Friends are Friends Forever
This year our youngest grandson is graduating from high school. So, congratulations to him and all of the 2025 graduates. And my sympathy to all the parents and grandparents who feel melancholy right now. Try to remember that this isn’t the end, but a new beginning.
The following story proves it.
The song “Friends are Friends Forever” by Michael W. Smith was a hit in 1983. It was the perfect graduation song, and I hoped it would still be popular when our sons finished high school a few years later. I dreaded the day our boys would leave home, so the song choked me up at the first line:
Packing up the dreams God planted In the fertile soil of you I can’t believe the hopes He’s granted Means a chapter of your life is through.
Can you see my mom tears starting?
Well, flash forward several decades. The song is still around and has become a regular for graduation celebrations.
We’ve been blessed because our sons chose to live here, so our three grandsons grew up nearby. Together we’ve gone to the zoo, parks, museums, and the beach in summer and sledding in winter. We baked cookies, grew vegetables, and “Grandpa Shake” perfected his malt-making abilities. And still it seemed like we didn’t have the time to do all we wanted with them. Now, this part of our lives is ending as the boys find their way into new seasons.
It reminds us of when our sons were in high school and college. They often hung out with their friends in our basement family room, with its outdated orange wallpaper. We gave up our social life to hang around upstairs just in case parent intervention was ever needed. Then, after years of this, one weekend we found ourselves home alone. The young people had all taken wing, like young birds flying away. We had an adjustment to make.
While that season ended, it was hardly The End. Now decades later, we can see the rest of the story and how those young people turned out. Most of them made early commitments to the Lord. Decades later they’re in Christian leadership roles as teachers, pastors, youth leaders, musicians and in other capacities. Many of those 1980s friends are still in touch today, even though they’re spread out across the USA. We are blessed to keep up with several of them via Facebook.

Me with my grandsons. (I’m the short one.)
Seeing their lives gives me hope as our grandsons now take wing. As the song “Friends” states in the last verse: Though it’s hard to let you go In the Father’s hands we know That a lifetime’s not too long To live as friends.
Find this song by Michael W. Smith at Friends — LIVE — Michael W. Smith [With Lyrics/Subtitles]. Be sure to read about his life at the end.
Writing Update
I’m excited about an upcoming interview on June 17 on Studio 701, the KXMB morning show. It starts at 9 a.m. Executive Producer Amber Schatz has asked me to discuss my fiction series that’s based in North Dakota. I’m eager to talk about By the Banks of Cottonwood Creek, Amber’s Choice and Cottonwood Dreams. Hope you can watch.
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” Theodore Roosevelt