Monday, December 3, 2007

1st Communion

Yesterday was a very big day and an emotional one for me as Aidyn took her first communion. Now as Presbyterians we don't have the 1st Communion thing down the way the Catholics do, but we did our best. I got to teach a six week class for the kids who ranged in age from 5-12 years old. Now that sounds like it might be challenging but it was great. The older kids I had in the class were amazing, and they younger ones I knew pretty well which included Aidyn.

So during the service yesterday the church purchased the kids beautiful 'grown up' Bibles. Jon the pastor prayed for them, and they came forward for the first time. What was really striking for me was the great promise this showed us. First that we are not alone as parents. Aidyn has demonstrated faith and been able to articulate her beliefs for about two years. Yet we were not in a community that was thinking about training children for worship. I know I had the authority just to make the decision, but I am really glad we waited and had an entire community invovled. Aidyn was very grateful too.

The other part that really struck me was that the three girls that were in the service to be received were very special. Of course Aidyn, then Jon & Lynn Harralson's (pastor of Grace) oldest daughter, and Phil & Robin Peterson's daughter familes that all sacrificed a great deal for this church and been through all the mess. As a matter of fact as I think about it now, just about all the kids who attended the class had families that had been through it in this church! It is amazing to see how God is faithful even through the hard times. There is a point as a parent where you realize that perhaps all the ambition and desires you had your whole life were wrong and perhaps the only thing God placed you on this earth to do is raise amazing kids who will change the world. In that I think God will surprising give us the desires and ambitions of our heart, but at least for me my focus has changed tons.

We celebrated with an awesome lunch with some friends, and Aidyn spend a good deal of the afternoon reading her new Bible. I am really grateful for God's faithfulness to our family and especially Aidyn during this last year of transition. I am also very excited about all that he has in store for all of us in the future. Yesterday was a wonderful day to be reminded of these things.

3 comments:

Jeff and Jodie said...

Congrats Aidyn!

michaelstevensrev said...

I'll let her know she was so happy! You can imagine that this was a really big deal for her. I was impressed that it was for the spiritual reasons too...not just the new dress!

Anonymous said...

How neat. Our two oldest sons are getting close to doing this soon. We are having lots of good talks around the table about it.

Oh and we knew John Harralson when my dh was interim pastor of Oak Hills PCA in Concord and also when Western Canada Presbytery was still in the Pacific NW Presbytery. (See, I just love name dropping! LOL) :^D