(this is a repost of a blog post I wrote in August 2014)
I love being in the Relief Society Presidency of our ward.
The best part? Not being the President!! 😉
I am responsible for the Sunday meetings.
I make sure the teachers have the help and support they need. On rare occasions it means I get to do a sudden impromptu lesson when a teacher is not being able to make it at the last minute.
Sunday after Sacrament Meeting I got a text from the teacher. She had the flu!!
So I had 30 minutes to prepare a lesson.
I do love to teach. I also love to prepare, in some ways that is my favorite part of teaching. I learn so much when I am preparing and I feel the spirit.
The lesson was on baptism. I started reading it and got excited. The very first section referred to the symbolism between our birth in this life and our rebirth in baptism. Well, I love birth. I co-authored a book about the spirituality of birth – The Gift of Giving Life. I looked up some blog posts on The Gift of Giving Life blog, and got the ideas and inspiration I needed to feel good going into the lesson.
However I still felt some hesitation. Again, I usually practice my lessons at least 2 times before teaching. No time for that! So I prayed for help and got the impression that this was the chance to see the power of The Lord’s hand, that He would give me what I need to speak, when I need to speak it.
My Notes
| Birth | Baptism | |
| 1 – Preparation | Do you think we prepared in the pre-mortal existence for our earthly birth? Robyn said, “birth is the crowning event of pre-motal life” | Do we do things to prepare for our baptism? Yes, we prepare or help our kids prepare. |
| 2 – Blessings | Body, Light of Christ, New Life, Family | Body is cleansed, Holy Ghost, New Life and New Church family |
| 3 – Water, Blood, Spirit | Amniotic Fluid, Blood, Our Spirit joining with our body. Moses 6:59 Allowing them to bust forth from pre-motal state, bathed in pure water, life giving blood and the Spirit. | Water – BaptismBlood – Atoning Blood of ChristFire – Gift of the Holy Ghost |
| 4 – Who with? | Mother | (typically) Father |
| 5 – Choice | We chose to come to earth. Imagine we made covenants before we came to earth in this “ordinance” of birth | We choose to get baptized. Make a covenant in the ordinance. |
| 6 – Sacrifice | Requires Sacrifice of Mother to birth her baby. | Requires Sacrifice of Savior |
Baptism and Birth can be Spiritual
I then talked about how when we set our intentions, we can see the spirituality in everything. I shared the experience I had at T3’s baptism.
My “baby” was baptized in January by his 16 year old big brother.
The day before his baptism, I remembered about a post my friend wrote for the blog about the baptism of her daughter and how it was as special as the day she was born. I had not experienced that with my oldest sons baptisms, but I wanted to for this one.
I prayed and asked God to help me have a meaningful experience of my own. I made sure I got up early Saturday to meditate and pray and study scriptures. I stayed calm and relaxed before and during the services and really focused on staying present. (At my other boys baptisms I remember feeling a bit frazzled and overwhelmed.)
I waited and watched with my spiritual eyes.
The talk about baptism was lovely.
My middle son and 8 year old sang When I Was Baptized. It was lovely.
The talk on the Holy Ghost was great!
Our family went last for the baptism. We went into the font area.
Then I saw.
I wish I was an artist and could draw the image I had. I can still see it so clearly in my mind.
It was when B. came up out of the water and was all wet and then he took his first breath.
Suddenly I was back at his birth, when he emerged and his head was all wet and he took his first breath and gave a bellowing cry.
It was so similar, I almost expected to hear crying.
But suddenly he was my 8 year old boy again smiling and laughing as his big brother tried to get the plug undone from the bottom of the font.
The rest of the day was lovely.
Another song by the boys. (They sang this in the room we did the confirmation.)
Lunch with family and friends.
Park with family. It was so great having all the grandparents, aunts, uncle and cousins.
Being together!!
Then I saw more
I was exhausted by the time I made it to bed. It was almost midnight but I knew I had to write down what I had seen. It was a gift I was given and I needed to honor it by writing it.
As I wrote about seeing B’s first breath, I saw more.
It was so neat to see him baptized by his older brother. I remembered that moment of him coming out of the water all wet and breathing that first breath and I saw D. there too. That D was looking down at B love. It hit me in my heart. His older brother baptized him! There was cool symbolism in that.
It was the sacrifice of his Elder Brother Jesus Christ that we are all able to be baptized and cleansed of our sins.
Seek after these things
When we seek for things we will find them. Once women realize that births can be spiritual, they start seeking to see those spiritual things and then they are able to see them. I don’t know if I would have had that moment if I hadn’t asked to see it. I want to continuously seek to see the spiritual things going around me always. I pray you do to!
This is really awesome. Thank you for sharing!