Do You Have a Degree in Faith?

Graduation Cap

Many people this time of year have just celebrated graduation. Whether you were the one who threw the cap in the air or were the proudest parent, grandparent, or friend of a graduate, excitement filled your heart for what the future holds! The diploma or degree you now hold in your hands means you can start your future on a solid foundation as you go forward. 

What were you doing in the summer at age ten? Maybe jumping rope was your favorite thing to do. Or skateboarding on the hills of your neighborhood trying not to break an ankle. Building the next biggest dollhouse with Legos was the envy of all your friends. Or do you remember how to play jacks and ball?

Whatever it was, most of us at age ten were not busy packing our suitcases getting ready for college! Kathleen Holtz entered California State at age ten and then continued to law school at UCLA when she was 15! Passing one of the most difficult bar exams in the country, Kathleen became the youngest California lawyer at age 18. Wow! Talk about a role model.

Favorite Activity
You too may have great hopes of what to do with your life now that you are on your own. A temporary summer job or internship may just be the starting point for re-creating your new life. Most likely, you have skills that are dormant and have never been used. You may even have a degree but have never been employed. These valuable talents and gifts were given to you by God and can now be put to good use. Have you ever:

·         Organized a group of parents to raise school funds?

·         Opened your home to preschool kids while their moms worked?

·         Cooked and catered an event? 

·         Used a computer for data entry?

·         Walked all the neighborhood dogs?

The list goes on and on, but now you can use all that volunteering experience to earn money! What’s your favorite activity—one you would do even if you didn’t get paid? That is most likely your main talent. Search for a job in that field and begin there. Don’t just settle for the first thing that comes along. Find a position you really enjoy and build your life inch by inch. Friendly advice: don’t waste your life in a job you don’t like. Go after what you love!

Do you think you are too old for something new? Don’t tell that to Mozelle Richardson who placed in the Guinness Book of World Records (2004) for earning her Journalism degree at age 90 from the University of Oklahoma. She completed her ninth book at age 94. Today Richardson is 104 and continues to write!

Richardson could easily become friends with Nola Ochs who broke Richardson’s Guinness Record in 2007 by graduating from Fort Hays State University, KS, at age 95! She says, “I don’t dwell on my age. It might limit what I can do. As long as I have my mind and health, it’s just a number.”

Faithful Sign

The F Word
No! No! No! It’s not what you think. We are talking about what got these brilliant women, young and not-so-young, to a point of never giving up on life. We don’t know their circumstances for sure, but maybe their lives were wonderful and tied up with a pretty pink bow. But then again, maybe they had so many serious challenges that they were determined to make the best of what they had in their hands and change their expected paths.

These amazing people most probably were close friends with the F Word: F-a-i-t-h. The simple fact is no one can get anywhere without it even though it may not be apparent, or it is ignored. Why faith, you ask? Because as humans we have brains and therefore, we can argue or reason, but we cannot exist without believing in something or someone otherwise we would be classified as a machine (think computers—lots of information but no brain). Have fun researching this subject because this author is not a scientist!   

We’ve all been there. When we put our trust (i.e., faith) in things of this world such as more and more money, possessions, promotions, and immoral pleasures (just to name a few), we can’t expect it will last forever. It may seem like it does at first, but eventually, money disappears faster than you can count it, cars break down and turn to rust, homes deteriorate, and most things disappoint. But true faith is just the opposite.  

Your Graduation Gift

Faith isn’t anything you can see. It’s a promise, trust, truth, and knowledge of your God and Creator who gives you everything you need to move forward. Faith is special because it is individually designed just for you and will be different than the woman next to you. This “graduation” gift from God will drive you straight to His best plan and purpose for your life. No fear. No guessing. When will you open your special love gift?

“It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6 The Message).

Have You Reached the Mountaintop?

Decades travel at the speed of a “don’t blink, you’ll miss it” kind of rush. When we were teens or young adults, we thought we would never, ever see the time when we were called “senior citizens.” But, sure enough, every single one of us arrive blinking our eyes in surprise and wonder! Of course, when we finally do get to our mountaintop, our minds play tricks on us and we still think we are twenty years younger than reality.

For Such a Time

Every season of our lives has its pros and cons. In our college years, life started happening all at once. Joyfully or not, we were separating from our parents and envisioning a lifetime of great success, the “I can’t live without you” type of perfect relationships, and happily doing things our way.

Between our 30s and 40s, life started revealing its true nature. Things were different than we originally imagined, but still manageable. Our energies slowed a bit, and then took off again, as we adjusted our goals to fit our lifestyles. Here we learned the difference between “Me, Me, Me” and “We, We, We.” Life was good as long as we were willing to open our hearts and minds to the world.

What color is your reflection?

Midlife comes onto the scene with a vengeance! For some it’s a shock to look in the mirror and discover a new landscape or an entirely new life. Now we remember all those things we wanted to do thirty years prior before interruptions and distractions took over. We start making plans, realizing time is starting to speed up.

The good news is that we can look around and see new possibilities we never knew we had. Currently, 108.7 million people in the U. S. are over age fifty and growing, 53.5 percent are women, with 40 percent of men and women living as single/single-again. So we are not alone by any means. If we truly want to do something with the next fifty years, we need to be willing to get out of the house and meet others in our “tribe.”

Five Ideas to Begin Now

Thinking about it, our experiences pile one on top of the other for our entire lives. They build for us an entire “library” of knowledgeable events, good and bad. We can not actually go back in history and re-do our lives. But we can go forward, call on our learning episodes and make things new and different. We could start with these ideas:

• Lifelong Learning - always beneficial and fun, pick something you’ve wanted to learn or participate in doing. Local colleges provide a regular schedule of one-time classes.
• Travel Groups - how many of the U. S. states have you seen? How about that foreign country you’ve dreamed of stepping foot on? Day trips are also a great way to see sites and meet others without a big commitment.
• Community Events - right in your own hometown, there are plenty of occasions to use your skills, learn new ones, or volunteer and make your neighborhood better.
• Church Groups - just ask and you’ll see your church can always use your help. You’ll feel useful and needed for sure.
• Dating - please note dating clubs, organizations, and especially online dating, is not recommended by this author. They rarely result in any permanent relationship, are sometimes costly, and can actually be dangerous for the novice. However, if you feel you are ready to begin a new relationship, getting out and joining with others in some of the above groups may lead to meeting someone with similar interests. And that is a very good beginning!

Golden Days

No matter our circumstances and lifestyle at the moment, there is a way to make a difference with our days. God provides what we need, when we need it, if we just ask. He is always ready to help and will never, ever leave us. Just having a determination to do something with our lives that is worthwhile and beneficial is Step Two. Step One is placing our faith in the One true God. We can do that, can’t we?

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7 NIV).