I first shared this with the students I was teaching in our church in 2006. My heart has been to challenge students to realize how they carry their faith with them wherever they go in life.

Each year at this time, high school and college students graduate and transition to a new phase of their life’s journey. This is a great time to speak into the lives of young people to remind them of their uniqueness and especially those who have a personal relationship with Jesus.

This column is a challenge worth sharing with graduates about how unique they are, a one-of-a-kind human, created in the image of God and called for a purpose.

You are different from all others.

On planet earth, there has never been another like you …and there never will be again.

Your spirit, your thoughts and feelings, your ability to reason—all exist in no one else.

Your eyes are a masterpiece, incomparable, and windows to a soul that is also uniquely yours.

A   single strand of your hair has been created especially for you.  Of the multitudes that have come before you and the multitudes that may follow, not one of them duplicates the formula with which You have been uniquely crafted.

You are different from all others.

The blood that flows through your veins flows through the heart of only you.  The rarities that make you one of a kind, my friend, are no mere accident or quirk of fate.

You are different in order that you might make a difference.

You have been created with the ability to change the world in which you live.  Every single choice you make…every single action you take…matters. But remember, the converse is also true.  Every choice you do not make…every action you do not take…matters just as much!

Your actions cannot be hoarded, saved for later, or used selectively.  By your hand thousands and maybe even millions of lives will be altered, caught up in a chain of events begun by you, this very day.  But the opposite is true as well. Thousands and maybe millions of lives may also be altered, caught up in an entirely different chain of events—if you choose to wait.

You possess the power of choice. Free will!  You have been given everything you need to act, but the choice is yours alone.  And beginning this very moment, you must choose wisely.

Now go forward in life, choose to follow God, and serve him in all you do.  The challenge has been given to many, but few take it seriously and choose to do as they please. God created you uniquely to make a difference.  Your eternal inheritance is far greater than you can imagine as a Christian.  The Word of God gives you all the direction you will need and spells out the greatest benefit plan known on earth.  Choose this day whom you will serve because what you do has eternal significance.  You have a choice.

My favorite verse to share with students is Psalm 71:17-18 Since my youth O God You have taught me, and to this day I will declare your wonderous works.   Even when I am old and gray O God, do not forsake me, till I declare your power to the next generation, you might to all who are to come.