Baptism

Bishop was baptized at our church this past Sunday and it was a very special day. Not only was it his baptism, it was also the day we joined First United Methodist Church Booneville as a family. We have debated which church to go to ever since we moved to Booneville. We tried First Baptist, East Booneville, FUMC, and even though about somewhere outside of town. Sunday after Sunday we have been drawn to FUMC. We have just felt more at home there.  We finally feel like this is "our" church, despite committment issues that I have at times. I have always been a baptist, so this is a bit different for me, but I really like it. I love the traditions. Sometimes I miss the music at FBC, so we agreed that we can visit when they have their big Christmas and Easter programs :)

Invitations by MG paperworks, aren't they fabulous!?!

It was so special to have our families there for his baptism. This is one loved little boy! My mom, Gerald, dad, Kathy, Kenny, Wendy, Chris, Cole, Heather, Jacob, Jonah, Pojo, Karen, Page, Max, Kaleb, and Sarah Glen were all there for the service.

Bishop did great for the baptism and I would honestly expect no less of him. He happily went to Rev David and was not so interested in coming back to me after...which made everyone laugh. Typical!  He jabbered the whole time too and was just pure sweetness.

Why did we baptize Bishop?

This was, at first, a struggle for me. Once again, I have been a baptist my whole life and to me, baptism refers to believer's baptism. Believers baptism is a public profession of faith. It is something that we do in response to accepting Jesus into our hearts.  Infant baptism is not the same. Infants can't exactly make decisions on their own.  Infant baptism is symbolic of God's grace and it does not regenerate you nor does it cleanse you from you sin. In infant baptism, we recognize that God is the one doing the work. He has already begun well before the baptism. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart" Jeremiah 1:5 Baptism is another way we remember what God has done for us, and what he is going to do in our lives if we believe in Him.

It was also a time for us to make a promise to lead Bishop in the right direction. Not only did we, as parents, make a promise to nurture and teach Bishop by example so that he may be guided to accept God's grace for himself, but also the church made promises to live by the examples of Christ, to surround him with love, and to pray for him. Leon and I both loved that part :)

It was a very sweet and very special service for us!

I'm off my soapbox now....

After church, we all came to my house for lunch. It was a bit crazy with 8 kids in my house, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. My house was turned upside down, in fact, it STILL is :) but it was all worth it to have our family here to be part of such a special day.

I did manage to snap a picture of the cake, which turned out to be delicious...thanks to RoRo's (J.J's mom) recipe! This picture was after I smushed the bottom white icing layer...oh well!  I didn't take a picture of the food, but take my word that it was all good! Leon used his sandwich making skills and made us a fabulous sandwich tray. I didn't really do much but open bags of chips, chop up some fruit, and made super easy artichoke dip (thanks to Mag's recipe) but it was still all good!

Being pushed around in his car...

Bishop had so much fun playing with all of his cousins!

These girls had so much fun playing babies together...they had so much fun playing with the cradle...and with Bishop! I caught them several times picking him up and playing with him like he was a doll.

Family chaos love...gotta love it!!

What a wonderful day it was!