One of my favorite authors has now co-written a book with his daughter… Max Lucado and Jenna Lucado Bishop recently released their new book, You Were Made to Make a Difference.Besides the incredibly cool earthy looking cover, the inside pages are equally fun and reader-friendly. It’s perfectly suited for the teen audience it was written for and provides stories of real teen discovering that it’s never too early to make a difference in the world.

One shocking quote from the book is a statistic from the CDC…

Hearts need healing. In 2006, suicide was the third leading cause of death for young people in the United States ages 15 to 24.

That should not be. Whether it’s through books like these to encourage youth, programs like Teen Identity to help raise their self esteem or individual mentoring of young people, we must take a stand for the next generation. Let’s make 2011 the year we see young people begin to step up and take their place as world changers. Are you with me?

That’s a tall order. Finding the answer for what to do when life doesn’t turn out the way you want. Who wants to turn to Plan B? For some of us, Plan B isn’t even an option (like for Meryl Streep in Devil Wears Prada).

For most of us “regular” folk though, we often have to come up with Plan B, C and even D sometimes. I know my Plan A that I wrote down in high school about when I would graduate, get married, have kids, etc. didn’t even come close to hitting the mark. Anyone else have that same experience? I guess it’s worse for those of us who like to plan (me) because we actually feel like we have a sense of control over the outcome of our lives. It’s really all an illusion, but sometimes we forget that.

I recently read Pete Wilson’s new book, Plan B, which got me thinking about these ideas. He wrote the book for people whose lives haven’t turned out the way they planned. For those people who feel confused, lost and hopeless because of that very fact. I was a little nervous about starting to read it though because I didn’t want a feel good, God is in control, pat me on the back kind of answer to the issue. I didn’t want condescending or trite answers. I wasn’t disappointed.

Pete Wilson really seems to have such a compassionate heart for people and wants to help them through the tough times in their life. So often we have to go through the fire to get to the other side. Pete wants to help people get through faster by fighting against the change less and asking the right questions to get to some real answers.

His ideas about making peace with doubt and moving past the feelings of crisis, panic, fear and paralysis are actually pretty practical. Working with the situation, instead of fighting and railing against it is something we know to do, but the way Pete represents it makes it seem doable.

This is one that’ll stay on my bookshelf as I know I’ll be picking it up again to learn more about embracing Plan B.