Congratulations Graduates!
As we come to this momentous time in the lives of our youth, there are some qualities I want our people and especially our graduates to focus upon.
In a newspaper I was reading, one particular article stood out to me. This article was entitled “Under the Piney Woods, A Classic Poem is Found.” This was an amazing story of a man and his wife discovering the working copy in the handwriting of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of his famous poem, “The Village Blacksmith.” The man bought the poem for 25 or 50 cents at a garage sale in the Tomball (of all places!) area. The purchaser didn’t know what he had; he bought the poem because he liked the picture frame in which it was enclosed.
This reminds me of the boy collecting clamshells who threw the shell holding the pearl back into the water because it rattled and he couldn’t get the shell pried open. He discovered too late that prizing the shell may cost you the pearl!
This is the time to decide what is and what is not important in this life. Hard to believe someone could look past the poem in the handwriting of Longfellow and sell the treasure for the value of a cheap frame. This is not as sad as youth selling out their valuable soul for the cheap substance of this world.
Between my graduation from high school and graduation from college, my parents and I entered a time of closeness that up until then I had not experienced. We became best of friends. Their philosophy of life was explained to me like an adult. Their value system was proliferated into my life in a natural sequence of events. This is best explained by I Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
This is why it is vital to keep a strong rapport with Mom and Dad. Your mind and life is going to be like a new computer and God has given your parents the programming data that you need most at this time.
Many a graduating senior gets really “uptight” because they have not figured out their major, their minor, and their overall future in college and beyond.
Although these things need to be discussed, remember two facts.
Fact 1: You don’t usually begin to take the courses which matter most for your major until your junior year. Many a freshman and sophomore have changed their majors with little if any loss of hours which worked toward their degree.
Fact 2: Excel in the requirements and your options are more diverse. As a former college professor, I became burdened for the college students that did not take their studies seriously. Never turn you nose up at English or Math requirements. If you master the basic requirements, when God begins to reveal Hi plan for your life you will be ready to spend more time in the specialized courses for your major. It was sad to see for instance, a ministerial student who was ready to learn the Bible and Greek, but had to postpone his theology because he did not master English literature.
So, my advice now is don’t worry about the future and master what you know is necessary at this time.
Remember, I love you!
Your Pastor,
Johnny Pope