A Graduation Prayer

I attended the graduation ceremony for Ouachita Baptist University a week ago.  (Go Tigers!)  I was pinch-hitting for the Chairman of the Ouachita Board who couldn’t make it.  My one responsibility was to say a prayer over the graduates.  Several people have since asked me for a copy of that prayer.  That has motivated me to post that prayer to my blog.

So, in this graduation season, here is a prayer that might spark your own prayers for the graduates you know and love …

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Father, thank you for Ouachita Baptist University.  Thank you for faithful faculty administration and staff who love the students and work for their best.  Thank you for these graduates and for the education they’ve received and the lifelong friendships they’ve forged here.

Lord, as these graduates commence into their future, would you give them …

·         gratitude enough to remember from whence they’ve come

·         dreams enough to discern and live the great dream you have for each one

·         courage enough to try new things

·         skills enough to succeed

·         persistence enough to stay with it

·         joy enough to stay positive

·         friends enough to know they’re not in their journey alone

·         wisdom enough to give their lives to kingdom things that last forever

·         hunger and thirst enough to keep them in Scripture and prayer and righteousness and   church

·         trouble enough to keep them always leaning into you

·         peace enough to rest in you

·         hope enough not to let disappointments get them down for long

·         love enough to be a blessing to many

·         faith enough to keep their eyes on Jesus in good times and in bad

·         and desire enough to do all they do for your great glory.

And now, Jesus, as they launch into the next steps of their lives, please go before them as leader and guide, behind them as redeemer and love, above them as provider and guard, below them, as supporter and strength, beside them as companion and friend, and within them as Savior and Lord.  In your name, amen.