Nate and Maddie's Baptism

Nate and Maddie were baptized at church on Sunday. It was a huge deal as a parent to see this. Both of them were dedicated as babies and both were ready to take the next step in a public proclamation of their faith through the sacrament of baptism. As a part of the preparation for this, each had written out their own story of faith and what God has done for them. It was cool to see from their perspective how their walk with Jesus has shaped their hearts and minds. I'm so proud of the way both Nate and Maddie are growing up and growing to have their faith as an integrated part of who they are, not just this separate thing that they do on Sundays. They ask tough questions and we as a family deal with tough stuff in the context of our faith, without having easy answers a lot of the time.

One cool thing about having gone to the same church for 12 years is to see the impact of one generation on another. Some of the most influential people in my kids lives at church are people who were my kids in our junior high/high school group growing up. Maddie, for example, has this amazing group of women as role models apart from just her Mom. People like Kasey, Tiffany, Jess and Dana all offer her this great picture of what it means to be a Godly women in a very real way that she can look up to, and come to as she has questions, thoughts and problems. We have such an amazing community of friends at church who love our kids, pray for our kids and care about their spiritual formation. For our kids to be able to be baptized in that context of people is a gift.

It was great to have Cathie's parents, my Dad, Will and Monaca all there, but it was sad without my Mom. Maddie commented last night that my Mom was looking down from heaven and cheering as they were baptized. I know she was.