Hope for future generations

Yesterday my husband and I went to a baptism for our friends daughter. This was unlike any baptism I've ever been to. You see, in the LDS religion, children are baptized at the age of 8. This is considered "the age of accountability", and it's also widely believed that children are able to make this important decision on their own. Living in a community where the majority of neighbors and classmates are LDS, this can create a lot of peer-pressure, and a lot of sadness for a child who really wants to fit in with the crowd and be baptized, too.

So my friend had a brilliant idea (This is not a shocking thing, this friend of mine always has brilliant ideas, part of the reason why I love her so-- she has enough creativity for both of us). She decided to do her own baptism in her in-laws back yard. She sent the invitations out to friends and family. She wrote something akin to vows. She promised to love and nurture her daughter, and to support her in whatever path in live she chooses. There was a lot more to it than this. The entire speech was very moving, full of hope and love for the future. Her daughter requested that they splash water on her from a seashell as her form of baptism. It was a beautiful moment and I was honored to be a part of it. And now her daughter can tell her friends that she is baptized... only her baptism was much cooler and more fun than any of the others.