I Try Really Hard...

... to never step on my children.

I have this thing about special days and making sure that they are reserved for the people for whom they were intended.

That's why, in a rare break from my normal protocol, I am posting twice on this day.

Today, it was time for Caleb's 10th birthday party.  And, birthday parties are really important, special days in the life of our family.  I don't want to steal his spotlight... at all...

But today was a big day for me, as well...

Today I graduated from Northwest Nazarene University with my Master's degree in Theology/Spiritual Formation.  And I am proud of myself.  I worked hard.  I finished strong with a 3.85 GPA.  It wasn't easy.  And I am happy.

In my ideal world, I would have been there, in Nampa, to walk across that stage, but let's be real...  most of the time we don't get to live in our ideal worlds...  However, I am feeling blessed beyond measure that NNU has a conscientious faculty who did everything possible to make the commencement activities available, via a live stream, for those of us who couldn't be there in person.

Yesterday, I watched as my name was called at the graduate lunch.  This afternoon, I participated in the baccalaureate service, and late tonight, as I was getting Miah to sleep, I sat down to watch the commencement address.  It was actually a pretty cool feature to fast forward through all the graduates I didn't know, but I did stop to watch my friends from my cohort cross the stage!

The messages in these events were amazing, and at many points I felt that they were just for me.  Let me share a few quotes:

From Dr. Alexander:

"Seek to serve.  Don't spend your life on yourself."

And the next several quotes, from Dr. Schandorff:

"Embrace your real life.  Your real life is the one you're actually living.  Not the one you imagined or even the one you dreamed you might be living.  Your real life does not start tomorrow.

"Build community...  No matter what your mother told you, you are not special.  Today is about you.  Tomorrow needs to be about someone else."

                

"This is not only a call to invest yourself in the lives of others but also a call to allow others to invest their lives in you.  Community happens when gifts are given and received."

"Keep learning.  You are a learner.  Our ongoing education is more about the way we see others than the way we see ourselves.  There is no one in this world from whom you cannot learn something.  The day you decide this is not true is the day you begin to become a smaller, less relevant version of yourself."

"Don't let these years become the best years of your life."

And last, from John Wesley, quoted by Dr. Schandorff:

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, in all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you can" -John Wesley

This is exactly why I am proud to call NNU my Alma Mater...  although, as long as I'm being honest, I wish they would do something about the school song...

L.  M.A.