Reagan's Baptism

One of the “tender mercies” which the Lord has shown me happened February 16th. Reagan turned eight on February 10th, which meant she was able to be baptized. Matt and his family decided to travel from Spokane to have her baptized over here, since most of the family is here. It was a wonderful experience to see our oldest grandchild baptized by her father. I think baptism is one of those events in which “he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers" (Malachi 4:6). Reagan is a sweet and wonderful girl who was definitely ready to be baptized. One of the things which impressed me was that a week ago she, on her own, decided to let her hair grow, have it cut, and donate the hair to “Locks of Love,” an organization which makes wigs for those who are undergoing cancer treatment.

The second part of this event happened after Reagan’s baptism, when we all went to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate her birthday. Kelsey and Tanner (both are five) are inseparable as friends and just love being with each other. All of the grandkids were given a cup of tokens, which are used for the rides at Chuck E. Cheese. Kelsey and Tanner went off, hand in hand, to spend their tokens. They came back to eat birthday cake a while later and were counting their tokens. Together they had seven token left. They asked me if I had any, which I did not (what grandfather would keep tokens from his grandchildren?). They had realized that if they divided up their remaining tokens, one would have three and one would have four. A few minutes later Tanner came to me with a token and said, “Here grandpa, take this token because we don’t want to fight over it.”

I knew at that time that the Lord had taught me a lesson from these two little children. They were willing to give up something that was very, very important to them in order that they would not have bad feeling towards each other. I have thought about this even frequently since then and have used it in several talks and teaching instances. Sometimes I wonder if I would be willing to give up something that was very important to me in order to become more like Christ. And which things in life are really important to me? Grandkids are so cool!