boys' baptism: a theological moment

We have been wanting to set our boys apart to the Lord for some time. Last weekend we took the step of having both of them baptized together at our church, Grace and Peace Presbyterian Church. The PCA practices infant baptism, which is not something that Justin or I knew much about beforehand. But after studying up on it, we felt very comfortable sealing our boys in this way, and trusting God to reveal Himself to them in his due time. Oddly enough, when I was a baby my parents were attending a Presbyterian church and so I was also baptized in this way.

Much of the argument in favor of infant baptism comes from the examples in the New Testament where an entire household was baptized when the head of the family comes to faith in Christ. Here's an excerpt from one of the articles that was really helpful.

"Baptism is also not merely an outward sign of an inward change....Baptism is a sign and seal of the covenant, and thus it signifies what God does, not what we've done. We are baptized, we don't do anything in the act of baptism. Baptism signifies that, from our perspective, the person is a recipient of the covenant relationship with God, either because the person has professed faith in Christ or one or both parents have professed faith. Of course the profession of faith may not be genuine, and in the case of an infant he or she may prove to be an apostate, but we baptize in the judgment of charity, not because we can make infallible judgments about one's spiritual state. While we believe that professed Christians should be baptized, we believe that God's covenant has always been made with families and not just with individuals. In our extremely individualistic culture, this is a difficult concept for many people to grasp." --Kevin Twit

We realize this is not the typical or even popular view of baptism today, so feel free to talk with us more about this later if you'd like! We want Lewis and Owen both to take part in the blessings of God's grace now, before they know the Lord, and for those experiences to lead them each into true relationship with Him down the road when they are old enough to grasp spiritual things. We hope they cling to Him as children with childlike faith, but we know that he is the one who really does the clinging, and we are so grateful for that!

And the pictures (our pastor, Brian Howard, baptized the boys!):