Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris:
1 Thessalonians 2:11–12 talks about the three aspects of Paul’s ministry to the believers in the Thessalonian church. Paul compares his work to what godly parents do for their children: exhorting, comforting, and charging them to walk worthy of God, who has called them to his kingdom and glory.

As your children graduate, parents, you have completed something truly significant. You have spent much time exhorting and comforting. But commencement is also the beginning of something new. You must give your students a charge for the future. How do they walk worthy of God? John Witherspoon gave some principles in his speech to the 1787 graduates of the College of New Jersey, now known as Princeton University.

Christians are called to both humility and to greatness. Walking worthy of that call to God’s kingdom is a call to greatness. Witherspoon instructs us, “The object of our desires must be just as well as great. Our desires ought to be governed by wisdom and prudence, as well as justice. To achieve significant things, we must also persevere.” And finally, Witherspoon says, those who aspire to greatness must “encounter dangers with resolution.”

Parents, charge your graduate to do what is right, even in dangerous times. I’m Mike Farris.