Discipleship Decision

October 25^th is the anniversary of our baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That day marked a turning point in our lives. It came about after months of study, prayer, questioning, discussion, and more study, prayer, questioning, and discussion. We determined that we were going to be active, committed, growing, serving disciples of Christ. That was back in 1981. We are still on the path of discipleship, still studying, praying, questioning. After baptism we added serving to that list. Christ’s gospel is all about loving and serving each other. As we serve, we grow, learn more about ourselves, and become more like Christ. 

We frequently talk about our before and after approach to Christ and His gospel. Almost daily one of us mentions in our companion prayer that we are thankful for that discipleship decision and the difference it’s made in our lives.

More reflections on our baptism follow. 

"Change your thoughts and you change your world." Norman Vincent Peale

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." C.S. Lewis

We experienced a major paradigm shift back in 1981. It started with MichaelK's question, "Are we Christian?" Joe and I had been active, "church-going" people at various times in our lives. After we married, we attended church for a while and then stopped. We never stopped believing but we let other activities in our lives take precedence over discipleship, church affiliation and participation. Then Michael asked his question.

We went to the library as a family to get books on religion.  We started discussing what it meant to be Christian. Two weeks later missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints knocked on our door and said they had a message about Jesus Christ. We let them in because we though this would be a way for Michael to learn about Jesus and we wouldn’t have to go to church! We found the conversations interesting and the missionaries kept coming back, at our invitation.

We talked, we studied, we prayed. We discussed what it meant to be Christian. What did we really believe? Did we need or want to be part of a church? What would this mean to our lifestyle and "our" time? Michael, Joe, and I had some pretty intense discussions over those five months.

We made the decision to be baptized and to become members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The three of us agreed that we would be active members, fully committed to living the life of a disciple of Jesus Christ. We were baptized October 25, 1981.

With that decision, the baptism and the commitment to stay on the gospel path, our lives changed. We changed our thoughts and thereby changed our world as Peale stated. Building on the quote from C.S. Lewis, we started looking at everything and everyone in our lives through the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that has made all the difference.