What a Difference a Year Makes!

One year ago, my son was received into the Orthodox Church. I documented this occasion with a blog post entitled "Illumined on June 23, 2007."

In the past year, I've seen him develop relationships with the other children at church, earn second place on the parish level in the St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival, serve during a very exhausting Holy Week, volunteer to help the church Men's Group during the events I was required to attend, receive compliments on his "theologically sound" knowledge of our faith (and his intelligence in general) from his Sunday School teachers, keep an eye on the littler kids while their parents visit during coffee hour, and keep the weekly and longer fast periods even when no one was looking, and volunteer to assist with the upcoming Vacation Bible Camp, where the teenagers will work to entertain the younger kids through a series of puppet shows that they've already begun rehearsing.

That's a lot of good stuff.

Glory to God! It appears that he is totally on board with our Orthodox Church, and has embraced the traditions of this ancient faith.

Following Divine Liturgy today, I was asked by the lead acolyte if he could have a few minutes with me at coffee hour, which wasn't a problem. He asked to speak to me regarding David, and was expressing an interest in having him move into a leadership role amongst the altar boys.

In my mind, I was remembering how he had to think so long and hard about serving on the altar when our priest had invited him to join the acolytes, and all the reasons why he thought he shouldn't do it, and how in the end I told him that I'd make the tough decisions like this for him: He'll serve every Sunday.

And here we are today discussing what a great job he's been doing and how he's ready to advance to lead acolyte. In fact, he told me that he had been waiting for one of the boys to begin stepping up and showing some leadership abilities, and that today--when David calmly and assertively assigned duties to the other boys--he had seen that in my son.

He assured me that he wasn't bossy or disrespectful about it in any way, which has been a concern in the past.

Unfortunately, David doesn't know how seriously he's being looked at to become the leader of this group of young men, so I'm keeping quiet until the evaluation--of which he's not aware is being conducted--over the next couple of Sundays is complete. I think they have the boys rotating as "lead" to see if a good leader will emerge. David did say today that he'd like to arrive a little earlier next week, so he can help prepare for the liturgy, and basically described to me the same scenario that the lead acolyte had spoken to me about at coffee hour, which I told him I thought he handled very skillfully.

"Remember, a good leader wouldn't ask anyone to do something he wouldn't do himself. A good rule to follow is 'manage things, lead people.'"

He nodded, and said that's how he's been learning what to do at the altar. He has an excellent leader.

So I took him for ice cream this afternoon, just to get outside and enjoy something cold and sweet. He's done a good job the past couple of weeks at home, as well, and is actually beginning to show some signs of maturity and a greater level of responsibility.

If I sound like a proud papa, it's because I am. I am confident that he will be the next in line to lead the acolytes, and can't wait to tell him how proud I am of this accomplishment.

Now, let's see how well I keep this cat in the bag.