The Joy of Graduations!

Greetings,

I just posted a picture on my page of my niece's graduation!  Congratulations Laura, we are all proud of you!  It's that time of year.  You know what I'm talking about.  It's that time of year when the mailbox is full of graduation announcements that have 15 envelopes all stuffed into one big envelope.  After finally getting all of the envelopes open you find an announcement that has 15 different pieces of information stuffed inside. There's a picture of the graduate leaning against a tree or wearing their letter man's jacket.  There is a piece of paper telling you where the graduates party is, a piece of paper telling how to get to the party, a piece of paper telling you where the graduation is and how to get to the school.  Then, after following all of these directions to get to the graduation you realize that you can only go to the graduation if you have a ticket!  And, then, after rifling through every piece of information in every one of those 15 envelopes you realize that you weren't given a ticket!  So, you just decide that you will go to the party and after following all of those directions correctly you find out that the graduation party was yesterday!  Oh, and everyone was wondering why you didn't come to the party!

I make light of this time of year because my daughter is graduating from high school.  I speak from experience because I stuffed the envelopes with all the aforementioned material.  I tried my best to be a part of the process but after being told that I had stuffed the announcement in the outside envelope instead of the inside envelope and that I had put the black and white picture in the announcements that were supposed to have the color ones I simply kissed my daughter on the forehead and told her not to forget to remind me to show up to wherever I was supposed to show up to and when I was  to show up!

I suppose that I am doing my best to laugh about this moment in my daughter's life because if I don't I would find myself unable to hold back the tears. Some tears will be shed because of the  pride that I have in my daughter.  Pride in the young woman that she has become and the manner in which she got there.  I imagine that some of the tears will be shed because I know that she will be leaving for college and that she won't be around the house anymore.  But, mostly, I think the tears will be shed simply for my happiness for her.  She has completed one stage of her life and she has known success and that success will take her to the next stage. Scripture tells us to "raise a child in the way that they should go and when they get older they will depart from it".  I am proud of the way that Christine and I have raised our daughter.  She knows God and she know His grace.  Now that I think about it...that's really all she needs to know!

So on this Saturday we will have her graduation party and then on Sunday we will gather at Tiger Stadium and she will receive her diploma.  I just hope she reminds me to go!  So to all of the graduates of the year 2010, whether it be from college or high school, pre-school or grad school, I say congratulations!  May the next stage of your life be better because of what you have learned from the last stage.  To all of the parents of those graduates I say this...rejoice in your child's accomplishments...you had a lot to do with it!

On my journey home I have shed tears of pain and tears of fear.  I have looked at MRI films that have stopped me in my tracks.  I have been cut open more times than I care to say and I have inhaled enough anaesthesia to put entire households to sleep.  Yet, by the grace of God, I am here today and I am  able to watch my daughter graduate.  So, I look forward to these tears. God is good!

Until next time,

Derek