Confirmed to grace

I was confirmed this spring into the universal church, by a bishop with the ecclesiastical authority to do so.

It wasn't strictly necessary. I was baptized with "believer's baptism" at the age of ten, which is the age when most kids would be beginning the confirmation process. Of course, since I was baptized in a Plymouth Brethren congregation, there wasn't any bishop there to confirm me. And the baptism ceremony was unsatisfactorily informal. Nobody in the congregation believed it to be a means of grace. Quite a few people thought of it as a public sign in which I bound myself to a discipleship of obedience, largely defined as renouncing those things I had a natural inclination and gifting towards in order to prove my loyalty to God. And though on the day of my baptism, I felt it to be a means of grace, I also felt somewhat out of order in describing it.

There were also certain words that were not said at my baptism which in the years since I have heard said at others baptisms.
Question: Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces

                of wickedness that rebel against God?
Answer        I renounce them.

Question     Do you renounce the evil powers of this world
                which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?
Answer        I renounce them.

Question     Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you
                from the love of God?
Answer        I renounce them.

An oddly different set of renunciations, none of which I ever had publicly made. All of which are of deep spiritual, perhaps even cosmological, significance. Followed by affirmations phrased quite differently than my personal testimony was at the age of 10.
Question     Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your 

                Savior?
Answer        I do.

Question     Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?
Answer        I do.

Trust in grace and love. Now, that. A) Trust. B) Grace. C) The belief that I am loved. D) The complete faith that I am relying on that love and grace instead of my ability to understand doctrine accurately or live a righteous life. As I recall, my ten year old testimony had a great deal to do with how I knew I was saved because I obeyed my parents better now. Perhaps an OK level of revelation for a ten year old. Hardly enough to sustain an adult faith journey.

Then the Bishop or Priest places a hand on the person's head, marking
on the forehead the sign of the cross [using Chrism if desired] and saying to
each one

N., you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked
as Christ's own for ever. Amen.

Assurance. Belonging. The laying on of hands for the confirmation in the Holy Spirit. Anointing. Blessing. Something that can actually give you both direction and strength to walk in it.

Needless to say every baptism I watched at my present (Anglican) church, I was jealous. And that just wasn't a good way to live my life. So my priest suggested the (technically unnecessary) rite of confirmation, to fill in some gaping holes and replace some negative associations. It was truly a blessing. I recommend it.