Baptism...

I believe the Bible teaches that baptism should follow a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. I do not believe baptism saves you, but I do believe it is our first act of obedience once we become a Christian. The Bible speaks of baptism often. Jesus gave us an example of baptism. Luke 3:21-22 says, ²¹ When all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized. As He was praying, heaven opened, ²² and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in a physical appearance like a dove. And a voice came from heaven:    You are My beloved Son. I take delight in You! (HCSB) 

Acts 8:36-39, " ³⁶ As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s water! What would keep me from being baptized?” ³⁷ And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” ³⁸ Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer. But he went on his way rejoicing." (HCSB)

In April 2010, my 5 year old son came to me one morning. There is a cross in our house that has a red jewel in the center. He asked me why it was red. I said, I don't know. Maybe it is to represent Jesus' blood. We then began to talk about Jesus coming to earth as a baby, living a perfect life, dying on the cross, and rising again. I told him, one day, Jesus will call you to be a Christian and you have to choose if you are going to follow Him or not. We talked about sin and how because of sin, we are separated from God. We talked about what sin is and how it hurts God that we do the wrong thing. To my amazement, Philip got it. Then he looked at me and said, "Mom, Jesus is tugging on my heart." So many things went through my head. We prayed together, and Philip asked Jesus into his heart. 

Now Philip is a timid child when it comes to public. James and I decided we would teach him about baptism and tell him that he needed to tell the church he was a Christian and get baptized. We left the timing up to him. In January, we had a lay renewal weekend at our church. The Sunday morning of the renewal weekend, Philip went before the church and told them he had asked Jesus into his heart and he wanted to be baptized. 

We scheduled a day to baptize him. However, the baptistry heater went out. So, we postponed it until we could get it fixed. They put a new heater in this week, and we scheduled baptism for today. A very special thing for us was that James got to baptize him. Since James is our music minister, we baptized Philip first. Jim got in the baptistry and talked about baptism, then James and Jim tried to get Philip to come in. The water was VERY hot and Philip did not want to get in it. James picked him up and put him in next to him. Poor kiddo cried. James kept him facing him and quickly went through the, "Philip have you asked Jesus in your heart?" Philip said, "Yes." James quickly said, "Upon your profession of Faith in Jesus, I baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." Then James moved him to the other side and quickly dunked him and lifted him out. The water wasn't hot enough to burn Philip, but it was hot. I felt so badly for him. Still such a special time.

We were very blessed to have not only our church family there, but my Mom, Dad, Jacob, Jarod, and our great friend the Craymer's. We had a great afternoon visiting our friends and I LOVE that our kids pick up and play like they see each other every day.

What a day!!!!

You know the type? The type where you think, "I should just go back to bed and try again." The type where things just are hectic? The type where your 4 year old opens her muddy car door into your side at drop off? The type where your 7 year old leaves his backpack at home? The type where you need to give your 2nd grader $2 and you open your billfold to find you have NO cash? Just so you know, I *could* go on. I won't for everyone's sanity though. Needless to say, this day started off wrong and did NOT get better.

Tonight is the one year anniversary of the night Faith was burned. It's definitely not something you want to celebrate, but it completely changed our lives and we won't forget the date. Well, I won't forget the date. James, he doesn't remember dates that much. She is doing wonderfully. With the nice days lately, her cheeks have been very red so we are having to be careful about that. I am considering making an appointment with a dermatologist to see if they can help with this issue. On Tuesday she said, "Ugh! My scar!" I asked her, "What about your scar, sweet pea?" She whined, "I just want it to go away!" This was the first time we had the discussion that it wouldn't just go away and would always be there. It really bugs her. She doesn't like how it looks or feels and lately it has been itchy. I suspect we will have this conversation often. Eventually, she will either decide it is part of who she is and not care about it anymore, or she will ask to have it restructured. We are prepared for either outcome. Right now, I'm just doing what I can to help it not physically bug her. Lots of lotions, aquaphor, etc, still. I'm so extremely grateful that a year later, these are the minor issues I'm talking about here. We are so abundantly blessed, and we know God knit her skin back together, just the way He knit her together in my womb. That was my prayer from the moment I realized what we were dealing with. You know, the moments after the panic, then praying for comfort for her, then praying for angels to calm her and numb the pain. The moments after the immediate "help my baby" thoughts.

I am so glad that I have hope. That WE have hope, and that Faith will have hope. I pray for her salvation. I was taught by an amazing friend, Liz, while I was still a teenager how important it is to pray for your children's salvation. I pray that when the time is right and God "knocks" on her heart, that she will run to Him and "answer the knock." I prayed this same prayer for Philip and was shocked when he came to me at such a young age asking deep questions. Those questions led to God "tugging" on his heart, and Philip accepting Jesus. It is such a relief knowing your child has a relationship with the one true God!

In other news (not sure I should go on after that!), I had parent-teacher conferences for Philip tonight. I am pleased to say that he has great grades and school comes easy for him. He is very bright! He does need to work a little harder because he is not reaching his full potential. That is something we will be working on at home. We've been trying to teach him that he doesn't have to be THE best, but he does need to be HIS best. School is out tomorrow, so Philip got to go stay the night with Grammy and Papaw. He was pumped. It works out well for my parents and me too. I have one less child to get around in the morning, mom and dad get to sleep in and so does Philip. Win-win-win if you ask me. I guess there is one that doesn't win though. Faith was not happy that she doesn't get to stay the night with Grammy and Papaw. I told her maybe over spring break.

Philip and fact families

Philip is quite the kid. He is 7.5 years old now, and simply amazes me everyday. In the car on the way to school, I work to teach the kids memorization. They have learned several memory verses, phone numbers and our address this way. Philip has been having a little trouble with subtraction. Noticing this trouble, I began feeling I was failing my son. After all, I have a B.S. in Math. So, I was telling him if 2+3=5, then 5-3=2; aka fact families. I know they've worked on fact families before, but filling in the blank is different than understanding the concept. So, I gave him several groups, and he just didn't get it. I kept telling him, "Philip, I am telling you the answer." All of the sudden, he got it! He was so proud of himself. I am amazed at the look on his face and excitement over small things. Where has that gone in our lives?

Fat Tuesday

Wow! It is Fat Tuesday 2012. Last year, Fat Tuesday was on March 8th. I will never forget that date because it is the day Faith was burned.

I am the kind of person who really enjoys having "traditions" in our home. Just small things that are the same each year, something for the kids to look forward too. Last year I was reading about Mardi Gras and learned that traditionally those who practice lent eat a "rich" meal before they give up meat for lent. As I continued to read, I discovered that many have pancakes the night before Ash Wednesday. I thought this would be neat, and we should start this tradition.

We are protestant and therefore do not corporately celebrate holidays that are traditionally Catholic. However, in our home, we do try to focus on the reason we celebrate Christian holidays. Particularly Christmas and Easter. We focus on Christmas each night during the Advent season and we try to fast from something during the lent season. This is our personal way to focus on Jesus and study the events leading up to each holiday.

Little did I know that choosing to start this tradition would lead up to a terrible accident. James starts dinner most nights since he gets home before me. That evening started just like any other. James called me and at the end of the conversation asked, "What's for dinner tonight?" I asked him to stop at the store and pick up some bacon so we could have pancakes and bacon. He began cooking it and little did any of us know that our lives would greatly be affected. On Fat Tuesday last year, my daughter was severely injured in a terrible accident.

Needless to say, pancakes on Fat Tuesday did NOT become a tradition in our house. Tonight at the end of the conversation I said, "Let's have salad." That is something that requires no heat. I am so extremely grateful that Faith has healed so well and will have very minimal permanent scarring from this incident, but we are all forever changed. I still have nightmares about seeing her face while calling 911. She talks about it now. Occasionally she will say, "Momma, I just wanted to know what was in that cup I couldn't have." Most recently she told me how bad it hurt. I know she was terrified and in so much pain. It is so heart breaking.

Other than the memories that have forever changed us, Faith has a small scar on her chest. So far, the verdict is that it will not have to be restructured until she is a teenager. More recently this scar has increased in size, so we will know more when we see her plastic surgeon again. I want to thank everyone for praying for us during this time and I cannot believe it has almost been a year since that terrible night.