Time to Say Goodbye.

My long four years are officially over. I have my diploma(cover). I'm a high school graduate. I have had my share of fun, disaster, and tears of joy and sadness. I'm done. There are many of you who I'll miss. There are some who I wish I would have gotten to know better. But, I love you all. My fellow classmates and friends, this is for you.

This is Phillipians 1:3-11. This is one of my favorite passages that Paul wrote. It really captures what I want to say to everyone. Paul knows that God, who began a good work in you, will finish it. Completely. This is so incredibly encouraging.

³I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

⁷It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me.⁸God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

⁹And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, ¹¹filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

If you didn't know this about me, I really genuinely want everyone to be happy. I know that the way to true joy is through Christ. I want you to meet my most intimate friend. Christ Jesus. He's there whenever I need Him. Sounds cheesy, I know. But, it's not.

I want you to know that I pray this prayer for all of my friends. I want you to grow in love. Let your love grow as deep and as wide as the oceans, and spread Christ through your love. I want you to thirst for knowledge and insight. I want you to learn and know what is best, what is pure, what is blameless. I want you to be filled with the fruit of righteousness.

I want these things for myself as well. I want to show my love for Christ. I want to thirst for knowledge and insight. I want to learn more about God.

These are my prayers for the class of 2010. And, my prayer is for the hopeless, the hurting, the lost. I want them to have hope, to feel healed, and to be found. I want them to know Christ, the Savior of all.

With love.

Elizabeth Anne Mathers

The End.

This is the end. I'm done. It's the end of an era. A long expected end to a 13 year journey. A journey of discovery, friendship, fun, and learning. It is a long, hard, and harsh road. On this road, I have found things that help me through these times of learning and stress. These things I still cling to, and reflect on.

These are my precious things.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

¹⁶Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.¹⁷For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Galatians 5:16-18

¹⁶So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. ¹⁷For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

Romans 1:16

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

1 John 4:13-21

¹³We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. ¹⁶And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. ¹⁷In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. ¹⁸There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Each of these verses or passages mean something to me. They remind me of the greatness of my God. The strength we have in Christ. I'll post more on another day. These are just a few I thought of tonight.

Prayers

• Graduation.
• Mission Trip Planning and the Trip itself
• ERP-Registering
• Chrysalis
• Moving