In the Baptist church they "dedicate" babies and do not "Christen" them. So when Charlotte was six months old she was dedicated to God and we vowed to honor God and instruct her in following him all the days of our lives. In the time between then and now we have found a new church home in the Methodist church. And so a few weeks ago we came before our new church family to have James Christened and to promise the same things. That we will bring him up in the Lord and direct him to Jesus all the days of our lives.
Instead of a Christening gown like the one Memma made for Charlotte, we chose to go with a handsome blue outfit. James looked so handsome with his white shoes and socks and his blue outfit. Such a beautiful child of God!
Before the service started we tried to get some pictures as a family outside. They didn't work as well as I hoped but I still love the pictures of our little family.
We also placed James on the stone bench (with Jason just out of the picture in case he fell) and took some sweet ones of the special boy by himself.
We were a little alarmed when we saw how far down in the service the actual Christening was but James was a pretty good champ during the wait. He even got quite a few laughs when he appropriately squealed when our Pastor was praying about him and the other children. James did great during the Christening and, although the water confused him, he didn't seem really concerned. He got more laughs when he started trying to pull the Pastor's glasses off of his face!
It was so nice to be able to stand in front of our family and church and commit to raising James and Charlotte in a Christ-centered home. If we do nothing else with our lives we pray that we will let God work through us to draw our children to him. Their relationship with Christ is the most important relationship of their lives and we want to help them on their journey as much as we can by modeling examples of people who search for him daily.
After the Christening James and I slipped out of the service and ran home so that he could grab a quick nap before our family joined us. James went straight to sleep in the car and slept for a good amount before it was time to get him up and get ready for lunch. We were so blessed to have so many family members join us for this special day. I wasn't as mindful to get pictures as I was at Charlotte's event but we got some so I guess that will have to do.
James was getting sleepy by the end of the party but still didn't hesitate to show Granddaddy how he can stick out his tongue. Of course, that was right before he tried to fall asleep on his shoulder!
We are thankful that we live in a country where we get the opportunity to profess loudly our faith in Christ as our Savior and Lord. This is a freedom that we don't take lightly and we are so thankful for those who have fought to allow us to have that right. Our prayer today and every day is that if you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that you might search for him. We know that he will answer you if you ask because he says in Jeremiah 29:13, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
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