocky. They think of themselves as higher than God, even high enough to judge God. This is the ultimate sin against the first commandment. Options such as atheism tempt teenagers to turn away from God.

This is why it's important for teenagers to live with the first commandment in mind. Along with showing reverence to our one and only God, it strengthens our morals, and guides us to make the right decisions in peer pressure situations. Should you drink beer with your friends, or should you stick to soft drinks? Drinking Beer will only harm your body, which is a creation of God. Harming your body like that shows a disrespect to God, breaking the first commandment. Should you take the money in the wallet left in the locker room or return it to it's owner? You should return the wallet and money o it's rightful owner. Taking the money would mean putting material goods before God, which breaks the first commandment. Should you have sex with your boyfriend or girlfriend or wait until marriage? You should wait until marriage. Along with sharing your first time with the most important girl of your life, having sex before marriage means risking pregnancy, which will destroy a teenager's potential. Destroying yourself, along with destroying another of God's creations, is a sin against the first commandment. The first commandment guides teenagers to make the right decision.

If teenagers take out some time to examine the meaning behind the first commandment, it'll truly guide help teenagers guide themselves along the right path. Having a monotheistic belief in our one and only God will help teenagers make the right choice not only for God, but for themselves as well. Temptations, such as worshiping material goods over God, also known as Idolatry, are easy to fall into if you're not guided by the first commandment. However, living the first commandment will make such temptations easy to resist. The first commandment keeps teenagers on the right path to moral, mental, physical, and spiritual success.