I was baptized twice.
The first time I was seven years old, and I had just been adopted by some good folks who believe in infant baptism. But I wasn't baptized as an infant, so I was baptized by them at seven.
When I was around 10, I was at a church camp for one week in the summer. A pastor had us all pick out a stick that represented the path of our lives. Being a people pleaser, I picked the most crooked one I could find! He had us carry it around all week. Then he talked about how it was a burden for us and he talked about giving our burdens over to God. He encouraged us to throw our sticks into the bonfire, symbolizing our desire to give our lives over to God. So, I think I got a little of that....a seed was planted.
Growing up in Presbyterian church, we often sang hymns. So along the way, the hymns for me become more than just singing along, but singing along with my heart. I began to believe exactly what they taught. I received my Jesus education from those hymns, and my salvation. In my teenage years, I would be so frustrated and hurting, and I would just pour it all out on the piano keyboard, singing and playing those old hymns, when no one was home!
God wrote those songs on my heart. I still have many of them memorized. I sing them to the children sometimes.
In my college years, at a Campus Crusade Christmas conference, they taught us that prayer- which I prayed, just in case- but I think it set in long before that.
Having by this time read what the Bible teaches about baptism, God put it on my heart to be baptized again. By this time, my faith in Christ had become my own, and not my parent's faith. I believe I am saved by God's grace- not by my parent's belief.
An elder once questioned my salvation when I decided to be baptized. I don't think he liked my lack of 'coming to the altar'. But I know who is in my heart and I am assured of my eternity in heaven. He decided to allow me to be baptized after all!
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