I know many of you on here are not of the Lutheran faith, but please bear with me. I am not up to a debate on who is right or wrong regarding the issue of Baptism, or any other issue regarding doctrine. We all believe that our Lord, Jesus Christ, shed His blood on the cross for our sins, and that belief in Him is the only way to salvation.
Now, that being said. We are Lutherans, Missouri-Synod Lutherans, to be exact. Our children, to become full members of the Lutheran church, must complete instruction in Luther's Shorter Catechism. My daughter just started fifth grade level studies this year in our homeschool. They want to include her in an accelerated Confirmation class at church, not because she is gifted or anything, they just want to include as many children as possible, 5th grade and up. We do not have a full-time pastor. Ours retired and we have an interim, part-time pastor. He saw the need for a Confirmation class, so he is trying to take care of as many children as possible, in as short of time as possible.
Here is the problem. My daughter is stressing over the pressure. She loves the Bible. She loves singing hymns all day. She loves the Lord, and has for as long as she/we can remember. She used to have her PreK teacher in tears over the heartfelt things dd would speak of regarding Jesus. Now, she is being pressured and criticized because she could not recite the books of the Old Testament when asked. She had one week's time to do this. We had never thought of having her memorize them prior to this. I guess it was a failure on our part. It just never entered our minds that she should memorize these in order. She knows a lot of them, just not all of them, in order.
Our problem is, we are not sure if she should proceed with the class. I guess it would be good experience, even if she isn't Confirmed at the end. But, I also see it as humiliating and very stressful to her. The other children are older and seem to kind of mock her when she doesn't know the answers.
Prayer. Lots of prayer needed on this. I don't want to mess this up any more than it already has.
Any constructive comments are welcome. Any hateful, snideful or plain nasty comments will be deleted.
*Edited for spelling errors, at least those I found! |
Posted by Anna 
Posted by
9.17.2006 - Confirmation
I just finished reading your post about confirmation. If I was in your situation I would do one of the following: 1- have my daughter take the class under the clear understanding she is not doing it to be confirmed, just to learn. And then use the experience to preapre for the next time she takes confirmation to be confirmed. Or 2- I would pull her from the class because I would be afraid that this pressure filled learning will leave a sour taste in her mouth for the church and confirmation. Confirmation to me is a special time where we stand up and proclaim our faith in God, taking over from our parents and godparents (although we still need them in our spiritual walk). It is my thinking that you don't want this to be a negative time and experience.
Have you asked her what she would like to do in this situation? Maybe the two of you should pray together and ask for guidance, for a clear answer to this situation.
This past year we had a few kids taking confirmation classes with our elderly Pastor but because of his health and the lack of commitment on the part of the parents, the classes were very few and far between. But the families still wanted to have the confirmation because the kids were the right age. One father though spoke up and shared he felt the kids had not been instructed enough yet and felt they should hold off, but the other families would not go for it. So this father did not allow his son to be confirmed this year. I was so proud of him for going against the grain and doing what was right. It makes me so sad that many families do not take baptism and confirmation seriously. It just another notch in belt of growing up. It makes me very sad to see these situations. But God is wonderful and graceful and can use even these situations to plant seeds that will someday bloom in their lives. Isn't God great? ~smile~
I wish you and your daughter all the best as you make your decision in this matter. May God bless you and your family.
Pam