Good afternoon; it is a great honor for me to be up here. I'd like to start out by welcoming and thanking all of the parents, friends, and other family members who have come to help us celebrate our graduation. Over the last four years, each one of you has shown love and support to at least one of the graduates here, and without this, it is likely that many of us would not be graduating today.

This afternoon I have been asked to take a couple of minutes to talk about love.

I believe that God has shown us His perfect love by sending His Son to die on our behalf. Because He has shown us this love, we are called to love one another.

So that raises the question: What is love? Paul gives us a short lesson on love in I Corinthians 13. At the beginning of the chapter, he explains how important love is - how we can do all sorts of good things, but without love those things are worthless. Then, starting in verse four, he writes:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Throughout my life, I have been shown what true love is in many practical ways; I believe that each one of us has had an opportunity to experience this love. In my case, probably the second greatest love shown to me was my parent's decision to home-school me right from the beginning.

Because my Dad was willing, my Mom chose to stay at home and teach my younger brother and me. When we were little, they would sit and read with us. All this time I was able to spend with my family greatly strengthened my relationship with them, and I learned how to show Godly love to the people in my life.

Other people have also shown me what love looks like. Our good friends, the Poors, have always been there for my family, whether it is helping by taking care of our home while we are away or by being at the hospital when my grandma died. Just recently, Tammy brought white cup-cakes when we were all having dinner together because she knew I preferred those to the brownies, which were the planned dessert.

I have a cousin, Roni. Every time she goes anywhere, she brings me a deck of playing cards - just because she knows I collect them and enjoy having them from all over.

I have another cousin, Jami, who on a fairly regular basis makes the two-hour drive to our house just to visit my family and me.

Loren and Linda Krenelka have shown love to all of their students in many ways. In my case, Loren has taken time to explain building plans or put pictures on CDs. Linda is always there to pray and give her support whenever she can.

Obviously, each one of us has a different story; we are different people and have lived different lives. The ways we have been shown love are as different as each one of us. The question becomes not whether or not we have been shown love, but rather how we can show love to those around us?

As we are stepping into our futures, it is all too easy to become so focused on where we are headed that we don't even see the people around us who could use our help. Something as simple as a card or phone call could make a huge difference in someone else's day. Sometimes, we may be called clear out of our way to help a friend, but likely, our inconvenience will be insignificant in comparison to the love we bring to that person. And certainly, our inconvenience is nothing compared to the love shown us by our Lord, Jesus Christ.

When we leave here today, let's try to remember the love that has been shown to us. And, as we do, we need to remember our responsibility to love those around us.

Thank you.