5 Gospel Guidelines for Graduates and their Parents

Have you ever noticed the swirl of May??? There is Mother’s Day, yes, but with it, a barrage of events that remind you, not just moms, but kids, and all those who love them—change is coming!

Your five-year-old is graduating from kindergarten—a new story is beginning. If  your senior goes to summer school, they’ll actually put a diploma in that cover they handed her when she strutted successfully across the Civic Center in those stiletto heels.

Pin the Tail on the Donkey and the Disorientation of Graduation

Maybe it’s just because I’m a mom of four children, but May has always been the month of disorientation. It’s like you’ve landed in a four-year-old birthday party, been blindfolded, spun around three to thirty times, armed with a Velcro dart, and shoved off to try to pin the donkey target-tail.

It always seemed a little harsh to me, a bunch of grownups and kids laughing and yelling at the staggering four-year-old as she wandered toward the bushes. (Maybe I’m just more sensitive because spinning nauseates me).

I know a lot of people who feel like that bandana-blinded four-year-old right now. Maybe you are like her, stumbling around, trying to peek through the blindfold without anyone seeing you. Maybe you’re frustrated because your friends are laughing at you instead of offering some helpful direction about where to stick that donkey’s tail so you can collect your fidget-spinner reward.

What is disorientation?

Psychologists and biblical scholars call this experience disorientation. Walter Brueggeman describes the disorientation expressed in the Psalms:

“Human experience includes those dangerous and difficult times of dislocation and disorientation when the sky does fall and the world does come to an end.” Brueggeman, The Psalms and the Life of Faith

Although admittedly on a smaller scale, the end of the school year brings the sky-falling, world-ending events that cause the swirl of disorientation. As endings rush toward us, and new beginnings loom on the horizon, we may feel loss of the past, confusion about the present, and uncertainty or anxiety about the future.

5 ways the gospel helps the disoriented:

1. Stand still.(Psalm 46:10). Let the equilibrium be restored. The days are flying by, between celebrations and final work to do. Make a quiet place to meditate on Psalm 46, “Be still and know that I am God,” (v. 10). Rest.
2. Focus on the point.(Hebrews 12:1-3).Once, on a small boat in rough seas, an old seamen told me to keep my eyes focused on the horizon to avoid seasickness. As Christians, our stability comes from focusing on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Remember that God’s redemptive work in the past will continue into the present. That hope will give you the sea legs to take one step at a time toward the future.The gospel offers courage and hope to slow the spin in this cosmic game of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey Share on X
3. Listen to good counsel. (Proverbs 19:20). Some of those voices in the crowd are actually trying to help you find the donkey tail (probably your mom’s ;-)! Listen carefully for the ones you can trust (including the Spirit’s of course) to give you wise counsel, and take small steps.
4. Ask for help.(1 Thessalonians 5:17). Ask everyone you know to pray. Write it on your graduation invitation, “No gifts please. Only hourly prayers—for wisdom, sanity, hope, kindness, clarity.” (Okay. I know that’s over-the-top. You could write, “Registered at Target. Please add prayers to any material gifts.”)
5. Consider your goals—and the reward. (Philippians 3:12-14). Pinning the tail on the donkey might get you some gummi bears, but courageously stepping into the future brings the opportunity to re-evaluate your goals and their rewards. Asking yourself how your next goal fits with your calling to glorify God and enjoy him forever can bring a new level of hope even in uncertainty.

(For more on goals and calling, check here, here, and here.)[Check these links]Help us to stop swirling and staggering bc we’re listening to too many voices and none of them yours. Share on X

A Prayer for the Disoriented

Lord, we confess, our stomachs are sour with our uncertainty and doubt. What we’ve known is ending, and we don’t know if we like what comes next, or maybe we don’t even know what does come next. Help us to stop swirling and staggering because we’re listening to too many voices at once and none of them yours. Give us the guidance we need to go where you would have us go. Help us to take off our blindfolds, read your Word, remember the stories of your faithfulness, and walk in the ways you have carved for us.Help! Still our hearts. Orient us toward your Living Story, the story of redemption and restoration that you’ve written in your kingdom.

Thank you for saving us for yourself. Thank you for peace that surpasses all comprehension. Thank you for your good and perfect will. In the name of our precious Savior, Amen.

Photo Credit: REDD COLUMBIA OF RC CLUSTER pin the tail on the donkey, Flicker Creative Commons