An Education Purpose That All Children Deserve

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Ray and I were recently invited to give the commencement address at a homeschool graduation in East Tennessee. Thirteen students graduated while an enthusiastic audience of about 150 watched, including their state senator and state representative who also spoke briefly. Both were nice men. I was especially impressed with the brief message of faith from the state representative.

Decoration at the graduation ceremony

Ray is a natural at public speaking. He prepared well and did a great job with no notes. I, on the other hand, feel much more comfortable with everything written out in paragraph form.

I was surprised and very impressed at the rapt attention of the graduates. It almost felt like I was having a conversation with them. This is what I said:

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Graduates, it is a joy for me to participate in this important moment in your lives.

Parents, I’d like to begin by saying thank you to each of you. Thank you for homeschooling your children and specifically for homeschooling these graduates. God has been watching you every day. He knows your unseen, faithful work day after day, and year after year. Remember that Jesus said that God rewards faithful work that people don’t see. 

Thank you for every way you have faithfully given yourself to your children. Graduations are thrilling times for parents. Homeschooling parents get the biggest thrill of all! Well done, good and faithful parents!

Graduates, I want to thank you, too. Thank you for successfully completing all these years of study. And thank you for listening to your mother and father’s teaching. In Proverbs, Solomon wrote of the benefits of your parents’ teaching. He said: When you walk about, they will guide you; When you sleep, they will watch over you; And when you awake, they will talk to you. You have been sitting at the feet of your parents for many years. Now, you will stand on their shoulders. But, if you are wise, you will continue sitting at their feet, too. Listen to their counsel now and in the years ahead. In the coming years, don’t let this wonderful gift of the teachings of your parents go to waste. Stay close to your mom and dad. Stay close to your family.

Most importantly, stay close to God. As you go out into the world, remember what Jesus said are the two most important commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.

Remember that every day is a gift. God doesn’t give us yesterday and He doesn’t give us tomorrow, not yet. He does give us today. Live every one of your todays doing the will of God, and you will have a successful life–a successful life, lived one day at a time.

Don’t be afraid to try. How very sad to miss opportunities because we are afraid to try. I wonder what joys people miss because they have decided that something is too embarrassing or too much trouble or too scary to give it a try. 

Take care of your heart. The world has a lot to offer you. Some of it is good and some of it is evil. You will have to say no to some things and yes to some other things. Philippians 4:8 is a wonderful guide to what we should say yes to: . . . whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Go out there, Graduate, and spend your lives thinking about and doing what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and respectable and excellent and worthy of praise.

At the end of 40 years of wandering in the desert, the Israelites were ready to head into a new chapter. So are you. Joshua reminded them then that they needed to make a choice. He told them what choice he was making. Be sure to make that same choice every day. Joshua said:

Now, therefore, fear the Lord
and serve Him in sincerity and truth . . .
choose for yourselves today whom you will serve . . .
but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua 24:14-15

In conclusion, I’d like to tell you a story about George Washington Carver. If you ask the average person what he or she knows about George Washington Carver, you will probably hear about peanuts. It’s true that Carver studied peanuts and advocated that southern farmers raise peanuts, but peanuts were only one interest of this gifted professor, scientist, artist, speaker, humanitarian, and, more important than anything else, follower of Jesus.

Carver loved God’s Creation. He began his day in the woods, collecting specimens. He always wore a bit of greenery or a flower in his lapel.

The Bible was very important to Carver. A couple Carver had known when he was young gave this former slave a Bible one year for Christmas. He read from it every day for the rest of his life. 

Carver was blessed with a good education, and he became a professor at Tuskegee Institute. He was popular with his students. When some of them asked him to start a Bible class, he did. That class lasted for 30 years. Carver taught his students that since God pronounced all of the millions of things He made to be very good, we should seek to do good also.

Carver came up with innovative ways to use both sweet potatoes and peanuts. When people asked him how he did that, he said that he didn’t make these discoveries. He said that God had worked through him to reveal some of His wonderful providence to His children.

Carver traveled widely as a speaker. In 1924 he spoke to a crowd of 500 at a church in New York City. Carver said that without God to “draw aside the curtain,” he was helpless. A writer for the New York Times criticized the famous scientist because he had not sounded scientific. The headline of the reporter’s article was “Men of Science Never Talk That Way.” Carver told a minister that the writer’s comment did not bother him for his own sake, but that it did bother him that the writer had criticized the religion of Jesus Christ. Carver told the minister that he was not interested in science or anything else that left out God. I encourage you not to leave God out of anything either.

When you read graduation cards at the grocery store, there are common themes. One of those themes is the future. The problem is that when most people think about the future they don’t think far enough into the future. They only think of college and careers and families. They don’t think about the really big future — our forever future. Love God. Trust Jesus. Love your neighbor as yourself. Live each day looking forward to the day that God will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

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All children deserve to be educated with this purpose—that they can say with the apostle Paul:

I have fought the good fight,
I have finished the course,
I have kept the faith;
in the future there is laid up for me
the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
will award to me on that day;
and not only to me,
but also to all who have loved His appearing.
2 Timothy 4:8

 

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