We were there to watch Josh as he received his Master’s Degree in Christian Counseling from Philadelphia Biblical University. What a joy to watch him walk across the stage while we cheered and clapped. But, as I sat and waited for his name to be called, the names of the others soon just became a distant whisper. My mind was playing a video of the past. I could see Josh as an infant – then as a toddler hanging onto his favorite bear. I remembered him as a small boy asking me, “Mom, who am I going to marry? I can’t marry Eva (his cousin) and your already married to Dad.” And the time he told Dale that he was a “muddy stick” instead of “a stick in the mud”. I blinked trying to keep the tears from falling. Here was our first born completing something that he had worked on so hard. That in spite of our mistakes as parents, he is a wonderful young man who we are so proud of. We are also thankful that he found Lauren to marry. She helped make this day possible with all of her support, encouragement and love.
As the Commencement speaker addressed the crowd, one of his first statements was, “Commencement is a time of nostalgia.” I laughed to myself – that was exactly where my mind was, in the past. Cherishing it, trying to remember more of it, thankful for it and where it has brought Josh and Lauren to at this time.
It is God's grace that has brought us - them - to this place. We can claim nothing of our own, except the many prayers for our boys that God gives us the words to pray.
"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints." Ephesians 1:17-18
"And this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ." Philippians 1:9-10
"We have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience and joyfully giving thanks to the Father," Colossians 1:9-12
Thank you, God for your many blessings that you so richly lavish upon us!
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