Graduation Day

Monday, June 14, 2010 (5:58 a.m.)

Blessed Lord,

It’s official. This is it. Graduation Day. And I bring it to You Dear Lord. Every fear of all that could possibly go wrong, I lay at Your feet asking that You would make this into a day of pure celebration.

Lord, You have gifted us in so many incredible ways. We are learning to communicate lovingly because of You. We get to work together, practicing our listening and responding skills. We are even working on telling each other when we don’t agree with something without making it into a personal affront. Lord, You are doing all this in and through each of us.

Thank You that I get to bring this day to You. Thank You that although my plan for the past several hours has been to title today’s prayer to You, “Instead; revisited” and to again look at Philippians 4:6 once more You have something far better for me. Thank You that You ALWAYS have something better for us!

My plan was to focus on all there is to do and be upset about and You just took that right away from me and reminded me so perfectly that “There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) And how in Your world did I come upon such wisdom? Through the Beach Boys of course! ♫There’s a time for joy A time for tears A time we’ll treasure through the years We’ll remember always Graduation Day♫

Blessed God, how I thank You for taking me from not being able to see the keys because of the streaming tears to completely dry eyes and a smiling face. Lord, I am absolutely looking to You this day! There are so many things that could possibly go ‘wrong’ in my eyes. We might not get the seats we want. There could be harsh, angry words spoken because people just don’t know how to get along. So many things might (or might NOT!) happen. The possibilities for a multitude of ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’s is endless. But I don’t have to be afraid of any of them!

There IS “A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to rebuild. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak up. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.” (vs. 2-8)

Oh most dear and blessed Lord God, as I continue looking through Ecclesiastes this morning, I especially look to You. I begin to jump to a conclusion. Like the ones offered in verses 12 and 13, “I know the best thing we can do is to always enjoy life, because God’s gift to us is the happiness we get from our food and drink and from the work we do.” But then I come to verse 14, “Everything God has done will last forever; nothing He does can ever be changed. God has done all this, so that we will worship Him.” Hmm. So that we will worship You!

Yes Lord. Let me keep that at the forefront of this day. This truly IS a day to celebrate! It is another day that I get to worship You! Verses 12, 13 and 14 in chapter 12 wrap it up and bring it all back to You. “My child, I warn you to stay away from teachings except these. There is no end to books, and too much study will wear you out. Everything you were taught can be put into a few words: Respect and obey God! This is what life is all about. God will judge everything we do, even what is done in secret, whether good or bad.”

Lord, how I ask that You would bless this graduation day! Take my fearful ‘what ifs’ and turn them into Your glorious “I ams”! I do not have to be afraid of ANY thing because You Dear Lord are glorious and mighty and worthy to be praised. ALL the things that could possibly go wrong don’t hold a candle to every single thing of which You are capable. Thank You for having our backs Dear Lord! Bless this hurt and struggling family as we go to celebrate our first graduation day without the presence of our dear mom and grandma. How appropriate that she didn’t get to attend her own as well!

Thank You for loving us so much Dearest Lord. Please do for us all that we can’t possibly do for ourselves. You know? Like find seats together and ‘be okay’! I love You God. Thank You! Amen.

(866 words ~ 7:10 a.m.)