Camen hit the magical number eight. I took a child development course in college and one of the few things I remember from the course is that this is the age when the right and left hemispheres of the brain become fully connected. Interesting, huh?
For those of our faith the 8th birthday is a monumental, it's like the 12th birthday for Jews, but our celebrations usually pale in comparison to most bar mitzvahs. We celebrated simply with a Betty Crocker cake mix, a few presents and lots of family. (We do friend parties every other year.) Camen was happy with everything and was so excited for his upcoming baptism and confirmation.
We wanted to be sure that Camen knew that baptism was his decision and didn't ever want to leave the impression that he had to be baptized. Living in such a homogeneous population it takes extra effort to teach kids that not everybody believes what we do and to introduce some beliefs of other religions.
We taught Camen the Gospel and put extra emphasis on helping him to feel and recognize the Spirit. Intellectually he proved himself capable of understanding the doctrines and my anxiety about his ability to feel a spiritual confirmation soon dissipated.
It's hard to define and articulate spirituality to a seven year old. It's also challenging to measure and really know what a child has felt. However, spirituality oftentimes comes naturally and easily to children, I think that the cynicism we develop as we mature is what makes it unnecessarily complicated. Faith, hope and humility are fundamental in feeling the spirit, and as it turns out Camen was the one who did most of the teaching.
On the morning of his baptism I arrived at the church and most of our family was already seated. My mother-in-love, (new term I picked up from Emily), was playing some soft prelude music on the piano. I smiled and felt awkward for coming in just minutes before we were to begin. I sat down next to Russ and greeted Aunt Raquel and her son Truman who were seated behind me. A moment later Camen found me and while my back was still turned he squeezed me with a warm hug. I was a bit surprised as he doesn't initiate random hugs very often. I turned around, returned the hug and noticed the happiness in his eyes. He didn't seem nervous or uncomfortable, he just looked happy.
The program was simple and personal. As a member of the Primary presidency I had the assignment to speak about baptism, Russ's dad and brother Jayden sang a beautiful duet, and then our bishop gave a memorable talk on the Holy Ghost. Russ then baptized Camen and confirmed him. Spiritually, it was a very sweet.
It was wonderful to have so much support from our family and loved ones. In this photo Camen his with his parents, grandparents, and paternal great-grandparents. (I wish I would have taken a large group photo with everyone.)
Camen has a pure heart and it is a joy to have him in our lives.
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