and Spiritual Atrophy
“One Lord, one faith, one baptism,” (Ephesians 4: 5)
“One Lord, one faith, one baptism,” (Ephesians 4: 5)
When my oldest
daughter, Casey, was getting ready to be baptized in the fall of 2003, my
family and I had the opportunity to attend a picnic luncheon for LDS
Humanitarian Center employees as an expression of gratitude from the Sr.
management for all of our hard work we had done for the year. I remember
that it had been a pretty rough year for natural disasters around the world,
which had kept us pretty busy sending out Hygiene kits, Neonatal resuscitation
kits for newborns, School kits and other humanitarian aid. There was an
enormous earthquake in Algeria that required much assistance, as well as a
devastating heat wave in France that had attributed to thousands of deaths and
crippled the country at the time.
Upon arriving at the picnic spot, I introduced
my family to the manager of the Humanitarian Center, Bill Reynolds. When
introducing my daughter Casey to him and his wife, Bonita, I quickly
volunteered that Casey was soon to be baptized.
I remember while Bill was shaking her hand, he looked her in the eye and
asked “Are you sure you want to be baptized?” I remember some momentary
anxiety over the question and worried how Casey would respond, but her innocent
response not only surprised me, but made me quite proud. Without any
hesitation, she looked right back at Bill and said “Of course…..don’t’ you
think it’s the right thing to do?” I remember Bill standing straight up,
smiling, and looking over at Tami and I and saying “you raised her right…!”
Although the desire to be baptized is one thing,
it is another to fully understand the commitment involved and the covenant we
make at baptism. When it comes to gospel principles, I have always used the
“crawl, walk, run” methodology of teaching that I learned from my own parents,
who learned it from their parents. For example, taking your children to see
their friends and neighbors get baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints is a wonderful teaching opportunity. It generates gospel
oriented questions from them and offers a perfect time for parents to conduct
personal interviews with their children to address those questions. It also is
a good opportunity to teach them by the Spirit in their own language and
understanding.
