Dearest Rachel

Dear Rachel, it's your eighteenth birthday! I still remember talking about our eighteenth birthdays so long ago. Time has flown, and now mine has passed and yours is here. We could not have imagined our current circumstances, but God knows best. Happy birthday! :)

Dearest Rachel, dearest friend,
Times have truly flown;
Now your girlhood’s at an end,
Life and future loom unknown.

I don’t know what lies in store
In the years ahead,
If you’ll have your dreams and more,
Or have tearful pains instead.

I just know that on this day,
You are worthy of
The best wishes I can say:
“Have more faith, and hope, and love.”

Yes, I’m so repetitive
That I seem a bore;
But these lessons learnt and lived
Shall be blessings evermore.

May true faith from Jesus Christ
Help you to be strong;
Though a Christian be despised
In this world of human wrong.

May a burning hope in you
Carry through all pain;
Though some dreams may prove untrue,
In your heart He’ll always reign.

May a solid, Christian love
Never cease to grow
In your heart as in above,
Through each day He should bestow.

Dearest Rachel, dearest friend,
May these vitues three
Guide you, mold you till the end,
When God’s woman you shall be.