Graduates - 1983

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Graduates - 1983

Proverbs 3: 5-6

A tiny New York harbor tugboat and oceangoing vessel from its berth at dockside to the open sea.
The tug's pilot, as a final salute, beamed this message to the ship's captain: "You're on your own now!"

That is my salute to you!

May you have:

Enough happiness to keep you optimistic.
Enough trials to keep you strong.
Enough sorrow to keep you human.
Enough hope to keep you happy.
Enough failure to keep you humble.
Enough success to keep you eager.
Enough friends to give you comfort.
Enough faith and courage in your self to banish depression.
Enough wealth to meet your needs.
Enough determination to make each day a better day than yesterday.

Graduation has a way of foreclosing on adolescence.
You are closing a chapter in your lives, and starting a new chapter.
Nothing will ever be the same again.
Friends will pair off and marry.
You will go off in different directions for different reasons.

Where are you headed?

Are you still looking for the road, or have you been fortunate enough to find it?
The distance ahead looks like an immense journey.
The traffic is heavy, your destination is uncertain, and the time is late.

"If you don't know where you're going you'll probably end up somewhere else." -- David Campbell

Without a sense of direction one is a drifter, always dependent upon someone else to think and to act for him.
Is the main purpose of your life to get more money; get married; work the minimum and get the maximum;
leave home; survive; or what else?

We are all headed somewhere, searching for a passport to life.
Time pushes us along!

The decision of which road you take in life is up to you.
A sign by a heavily traveled dirt road read, "Choose your ruts carefully -- you'll be in them for the next ten miles."

The choice of the direction of your life determines the destination at which you will ultimately arrive.
"All that stands between your goal and the deeds you hope to do, and the dreams that would stir
your restless soul -- is you."

One dark night in ancient times, three horsemen were riding across a desert.
As they crossed the dry bed of the river, out of the darkness a voice called, "Stop!"
They obeyed.

The voice then told them to get off their horses and picked up a handful of pebbles, put the pebbles in their pockets
and mount their horses.

The voice then said, "You have done as I commanded. Tomorrow at sunup you will be both glad and sorry."
Mystified, the horsemen rode on.

When the sun rose, they reached into their pockets and found that a miracle had happened.
The pebbles had been transformed into diamonds, rubies, and other precious stones.

They remembered the warning.
They were both glad and sorry -- glad they had taken some, and sorry they had not taken more.

This is probably indicative of your feelings today.
You have completed 12 years of school, and you have learned much for you have taken advantage of those 12 years
to prepare yourself for your future.
So you can be glad of what you have taken from your education, your parents, your teachers, and your studies,
but you will discover that you will also be sorry -- for as you enter life on your own, you will wish, as we all have,
that we would have taken more.

You have goals.
You will reach your goals if you make proper preparation.

Abraham Lincoln said: "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
I will prepare and someday by chance will come."
His chance did come, and history has recorded that he was prepared and he made the best of his opportunity.

It is our prayer that each of you will do the same.
While trying to hang lose in deciding where to invest your life, you need a farsighted plan for the future.
Otherwise, you shall become a victim, not a planner of your future.

We congratulate you!
You have passed a milestone in your life.
You have reached a long-sought-after goal.

Now after you take a short while to enjoy this achievement in your life, other goals will become more prominent in your future.

Where do you go from here?
Which road do you travel?
What preparation will you now make?
What profession will be yours?

These and many other equally important questions will occupy your thoughts.

Now -- more than ever you will want to make your life count for something worthy.

The only way to make your life really count is through life in Christ.
The only way to arrive at the right destination is through the leadership of Christ.

"So many people come into this world
Only to be caught in life's mad whirl;
They live each day at a hectic pace,
But do little more than occupy space.

When life for them here is done
And night ends their frolic and fun,
The only record about them to abide
Is that they were born, begat, and died.

When these stand in the Judgment Day
What a shame that they'll have to say,
'I was, I was not, nothing more' ;
Oh, what a tragedy for life's score."
-- Source Unknown

But the life Christ gives will bring you to the right destination.
He will give you the direction which will make your life count.

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus..."

Take the path of loyalty to the Lord, commitment to His Church, behavior based on the Bible, and service to the Saviour.
If you walk that path on which Christ leads you, you will discover the good life.
The Bible calls us to the old paths recommended by the Lord in which He gives the needed direction.

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;
and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him,
and He shall direct thy paths." (Proverbs 3: 5-6)

Sermon by Dr. Harold L. White
Email Dr. White at hleewhite@aol.com