a baptism

This video is a precious souvenir for us. In the middle of December our daughter made the decision to follow Jesus. This decision has been a process for all of us because Ash and I haven't wanted to push or manufacture anything in our children. We ache for our children to know the extravagent love of God, but who can know Jesus other than a sinner? My children will probably know all the Sunday School answers, but will they KNOW how desperate they are before the Throne of Grace? I can't just have them say the right thing here. Charlotte has been saying for awhile now that she wants to follow Jesus, and we've been given wise counsel to honor a child's faith, but I've been content to take this slow. Ash and I have wanted to saturate our childrens' lives with the Gospel, daily teaching and training them to love God with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength and to RUN in the paths of God's commands because He has set their hearts free. We only want to reproduce a faith that lives worthy of the Gospel.

Charlotte came to us a couple weeks ago to say she wanted to be a Christian. I asked her if she understood what sin is. Charlotte's response was, "I hate myself when I do the things I know I shouldn't do." I know that place... that's a place where we can meet Jesus. So it was a great privilege for me and Ash to get to sit beside her as Charlotte prayed her own prayer to ask God to forgive her and to be her Savior. This video shows the next step Charlotte took to follow Jesus: baptism. So when you watch it, take it for what it is: Charlotte wanting the world to know that she's chosen to follow Jesus.

This video also shows my husband's first baptism as a pastor. Ash was able to first say, "I baptize you, my sister..." to our daughter. From what I understand, Ash was baptized by his father. I am grateful to be part of a heritage like this. I know the video might be hard to hear, but I hope you can imagine how tender and magnificent this moment is for our family. One of my favorite things about the video is all the cheering at the end. I am filled with emotion to hear those voices and know they belong to people who will love and encourage Charlotte, as well as be a hedge of protection to her. Those voices will lift her up in prayer, as well as teach her Sunday School lessons and Bible studies. They will speak Truth to her and join hers in praising God for how He has rescued us. I am awed by what the Church is meant to be.

A funny thing in all this is that Liam is now saying he wants to be "bath-tized." I ask him, "Do you sin, buddy?" The answer is obvious to him: "No." There is no situation with his mother that he gets what he wants by admitting, "I am a wretched jerk of a sinner," so ofcourse he can't fathom that this would be an entirely different kind of cookie.