The Path to Heaven
by Baylor Greiner, grade 6
We can succeed and get to heaven by living by our virtues, not committing vices, and being pro-life. It is very important to have the desire to go to heaven because that is what God wants for us. We are here on Earth to love, serve, and worship God. If we do these things and believe in God, as well as stay faithful to Him, we are living our lives to the fullest and making the most of them. God should be the number one priority in our lives. If we really love God, we have to show Him. We can show Him by putting others before ourselves and dedicating our lives to God. We need to do good in the world and we can do that by living by the virtues.
I think the culture of life is making the most of our lives and living them to the fullest because of our love for God. If we are trying to live by the culture of life, we need to always be looking at a way to do good or help others become closer to God. I think the best way to do this is by living by God’s virtues, especially the four cardinal virtues. The four cardinal virtues are prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice. We can do this in our everyday lives to help others see God in themselves. I think we can show prudence in our everyday lives by knowing right from wrong and helping others to do the same. We need to have the wisdom of knowing what a good decision is. If we make the wrong decision, we need to ask for forgiveness by going to confession. The Lord also wants us to demonstrate temperance, which could be to have self-control from things like drugs, alcohol, and smoking. We can also show justice in our everyday lives by always putting others before ourselves and never thinking that we are more or less than another person. The last cardinal virtue is fortitude. We can demonstrate fortitude by having strength in our toughest times and getting through them mentally. An example of fortitude would be to stay with God even if we are mad at Him or think He is leaving us. If we can demonstrate these things in our everyday lives, we can build a culture of life.
The opposite of the culture of life is the culture of death. The culture of death is not a way to live by and it can lead us toward a weak relationship with God, to mortal and venial sin, and could possibly result in hell. Hell is the ultimate punishment. We can go to hell for many reasons. For example, not living as a warrior for Christ on earth or committing mortal sins before death. The Lord wants us to have fortitude and strength to stay away from the fires of hell. The Gospel of Matthew says: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many.How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14).
The culture of death can tempt us to sin, which results in living by vices. The most common vices committed are the seven deadly vices—lust, anger, gluttony, sloth, pride, envy, and greed. These vices are the complete opposite of the four cardinal virtues, which can lead us to heaven. We should never want to live by the culture of death, for it is the wrong way to live.
Another way to get to heaven is by being a pro-life human. Many innocent children in the United States have died because of people who do not support being pro-life. If we are not pro-life, we are committing a common mortal sin, which is not the path to follow. We can help others to be pro-life by building them up to do the right thing and showing them that love has power over almost everything. We can tell them the huge impact being pro-life can make in our country today. If we can help others to be pro-life, we are living for God and doing it to show people the right thing to do as a soldier for Christ. Living a pro-life life is a way to get to heaven.
In conclusion, I think these are the ways we can get to heaven—our goal in life. If we want to make the most of our lives on earth, we need to love and serve God, stay away from the culture of death, and act as a pro-life human. If we live our lives like this, we reach our ultimate goal in life—heaven. God is always here for us; we just have to follow Him.
© 2018 Baylor Greiner. Published with permission.