Life with these Lanier Boys

My oldest son, Michael, was baptized on March 20th. He was ready. My husband actually baptized him, which was just unbelievable to watch. Thank goodness I was distracted by my youngest son waving at himself on the big screen. You can see in one picture that I have this "do that again and you will regret it" look on my face. Had I not been slightly distracted, I would have really made a mess of myself in front of the entire church. Here's the face.

I went to church before the rest of my family that day because I was running the lights for all three services. As I sat up in the booth listening to the sermon at the first service, Ian read one of the 52 Stories. These are stories that are told each week about someone in our church that has a neat story to tell. I had no idea what the story would be that day, but I'm sure my mouth stood agape as I listened to him tell the story for the first time. My eyes welled with tears knowing what was to come for my family at the next service--Michael's baptism. I cried every time I heard the story read that day. I'm going to copy her story here word for word. She gave me permission. I couldn't have said it better. Here we go.

"The day I gave birth to my son and I was able to hold his tiny little fingers, and count the ten perfect toes, and feel his tiny heart beat in his chest I was hit with two profound truths. The first, there was no way I was ready for what was in store for me. And secondly I realized God loves me. I am human and I am overcome with joy and happiness and love for this tiny little person who will undoubtedly hurt me, reject me, and ultimately leave me. But the joy at that moment, the love and the pull of my heart told me that if I being merely human felt this much, just imagine how God the Father feels when one of his children comes to him in baptism, committing for the rest of their days to accept the responsibility of being the heir to their Fathers world.

When after 15 years the tiny perfect child I gave birth to comes to me and tells me he feels he needs to be baptized, the first reaction I had was the same one I had when I found out I was going to be a mom in the first place. The anticipation of great joy, the future of growth, of new learning experiences to be had. All these emotions ran through my body, my heart leapt and I could feel my eyes tingling with the threat of tears. There was a two week period between the decision to be baptized and the actual baptism, in that time I asked him questions and we talked about the decision. I prayed and I asked him to as well. The morning he was baptized I was so elated. I felt like a new mom all over again, my son knows that Jesus is the Son of God and has accepted His authority, entering into a relationship with the Living God. My relationship with God is the most precious thing I could teach my son about, it's also the one thing I cant wrap up and give him or go out and buy for him and now he gets to have his very own relationship with God to grow and develop and learn through. There is nothing in this world that he could accomplish that would make me more proud to be his mom than the day he chose to enter into the family of God through baptism."

Oh, I just well up again reading it now. Amazing, isn't it? Not just the eloquence of this passage, but the reality of it, the truths that are embedded in it--for me, for my children, for anyone who will accept.