Letter To My God Child On the Occassion of Her Confirmation
Posted: Tuesday, September 29, 2009
by David Saul
CMS made easy
Rosanna
The Abbey
Sherbourne
Dorset
Dear Roxie,
Well here you are, of your own volition, confirming your faith. My how time flies.
So what can your wayward Godfather say on such an occasion, to encourage and inspire you into the next period of your life as you edge towards adulthood?
I remember my own confirmation. It was in Winchester Cathedral in 19 thingumy bob, shortly after Henry VIII broke from the Church in Rome. I was very sincere about my confirmation and worked hard in the prior meetings, struggling quite a lot with some of the concepts. I seem to remember Samuel being quite hard on Saul but then again, he was quite nice to David!
Not that Matins couldn't be fun. We had a vicar who made a meal of his sermons. Captive audience you see. He had a nasty habit of saying "finally" about twenty times, before finally finishing, finally. When he wanted to emphasize a point, he was prone to theatrical gestures. One finger wagging when bad things were talked about, arms outstretched when excited and a whipping off of the glasses and a hard, short sighted stare when he wanted to intimidate.
So, we devised a cricket match game out of all of this. The batting side scored runs if he said "one", "two" or "three", four runs for a finger wagging stare and six for an extravagant arm stretch. The bowling side got a wicket for a "finally" or a glasses defenestration.
In the summer of 19 umty watsit we played a test series and on the last Sunday of term, it was all to play for in the last few minutes of the sermon. "Some of you boys are not listening..." whilst wagging a finger. Damn! Four runs to Australia! "But I have a message for you.." - glasses off, hard stare. Great! One more wicket and we win!
The atmosphere was tense. Would the Aussies get the runs or would England get them out first. Then it happened! The vicar said "..And Finally" and a great cheer erupted from the pews of the upper fifth. "Howzat!!!" The vicar never quite recovered from his confusion and the rest of his sermon dribbled into oblivion.
Funnily enough, I listened quite hard to that end of year sermon. It was all about passing from childhood to adulthood and the difficulties in between.
"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity". (1 Timothy 4:12)
Yeah, just because you are young, doesn't mean nobody should respect your opinion or that your contribution is invalid. Remember that, it will serve you well both now and in 35 years time when you are as old as your father (it works in reverse at our end of the age spectrum).
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you." Jeremiah 29:11-12.
Absolutely. You should be full of hope for the future and have no fear of it. Teenage years are the turnstile on which you gyrate madly in many different directions. But always remember in the end, you can do anything, be anything you want. Have faith in the future and trust your own instincts. Take an occasional bit of advice from your parents as well.
"Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body is also full of light. But when they are bad, your body is also full of darkness." Luke 11:34
Now that one is very true. I always took it to mean "believe in yourself" and that is not always easy to do, particularly when you are falling off the above mentioned turnstile. But it is so important. Your faith, in whatever you have faith in, will give you an inner peace and strength. Always listen to its quiet words and let it shine through to be your lamp through life.
Ooh, er.. I've gone all philosophical.
Roxie, I wish you all the best in life. Your confirmation is also your first real decision as an adult. You will soon start to make other, equally important decisions and they will not always be easy. What will help and make them easier is if you retain a faith and a belief in yourself and keep an inner strength based on your faith.
With love from your Godfather,
David, www.monkey-island.biz
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Top-level comments on this article: (10 total)Great article David. Brilliantly done and written. Thanks for sharing.Welcome to Searchwarp Writers' Community.Best to you.Nenita
Touching article.Welcome to Searchwarp! I'm looking forward to reading more.
Nenita,Thank you for you kind response. I had a long browse through your pages and I think I will be returning there, once I can figure out how to flag you in my corner.David
Jim,Thank you for your warm welcome to this serendipidous find...David
Michael,Thank you for your kind words - the funniest thing about the Vicar is it was all true - to this day I think we ruined his life by cheering when he finally said finally...
I love your story, David. Roxie is blessed to have you in her life. Welcome to SearchWarp!
Hi David.(I am reading this article via the Reader's Club)I have another chance to comment on your well-written article.If I had received a letter like what you wrote from my Godmother during my confirmation, what would my feelings be? I will remember this most,"Your faith, in whatever you have faith in, will give you an inner peace and strength. Always listen to its quiet words and let it shine through to be your lamp through life." Thanks again.Best to you.Nenita
Lorrie - thanks for the welcome; this site is really interesting and full of nice people! (so far...)David
Hi David! Welcome to searchwarp. What a beautiful letter filled with great advice! I look forward to reading more from you! many blessings :-) Teresa
nice
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