I’m on a bit of a blogging break, but wanted to share a few highlights from the last week and a truth about God that never fails to encourage me.
Our oldest daughter graduated from high school last Friday night.
It was a wonderful ceremony! On Saturday, we had a combined graduation party with several of her friends and enjoyed spending time with those who came to celebrate with us.
[And because we needed a little more excitement, our younger daughter took her driving test on Monday and got her driver’s license. I find that hard to believe, too. My “baby” can now drive a car by herself!!]
I was actually less emotional during graduation than I thought I’d be. Although my purse was packed with extra tissues, I didn’t really need them. My teariest moment actually came Friday morning.
Every day when she drove to school, she would text me to let me know they’d arrived safely. It was usually just the word “here.” (She can be a woman of few words.)
On Friday, the last day of school, she texted “here” but added a red heart emoji afterward. At that point, I realized that it was the last time I’d get that particular text from her. Her days of driving to high school were over. That was my saddest moment of the whole weekend!!
As Valedictorian of the class, she gave a speech at graduation. She included the following Bible verse.
She related it to God’s faithfulness as He guides and directs each one of her classmates into His next step for their lives. But I was blessed as I considered God’s faithfulness to me.
He’s been faithful in the past.
God has brought me through every trial. Not only has He brought me through, but I’ve grown stronger in my Christian walk and been drawn closer to Him.
Whether at 18 months or 16-years-old, He was faithful to guide us in parenting that sweet graduate you see pictured above through some tough times. We didn’t do it perfectly and often totally failed, but God was faithful to give grace and wisdom – and to work in her heart as well.
He is faithful in the present.
We can step into today knowing God’s faithfulness has not changed. Whatever the current challenge is, His promises are still true. His grace is sufficient [2 Corinthians 12:9] and His thoughts toward us are precious. [Psalm 139:17]
He will be faithful in the future.
This is a whole new season of life I’m about to enter. And I can be tempted to think I’m going to have to get through this big change by myself.
But I would be wrong. God will never leave me nor forsake me. [Hebrews 13:5] He never changes. [Malachi 3:6]
And it doesn’t depend on us.
“If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13
The ultimate fulfillment of His faithfulness will be our home in heaven one day. How we can look forward to that!!
Now our family is off on a celebratory vacation. Time to enjoy reading new books, eating good food, and soaking up lots of (unplugged!!) family time.
Beautiful graduation congratulations!!!!!!!!!! VALEDICTORIAN! Such a proud accomplishment!
Obviously, her verse & speech are perfect words for me right now. As we approach the three-month-no-job mark, knowing that severance from the old job will soon begin to wane, I have to ramp up my faithfulness to a new level.
HAPPIEST VACAY!!!
Thank you for the congratulations, my sweet friend ~ continuing to pray about the job situation!!
Had a wonderful vacation/graduation celebration trip. Took a cruise to the Western Caribbean. First time ever for me ziplining (did that in Honduras; family had ziplined in the Smoky Mtns before, but not me) and riding jet skis…loved the first one, not so sure about the second!! Actually think I would enjoy jet skis on a lake, or even calm ocean waters, but the water was very choppy, and I’m still sore from gripping onto the jet ski with my lower body!!
Nice thing about the cruise, too, was that we opted not to pay for the Internet package, so went for seven straight days with no cell phone service…and lived to tell about it! 😉
Stay faithful – trusting God to turn this into a real faith-building story in y’alls lives! <3
Congratulations!. What a blessing.
Thank you so much!! 🙂
Congratulations on graduating your first daughter! I’m sure it’s bitter sweet. That’s wonderful that she put in the hard work and it paid off for her to be valedictorian!
How was your trip? I saw your reply to Sues, but I hope you post a little more about it. We had a great time at Fripp; it would only have been better if I had been able to see you, too.
Still sad that I wasn’t able to see you this trip 🙁 but glad y’all had a great time!
We really enjoyed our vacation! It was such fun to be able to experience new places and activities as a family. And new foods, since our younger daughter and I tried escargot together 🙂