Family Baptism & Celebration

 Over the years our grandchildren have come to know Jesus as Savior. This is all we as grandparents have ever desired. Riches, fame, "happiness", all the world deems successful, these have never been our prayers or ideals for our children and their children. True happiness and true success are  ideals the bible teaches are a result of trusting Him. Because our grandchildren have proclaimed they believe Jesus is the "way, the truth, and the life " and have accepted Him as Savior, my husband and our family set aside a day to gather together at a lake and baptize all who believe . My husband gathered us together the evening before the baptism at the lake to talk about what the bible says about salvation and baptism. The grandchildren listened, asked questions, and affirmed they too believed and desired baptism.



 We had a family camp-out at our place over the mountains ( see the camper- trailers gathered in a semi-circle ? ) and the family gathered to witness and rejoice in the baptism of the grandchildren and one of our daughters-in-law.

 We went to a local lake early in the morning of the 4th of July. All those to be baptized wore white t-shirts over their clothes, but it was a chilly morning and we waited until it got a tad bit warmer.

 Our oldest son baptized his 4 daughters , and what a day of rejoicing this was !

 Our daughter asked her father, my husband, to baptize her children. This was very important to all of them. No one in our family is pressured to be baptized , or to ask Jesus into their heart. This is a personal experience, between an individual and God ! But blessedly, each of our daughter's children requested baptism because they believe. ( John 3:16 ) Here my husband is baptizing our oldest grandchild...

 ...his sister ( who seems the most joyous of all ! )

 ...their little sister...

 ...baby brother....

... and oh what a joyous day for us all !

Our youngest son baptized his wife  who is expecting their first baby after 13 years of marriage,( a miracle !) . We laughingly expressed our delight that he was not only baptizing his wife but his soon to be born son !

 

"True baptism must always be vitally related to faith. Only through responsive faith to the regenerative work of Christ can the soul participate in spiritual baptism, and subsequently in the symbolic form of the act itself. Through faith , as a commitment to the person of Christ , the believer is brought into an actual relation to God through the radical change of nature which is inherit in spiritual baptism. Faith is a "surrender-in-response " relationship to the Holy Spirit, who, through spiritual baptism brings man into vital union with God."  The Zondervan Pictoral Bible Dictionary