Josiah spent the night with us. Our first time with just him and without his Mommy. His two big brothers and Mom and Dad went to the Astros game to see Jachin's favorite player, Josh Hamilton. That's right. Not even an Astro, but at least it's baseball. And Josh Hamilton is really good. I guess we haven't had enough time around Josiah to understand all the things he says. There were two things that struck us as quite comical, mainly because they were so random. The first one he said numerous times over the course of the evening. Not sure how it got started, but once he realized that we liked it, we heard it again and again. For some reason he stopped, looked down, and declared, "I got big foot." OK. We laughed and engaged him in a brief discussion of that medical malady. The second one also reappeared a time or two and in different forms. It was actually much funnier than the other one, because he used it appropriately every time. When we talked to him about his big foot, he responded, "How I do that?" And later, in the middle of one of his jabber sessions where he obviously knew exactly what he was saying while we didn't have a clue, he blurted out, "How you do that?" Challenging question. How I do that, indeed?
I went to one of the local high school's graduation ceremonies. I heard some very interesting things in the two and a half hours we stood there. Yep. Stood. The venue was packed out. It was a beautiful room at the Tremont Hotel, but there were people standing two deep in places. Here's a sampling of some of the advice .
In one of the prayers: "May they consume themselves until they finally reach their heavenly home and hear from the Lord, 'you were a good and faithful servant.'" Great sentiment … at a funeral.
From the guest speaker, a former NFL player: "When trials come in life it's a matter of reflect and respond vs. react and reject. That's a really good point. Maybe I can work it into a sermon somehow.
From one of the presenters (a teacher, I think): "We feed them ungodly information." I'm sure she meant to say "ungodly amounts of information," but that slip of the tongue struck me as really funny. No one else laughed, though.
From the valedictorian: "Hurricane Ike illuminated our inner resilience." That I could relate to. And then, "Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment." I'm not sure who he was quoting there. It just seemed to stand out from the string of clichés he came out with at the end of his speech. Don't get me wrong, though. The speech he gave was entertaining and well-put-together. Nice job by the guy who was offered full scholarships from at least four different major colleges. Speaking of scholarships, that's why it lasted so long. There were only 31 graduates, but they announced and presented every scholarship received by the students. Two pages worth. Way to go kids, but figure out a different way to do it next year. I was proud of the two Seaside girls who graduated, though. They even gave me a yellow rose. That's part of the school's tradition. The kids give a rose to the people who meant something to them. I assumed it was meant for parents, so it was quite a surprise when I got one. Humbling, actually. Maybe she was just being nice to the old guy.
1 John 3:18 says, "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
Father, walk with those students through the next part of their life. There's so much more to come. Amen.
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