I started stressing about a year ago probably about Kayden's baptism. Did he know enough? Did he understand the covenants? Would he feel the Spirit and gain his own knowledge beforehand? Would he be happy? I was going way overboard with the stress and pressure.
For his 7th birthday Chris and I took him to dinner just the 3 of us. We just visited about life :) then we took him to the Mt Timp temple and gave him his gift from us. His very first leather Book of Mormon with his name on it. We read Moroni's invitation at the end and invited him to read the entire Book of Mormon before he was baptised. We talked about how being baptised is the first step to the temple, and about how gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon is the first step to being baptised. We broke it down to 3 columns of reading every day. We each bore our testimony to him and promised him he would have a good experience if he put forth the work.
It was a big challenge for a 2nd grader and the first few weeks/months were a little iffy but he soon caught on and his reading improved tremendously. I loved to tuck him into bed at night with his scriptures and reading light. Usually about once a week he would run upstairs so excited to share a scripture that he had recognized from a song or a story or something exciting that had touched him. It was so amazing to watch him grow and progress. But I was still really hard on him and too stressed about it.
Finally a dear friend said to me ' you know getting baptised as an 8 year old is supposed to be fun, too. Don't take the fun out of it.' Which I totally was. I was in mission mode where being baptised was obviously great but often times brought huge huge changes in someones life. Not for Kayden. It made me realize he was already on the right path.
It was the perfect day. He woke up super early and was floating already. He was calm and patient and excited all at the same time. He seemed to be a little somber and just soaking it all in. He listened intently to all that was said and shared and seemed more at peace than I've ever really seen him. He stayed in his new suit until nearly 2pm :) I was more at peace than I thought I would be too. Usually I'm a super big cryer but I just felt happy. I knew he was ready and enjoying his day and 'getting it' for an 8 year old. I remember thinking that I hope I have that same peaceful, happy feeling knowing he is fully prepared in 11 short years as he leaves on his mission :)
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