Go forth; begin

Is it just ME, or are you, too, busy attending graduation ceremonies.

It’s a hectic year for me; 6 graduations in all; 2 college, 4 high school!

Those are the facts….here is the good news....

As objective an attendee as one can be, I feel so hopeful for our future.  I have sat among congregations and audiences who have given the gift of education to their children and supported them all along the way and sacrificed to see it through.  While I hope every child could receive this gift and embraced it, as purposed, I am not (quite) that naive.

From classes of hundreds to thousands, if but some rise to the level of their potential and continue to nurture and embrace the passion that glows in their eyes on their day of commencement, I will gratefully accept and live with those odds.  Have we a choice, after all?

Yes, we always have choices and so do these leaders, these parents of tomorrow.  Choose to give them choices.  Choose to encourage them to choose wisely.   Teach them that they must be willing to live their lives based on the choices they make.  Have no doubt; those choices will affect us all, one way, or the other.

It is easy – and understandable – to think the word commencement means the end of something, as in education, high school or college days.  Rather is means to begin, to go forth, to start.  It is to open a new chapter.

I gave you the good news; here is the great news….

Commencing should not be left to students; it should – and can -  be a regular activity for all of us; to move on, the start again, to go forth.  Isn’t THAT another great lesson to teach our children? Shouldn’t we also support each other to face each day with new choices, new options, and new opportunities?   No doubt!

In hearing the personal stories of the women of TheIWLA, it is crystal clear that many do embrace what it means to commence.  It seems, though, that too many live with the “hope” of it.  Absent of the commitment to it, that is all it will ever be.  Put some faith alongside that hope – faith in yourself that you can keep moving forward, that you can start anew each day.  If your choice is to go it alone, you have that right, but what I feel at the core of my being is that to do it with others and for others makes every day a better one.

So, IS it just me, or do you, too, feel like calling a friend, a sister, someone and say, “Let’s do it together”.

Let’s commence…together