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‘You Are Made in the Image of God’—Valedictorian’s Faith-Filled Graduation Speech Goes Viral for All the Right Reasons

A South Carolina high school valedictorian is going viral for her very faith-based graduation speech following a devastating tragedy.

High School Valedictorian Delivers Graduation Speech Hours After Dad’s Funeral

Early College High School valedictorian Alem Hadzic has gone viral after he took the stage at his graduation ceremony to deliver his speech—just hours after his father's funeral. 

See the High School Graduation Trend That’s Making the Internet Cry

As the class of 2024 graduates and the school year comes to a close, there’s a new trend happening on social media that has all of us sentimentals feeling unwell over how fast time flies. 

WATCH: Lauren Daigle Takes ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ to Church Performing Hit Single “You Say”

Grammy award winner Lauren has been rapidly rising in popularity in Christian and secular realms alike since her album “Look Up Child” debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 chart back in August 2018.

Her record year of musical successes led the artist to perform on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” “Good Morning America,” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” — and she even snagged her first two Grammys earlier this month.

Daigle’s latest TV debut was on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Tuesday night for ‘The Jimmy Kimmel Mercedes Benz Concert Series,’ where she delivered two breathtaking performances of her hit single “You Say” and a web exclusive, “This Girl.”

“You Say” is a song known as a declaration of one’s identity in Christ, and “This Girl” is a slower track that “tells the story of a girl who thinks she lost sight of God but later found that He’s been there with her all along,” according to Billboard.

While the singer who got her start in Christian music is now seemingly effortlessly making her rounds on mainstream television, the road navigating between the two worlds has been rocky. Daigle has received much backlash from her Christian supporters both for a lack of “God” or “Christ” references in her songs and for her reply about her stance on homosexuality after appearing on Ellen.

But regardless of the pushback, Daigle refuses to draw hard lines between the secular and the sacred.

“I think the second we start drawing lines around which people are able to be approached and which aren’t, we’ve already completely missed the heart of God,” Daigle told WAY-FM Radio, adding that “one thing that I know for sure is I can’t choose who I’m supposed to be kind to and who I’m supposed to show love to and who I’m not, because that’s the mission right. Be who Christ was to everyone.”

“I think the passage that says, ‘Go out into the world and draw people unto Him,’ the Great Commission, that’s what I think about in regard to the mainstream aspect,” she further explained in an interview with the Christian Post. “I wasn’t looking at [making my music] as in mainstream versus Christian. I was like, ‘OK, what is the purest version of me? Or what is the purest thing that God has written into my spirit and how do I express that? How do I communicate that?”

Watch Lauren Daigle beautifully perform “You Say” and “This Girl” on Jimmy Kimmel below:

 

Kelsey Straeter
Kelsey Straeter
Kelsey is an editor at Outreach. She’s passionate about fear fighting, freedom writing, and the pursuit of excellence in the name of crucifying perfectionism. Glitter is her favorite color, 2nd only to pink, and 3rd only to pink glitter.

‘You Are Made in the Image of God’—Valedictorian’s Faith-Filled Graduation Speech Goes Viral for All the Right Reasons

A South Carolina high school valedictorian is going viral for her very faith-based graduation speech following a devastating tragedy.

High School Valedictorian Delivers Graduation Speech Hours After Dad’s Funeral

Early College High School valedictorian Alem Hadzic has gone viral after he took the stage at his graduation ceremony to deliver his speech—just hours after his father's funeral. 

See the High School Graduation Trend That’s Making the Internet Cry

As the class of 2024 graduates and the school year comes to a close, there’s a new trend happening on social media that has all of us sentimentals feeling unwell over how fast time flies.