Sound advice for graduates

Sound advice for graduates
by Rev. Jack Hulsey

Congratulations graduate.  You have just come to a significant milepost in your life. Within the next few days and weeks you'll be hearing words like this from your parents, school faculty and other well wishers.  

For much of your life until now we've talked at you, not to you. That's only right. You were children then, and we had a responsibility to teach you, whether you wanted it or not.  From this point forward you will find less and less of that.  At this time you will be given more and more advice because we will not always be there to tell you what to do.  I know you have already received a lot of advice about what you should do next; but if you will indulge me for a moment, I would like to add mine. It's not the first time anybody's said any of these things, but it’s sound advice nevertheless.  It's the result of several nationwide polls of hundreds of thousands of young people who responded to a questionnaire on “Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Graduated.”

1. Choose purity. More people express regret over this than over any other subject. You pay a great price when you forget that your body is a precious gift from God, that it is not to be given away indiscriminately. Choose modesty in dress and behavior. When you're clothing says, “I want people to look at me even if it makes them struggle with temptation,” you are sending the wrong message.

2. Stay out of debt. Graduates, you are about to have undeserved credit thrown directly at you. It takes virtually no time at all to get completely over your head in debt through credit cards. The book of Proverbs says you are in bondage to your creditors, and credit card debt is a terrible kind of prison.

3. If you find yourself wondering “should I be doing this," you probably shouldn't.  You don't wonder about the things you should do, like brushing your teeth or being kind to your friends. So hearing that internal alarm go off should be all the signal you need.

4. Choose your friends wisely. You will become just like the people you hang out with. So pick friends with beliefs and behaviors consistent with godliness.

5. Don't forget Jesus. Less than half the students in church youth groups will still be walking with Christ ten years after they graduate. Don't become one of them. Go to church every Sunday. Stay plugged into the Christian life. Don't forget the one who redeemed you, who loved you, who brought you to where you are today. He is the only one you can always depend on. Cultivate your relationship with Him.

From the Pastor's Study by Rev. Jack Hulsey, Praise & Worship of Woodlake Baptist Church, May 17, 2015