I love graduations. I always cry at them. They provoke a whole gamut of emotions: pride, nostalgia, and a burgeoning hope for the future, all coupled with the sudden awareness that some of my favorite people just graduated and I won't be seeing them again.
Well, I will, but not like it has been.
Graduation is a line of demarcation between one period in your life and another. For my kids, it is a time to look forward to what is coming and fondly recall what has been. But I realized tonight that most of them have no idea what is coming. As our principal spoke of some life lessons that could benefit the graduates, I thought back to my own graduation. I forgot, almost, how much I didn't know then. (I wonder what, in the next ten years, I'll be thinking about this time in my life.) But when I was graduating from high school--and even from college--I had no idea what was coming or what life was really like. I had no idea how much a person could change or how much my perspective on the world would change. Most of that was Yahweh, but some of it was just growing up. (Which was also Yahweh.) I'm amazed at the idea of how much my kids will change in the next ten years. But even with all the advice they've been given tonight--from friends, family, and the principal--they just cannot fathom the future until they've been there. I know I never could've imagined how amazing and different my life now is from when I graduated. I hope the same for my kids.
For they truly are my kids. This is the first year I've had graduates with whom I've worked so closely. We have a history together, and I feel like I've played a role in their ability to graduate. Whether it was working for hours on an English paper with one girl or teaching another young lady enough Spanish that she can actually hold conversations, I have had a part in someone's education. I have made a difference! They told me it would happen when I started teaching but I just couldn't fathom it. Just as I cannot now fathom what these children will become. I am so proud of them!
Beyond the academics, I hope I've shown the graduates what life with Yahweh can be. I've spoken blessings over them and had real conversations with them about life. I know that they have good hearts and seeds have been planted and I expect a harvest. I expect that what they will become is great, but they will always be my kids.
May they become great, not in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of Yahweh, their Father. May they come to know Him and follow His righteousness. May they have the peace and safety that comes with knowing the Father loves and values them, not for what they do, but for who they are. May the eyes of their minds be opened to the Prophetic and may they submit to the authority of the Apostolic. May the Kingdom grow in them so that they can grow the Kingdom. May they find a life full of blessings, joy, and peace, and may the richness of the goodness of Yahweh blossom in their hearts so that they will reap an everlasting and perpetual harvest. May the graduating class of (our high school) 2014 be blessed! Amen.
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