Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament,
and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.
Daniel 12:3
Dear Graduate,
Wise old King Solomon said there was a time for everything and now a time for release has come. To release the child who has held our hearts and hands for these past 18 years. What a privilege to have watched you grow! Who can fathom when a newborn is first held what he will become? Who can know what life experiences will shape him or which path he might choose to leave his footprints on? It is an awesome responsibility to become a parent. If we really knew back in those younger days the daunting challenge ahead fewer might have dared to forge into this parenting thing. It is far more that singing lullabies, bandaging scraped knees, making peanut butter and jelly lunches, and buying scout uniforms. More than teaching an over excited teen to drive, or handing the keys over for that first date, or cheering from the bleachers for your own flesh and blood. The much more includes taking every bit of who you are and trying to sift the best of that and deposit it over into another human soul. And we fail so many times. Often it is our less desirable qualities that get handed down through the generations and sometimes it takes generations to break those chains. But today is a day to celebrate the milestones you have accomplished and to celebrate magnificent, marvelous you! You have come to the place in your life where you leave childhood behind and step out as a man. There will be some hard places but you will never be alone. God is with you – Immanuel. There will also be wide open places – good places – where you will soar with the eagles. Take each day of life as a gift and make the most of it. Look for opportunities and seize them but do not injure another soul in the process. Be humble in your own eyes but confident in the Lord and His might. You carry His Name into a big world, carry it well. Let the world know you are His. Today I present you to God no longer my boy, but a mighty warrior fit for His service.
I love you,
Mom
