Confirmation Memories

This being traditional confirmation "season," my thoughts always take me back to my own confirmation day when the month of April rolls around. I was confirmed on April 30th - and this year marks a "decade" anniversary of that event (haha I'll leave you to guess exactly which "zero-ending-decade" I'm talking about; let's just say it was a long time ago)!! :-)

We had a large confirmation class: 26 kids.

After two years of preparation, attending class every Saturday morning, it was a thrill to finally get to the day itself. To mark the occasion, I received these wonderful gifts:

• A hymnal, personalized with my name and confirmation date on the cover - from my grandmother and inscribed by her.
• A Teacher's Bible, also personalized with my name and confirmation date on the cover - from my godparents (who also happen to be my eldest brother and sister).
• A ceramic piece in the shape of an open Bible made by my aunt: on its "pages" appear my name, the name of the dear pastor who confirmed me, the name and location of my church, and my confirmation verse. To this day, it sits front and center in my china cabinet.
• A dozen roses from my middle brother (he always said he wanted to be the first to give me roses...just one of the reasons I've always adored him!).
• A beautiful cake in the shape of a cross, made by my mother (a talented seamstress, she also made me a lovely white dress to wear that day under my robe).

Each confirmand also received a wonderful little book of prayer, personalized with our name on the cover, as a gift from the congregation. Mine is next to my bedside still, even after all this time.

So many years later, I can still say that confirmation was one of the most noteworthy days of my life. (And after reading about the gifts I received - particularly that little ceramic Bible - you might correctly guess where the idea for The Christian Gift's personalized confirmation keepsakes came from!)

If there's a confirmation taking place in your family this year, I expect it'll be a special event for you, too.

P.S. By the way...here are those roses I mentioned: