Today, October 26, 2008 was the day of Clay's confirmation. We had a remarkable and touching weekend. It started out yesterday morning with a rehearsal of the Confirmation service which the confirmands (23 in all) put together followed by a breakfast and the presentation of Confirmation Certificates. Parents, family, and godparents were invited to attend the breakfast. When the first confirmand was called forward to receive her certificate, the mother and father went forward with her. Then the father stepped up to the mike, pulled a prepared text out of his pocket, and gave a beautiful affirmation speech about his daughter. I looked at Paula and mouthed, "Are we supposed to do that?". She shrugged. Then Clay leaned over and whispered, "Yeah, Dad. Didn't you get the word?" Nope I didn't. But I told Clay, "Don't worry we're a "W", so we have lots of time for me to come up with something." That's when the pastor said, "We don't we do EVERYthing in alphabetical order. The next confirmand is Clay Richard West." Paula pointed at me to do the talking.
When I stepped up to the mike, I had no problem affirming my son and his walk in faith. I talked about when he was three and would tie his "blankie" around his neck and give Communion to us. He would come around to us with pieces of bread on a plate and say, "This is the body of Cwist". Clay always felt he had his own special open door policy with our Pastor. He would walk into his office at any time with questions of faith. It didn't matter if a meeting was going on or not. I talked about how Clay's Bible is highlighted and written in from cover to cover. I also talked about how Clay has considered being a Pastor in the future and how he has ministered to both his dad and mom in recent history. It was no problem affirming the accomplishments of this wonderful young man without prepared comments. My only fear was talking too much.
God bless you, Clay, and your future walk with Jesus.
3 comments:
ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!
You've always been quick on your feet. That one however required some very quick thinking. Speaking from your heart always works better than a prepared speech pulled out of your pocket. The one time you needed the "W" to work in your favor....that's funny.
Nice work!
CONGRATS CLAY!! Wish we could have been there. Uncle Mike & Aunt Mary are veeerrryy proud of you!!
Congrats Clay!
I told Kacey to be ready to lose a lot of her advantage as a former "F" when we got married, but in situations like that, it is (theoretically) nice to be a W. I'm not surprised you were able to whip something together at a moment's notice. It's better to speak from your heart anyway.
Anyway, we are proud of the West boys.
That's so cool!!!! Tell him congratulations. I bet you're such a proud dad.
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