Jeffrey's big night

Jeffrey has done a great job already of telling about his baptism. I'll just add a few more details from my perspective.

When he woke up this morning, I asked him what he wanted for breakfast. Just before I started to get it together, he changed his mind and decided to fast. Emy and Ben sent a package of things to help Jeffrey prepare for his baptism. One of the things we did was start praying for a confirming feeling during his baptism. I think his idea of fasting was an extension of that. I was proud of him for thinking of that on his own. He's come to the age, when it is definitely not cool to cry. When he and Mark came back from changing after the baptism, Jeffrey's emotions were under control, but his eyes were red. I could tell he was feeling something. He described it well on his post. The feeling is something I hope he'll be able to remember even if he doesn't remember anything else.

Bishop Carter conducted the baptism and had Jeffrey come up front to see all the people that had come to support him. The bishop asked Jeff who the people were that had come. I think he expected Jeffrey to say 'my family and friends'. Instead, Jeffrey started scanning the room and naming off each individual. It was impressive; there were a lot of people!

Jeffrey had decided to invite the senior couples to participate in the program. During the talks, these men that have had a chance to get to know Jeffrey (LOTS of after-school conversations) invited him to the front and had him participate by asking several questions. It was amazing how quickly he responded and the depth of some of his answers. When the bishop interviewed Jeffrey for baptism, he invited me to sit in. That was a similar experience to this one. It was instructive for me to listen to my son relay what he understood about the gospel, the restoration and specifics about the plan of salvation and how baptism fit into that plan.

Last week, we had a discussion in the office about raising children. I was asked how I thought we had raised such great kids (and they aren't even raised yet!). Half joking, I quoted a friend, Rosalyn, "I don't want all the blame, so I can't take all the credit." There's a lot more to these kids than Mark and I. They may be young, but children are so much more complete than we give them credit for. We are not always as far ahead of them as we think. They have a broad range of emotions, personality traits, capacity, and talent. Occasionally, I need to remind myself of this; that we're on a more equal footing than current circumstances suggest. I may be the parent, but who knows what the relationship was like and will be like 100 years before and after today. Tonight was one of those moments when Jeffrey once again earned my respect. He's a great person. I'm so grateful to be a part of this family.