{"id":858,"date":"2011-06-09T08:47:24","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T12:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=858"},"modified":"2011-06-09T08:47:24","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T12:47:24","slug":"a-graduation-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2011\/06\/a-graduation-prayer.html","title":{"rendered":"A Graduation Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cGod, today is like any other. The sun rises. The winds blow. Rain falls. Rain does not fall. People are born. They laugh. They cry. They dance. They die. Today \u201cchronos\u201d time is as it has been since You gave it beginning, and will be as it is until you bring things to an end. Today is like any other.<\/p>\n

Today is also fresh and new, and like no other day. Today is a \u201ckairos\u201d moment of opportunity that has come and will pass in a moment. Today is a passage from one epoch to another. Today is a gift from you. Grant grace to see it and seize it.<\/p>\n

Today is a graduation, a passage, a completion, an inauguration. Today we pray for all those who have met the challenge and kept the faith to the commitments of their studies. Now they have a new \u201ckairos\u201d before them. We first offer thanks for the success of their journey. We thank for you granting them focus and direction and then strength and endurance. You created the knowledge and understanding they have mastered. You have created the curiosity and capacity determination that led them in pursuit. All these good things came from you. Thank you.<\/p>\n

Today we also pray for tomorrow. This graduation opens another door to another time. As you have led in the past, lead now into the future. Give them focus and clarity and a calling from you to understand their purpose and the courage to respond and step toward that purpose.<\/p>\n

We pray in the words of scripture: \u201cBless them indeed. Expand their territory. Let your hand be with them. Keep them evil, that they will not cause or experience pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Jesus, we bless our graduations\u2026”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cGod, today is like any other. The sun rises. The winds blow. Rain falls. Rain does not fall. People are born. They laugh. They cry. They dance. They die. Today \u201cchronos\u201d time is as it has been since You gave it beginning, and will be as it is until you bring things to an end.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-occasions","category-prayer-for-others"],"yoast_head":"\nA Graduation Prayer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2011\/06\/a-graduation-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Graduation Prayer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cGod, today is like any other. 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He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the author of \"Six Prayers God Always Answers: Results May Vary,\" and \"Nine Ways God Always Speaks: Only Available in Certain States,\" both co-written with Jennifer Schuchmann. His third book is \"The Karma of Jesus.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mark is a native of Santa Cruz, California. He has studied at Azusa Pacific University, The Academy of Performing Arts, Cambridge, Ontario, and Luther Seminary. He holds a Ph.D. from Regent University. Mark and his wife Jill have four children. His true passion is walking with people in the exciting adventure of communicating with God.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/author\/mherringshaw"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":862,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions\/862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}