About Baptism

I've been thinking about baptism lately, after a few discussions with some amazing friends and also with my in-laws.  I've also been thinking it because I was staunchly opposed to Zac being baptized in a group setting, and Chayce turns 7 this summer, meaning I've got one more year to decide how to help her learn about what baptism means and help her decide how she wants it to go.  Reading the New Testament with Zac has given me a few different thoughts about baptism in a group setting (it's amazing how much more I'm learning as I work through the scriptures a chapter a night with him, explaining things as I go).

• Do I think age 8 is too young? (LDS theology is that 8 is the age of accountability).  At first I did. But then I thought about myself at age 8.  I realized I didn't know everything, but I DID want to start making my own choices.  Baptism means covenanting to mourn with those that mourn, and to do everything in the name of our Savior, to remember him always.  It also means being washed clean of sins.  However, I was thinking about how we also believe that each week, taking the sacrament renews that covenant.  Baptism is the FIRST time you make it, and later, a person can choose to not take the sacrament (thus NOT renewing their covenants).  Also, when you are baptized, you are baptized by both water and the spirit, giving you an increase of heavenly help as you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  As my children enter into stages where their choices are going to get harder, I want them to have had practice listening to the Holy Ghost.  I do not want their first experience of paying attention to the Holy Ghost being when they are making huge life choices (like who they will marry, what college to go to, where they will live, etc).  Making simple choices being guided by the spirit as practice at a young age is a big deal, and I know that I've already seen my son use that power to make some great choices.

• Another point about age...when (or if) a person chooses to go into the LDS temple, there is a ceremony that takes place very first called washing and anointing.   It's purely symbolic as rather than being fully submersed, the washing and anointing is done only to your head.  However, the practice is that you are washed clean from the sins of this world, and anointed for your future learning about what heaven really means.  Again, we believe that the sacrament each week renews ALL of our covenants, so once a person has decided to go into the temple, they may renew this covenant weekly in the taking of the sacrament.  Truly, baptism isn't the only time your sins are washed clean. There are even sections of the bible that state that when you confess your testimony you are forgiven of sins.  And repentance can take place all of the time.  (Did you know that to "repent" is actually an archery term?  It means to re-align or get back on course.)

• Now, as for the group baptism thing...when we lived out east (Indiana, North Carolina) there weren't a lot of children getting baptized.  Mainly because there weren't a lot of children.  Sometimes baptisms overlapped, but often, the child chose who gave the prayers, sang the songs, fixed refreshments...basically, they helped put together the whole program and really took ownership of the day of their baptism.  Here in Utah, there is one day per month set aside and as many as ten children could get baptized on the same day, sharing the program, which due to its monthly nature, is organized by the primary rather than the child.  I was taken aback by this practice when I moved here, and I arranged to have Zac organize his own baptism elsewhere, so that it would be a special day to him.  It was a great day, but there were a few things missing:  our own bishop, their primary teachers that wanted so badly to be there to support him, his friends...those people, those VERY important people weren't able to share in his day.  I've been debating what to do for Chayce.  In the end I will let her choose, but I wondered how I could be supportive of what I thought was a conveyor-belt style ceremony to something so important.  Well, something I DEEMED so important.  
• Which brings me back to studying the scriptures with Zac, and also to my final point:  When John the Baptist baptized believers in the river Jordan, there was no record of who said the opening prayer, who fixed the snack, who sang the song to keep the guests entertained while the baptized person hurriedly changed back into dry clothes.  No, there was a multitude of people, gathering, waiting their turn.  He must have baptized hundreds at a time, his arms weary, yet lifted by the knowledge that he was doing God's work.  The people flocked to him, waded out into a river (not a fancy, clean font), got muddy, didn't hurry to change back into dry clothes before embracing those that were happy for them.  The point wasn't the ceremony.  The point was the act of baptism.  In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.  Being symbolically buried and rising again, out of the water.  Allowing your life to be guided by a power that is higher, when the rest of the world turns away.  Saying "I will" when it seems like it's too hard.  Promising to lift fellow humans up, and if given the chance, teaching them what your heart has known.  

Baptism isn't the end.  It's not the final act.  It's a short quick action that is much like switching tracks on a train trip.  It throws the switch and begins an amazing journey, one that teaches and brings you closer to God than you can imagine.  One that doesn't come to an end.