Letter to Graduates from A Mom

Although this devotion is a little off the beaten path for me here at Internet Cafe, these issues are on my mind as the mom of a college graduate as of last Saturday. If you are the mom of a graduate this year, high school or college, I hope this blesses and encourages you in your role as a Christian mom. If you know a graduate who might be feeling uneasy about the future, perhaps you can encourage him or her with some of these thoughts.

Someone once said, “It’s not so much that we’re afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it’s that place in between that we fear. It’s like being between trapezes.”

That’s where you are right, now, Graduate, letting go of the bar behind you, whether high school or college, anticipating that second swing to take you to your future. Right now, in this split second of your life, you’re precariously suspended in air, hoping all of the preparation you’ve done won’t fail you when your big moment arrives.

Don’t be afraid to grab the new bar and swing away! You’re more capable than you know. When you’re apprehensive, remember that the power of Christ is in you, giving you his wisdom, helping you accomplish his purpose in your life: “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:13). When you surrender your life to Christ, the task ahead of you is never greater than the power in you (1 John 4:4b).

But what if you slip and fall in the future? Just know that there’s a safety net called “family” to help you get up and right back on the ladder. We’ll believe in you when you doubt yourself. We’ll remind you of who you are in Christ when your thinking gets foggy or misguided.

CS Lewis said, “We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

Well, no one wants to see you “go bad!” I’m glad you’re not in diapers or braces anymore, although I miss my little girl so much sometimes. But it’s fun to watch you hatch. We’re so excited to see the beautiful, stylish feathers replacing the fuzzy down.

Of course you’ll face obstacles ahead, but I hope that you'll embrace the growth they foster. Washington Irving said, “There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse; as I have found in traveling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one’s position and be bruised in a new place.”

When you were growing up, I tried to save you every bump and bruise, believing that as long as you were an arm’s length away, nothing could harm you. You didn’t even go to the mailbox unwatched by my loving eye.

Then you developed this whole crazy notion about having play dates and then older friends and then leaving the house and the yard to go down the street and across town and eventually out of town to have fun with those friends. You were driving and filling out college applications. Suddenly, you were farther than my arm’s reach or eye could see.

I was forced to recognize that not only was I not in control of every influence and circumstance around you but that I never was. We only like to think we are in control, which is silly because the truth is that Someone much greater and wiser is in control. As Emerson said, "All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen."

And so I learned to let go of you bit by bit, which is what’s supposed to happen in families. I let go of my own trapeze, believing that He would see both of us through to what lay ahead: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” (Philippians 1:6).

So congratulations to my college graduate—to all graduates. You’re in good hands.

You were born to fly for His glory--swing away!




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