Kaleb's Baptism

This was definitely one of my most memorable weekends in a long time. There were many reasons why it was so good, but the number one reason had to be my son being baptized. He got baptized Friday night, October 16th, at The Journey Praise and Worship night. It was a special opportunity for me to be a part of that. There have many conversations around the Reed house with Kaleb about following Jesus and being baptized. He has wanted to get baptized for a couple of months now and I have been hesitant because of his age. The more I talk to him the more I realize that he really does understand what Jesus has done and why he did it. He may not be ready to write a doctrinal dissertation on the dynamics of the Trinity, but neither are most. He has much to learn, and being a child, he needs to do it at his pace and timing.

The one thing that I feel especially burdened for is discipling him. Too often children come to Jesus and commit their life to him and they fade away as they get older. Why does this happen? Is it because they didn't really know what they were doing? No. It is because they stay at their same level of faith and it is not enough to equip them to overcome the trials, tribulation, temptations, and other things that will test your faith. In other words, children who come to faith often stay children in their faith, even though they get older. I have a book I'm doing with him that I'm tailoring especially to him. The book is called Big Truths for Young Hearts by Bruce Ware. It is a book that helps parents/adults teach children theological truths and concepts, not just Bible stories, though telling Bible stories is important.

Several weeks ago I was thinking about the whole conversation of Kaleb getting baptized. As I was thinking about it, the thought the came to my mind, "what if something happened to him and I never had the opportunity to do this?" I knew then that if he truly understood the basics and he was willing to make that very public step in front of everyone, then I needed to do it. The rest is history. Now comes the real journey: a life-long process of helping to form my son into a warrior for the Kingdom.