“Clergy Guide to Confirmation Verses” offers a wide selection of verses to present individually to each Confirmand on Confirmation Sunday. Each verse includes a recommendation for the person it might fit well, background information to draw from when talking with the Confirmand about the verse, and suggestions for how to make it personal.
The renowned Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann told about how his confirmation verse inspired and shaped the pursuit of his work and ministry, from his book Struggling with Scripture: “I begin by telling you about what I take to be the defining moment in my attachment to the bible. In my German Evangelical upbringing, Confirmation was a very big deal. In that act of confirmation, the pastor (in my case, my father) selected a “confirmation verse” for each confirmand, a verse to mark one’s life – read while hands were laid on in confirmation, to be read at one’s funeral, and to be read many times in between. My father, on that occasion of confirmation, read over me Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” He did, in that act, more than he knew. Providentially, I have no doubt, he marked my life by this book that would be lamp and light, to illumine a way to obedience, to mark a way to fullness, joy, and well-being. The more I reflect on that moment, the more I am sure that I have been bound more than I knew to this book.”
So too will your youth become bound to a Bible verse, because you chose it for a specific reason, believing that it fit them for some special reason. The hand of Divine Providence is upon you, in your choosing, and upon the one receiving. Then the verse is at the hand of the Holy Spirit to stir within the youth’s soul, to enlighten his or her way, and to be a lamp to her or his feet. With such power, inspiration, and influence, is it any wonder the Confirmation Sunday is a high point for the youth, their families, the congregation, and for you too?
