Well, this could be a long post, so if you have the time grab some coffee & prepare to read.....
My dad is a pastor. I think that is really cool, he has been an ordained pastor for about 2 years now...before that he was preaching & teaching, he just didn't have the "official" title.
We live about an hour from my dad's church. He is the pastor of a church I have been affiliated with since I was 16-I am almost 33-that is a long time. I started attending the youth group there with a guy friend back then, when he left, I never did. I stayed involved with the youth. My parents started visiting, we went to Guatemala with the church, me, my mom & my dad, that was cool too. It is a great church. But, being that we live an hour from there, we don't attend regularly. We have found a pretty good church near us.
Anyway, one Sunday about a year ago we visited dad's church & little did we know, it was a baptism Sunday. Me & the boys got to see my dad baptize people! Chase was mesmerized. We watched, Chase asked a bazillion and one questions...we left and driving home the questions continued. He called my dad & told my dad he wanted to be bap-ti-tized when he was 5.
Periodically throughout this past year, Chase & I would talk about being baptized and what it meant. I always encouraged him that there was no magic age. It was when he was ready. The church we are going to up here, taught about being baptized in "kid zone" and he came home and asked "when am I going to be bap-ti-tized already?"So I told him we needed to talk to Daddy & Grandpa.
So he told CJ he wanted to be baptized and CJ asked him why & what that meant. My then 5 year old replied:
"it means that you want to show people you have invited Jesus to live in your heart & forgive your sins, it is a symbol that Jesus washes you clean"
I am sure I am getting the verbiage wrong, but it was something like thatSo CJ said, OK, that sounds good to me, call & talk to Grandpa. So we did. We set up his baptism.
A week or so before the baptism CJ at dinner CJ asked Chase again what it meant to be baptized. Chase basically said the same thing. Then CJ asked if Chase knew who baptized Jesus, and Chase replied "John the Baptist" and then CJ asked him why Jesus got baptized and Chase looked at me and said "uhh...because God told him to..."
So, Chase turned 6 on 3/18 and got baptized on 3/22/2009. It was a humbling experience for me. This whole process has been.
My conversations with Chase about Jesus and His love for us never cease to amaze me & Chase stumps me lots with all of his in depth questions:-) His concern for others is amazing! He prays about everything. If I don't feel well, if he doesn't feel well, if he is losing at bowling on the Wii, he will pray that God will help him get a strike:-) I hope he never loses that! Seems like he teaches me to pray without ceasing!
It was a really cool day. My dad....baptizing my son! I can't wait to see Seth get baptized by my dad...come to think of it, I can't wait to see CJ get baptized by my dad...I can't wait to see my dad marry my boys...it is pretty special thing, my dad being a pastor...like my grandpa was:-)
A friend asked Chase what it felt like or what he felt when he got baptized his reply...."Wet"
and from what dad & Chase say the water was FREEZING!
I sure am a proud mamma & very blessed mamma!
