Young Catholics with faith discover themselves

Young Faith Essay finalist

By Rachel Zimmerman

I am a cradle Catholic, born and raised at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in North Little Rock. I would be lying if I said I’ve never taken my faith for granted. I would be lying if I said I’ve never had doubts or struggles. We all would. But God knows this, and he has a plan for all of our hard times.

I feel personally challenged by Jeremiah 1:7, and personally called. As a senior in high school, I am often not taken very seriously. Adults tend to assume the worst about teenagers, and I face this quite often. We are seen as immature, not ready to take things seriously, rebellious, even out of control. Sometimes I feel as if I do not need to step up to my faith because I know when I am older and ready to settle down with a family, everything will fall into place. I couldn’t be more wrong. The only way to grow my faith is to ow n it. To own my faith, I must be proud of it, openly display it and accept the challenges that come along with it. I am not too young to do this. God has personally called me, has personally called all of us, to step up and step into the light. There is no such thing as being too young for faith.

Everyone’s faith journey has to start somewhere, and every journey begins with a single step. For me, this step was when I was in sixth grade. I was 11 years old and began attending CYM. This opened my eyes to a whole other world I had been missing out on. Being Catholic didn’t mean going to weekly Mass with my school or Sunday Mass with my family. Being Catholic meant learning new things and standing up for what I believed in. It meant forming opinions and learning who I truly was. My blooming Catholic faith at age 11 opened me up and the Holy Spirit rushed in. I was confirmed in eighth grade and, again, the world seemed to blossom before my eyes. At 13, I was an “adult” in the Catholic Church — and with this title came responsibility. I needed to continue to learn about my faith and grow my relationship with God, a daunting task for a 13-year-old girl trying to figure out who she is.

But that’s the beautiful thing about being young and having faith — it helps you discover yourself. At 13 I was perceptible to all kinds of influences from the outside world — television, movies, magazines and books, all telling me what I should look like or act like or be like. By having such a firm foundation at such a young age, I was able to stay true to my Catholic faith while beginning to form the person I am still becoming.

As I grew older, I attended Search. I was surrounded by young people like myself unashamed of their complete love for God. I realized that I am not alone in this journey. God tells Jeremiah not to fear because God knows what he is doing. We are called by God to go and do his work, to spread the Gospel with love. In Mark 10:15 Jesus tells his disciples, “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Children are so open, honest and trusting. God wants us to emulate children in our faith. How amazing — God telling all people to act like children when all our lives we are told to grow up. In Matthew 18:4, Jesus says, “Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” God looks upon those with childlike faith as great and wonderful. Jeremiah 1:7 is not only a challenge, it is encouragement. I can do great things with childlike faith. I can believe in mysteries of faith, I can trust fully in God with no fear, and I can be open and honest with God, others, and myself. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that no one is too young to have a beautiful, unique Catholic identity and no one is too young to let their light shine through.

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