Three Stories for a Baptism

We couldn't attend this baptism in person (due to COVID restrictions), but we were able to participate virtually. That meant I could still hear a beautiful father/daughter duet and give a talk myself. For posterity's sake, here are the stories I was inspired to share.

Story #1 - One day when I was about your age, my Sunday School teacher gave me a peppermint chocolate. For some reason, I didn’t want to eat it right away, so I stuck it in the front of my scriptures. Then when we got home, I left my scriptures in the car. Can you guess what happened? It was a hot summer day and the chocolate melted, gluing the front cover to the first page. I felt so bad for forgetting and not taking better care of my things. But I also felt very embarrassed, and didn’t want anyone to know about my mistake. I tried to clean up the mess the best I could, but I didn’t ask for help and I didn’t tell anyone. I don’t know that I ever have until now! 

Story #2 – Your dad’s school teacher called us one day because she wanted us to know he had done something very kind that really impressed her. While standing in line the kids in his class were passing a note from person to person. It said something mean about someone, and when it got to your dad, he put the note in his pocket and didn’t pass it along.

Story #3 – This comes from an email your dad sent us while he was a missionary.* One night, when he was about your age, he was lying in bed trying to go to sleep, but he couldn’t. Then he remembered that he hadn’t read his scriptures yet that day. There was a little problem, however; the family rule was the lights had to be out at 8:30. He felt trapped! He couldn’t go to sleep because he hadn’t read his scriptures, but he couldn’t read his scriptures because he needed to be in bed with the lights off. 

Fortunately for him, although I don’t remember them, there were apparently a couple of exceptions to the family rule – using the bathroom and/or asking Mom a question. So, he got out of bed to explain the problem to me, and I gave him permission to use the bathroom light to read one verse from the scriptures.

He ran back to his room, grabbed his triple combination, went to the bathroom, read the first Article of Faith – choosing that one because it was short and he had it memorized – then turned off the light and went back to bed where he fell right asleep.

Have you figured out how these three stories relate to our baptismal promise? If we’re going to always remember the Savior and keep his commandments, we need reminders. What reminders are you putting in place to help you remember to follow Jesus' example and honor your baptismal covenants?