An adult as far as the congregation is concerned; she can assist in teaching Sunday school or Vacation Bible School. Or maybe even teach a class herself--DD1 is the 3rd/4th grade Sunday School teacher currently and has been called to teach at VBS this summer. She can be a member of the choir, the Ladies' Fellowship, or the Altar Guild. She can do anything in the church that I can do. The 25 year age difference between us makes no difference in her ability to serve. At church, she is my equal. Next Sunday we will kneel side-by-side at the communion rail. My baby and me.
Confirmation is a very big deal.
Of course, the last few weeks, I have been rather overwhelmed in preparations for her confirmation. There was the dress to buy, the shoes to get, the robe to rent, the leather-bound Study Bible with her name embossed on front to order (the traditional Confirmation gift in my German Lutheran family), the party to plan, the invitations to send out to family and close friends, the meal to prepare for her party, and the church service itself. It is easy, when you are enmeshed in all that, to forget how truly special it is to have your child confirmed.
Today, however, all that is behind me, and I can now feel the joy in my heart that the Lord has given not just myself and my husband, but all four of our children the gift of faith, and eternal life. Today, I am emotional; humbled that lowly me has been so blessed. Overjoyed to know that my children know their Savior and are assured that no matter what this world throws at them, everything will work out for their good in the end.
Training up four children in the way they should go has not been easy. At times, it was downright embarrassing to take them to church, and out of church when they were too loud or rowdy, correct them, take them in again, take them out again, correct them again. . . To wake them all up on dark winter Sunday mornings to get them fed, dressed, and into the van to be to Sunday School on time. To find churches to go to while on vacation, and convince summertime campers to wake up, dress up, and go to an unfamiliar church. To do devotions with them. To teach them to say grace before meals, to pray with them, to teach them to be content and not covetous, to teach them to be givers and not takers. To review their memory work with them. To drag petulant middle schoolers out of bed and to church when they didn't want to go because their friends didn't have to. . . To review more memory work with them. To teach them to listen for God's voice when making decisions, when faced with temptation. To stand up to ridicule for their beliefs.
What is right, is never easy. But it is right. And it is worth it. And I am in awe that God has used me, just little sinful me, to bring four more speakers of the Word to this world.
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