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Graduation. An ending. A beginning. A celebration. A good-bye.
On the occasion of the graduation of my fourth homeschooler, I am thankful to be nearing the end of a season that started, not at school-age, but really at birth. Loving, teaching, preparing, correcting, encouraging, disciplining, praying, crying, worrying, smiling, laughing, rejoicing.
So much comes with the journey of parenting, whether you are homeschooling or not. A good work began, finally nearing completion. These last days have been hard. We’ve had yelling, crying, laughing, and finishing, though not as well as I would have liked for either of us.
Moving Forward in God’s Good Work
As we prepared to celebrate my son’s homeschool graduation, God led my heart to remember His good work will be completed – in my graduating son, in all of my children, in me. It’s a promise. He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. (Philippians 1:6)
This is one of my favorite verses. When I am discouraged by my own shortcomings, worried about how my mistakes and sins affect my children, overwhelmed by all that needs to be done or that I haven’t accomplished in my nearly 50 years of life, God reminds me.
He is the one who began a good work in me (my children, my writing, my church, my ministry) and He is the one Who will complete it. Yes, I do play a role. As I submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit, the work in my own life will be more evident, but it is His work.
Our work is to believe.
What must we do to do the works of God? Believe in the one whom He sent. (John 6:29)
I can get so caught up in all the other work, but the work He requires is faith. I need to trust Him to take care of the rest because I cannot.
And, like graduation, as God completes one thing in my life, it’s not an ending, but a step forward, drawing closer to the day when I will be like Jesus. (1 John 3:2)
My son will graduate. I will still pray, encourage, and rebuke, but he will have new teachers, fresh experiences, hard falls, and great successes. God will continue the work He began in my son’s life, and He will complete it.
Press on.
So until we reach Heaven, we will never arrive. We keep pressing forward to take hold of the thing that Christ took hold of us for—to be conformed into His likeness (Philippians 3:14). We won’t graduate and be done. God will lead us forward to new challenges full of His goodness, grace, mercy, and love—all designed by our Good Father for His glory.
Celebrate the milestones and keep pressing on toward the high calling of Christ, graduate, mom, writer, entrepreneur, child of God.
Remember, commit your ways to the Lord, and He will bring it to pass. (Psalm 37:5)
