PEA RIDGE — Graduation is this weekend and young people are celebrating their commencement into adulthood - voting, registering for the military services, getting a job, embarking on a career, going to college.

Many will move out of their family’s home and into an apartment or dormitory.

Baccalaureate services will be Friday night and the Pea Ridge gym will be full of wet eyes as parents and grandparents watch video clips of their young adults as infants and young children emblazoned on the huge screen. I confess I cry even when it isn’t my child.

When struggling with six children 6 and under, people kept saying “they’re only young once” and “they grow up too fast,” but I couldn’t see beyond theyears of diaper bags and car seats. But, now, it seems like only yesterday I was brushing their hair, tying a bow on a dress or kissing a skinned knee. They do, indeed, grow up too fast.

Years ago, I heard someone say that parenting is the only job where, if you do a good job, you work yourself out of a job. Mothers and fathers who’ve poured their lives - hearts and souls (and money) - into their children will be saying farewell to the years they’ve known for nearly two decades.

My first two daughters went to college the same day. I drove the 200 miles to college to drop them off, said good-bye and then cried for two days. Life, as we knew it, changed that day. It was an adjustment to prepare meals or plan a schedule without everyone at home. But, we adapted.

Then, another moved out, and another. Now, four are grown, three are married, one is a mother herself.

Now, my fifth daughter is graduating and moving out. I think of all the things I’d like to tell her - things I’d love to tell her friends as well.

Honor others. Glorify God. Value yourself, for in recognizing your own worth, you’re able to respect and value others as well.

The only two things that are eternal are people and the Word of God. Relationships are important, they’re fragile and tenuous. It takes hard work, give and take, compromise and patience, to keep them healthy. There are many stages in life and in relationships and sometimes we give more than we receive, but learning to see the big picture helps give endurance.

My grandfather, when asked how to stay married for 60 years, said “endurance.” I realize that’s not romantic or even necessarily sweet, but it’s all too true.

We frail humans are contrary and difficult at times and even the most wonderful love affairs can be strained by the vicissitudes of life, but enduring will be rewarded.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 05/19/2010