Friday, June 19, 2015 our 1st and oldest child graduated from high school. It has at times been a rocky road, but we ALL persevered and he did it. He actually finished several days early and at times he felt like it would never happen.
We invited friends and family to join us for a short but meaningful ceremony. Daniel chose songs that were meaningful to him, Dead Man, and pertinent, Schools Out. The poem "If" has long been a favorite of Davids and one we as a family have heard and discussed many times.
Beginning
of Wisdom Homeschool
Class
of 2015
Friday,
June 19, 2015
3
o'clock p.m.
Daniel
Weldon Gibson
Prelude Dead
Man by Wolves at the Gate
Invocation
Evelyn Bickley, Gavel Club Instructor
If
by Rudyard Kipling David Gibson
Letter
to Daniel Susan Gibson
Letter
to Daniel David Gibson
Presentation
of Diploma David & Susan Gibson
Benediction David
Gibson
Postlude Schools
Out by Alice Cooper
Dead
Man
by
Wolves at the Gate
I
was once a dead man A stranger with no home
I stood opposed to God
himself And yet He pardoned me
With
all my heart and the fiercest will Desired not but to thieve and
kill
I hadn't a thought of peace, but war Surrender was not what
I'd endure
I
was a murderer filled with lies and deceit Faced with my list of
crimes that I would always repeat
Deliver
me! Wake me up from this damning sleep
I'm
surrendering! Pull me out from this wickedness In this thieving heart
of stone
I
realized all these sins I could not atone
I
was a murderer filled with lies and deceit
Faced with my list of
crimes that I would always repeat
I
was once a dead man A stranger with no home
I stood opposed to God
himself And yet He pardoned me
So
just at the right time when we were dead in our sins
You
took this heart of mine and gave me life again
You
gave me life again This is where I begin
So
far apart and a debt to fulfill This purchase bought on redemption's
hill
An ailing disease I couldn't cure Oh this grace! How rich and
pure!
Abide
in me, my God! I am found in You Pardon me, my God! You know my
deepest thoughts
Deliver me from sin! I am made anew
I'm
surrendering this heart! For which your blood it bought
The
mob they yelled and screamed for justice That wrath was ours we are
to blame
You made a spectacle of rulers Denying You of a king's
fame
Having crushed the written cannon That wrote of all our guilt
and shame
Displayed upon the tree it was nailed The saving power
of Your name
For
I was once a dead man
A stranger with no home
You saw this
wretch
And You gave him life
Forever I'll praise You!
I will
praise You!
IF
by
Rudyard Kipling
IF
you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs
and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men
doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If
you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about,
don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to
hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If
you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can
think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with
Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the
same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted
by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you
gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with
worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your
winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And
lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a
word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve
and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And
so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which
says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and
keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common
touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If
all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the
unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance
run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -
which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
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