Baptism...

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23

The highlight of this trip was Mikaylas decision to be baptized. Some of you might be wondering what being baptized means and why Mikayla would want to do such a thing. Hopefully I can shed a little light on her heart and why this was so important to her.

Mikayla decided to accept Jesus into her heart. We as Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins...He was the perfect sacrifice and that after 3 days He was raised up again. We also believe that Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are one. After asking Jesus to forgive us of our sins and dedicating our lives to Him result in the Holy Spirit living within you.
This might sound strange, but it is so much cooler then you could imagine on your own.


After you accept the free gift that God has offered to us all, forgiveness of our sins. You then have the ability to have a relationship with Him. Since Mikayla asked to be forgiven of her sins and wanted God to live in her heart the next thing she wanted to do was show everyone outwardly what change had occurred in her heart. That is realy what being baptized means. It is an outward expression of the inward change of your heart. Baptism isn't something that you do just to do or something that you have to do. What baptism isn't. A opportunity to take a bath. A way to get to heaven. A pool party gone wrong.

While at camp Mikayla told me she wanted to be baptized, and I was a little hesitant. I didn't want Mikayla to take it lightly, I wanted her to understand what it was all about and how she needed to accept Christ as her personal Lord and Savior. Since he is a personal God it needed to be her personal choice. It is the most important thing she will ever do . The next day Mikayla said that she really wanted to be baptised and I went over all of the things again and she said to me "Mom I did that...I asked for forgiveness and I asked that God would live inside of me..." I cried... the I asked her when she had done it, and she said "yesterday I was walking on the path by the boys tent and I stopped and prayed".

So as you can see by the pictures Mikayla on her own decided to be baptized. I was very blessed to have the chance to pray with her in the water. As you can see there is a group of us counselors that prayed for her and with her. It was amazing to see God work in my wonderful daughter.

Cory and I are so proud of her...making this decision on her own is huge. We pray for our kids all the time and we really pray for their future, their spouses, and even their kids that they will have.