A few weeks ago I attended a graduation.  No it was not a college graduation, or even a high school graduation.  No this was a graduation for my daughter from preschool.  Sitting on the grass at Plymouth Park and watching all of the little boys and girls, sing songs, and recite poems was so wonderful.  As a parent, it makes me proud to see my little girl interacting with others, making friends, learning, and playing.  The graduation reminded me how quickly time is moving forward. 

The other part of the graduation that I found absolutely fascinating was the graduation ceremony.  The teacher read off each child’s name, and the child came forward to receive a “diploma” and goodie bag.  I tried to look around the crowd and see if I could tell who the parents were for each child.  Some of them were easy to spot.  The parents were whooping and hollering for their son or daughter.  Others were not so easy to figure out.  But as each child came up the teacher would announce what they wanted to be when they were grown-up.  This announcement of their future intentions and goals was just awesome.  I tried to keep a running tally in my head of how many police officers and firefighters were in the preschool graduating class of 2010.

But the graduation got me to thinking about my own goals and current place in life.  I admit that when I was much younger, I desired to be an astronaut.  As a child, I pretended to be in space or on training missions.  I remember taking some old handheld games and putting them together on a piece of cardboard for my “Control station.”  If it was space related I loved it and wanted it.  I even wrote to NASA while I was in grade school, asking them which college they thought I should attend.  Though I was never able to realize my childhood dream of becoming an astronaut, that space craze has stayed with me even into my adulthood.  To this day I still love to read news stories about the International Space Station, or planned orbit missions.  If I was asked to go, I would most definitely try it!

I would like to jump forward 20 years and see how many of those children actually became what they said they would.  Did they become a fireman, doctor, teacher artist, or a paleontologist?  Did they live out their childhood dreams?  We all have dreams.  We all have goals.  Sometimes our dreams cannot become a reality because of circumstances outside our control.  But sometimes our dreams die, because something better has replaced it.  I have read a lot about astronauts and their lives and families.  I am not sure that I would want to live that way.  They are gone for sometimes months at a time.  Their lives are based entirely around the schedule of the shuttle or station.  They risk their lives in so many ways every time that they go to work.  I think about all of those things then look at my family, friends, and church and think it’s ok that I am not an astronaut. 

Often in life we set goals and dreams for ourselves.  But these goals and dreams are selfish and do not include others.  We do not think about how the achievement of our dream will affect others around us.  There are a lot of people that attain great levels but only by alienating everyone around them.  They find that their success is hollow and empty since they have no one to share it with.  Conversely, there are those that are not “successful” by society’s standards but they are happy and loved.  We all make choices in life.  Let your choices reflect what you “really” want in life, not just what people tell you that you should want.  I may never be rich and famous, but as long as I have my relationship with Jesus Christ and the love of my family, I am wealthy beyond measure.  So yes, now that I am grown up, I am living my dream.

In His Service,