As you begin your prayer time, focus specifically on asking God to help you love as He loves. Ask Him for opportunities to share His love with others. Spend some time in silence just listening for what God may be saying to you. Let’s read the prayer covenant for teens together,
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your grace that has made me one of your dearly loved children.
Help me love you with my whole heart.
Empower me to love others the way you love me
I repent of my sin. Create in me a clean heart.
Help me praise you with all that is within me.
Jesus, I choose to follow you as my Lord. Change me any way you want.
Fill me with the presence and power of your Holy Spirit.
Make me an instrument of your grace, truth, forgiveness, righteousness and justice.
Use me for your glory and to invite others to follow you as Lord.
Father, I pray in the name of Jesus and in the presence and power of your Holy Spirit, Amen.
The Incredible Work of Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, which she accepted on behalf of the impoverished and the unloved around the world. She began the Missionaries for Charity in Calcutta in 1950, which grew to an order active in over 130 countries—serving orphans, the poor, the sick, building hospitals and orphanages. In 1982 she gave the commencement address at Harvard University:
“As the new graduates go out, I thought that the prayer of Cardinal Newman is most fitting for them, so that, in going into the world, they go with Jesus, they work for Jesus and serve him in the distressing guise of the poor. Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go. Flood our souls with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly that all our lives may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through us and be so in us that every person we should come in contact with may feel your presence in our soul. Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus.”
I loved learning that Mother Teresa was only 12 years old when she understood her calling to help the poor. She said she knew then God wanted something from her. What might God be preparing for your children? Remind them that He has a plan and purpose for their life. He created them for a purpose—to know, love and obey Him. And when they purpose in their heart to follow Jesus, blessing follows. Jesus gives life meaning. Help them know He orders steps and opens doors of opportunity they could never even imagine.
