A Confirmation Gift

Tis the confirmation season – a time for the young adults in the congregation to renew their baptismal vows and publically confess their faith.  To get to confirmation day a great deal of studying has occurred and hopefully many conversations have taken place.  Confirmation is not just a day it is the continuation of one’s faith walk with the Lord.  Yet, many of you have heard this is confirmation not graduation!  So many young people drift away and act as if they have graduated from their church. 

How do we as parents or friends help the young people see confirmation as a continuation of their faith and not a graduation?   A rather deep question to ponder that holds a great deal of weight for our children.  I believe a piece of the puzzle is within the “community”.  Let me explain - Our daughter was confirmed this past October and as a parent I was faced with this very question.  What could I give my daughter on confirmation day that would help her see just how important faith was?  I struggled a great deal and one day God planted this little idea.  Numerous people that have such a strong faith have surrounded my daughter and the impact they have on my daughter is profound.  So I emailed those people and asked them to share their faith with her in a letter – it was their Faith Statement.   My daughter has spent countless hours with these people and knew faith was important but I’m not sure she knew why.  The heartfelt letters sent to Abby is a chance for those people to share their faith and something for Abby to hold onto for the rest of her life.

A reason an email was sent in advance and not a book set out at her party was to allow people time to put their thoughts on paper.  Because of this, Abby did not receive this gift on confirmation day as many of those people handed me their letter the day Abby was confirmed.  I gathered all the letters that came through email and that were hand written and put them together in a book.  My preference was a scrapbook but there are so many things you could do with those letters.  No matter how you give them to your child, it is a gift that reveals a graduation has not occurred but a continuation of a walk that has already begun. 

If confirmation is just around the corner remember you don’t have to have all the letters in your hand the day of confirmation.  Ask people to share their faith with your child and let the “community” be a piece of the next step in your child’s faith walk.

Cheryl