Words of Worth

What 47 Cents Will Get You

May 16, 2014

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Pomp and Circumstance and Greeting Cards are surefire ways to get my tear ducts flowing! And this weekend will be no exception to that as graduation ceremonies, especially on the university level, will be occurring on many campuses throughout the state of Pennsylvania. And these occasions call for a lot of people and a lot of greeting cards!

Supposedly the 2013-14 school year will witness 3.2 million students graduating from high school, and colleges and universities are expected to award 1.58 million bachelor’s degrees; 693, 000 master’s degrees, and 55,000 doctorates. (Source: National Center for Education Statistics)

Today’s graduation ceremony is the modern day equivalent of the ancient rite of passage from youth into adulthood and it is the contemporary way to acknowledge an important milestone has been reached.

Harvard was the first American college to hold a commencement ceremony in 1642.

Hallmark, one of the leading producers of greeting cards, has been selling graduation cards since the 1920s and has over 400 card designs for graduation.

What’s interesting to me is the advice of the greeting card authors (whose starting card price is 47 cents by the way) is basically a hidden message of  “You can be, do, and have everything you want!”:

Make a lot of money

Quit studying now

Seek your dreams

You deserve the best

You achieved this yourself

Opportunities are as plentiful as the stars in the sky

Only blue skies are ahead

 

But God’s wisdom, which is free, says “You can be, do and have everything I want!”:

“…one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

Luke 12: 15

Study to show thyself approved unto God…”

II Tim 2:15

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Matt. 6: 33

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me…”

Psalm 23: 4

Free wisdom gets you a whole lot more than 47 cents of wisdom!

Congratulations to all the graduates of 2014!  May you “Keep the charge of the Lord your God: to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, and His testimonies….that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn…” (I Kings 2:3)

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