A Proud Day

Today was one of the proudest days of my life. I baptised my youngest daughter into the church in which I wholeheartedly believe, and to which I have chosen to dedicate my life. Now I realise that this may not be everyone's cup of tea - being religious is not fashionable these days, and even among religous groups my church is often shunned (for example my post a while ago about being sacked from the gospel choir because they didn't consider my church to be Christian etc.) - and I certainly haven't always been a religous person, but I have come to believe absolutely that there is a God, and that the church I belong to is the only one with the authority to administer the necessary ordinances such as baptism which can enable us, if we then live right, to one day go back to live with him. Now others may well strongly disagree with my beliefs, and that is fine, but I am happy to let them believe whatever they may choose, or even to let them believe in nothing at all - I merely ask to be allowed to quietly go about my business in the way I choose.

Anyway, I digress. my daughter was 8 years old today and she chose to get baptised on her birthday. So after having a birthday lunch we traipsed off to church and she and I got changed into our white clothes ready for the baptism. As with so many things in my life it wasn't to be as easy as that. As I was getting changed I was told that the boiler was playing up and no hot water would come out. Rather than delay the whole thing or even put it off to another day I told them to go ahead and we would do it in cold water - after all it was the hottest day of the year, everyone was sweating and we would therefore be fine, wouldn't we? Ha ha - I don't think so!!!! Because the font is so big and they started running the water so late it wasn't even half full by the time we got into it. And the temperature - OH MY GOODNESS. It is just as well that I won't be having any more children because after being immersed in water that cold for several minutes I am sure my reproductive system has gone into cryogenic stasis for ever more. IT WAS COOOOOOOOOLD!!!!! I have been in the sea in October many years ago, and believe me that was warmer - I am not kidding.

So of course it was very important to do it right first time so I could get my little sweetheart out of the freezing water very quickly. Now we baptise by full immersion in our church, which means that every part of the body and clothing has to be immersed. Yes - you've guessed it - it took 3 goes!!! The blasted dress just kept billowing up every time I dunked her! In the end I tucked the dress rather unceremoniously between her legs, told her to clamp her knees together, babbled the words like a demented rapper on speed and held her under till she almost drowned to make sure. Thank goodness this time it was OK, so we whisked her out as quick as possible before hypothermia set in. Earlier I had joked that as the boiler was broken we could pop down the road to the beach and baptise her in the sea. I now wish I had - it would have been a darn sight warmer!

Anyway, all's well that ends well and she quickly got over her ordeal. At least she can look back and say that her baptism was different. I just hope now that she finds her own faith over the coming years and stays the course, therefore avoiding a lot of the self-imposed heartache I have put myself through in my life by trying to do things my own way. It took me a long time to learn, but I have definitely found that peace of mind and happiness only comes to me by doing things God's way. Here endeth the (rare) sermon - I shall go back to my usual irreverent self now.

We are off to Ireland tomorrow for a couple of weeks to stay with one of Betty's sisters- I am really looking forward to it. Betty & the kids go every summer to spend time with family. I sometimes go and sometimes stay home to work on the house etc. This year I have decided to go as I have been working very hard and need a break. The only down side to it is that we love it so much over there we always end up talking about moving over there - trouble is that with house prices like they are at the moment over there we would have to live in a garden shed or something, so it's not going to happen any time soon.