lead me on....

Graham was baptized on Sunday, November 15th.

Dear Heavenly Father, we stand before you this morning praising you for being the giver of life and thanking you for the life you have given us in Graham.

In celebrating this outward sign and inward work of your grace, we want to acknowledge the truths that this sacrament represents regarding our relationship with you.

We want to thank you for being a God who loved us first. Before we, like Graham, could do anything to earn your favor, you chose to reach out and love us.

We want to thank you for being a God who pours out his grace on everyone, not just the elect or those predestined to believe, but all mankind, even the littlest among us.

We also want to thank you for your saving grace, which allows all babies to go to heaven. We rejoice in the fact that because of your grace, today we can welcome Graham into the fellowship of your church.

While we believe in this moment, by your grace, Graham is a part of the family of God, we also acknowledge that your grace is resistible and that in the fullness of time, there will come a point where Graham will need to choose for himself whom he will serve.

On that day, we pray that your grace, as it has been symbolically poured out over Graham’s head today, will serve as a marker, drawing him to you. So when the siren call of the voices of this world seek to lure him away from truth, may he recognize your voice, and because of the grace we celebrate today, follow in the light of your way. May your grace go before him, making him your own, and guiding him in the paths of righteousness.

We also pray that your grace would be evident in our home. Jan and I confess that we cannot raise three boys in our own strength. We pray that you would be our strength and give us the wisdom to train up Graham in the way he should go so that when he is older, he will not turn from it.

We pray for Graham’s brothers, Harrison and Sawyer and for our extended families represented here today, together with those in this congregation who will be people of influence in his life. May their affect on Graham be positive and pleasing to you.

So as we stand before you this morning, acknowledging these truths and thanking you for the gift of our son, we ask for you blessing upon Graham. We pray dear Lord that your grace would keep him, preserve him, and protect him. May you give him one pure and holy passion, one magnificent obsession, one glorious ambition for his life, to know and follow hard after you.

In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

Okay, so Jonathan gets credit for writing the prayer, but hey! I picked the song! LOVE this. Take a listen!