Taking Action

This Saturday, I had the opportunity to be the Confirmation sponsor for this young lady.

She is a dear family friend and I was very honored that she asked me.

In putting together a gift for her, I tried to balance pretty things that a 13 year old would like and meaningful things that will be a help and guiding her on her life path. So, the pretty things…

I made the pretty clip in her hair…

And I made her another one that I put on her present box…

In the box were some very heartfelt items along with some words to help her as she moves into new stages in her life, high school, adulthood, boys, all of it.

Oh, and one more pretty thing because I can’t help myself. These are the cutest shoes I have ever owned..

I got the shoes first and then I had to find a dress to go with them! Yeah, I totally matched the polish a little too close to the shoes, not the intention.

Okay, now onto the important stuff..

In our Faith, as well as many others, Confirmation is about receiving the Holy Spirit.

We are very fortunate that our Bishop, who performs (not sure if that is the right word?) all Confirmations, is very dynamic and an excellent speaker. He does, at least I think, a great job about making his message relatable to his audience, in this case 13 and 14 year old young men and ladies.

He spoke of the 12 fruits of the Holy Spirit like charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness. And how they all require

ACTION

He called them, and all of us as well, to be people of action in our lives and our faith. To not just take the gift of the Holy Spirit and put in on a shelf. You can’t use the gift of the Holy Spirit when you are playing video games or watching TV.

And speaking of action..

The candidates and their sponsors all lined up in the rec center, WAY across the parking lot from the church. Well, has always been the case lately, the skied opened up and it was an absolute downpour. We were all kind of stuck and did not know what to do. There were about 60 of us and maybe 5 umbrellas. After about 10 minutes past the start time it was becoming clear that we were going to have to run for it.

Then…

Oh how I wish I had my camera to take the real picture..

About 20 parishioners and our Pastor all came over in a parade of umbrellas. It was quite a beautiful sight. They made an umbrella caravan and within a few minutes we were all inside the church with only our feet a little damp.

They took ACTION. It was such a simple thing but it had such a great impact.

I guess it is making me think about how I use my gifts as well.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Take care,