Harvest Beauty: Miles's Baptism (Catch Up Post)

Saturday, July 15, 2017

Miles's Baptism (Catch Up Post)

Months ago in the middle of a bedtime story, in the middle of a chapter, in the middle of a sentence, Miles interrupted Dad's voice. "Dad?" he asked. "Do I have to get baptized?" Brian realized at that moment that Miles was not focusing on the story about aliens and spaceships and a boy called Ender so he slowly lowered the book to his lap and thoughtfully responded, "No, bud. You don't have to get baptized. Are you worried about something?" Miles just shrugged his shoulders and after a few moments of silence he said, "I just don't know if I want to." And then after another short pause, "you can keep reading the story now."

And so Brian and I embarked on the ever complex journey of discovering the thoughts in Miles's mind.

Over the next few weeks we uncovered little pieces and slowly assembled the story of what was bothering Miles, what he was concerned about, where his fears lived, and we discussed them openly.

Through it all we made it clear over and over again that he didn't have to do anything he didn't want to. That making the choice to be baptized was not one to be taken lightly and that it was okay if he needed to think more about it and wait.

And as his eighth birthday grew closer I saw him pulling on faith. The fears did not disappear, but he began to develop his own faith that getting baptized was something his Heavenly Father wanted him to do, and that things would all be okay.

The morning of his baptismal interview with the bishop he got out his brand new suit and carefully put it on. He was quiet and anxious and outside the rain fell in sheets. Minutes before the interview, hail started shooting like bullets from the sky in such quantities that we couldn't even hear each other speak as we drove to the bishops house. It added excitement into the mixture of Miles's emotions and I couldn't decide whether that was helpful, or not. We covered as much of ourselves as we could with umbrellas to protect from the sideways rain and ran through the porch into the bishops living room where we laughed about the weather before Miles anxiously went into the bishops office. I visited with the bishops wife for a few minutes until Miles came back out. And when he did I almost didn't recognize him for the change in his disposition! He was absolutely beaming from ear to ear, bouncing on his toes, and I recognized the sparkle in his eyes - he had felt the spirit confirm to him that he was doing the right thing. He had acted on his faith all the way to this point and the blessings of that action were now visible in his countenance.

We walked back outside into the most gorgeous sunlight. The rain had gone and left the earth in front of us glistening and fresh. The combination of Miles's sparkle and the sparkle of the earth was too much for me and we had an impromptu photo shoot right then and there (which is where all the above pictures came from).

The excitement and eagerness to get baptized followed Miles through the next week and on the morning of his baptism he was emotionally ready.

So we spent the rest of the morning getting him physically ready.

The following picture is one of my very favorites taken as Poppy was helping him with his tie.

At the church, Miles and Brian dressed in white, and Miles made the covenants with Heavenly Father that he was ready to make through baptism.

Eliza did not like being upstaged, however, so she made sure to blow out all over her beautiful dress and call some attention to herself. Thank goodness for Grandmas, and Eliza was soon bathed in the kitchen sink and changed into fresh clothes (much to her dismay).