Every year at graduation, the class adviser offers some
thoughts on her time with her students. It was my turn this year. This is the
transcript that I kinda, sorta followed. To protect their privacy, my students’
names have become initials.
Pastor Jones, Mr. Wilhelm, school board members, faculty
members, honored guests…let’s see, did I leave anyone out? Oh, yeah…Class of
2012, Daughters of the Seventh Millennium.
It has been an honor to serve as the class adviser and
homeroom teacher of these young women for the last four years. It has been an
honor…and a headache. They have both disappointed and dazzled me. I have been
both proud of them and peeved with them.
They’ve caused me to lose my temper, but never my talent
for alliteration.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, they have become like
daughters to me. They know things about me that my own family doesn’t know. They
know my philosophy and worldview. They know I’m pro life, pro Israel, and pro
vocabulary. They know that I believe following Jesus is no guarantee that
you’ll be inright, outright, upright, downright happy all the time, but without
Jesus I couldn’t get out of bed in this morning.
Why do they know all this? Two words: captive audience, just like all of you today.
We’ve discussed many sensitive topics, and would have discussed more if my
classroom had a door.
These girls and I have shared many experiences and ideas.
They got me to read Twilight and The Hunger Games, and I got them to read
Tolstoy and drink tea while clenching a sugar cube in their teeth like
Russians. We all became fans of Lois Lowry’s trilogy.
J and E and I went to Bucknell University to hear the
author of Infidel and Nomad, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim
with a price on her head. We combined that serious event with dinner at a diner
where the really cute waiter worked.
When we went to Camp Susque, I read bedtime stories to my
daughters. When we went to Jamaica, my puppet Joey Manzoni stalked them and
made rude remarks. At Christmas time, we feverishly decorated our room, and won
the decorating contest four years in a row.
I share a special bond with L because she and I are both
founding members of the puppet team. We learned something new together and
became internationally known puppeteers when we went to Jamaica. The other
girls thought we were crazy…until they started doing the Ten Commandment Boogie.
M and I share a love of writing and we both participated in
National Novel Writing Month. Because she is a writer, M’s brain has formed strange
pathways. Many of you know that my students draw pictures on their tests and
quizzes for bonus points. When M was in Old Testament Tour 2, she drew pictures
of the prophet Elijah battling the vampire Edward Cullen. She always used a red
pen to add blood to the picture.
I’m not worried about M’s love for Koreans, because the
largest Presbyterian church in the world is in Seoul, South Korea. In Christ,
there is neither American nor Korean. I think Paul said something like that.
And then there’s E2, who joined our little family later. I
am glad she did. She has blessed me with laughter and joy. And last year she
hand-lettered all of our formal invitations in her beautiful handwriting.
Wherever she is on November 20, I will come and protect her from the haters who
participate in Kick a Ginger Day.
These five girls are in my heart and I think I am in their
hearts as well. When they leave, part of them will remain with me, and part of
me will go with them. Not in a creepy, science fiction or new age religion kind
of way, but in love.
When the girls chose their class verse four years ago, they
chose a verse that celebrated their all girl class. It comes at the end of
Proverbs 31, a chapter that describes a talented, intelligent, creative,
organized, strong, confident, compassionate women. Verse 10 asks the question,
“Who can find a virtuous woman?” and the remainder of the
chapter describes her.
My friend Rosalee Richards got tired
of being a lawyer and went to theological seminary and studied Hebrew and
became a Hebrew professor. She told me something startling about the Hebrew
adjective that KJV translates as virtuous,
NASB translates as excellent, and
NIV translates as noble. Rosalee
told me that when the same Hebrew word is masculine, it translates as warrior.
I like that. Who can find a warrior woman? One who will
struggle to do what is right, to live with purpose, to care about others? One
who will put on the armor of God and battle in prayer against the darkness?
I think my daughters can become warrior women. I’ve been
watching you for over 700 days, give or take some excused and unexcused
absences, and I see in you the beginnings of warrior women. You are already
strong from soccer and zumba.
You will have to take responsibility for your own spiritual
lives. There will be no more required chapels and homeroom devotions and Bible
classes. You won’t be surrounded by friends and teachers who believe as you do.
Count on being surrounded by people who believe what we studied in Cults and
World Religions or who believe nothing.
The NIV renders our verse, “Charm is deceptive and beauty
is fleeting.” It would be pointless to admonish you not to be charming and
beautiful. You can’t help it. Even in scripture, there’s a place for that. If
Esther had not been charming and beautiful, she would have never become queen.
But Esther had to decide whether to live off her charm and beauty or to become
a warrior woman. Because she chose bravely, she saved God’s chosen people. She
saved the messianic line. She made it possible for Jesus to come.
Your choices may never be that monumental, but they will
affect your little world negatively or positively. So choose to be the warrior,
and if you mess up, don’t be afraid. Just get up tomorrow and choose again.
Remember
you leave this place surrounded by the love and prayers of your teachers and indwelt
by the Spirit of God.
I love this phrase, "...Choose to be the warrior, and if you mess up, don't be afraid. Just get up tomorrow and choose again."
ReplyDeleteHow very beautiful, Roberta! What an empowering, loving address to your girls. (Now can we match up those seven girls with your four sons? Just thinking God gave you daughters of the heart instead of the body)And warrior women? Battle has come to me, whether I chose it or not.
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