Baptizing my Children

Today was an amazing day! It's been a great weekend overall, but the highlight by far was that today I was blessed to be able to baptize my four children at our church. Their ages range from 7 to 10. They were all very excited about it, although the boys are not big fans of water, and it didn't help that the baptismal was filled to almost neck level. Sierra's comment after breakfast summed up their attitude nicely - "Dad, my stomach is telling me I'm a little nervous, but my heart is telling me I'm very excited and happy!" The oldest, she was the first to accept Christ, followed by Christian and Justin, and just recently our middle child David chose to ask Jesus to be his savior as well. When she found out she started dancing for joy, hugged David then told mom and dad - "This is fantastic, the boys and I have been praying for him for years!" I found out recently that her previous hesitation about getting baptized wasn't really fear, but came from a desire to do it together as a family with her brothers. As she explained it, there was a mix of "leave no man behind" as well as "I just know David will ask Jesus into his heart someday soon. He can see all around here that Jesus loves him so much!" It was her last comment that really touched me. Not just from mom and dad, but from brothers and sister, from our friends, from his Sunday School teachers, David could see in the lives (not just the words) of others what it means to follow Jesus, to pray from the heart, to forgive, and to worship. God is in heaven, but he's ever-present in our home and church. Today was also special because it was 'Vision Sunday' and I was one of several people sharing our focus for the next year or so. On setting the date for the baptism I was hoping it wouldn't cut into time for the service. Pastor Chuck laughed and said "Are you kidding? Seeing people become followers of Christ is the vision!" I've never been prouder of my Church family than today - and I'm joyous that God has barely begun His work of transforming lives, and that He will do a great thing in our community and in the hearts of His people. Calvary Baptist Church... thank you so much for loving my family!