The day our homeschooler got baptized

My son prayed and invited Jesus in his heart as his personal Lord and Savior in January 20, 2010. He was 4 years old then. If you are not familiar what this means, you might want to check this out –> Four Spiritual Laws. And because we wanted to be sure he really understands what it means to be saved and to accept Jesus in his heart, we stayed put and waited.  Several times, during their regular talks my husband got convinced along the way, that our little guy indeed understands.  We knew that he is ready to be baptized. 🙂

Baptism is a willing pledge made by those who recognize their sin, understand the significance of the death of Christ and commit themselves to Him. Check mark on every count for this homeschooler. No, we don’t baptize infants. There was not one instance in the scripture that a baby was baptized. If at all, baptism is preceded by some command for belief. A good example is Acts 2:38—“Change your hearts and lives and be baptized, each one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.”

Nowhere in the Bible are we told to be baptized and then believe. But to come to belief, to trusting faith, and then display that decision by associating ourselves with Christ through baptism.  This decision requires understanding, which an infant clearly is incapable of.

When our son was three months old, we dedicated him to God. It is actually more of a reminder for the parents (us) and the godparents to be wary to look after the child and care that we lead him to the right path. It is more of a prayer and consecration.

Our son’s readiness for baptism was further affirmed to me during last summer’s Youth Camp.  It was during Kuya Alex’s message when he was all ears. All the while, I thought he was just fascinated with all the drama, the powerpoint presentations and the worship time.  He would come to me every time with questions about the message flashed in the screen. Why people choose this, why people mess their life up, and we should not do that, et. al.

When we went back to our room that night, in between bites (he was eating a sandwich), he would babble on and on how “I don’t ever want to let go of God’s hand” and practically relaying what he has learned during the message that night. I was even able to sneak my digital camera to capture what he was saying. It was funny how he went to the extreme of asking me to erase all his games on the iPhone and iPad.  Needless to say, he was intensely affected by the message that night.

After having recently viewed the video, I can only conclude that we cannot downplay a child’s thoughts. All throughout the time we were busy, from the people in the program to the counselors who led the youth to Christ – children can pick up more than we think they can.  Towards the end of the video, Jed was asking to have a look-see on the application on the phone (image above) that I used to lead a girl to Christ. It was an application of the Four Spiritual Laws. Having no nanny with me, Jed has to tag along wherever I go. I didn’t know that while he was on my other phone playing on the corner, he was actually taking it all in.

May 29, 2011, together with the other young people who expressed their decision to follow Jesus in the waters of baptism, our son got baptized by his father. It was one sweet time when my husband did not just address Jed as his son, but his brother (in Christ), as well. 🙂