I was selected to speak the benediction at my Airman Leadership School graduation.
Obvisouly, the problem is that I’m atheist. I don’t want to decline, so I have attempted to write something.
“To me, the goal is to learn, to see, to know and to understand. So I urge us all, through God, or through our will, to seek challenges, to learn from failure and to embrace change. It is in us to leave our world better than we entered it.”
Please offer your opinions or criticisms.
A benediction does not have to have the word god in it. As a previous poster responded just leave out "through god or through our will" and perhaps sub in something like "to go through life with purpose, .... just my two cents. ?
Personally I would leave out the "how" (through god or our will). Just state the goal. If they use ineffective methods toward the goal, they will either keep doing that same thing or they will steer themselves into better paths. That's on them.
After all, in the end you say, "It is in us to leave our world better than we entered it". If people feel they need god's help with that, they can knock themselves out. And they're going to, no matter what you have to say.