GRADUATION

Joseph,

On this occasion of your high school graduation, we want you to know how grateful we are to God that he shared your life with us. We are humbled that God has entrusted to us the privilege of being your parents.

You came into our lives after we had been married for eleven years. As you know, God took two previous unborn babies and the problems associated with pregnancy caused us to wonder if we would ever have children. Your arrival was amazing. We were overwhelmed at God’s grace in bringing you into our lives.

As we look back over these nineteen years, we have shared together so many experiences that we will always treasure: vacations with our extended family, traveling to Italy, hiking to the top of Yosemite Falls, biking across the Golden Gate Bridge. More meaningful than those extraordinary experiences is the fact that we are a family and we have shared life. You have shared in our mountain top experiences as well as in some deep valleys through which we have walked. We trust that God has and is using those experiences to prepare you for life.

In light of this milestone in your life, we want to share with you the advice that Paul gave Timothy, his son in the faith: Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen (I Timothy 6:11-16).

We have prayed that God would accomplish his purposes and plan in your life, that you would treasure him above all things. Our desire is that you would clearly discern the eternal from the temporary and embrace the eternal. Treasure what God treasures. Pursue him with all your heart. We hope great things for you – good health, a fulfilling career, a godly wife, and children that will bring you the same incredible joy you have given us. But our greatest desire for you is that you will have a deep and abiding passion for Christ and his word, that you will live a life of intimacy with him.

God will be most glorified in your life if you live out this statement: Above all, Christ.

All our love,

Dad and Mom