My niece Ira graduates as valedictorian of her elementary class this March.  She asked me to write her a speech.  Looking down the road to my seemingly distant past when I made my own valedictory speech, I could not remember what I said then.

I look back at what seemed like half a lifetime now gone.  My desire for her and for the rest of these kids is for them to live each day wisely, for the years will pass by so quickly  they will  wake up one day finding themselves old and gray and wishing they had more years to live, or another chance to relive their lives and rewrite their  personal histories.

A  Speech for Ira

“Marching Orders”

It was not too long ago when we were little children on our first day of school. We were alone for the first time, scared to death of being separated from our parents, and from everything that was comforting and familiar.

Our memories of that day may be a little foggy perhaps, but I suppose our parents quite remember how difficult it was to let us go.

Today is another one of those days.  Today we are crossing the bridge of childhood into adolescence and we will soon find out, in the coming years, how tough this period  will be and how challenging, not only for us, but for the people around us.

Knowing the challenges we’ve had these past few years that have led us to this day, I take  this moment, in behalf of the members of my graduating class to thank you, our parents, and loved ones,  our teachers, administrators and staff for  your patience, guidance, wisdom and support.  Without all of you, we could not have made it this far, from the day when we were nervous  little preschoolers to proud graduates of this institution.

And so on this, our graduation day, I have the privilege of making a speech that years from now, I wonder if anyone of us will ever remember.  Nevertheless, I will make  an effort to sow the seed of a message that by the grace of the Almighty God will take root in you.

It has been said of us, children, that we are so young, and our life and future is ahead of us.  We expect—- like it is our natural right—to have a long life and a multitude of opportunities to do whatever we want to do, and be whoever we want to be.

Some of us have a vision of becoming nurses, or engineers, doctors, teachers, businessmen, pastors, and biblewomen, wives, husbands, mothers and fathers.  We look forward to the day when we will be able to help our families out of poverty, or help other struggling families in our community and perhaps, the world.  Some of us desire to become rich, well-known and influential.

Only God knows if we will live to see that day.  Only God knows if we will be there to celebrate our eighteenth  birthday, or our fortieth or if we will ever live to see our children and grandchildren.  We are wisely instructed to remember our Creator in the days of our youth.

We are never too young to ask the deep questions of life:  “Why I am here?”;  “Where am I going?”;  “ What is the purpose of my existence?”  Let us not wait till we are thirty or fifty, broken, empty after years of aimlessness, to search for the answers to these questions.  Now is the time to determine our purpose, and to live our lives according to what our Creator, Lord and Saviour intended for it to be.

We must guard ourselves and arm ourselves with wisdom, courage and integrity.  We must live each day guided by God’s word and God’s will.  As we approach the turbulence of  adolescence, the many challenges and temptations that lie there and beyond —let us pray everyday for the wisdom to make the Godly decisions in the choice of our friends, our careers, our mates.  Let us pray for courage to do what is right and good no matter how hard it might be.  Let us pray for integrity—the will to do the right thing all the time, now matter the sacrifice.

We will find what is good and right  in God’s Word.  Let us  not be persuaded by the rest of our peers and friends.  Let us stand up for what is right though people may think us weird and though it will make us unpopular. Let us seek the counsel and wisdom of our parents and pastors, godly counselors and teachers.  It is hard to trust the wisdom of our elders when we are young and strong-willed, but they have seen life and have learned from their experiences.  They don’t want us to make the same mistakes. Let us strive to fight the rebelliousness in our hearts to listen, yes, listen  and obey  our parents, in the Lord, for this is right.

It is never wrong to dream big dreams.  But the biggest dream we could ever dream for ourselves in this life is to dream God’s dream for us—to seek to know and follow His will for us.

Someday some of us may not become the doctors or nurses, engineers, or parents that we dreamed of becoming.  Sadly, some of us may never even live long enough to see our dreams come true.  But there is one sure thing.  If we do God’s will everyday, we will have found the meaning for our existence on this earth.  That is the most  important thing.

In this life, we may not be anything but a housewife, or farmer or government employee.  But it doesn’t matter:  the true and genuine measure of our success is whether we have done what the Lord had set for us to do in this earth, and whether we have done it well. 

I am made wise and humble by the example of my parents.  They are here right now, and I pay tribute to them. They have forsaken the comforts of this world to choose the more excellent way—God’s way. 

When we pass from this life to the next, our material success will not matter. What will matter then is for God to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

We have only one life to live.  Let us live it now, with wisdom, and purpose, according to God’s Word and God’s will.  Let us remember our Creator now, when we are young for we will never know if we only have tomorrow, or the next five years,  or ten years or   a lifetime.

I want you all to say these words with me.

 “Lord, give us the wisdom to to know your will,

 the courage to always do the right thing,

and the strength to stand up to temptation.”

If you forget anything else that I say today, remember one thing:

God has a mission and a purpose for our lives.

As we march out of this room today, let our marching orders be:

Find that mission.  Live that mission.