Dilemma

So...God...help me find the perfect Bible verse. The senior daughter has a tribute page in the high school yearbook. I, the parental unit, must produce the page with a winsome picture of the girl and some pithy words of wisdom to launch the woman-child into adulthood. Tradition places a Bible verse at the bottom of the page. How to pick one? What if I choose poorly and launch her only as far as the city limits versus all the way to college in Tennessee?

Some acquaintances walk around with Bible verses for every occasion on their sleeve. Like a poetry slam, they can whip out a nugget of truth that sounds written for the moment. I operate more in the grand narrative realm. Getting my scissors and cutting out the perfect verse makes me cringe. I have to read into a verse and out of a verse and hold it in its context. No pulling out that Jeremiah passage of “the plans I have for you” and applying it carte blanche to my most recent decisions. Lovely verse but I am not a Jew in exile under slavery to the Babylonians.

So what verse? Is there one that says “fling love widely and wildly”? Or “err on the side of grace”? Or how about “just breathe”? How cruel to expect all my hopes for my child to fit at the bottom of the page! Is there a verse about a mother latching onto a child's leg to delay the launch? Does the verse mention the mother's sobbing?