Live It Articles Celebrating Graduations

May is the month many schools celebrate graduations. You may have a family member or a close friend that is graduating. We have one such celebration in our family. Our middle grandson is graduating from pre-school. This may not seem as important as graduation from high school or college, but he certainly thinks it is.

Many First Place classes will also be coming to a close and having victory celebrations. One definition in the dictionary for the word graduation is “to pass from one stage of experience, proficiency, or prestige to a higher one.” That is a great definition identifying our progress in First Place. I pray you had a great session and met your weight loss goal for this session, memorized each one of the ten memory verses, established a quality quiet time and Bible Study regimen, plus worked out an exercise program that is consistent and you enjoy. To you, I want to say congratulations and praise the Lord! Some of you may be wishing you could skip the victory celebration, because you did not see the results you expected. If you attended First Place for 13 weeks, I can assure you that you graduated.

I pray each First Place Member will begin to see our journey in First Place as many stages of God doing a work in our lives. Many need to be changed from the inside out. The success in First Place is not a particular number on the scale; it is staying in the “process.” I am not giving you an excuse not to lose weight, because if you follow the plan, you will lose; however, we may go through a period where we are not as faithful to all nine commitments as we would like. When that happens in my life, I confess to God the things I am not doing that are my part, and then I ask him for His strength to help me meet these commitments. I also get support from my group by admitting I need their prayers. At times it has been as simple as asking another member to meet me at the local high school track and help me get back into regular exercise. I find that if I have a walking partner, I am less likely to miss a day. It may be that I have to sit down and plan some healthy meals, along with taking time to restock my pantry and refrigerator with good choices. At times, I have just needed their prayers for a particular family crisis that is distracting me to a point that I have turned away from doing the First Place commitments. Most members will experience lapses, even relapses, but if we continue, we will never experience a collapse.

As the definition of graduation states, we have passed from one stage of experience or proficiency to a higher one. Even when I experience a lapse in First Place, I learn from it. I have identified many situations or triggers that stop my progress, so now I try to avoid them. If it is getting away from the Live-It plan, I have learned to quickly get back on track. First Place is a great self-motivating program. When I experience a lapse, the key for me is to get back to the basics. If I can just keep all the commitments one day, the second day is a little easier, and by the third day I am wondering what seemed so hard?

I pray as your session ends that you will look for the many small graduations you have experienced during these 13 weeks. Don’t focus on what you did not do, but acknowledge the progress you made toward a permanent healthy lifestyle. We are all in a continual transitional period as First Place encourages each of us toward a higher level of balance emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually. The victory in First Place is in the process. Celebrate each graduation.

Congratulations on Your Graduation!

Kay Smith
First Place Associate Director


Kay is the associate national director of First Place and has been on the First Place staff since 1987.

Kay is a popular speaker at retreats, seminars, Conferences, FOCUS Weeks and Workshops across the country. Kay is the First Place food exchange expert and writes a monthly article in the First Place E-Newsletter on nutrition. She also was a contributing writer to the Today Is the First Day devotional book. Her delightful personality and love for people endears her to everyone she meets, and they quickly become her new best friend.

Kay and her husband, Joe, live in Roscoe, TX. They have two children and five grandchildren. Two of the young grandchildren are making a name for themselves on the golf circuit. Two of the young grandchildren are making a name for themselves on the golf circuit, and the three oldest grandsons are all involved in numerous sporting events, which Kay and Joe attend as often as possible.