There’s a lot of bad news out there. This world sometimes seems pretty dark and it doesn’t seem like it’s getting any better. But there are many things in our little circles that bring happiness to our lives. And one of those things for me is seeing your child choose to obey Christ’s gospel.

In August of last year the preacher was sick on Sunday the 10th. I was asked to give a sermon that night. I can’t even remember what the topic was – I can look it up if you’re really interested. Like the rest of my sermons, I didn’t expect anyone to be particularly moved enough by my words to come forward and respond to the gospel message, so I placed my nose in the songbook and focused on the words. When I glanced up, I saw my son Zach looking up at me as he stood at the front row. I suppose the look on my face communicated a “What are you doing up here?” because he responded with a “(Hello!) I want to be baptized!” I wrapped my arms around him as my eyes filled with tears. What a happy moment. Soon after, I baptized him into Christ and welcomed my new brother to the family.

Yesterday our preacher talked about one of the myths of salvation (a series that he’d been giving) that you can attend any church and be saved. The sermon concluded and I went back to stop the recording of the sermon and prepare it to upload to the website. As I was saving the file name, Savannah was at my side delivering a very important message. “Um…Dad?…Um, Mom says that you should…um…that you need to…um…you need to come back…because Eli’s getting baptized!” I made my way to the front and sat with Eli, once again letting my eyes fill with tears, and then baptized him into Christ. When talking to him later, he said that he’d made the decision the night before.

When you date someone and then marry them with the intention of having children, you never know how parenting will be and how your kids will turn out. I have been very fortunate to have been blessed with my wife and the kids that we have been given. They (for the most part) have been such a wonderful source of joy to my life and have really taught me to be a better man, each and every day. There are days that Sonya and I look forward to in our lives, and our kids’ decisions to obey the gospel is one of them.