Philip's Decision for Christ

As a follower of Jesus Christ myself, I've been praying for my children to decide to accept Him as Lord and Savior of their lives since they were born. It's a joy to teach Philip and Braewyn how much Jesus loves them and all that He did while on earth and is still doing today from heaven and in the lives of Christians. I've thought for the last several months that Philip was possibly getting close to making a decision to give his life to Christ based on the questions he was asking and the comments he was making. I thank the Lord that we are blessed with a wonderful Bible-teaching church and have been also able to attend BSF (Philip's been attending every week since his 2nd birhtday).

Three weeks ago we were coming home and in the car. He began asking which of his friends would be going to heaven. He asked about Andrew and Daniel (9- and 6-year old boys next door). I said yes they would as they've asked Jesus to be their savior. He asked about their sister Anna. I said I hope she will make a decision to follow Christ when she's older but she's only 3 right now. Philip then said, "Mommy, in three days I'll ask Jesus into my heart." I said that was fine and whenever he was ready we could talk with Mrs. Ann, our children's ministry director.

Two days later, Philip said he still wanted to see Mrs. Ann the next day. I said that was fine and maybe we could find her at the church (it would be Friday), but that I did want him to know that he could pray to Jesus with me and Daddy. He thought about it for a minute and then said, "Let's just do that now!" It was such a special moment as I prayed with him and he repeated what I said, admitting his sin and asking Jesus for forgiveness. We then called Matthew at work to tell him the good news. I then took Chloe outside to go potty and when I came in, I couldn't find Philip. After looking downstairs and heading upstairs, I found him sitting on his bathroom counter, washing off his feet in the sink. I asked him if his feet were dirty from being outside earlier. He said, "I'm washing off my sin." Just precious the faith of a child. We talked about really being baptized at church and how it was a symbol of his decision to follow Christ. He said he'd like to get baptized when he is 7 (two years from now).

That Sunday, we encouraged him to tell Nana, Papa and Grandma and whomever else he wanted. He told his grandparents and one Sunday School teacher but was bashful about telling others, just pointing at me to tell people. We made an appointment to meet with Mrs. Ann that next Wednesday as I was looking forward to someone other than Matthew and I to talk with Philip and let him express what his decision meant. After our meeting, Ann said she definitely could see that Philip really understood what it meant to be a follower of Christ. She took us up to the baptismal area of the church so he could see where he would change clothes, the view from the baptismal pool, etc. He left there saying maybe when he was 6 he'd do it.

After some more discussion about how great a decision he had made and how excited our church family would be to see him baptized, we did offer the idea that maybe it would be great to schedule his baptism for the Sunday after Thanksgiving when his cousins Hannah and Madeline would be visiting. At first, he became so excited that he wanted to get baptized the soonest Sunday possible but I told him it would only be four weeks until our relatives came for the weekend. He was satisfied with waiting so everyone could be here.

It's such an exciting time in life to see Philip growing in his relationship with Christ and also a little worrisome for me thinking if I'm doing enough. People have told us to just keep doing what we're doing and I suppose they're right. So refreshing to receive a first-hand reminder that the Lord really only requires the faith of a child.

"Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God." John 1:12-13