Thursday, June 19, 2008

Graduation

Well, it's been a while since I changed my thots but the last blog was an important one and I wanted to give people a chance to view it. But now we'll move on.

This last week we celebrated the graduation of our two oldest girls, Alicia and Rebecca. What a journey it has been. Time goes so fast and you wonder where it all went. Isn't that what we hear from everyone. Especially as we get older, we realize that we have just a short time to raise kids, get a home and make a difference.

So many kids do so many different things after graduation; get jobs, go on to school full or part time, move away, stay at home or even start their own business. I've seen kids after graduation just not do anything and it seems they waste their life away.

Sometimes I think Christians get into the "graduation" attitude in our spiritual life where we just kind of coast thinking "we've made it" or "now I can let down a little" but really that's when the enemy can get in and hinder our spiritual journey.

When we think about it, there is NO graduation in the Christian journey (on this side of heaven). Sure we mature (hopefully) and learn more and get wiser and have more insight into spiritual things but there is so much to learn! Every single Christian ought to be a life long learner. And one of these days, we do get to graduate into an Eternity in Heaven! What a graduation party that will be!

If you have kids graduating and even if you don't, here are a few rules about life you might want to pass on to them. I received these in an email a few years ago.
(1) Life's not fair...get used to it!
(2) The world's not concerned about your self esteem. They expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.
(3) Most likely you won't make $60K a year right out of high school and be a vice-president until you earn it.
(4) If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you have a boss!
(5) Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for flipping burgers, they called it opportunity.
(6) If you mess up, it's not your parent's fault. Don't whine, learn from mistakes and make yourself better.
(7) Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, washing your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So BEFORE you save the rainforest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
(8) Your school may have done away with winners and loosers but LIFE HAS NOT. There are winners and loosers in life. So do your best, try your hardest and trust God.
(9) Life is not divided up into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employeers are interested in helping you "find yourself." Do that on your own time.
(10) Television is NOT real life. People actually leave the coffee shop and go back to real jobs.
(11) Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one. ;-)

Just a thought,
Pastor Dan