Class ?blesses? each other at graduation

With it being graduation season, I found a heart warming story in my e-mail that I want to share with you. We live in a troublesome time. At no other time in the history of the United States of America has it?s citizens has had so much, but enjoys them less. Could the reason for this be that we have said no to God in our lives, especially our schools?

My high school years were very special to me. I only attended regular school three years. Prior to this, my schooling was in a homebound situation. Going from a homebound situation with no more than three hours a week spent with a teacher, to a regular school study situation, was quite an experience to put it mildly.

Things that I remember that we did in school may seem strange to a lot of people today. Every homeroom had a daily devotional, Bible reading and prayer. Two or three times a week we assembled in the auditorium for talks by preachers, teachers, policemen, judges, etc. We had classes in Bible that wasn?t a required course.

Do you know what the biggest problems in school was back then? This was from the fall of 1957 until spring of 1960. I don?t know what order they were in, but here are the ones I remember. Missing the trash can, chewing gum in class, speaking out of turn, talking in class and running in the hall. By today?s standards these things listed above would appear to be rather trivial. It seems that by degrees we can loose sight of what is most important. Think about the following.

The Sneeze

They walked in tandem, each of the 92 students filing into the already crowded auditorium. With rich maroon gowns flowing and the traditional caps, they looked almost as grown up as they felt. Dads swallowed hard behind broad smiles, and Moms freely brushed away tears. This class would not pray during the commencements—-not by choice, but because of a recent court ruling prohibiting it. The principal and several students were careful to stay within the guidelines allowed by the ruling. They gave inspirational and challenging speeches, but no one mentioned divine guidance and no one asked for blessings on the graduates or their families. The speeches were nice, but they were routine ? until the final speech received a standing ovation. A solitary student walked proudly to the microphone. He stood still and silent for just a moment, and then, it happened. All 92 students, every single one of them, suddenly sneezed!

The student on stage simply looked at the audience and said, ?God bless you, each and every one of you!” And he walked off the stage.

The audience exploded into applause. The graduating class found a unique way to invoke God’s blessing on their future with or without the court’s approval.

Isn’t this a wonderful story? Pass it on to all your friends, and God bless you!

In God we trust, united we stand. This is a true story, it happened at the University of Maryland. It’s inspiring.