Happy Birthday! I’m so excited that you are
turning eight years old this year because that means that you are old enough to
choose to be baptized. I’m so happy you have made that choice.
I remember when I was baptized. I was baptized
on my eight-year-old birthday on a Saturday night in a little white church
across the street from my house in Union, Utah. My congregation had all the
children being baptized sit on small wooden chairs and talked to us for a
while. I don’t remember what they said, but I do remember what I felt.
I felt excited and a little scared before I was
baptized. When I was baptized, the water was warm and I felt clean. After I was
baptized and put my dry clothes back on, I walked out of the church into the
cold January winter air. I remember looking up and seeing lacy white flakes of
snow falling all around me. Even though it was cold outside, I felt warm
inside. I knew God loved me and was pleased I wanted to come home to heaven
someday.
I also knew that Jesus was my best friend and
that if I tried to live like Him that I would be happy. When I was your age,
they waited until Sunday to confirm me at church and give me the gift of the
Holy Ghost. I felt protected when the men with the priesthood made a circle
around me and put their hands on my head as my father confirmed me.
What I didn't know was that the man I was going
to marry someday was being baptized on the very same day, January 6th (my
birthday) in a little town called Spanish Fork, Utah. He was a little scared and
excited too. Because we both wanted to be like Jesus, we found each other many
years later. We recognized that we had the same dreams and plans for life.
When he got back from him mission to Samoa, we
got married in the Salt Lake City temple and made some new special promises to
God when we were sealed for time and eternity. Then pretty soon your mommy was
born. Then she grew up and married your daddy in the temple and then pretty
soon, you were born.
Being baptized was the beginning of everything
wonderful in my life. Being baptized is such a special time because we are able
to participate in our first saving ordinance and make our Heavenly Father our
first official promise. You are a son of God, Mitchell, and your Heavenly
parents love you very much. They want you to be happy so they have made a plan
of happiness for you to follow so you can return to them someday.
Up until now, you have been a child who is
learning, growing and maturing. You have made some mistakes; everybody makes
mistakes. That is how we learn and grow. Now that you are eight, God thinks you
are wise enough to know the difference between right and wrong choices.
Heavenly Father knows that some of the choices we make will not be wise.
Because He loves us, He wants us to know how to change so we will not be
trapped by our mistakes and bad choices. So He invites us to make a promise to
Him and then He makes a promise right back to us. When we make a special
promise to God and He makes one right back to us, it is called a covenant. Heavenly
Father never breaks a promise.
The promise you make to God is that you will
remember Jesus, follow Him and keep His commandments. Heavenly Father promises
you that He will forgive you if you make a mistake or do something that you
know is wrong if you feel sorry and repent. He also promises you eternal life.
He also gives you the gift of the Holy Ghost to help, guide, protect, warn and
comfort you.
When you choose to be baptized you tell Heavenly
Father that:
*You take on the name of Jesus Christ
*You will serve your fellowmen
*You will stand as a witness of God all the time
*You will obey the commandments of God
God
promises you that:
*You are accepted as a member of Christ’s church
*You can be forgiven of sin if you repent
*You can have the gift of the Holy Ghost
*You can live in the kingdom of God
Everybody makes mistakes after they are
baptized so Heavenly Father gave us the sacrament every week on Sunday. That is
when we remember the covenant we made when we were baptized. We think about our
week and decide how to be better during the coming week. We think about our
Savior Jesus Christ and how He atoned for all our sins, pains, disappointment
and grief. We also think about Christ’s resurrection and that we can be
resurrected too someday.
I hope
you will write about how you feel in your journal when you are baptized. Never
forget that you are a child of God and that you can inherit the eternal life
God has planned for you. And never forget that your grandma loves you with all
her heart.
Love, Grandma Baadsgaard.