Baptisms and Baby Dedications: These are a two of my favorite things about serving as a pastor.

Baby Dedication. This past weekend I found myself leading a baby dedication Sunday afternoon that included 12 babies and my 4 month old son. The way we do things are: at the end of the baby dedication, following the parent’s commitment, the bring their child up on the platform. I take this time to share the first and middle names and give their meanings. Then I share a verse that I’ve selected for the child and speak a blessing over the baby. One of my favorite moments, it’s not something that I HAVE to do, it’s something that I GET to do.

I didn’t anticipate what I would experience when Rea brought Bolton up on the platform for his blessing. I had prepared what I would say, but I was in no way prepared for the emotional weight of that moment. My hands were shaking as I realized what a privilege to bless my own child. To speak words of affirmation and approval over him to give my acceptance to my child. I wept. I’ll never forget that moment.

But you don’t HAVE to be a pastor to bless your child. As a parent you GET to. Tonight you can pray a prayer, speak a passage of scripture, and put your hands on your child’s head an bless them.

You GET to be a parent. You GET to give the blessing. Don’t leave all the blessing to the clergy and liturgy to the sanctuary. Hijack the ritual of blessing and take it to your living room. Don’t wait until they sleep and hope they get it through osmosis. Let’s bless them while they are awake and they can hear us speak and soak up our words and saturate their self-esteem.

Baptism. Sunday was special because I was able to baptize 5 people during our 3 services. Each baptism is a fresh revelation of redemption and the kindness of God. The stories behind the baptisms reveal the spectrum of grace how light shines through stained glass and takes the grays and browns of stone to make it dance with vivid color and life. I want to attach the story of one man who was baptized named Kelly, he has given me permission to share in hope that it may help someone else.

When I was young I went to church only a handful of times with my mother and grandmother. I really did not take it serious at all. You could say that I have had my back turned to God my whole life. I would get in a bind and think that I needed to pray but I am the kind of person that I didn’t want to call on the God only in a bad situation. It seemed to me that if there was such a thing (GOD) why would he want to help someone who only called when things were bad? So again I turned my back. I have had a roller coaster life with the ups and downs, from one extreme to another. I was a self made millionaire by the time I was 27 and I thought I had everything. I enjoyed the power that came with the money along with other things. I had forgotten the important things in life and was paying all of my attention to material possesions and money. Along with greed, money and the power that I thought I had came the break up of my family. I was put in jail a number of times. I was being investigated by all the agencies. I lost every single thing down to having to sleep in the Wal-Mart parking lot. It became clearer to me that I needed GOD now more than ever.

It still took a very good friend that I knew to tell me that I would never be truly happy without GOD. She has a big part in the turn around of my mess that had become my life. She always kept reminding me that GOD had not given up on me. She has been a huge influence in the positive direction. Along with my mother who never gave up, my grandmother (maw-maw) and mother-in-law who always prayed for me.

I promised her and my mother that I would go to church on Easter Sunday of this year. This was the first time for me to come to the Hamilton Mill 12Stone. And from the start I enjoyed it like never before. After a few Sundays I couldn’t get enough. I opened my heart to Jesus and was saved. It was an overwhelming experience to me and it finally filled the void that I had in my heart for so long. I was told that my life would soon drastically change. Well… it did instantly. I wouldn’t trade my life now with Christ for all the money in the world.

It was a good weekend. It’s a good day. I don’t HAVE to live it, I GET to.