Baptism Prep

In our parish church, we are required as parents to attend a Baptism preparation course before our son can receive the Sacrament in the Catholic church. It went well. The leaders of the mini-retreat were two couples, one has been married 35 years and the other 42 years. The focus of the retreat was to ensure that we were ready and willing to raise our children in the church as active members and active in their spiritual growth and faith.

The leader asked us a bunch of questions to gauge our knowledge of scripture. Sadly, I never raised my hand. I didn't want to be that girl that knows all the answers. My husband is just shy, so he sat quietly beside me. We couldn't get away with silence that long. One of the leaders was my CCD teacher way back when and he knew I knew the questions he asked. He was shocked when my husband was quicker to answer, but he attended Catholic school for 14+ years. I felt like a COMPLETE nerd the entire time, because out of all the couples there, Mike and I were the only ones who knew the answers to the questions.

Just because I am book smart when it comes to religion (definitely not science), it does not mean squat. I know there are four Gospels, but the girl on the side of me who has no clue who Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are may be stronger spiritually. Mike and I sure do have to grow together in a spiritual sense.

Since I got pregnant, I only attended mass at most once a month. This is the girl who was at mass every week, singing the psalms and practicing for choir twice a week. It was pretty tragic for me that I couldn't attend. I was just too sick. When all the complications began, I never attended church. Since Sam's been around, I've been three times out of seven weeks. All in all, we know we have to make it a priority to get back into it. The easiest place to learn about the word of God is in his house. Spoken like a true nerd.

Our plan is to read the bible more, try to interpret it in a way that is relevant to our everyday life and use the lessons learned. Our goal is to raise a spiritually grounded son who likes being involved in his community and gains the emotional security to choose his path for himself.