Emma's Baptism

Emma was baptized this past Sunday by Poppa (Becky's Dad). It was a very special occasion in which Mike and I were able to dedicate Emma to the Lord and formally pledge to bring her up in a home that loves the Lord and works to teach Emma about God and guide her to the place that she makes a personal confession of faith and asks Jesus to be her Lord and Savior by her own decision.

Many people have different opinions about baptism and since we chose to have Emma baptized as an infant I wanted to explain what that means. First of all, it does not mean that she is a Christian. Here are the vows we took as her parents:

1. Do you acknowledge your child's need of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, and the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit?

2. Do you claim God's covenant promises in her behalf, and do you look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for her salvation, as you do for your own?

3. Do you now unreservedly dedicate your child to God, and promise, in humble reliance upon divine grace, that you will endeavor to set before her a godly example, that you will pray with and for her, that you will teach her the doctrines of our holy religion, and that you will strive, by all the means of God's appointment, to bring her up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?

I share these so that you, our close friends and family, can understand what we promised before the Lord and help us to teach Emma about God and hold us accountable to these vows. It was such a wonderful opportunity to publicly dedicate her life to the Lord and acknowledge that she is His and not ours. My dad baptized her as have the grandfathers in our family for generations. The legacy of faith that has come before Emma is deep and strong. She is blessed with a wealth of godly examples and people who love the Lord. It was such an emotional day for me to make this promise and realize what it meant when my parents did that for me and just how much effort and intentional work went into my growth and teaching about God.

Here are some pictures from the event along with a link to hear the sermon if you are interested. Dad did the baptism as a part of the sermon in his advent series. He held Emma in his arms the entire time-yes, she actually cooperated better than we had hoped for! It was a very neat and special day although we were sad that some of our family and friends could not share in it with us.

Click on this link to find the sermon from the baptism- http://www.gracepca.net/ When you get to this page, the sermon is on the right hand side and is titled "The Gift of a Child".