The T-shirt said, “Yestiddy I didn no what grad ju wat mint, now i are won!”
Daniel found that shirt when he was a senior graduating from Corinth High School and brought it home!
Fortunately, he could read it! And laugh about it.
This time of year, many families are focused on children and young people graduating from kindergarten to PhD programs! What a celebration of planning, hard work and achievement.
As a teacher and mother, I have gone through all the feelings that go with watching the steps of education being completed and seeing the students go on to greater goals in life.
What a wonderful sense of accomplishment it is to complete something! To do the hard work, to show up when you feel terrible, to study one more hour even though the coffee is wearing off.
Pushing yourself to do more than you may think you can do, is a good thing! To realize that you put limits on yourself that you could exceed and surpass, can surprise even yourself.
I love learning! I hope in my lifetime I have been able to make learning attainable, exciting and lasting for all my students and the adults I have had the privilege to teach.
Doors open with education — sometimes the major you had may not seem to apply directly to the eventual career you are led to. I have found that what I have learned from classes and work experience is somehow blended into being useful in the next step the Lord leads me to.
God tells us to be learners in our spiritual lives as well! He, himself, as a child grew and learned.
“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” ~ Luke 2:52.
“And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.” ~ Luke 2:40.
When Jesus was 12 years old and his parents couldn’t find him on the return journey home, he was found in the temple in Jerusalem “sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.” ~Luke 2:46-47
As a Christian, we should learn through prayer, Bible study and doing what God has instructed us to do.
2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
We need to know and understand scripture with the help of the Holy Spirit.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us, “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
When Jesus was being tempted in the desert by Satan, Jesus answered the tempter with scripture: Deu-teronomy 8:3, Deuteronomy 6:16 and Deuteronomy 6:13.
What about us?
We need to be able to follow His example and know God’s word to use as a sharp sword against the temptations of Satan, the world, and the flesh.
You get so much more than a degree, diploma or certificate.
