"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9
This Spring our two oldest granddaughters graduated from High School. Both ceremonies were outside – one in Kansas and one in Pennsylvania. I was privileged to attend both.
Where did these last 18 years go? How did they pass so quickly?
My own three children graduating from high schools and colleges –
Then ALL the way back to my own graduations.
We thought we had the world by the tail – “We’d only just begun…”
We felt invincible.
If we had known
THEN what we know NOW… would we have been so jubilant, so eager to leave the
nest and venture out into the great unknown – to take on the mysteries of adult
living in “the real world” – the world we intended to change, to improve, to
enlarge, to explore and to discover? Would we have been so confident – so ready
– so sure that our contributions to society would change things?
I don’t know.
But I’m glad we didn’t know. If we had we might have let our uncertainties
and fears keep us hunkered down where we were. We might not have spread our
wings and flown out of the nest.
Do I wish things had been different? Of course!
I wish I had asked more questions early on.
I wish I had listened more to the Generations before me, heeded their advice and valued their wisdom.
I wish I had paid more attention to History and learned from it.
I wish I had appreciated all the little things along the way.
I wish I had taken myself less seriously.
But do I REGRET launching out? Not at all.
Since graduating,
I’ve had 50 years of growing and learning,
Of trial and error,
Of successes and failures,
Of holding on and letting go (SO much letting go) –
Always undergirded by the strong principles instilled in me by loving (and sometimes I thought too strict) parents and by the belief that GOD loves me and was (and is) present in my life and the lives of my loved ones.
And so – as I sat once again at graduations – McKenna’s and Taylor’s – I wished to pass onto them this same knowledge:
No matter what – No matter where – YOU ARE LOVED by the One who made you and will never leave you – The EVERPRESENT GOD of the Universe!
And I love you, too.
So with confidence and the strength God gives you, go into the Air Force and into Bible College. Trust in Him, dear Granddaughters.
You are SO very loved!
Blessings,
Bibi - (Ruth to the rest of you 😊)
To readers who may not know they are loved by God I suggest reading Jesus' words to a man named Nicodemus in the Gospel of John chapter 3 verses 16-17. The Apostle Paul also gave a reminder in the book of Romans chapter 5 and verse 8.
