Help the Kids You Love Understand Salvation

When I started growing as a Christian, after I was an adult, I joined an evangelism class. One of the exercises we did was write our testimonies. This seemed simple enough, until I tried to do it! We were supposed to tell what our lives were like before Christ, how we became  Christians, and what difference the Lord made in our lives. I had been in church all of my life, but my spiritual experience was all jumbled up! I could not articulate my salvation experience.

I remembered being baptized at age 5 in our church swimming pool. (We didn’t have a baptistry yet.) I don’t remember anything else about that “salvation” experience. I just remember being baptized. After hours of soul searching and prayer, something came back to me that was buried deep in my subconscious. I remembered a revival service when I was ten years old where a preacher named “John 3:16 Cook” gave a fiery testimony. Now I vividly recall the entire service. At the end of the service he said, “If you don’t remember the day and the time that you gave your life to Christ, you need to do that today.” Those words jarred me, and I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I went forward to receive Christ, although I had already been baptized.

This part is funny to me, because it is so typical. When I was presented to the church, our deacon said, “Robin has come forward today because she doesn’t remember the day and the time that she accepted Christ, and she would like to do that today. But she did already do that, and we all remember it.” And that was it. Nothing more was ever said to me or about my decision until the day I got the assignment to write my testimony. I believe that the service with John 3:16 Cook was the time when I was saved.  After finishing my testimony writing assignment, I went on to be baptized by my Pastor, Dr. Anthony Jordan. The reason I was baptized again was to get my baptism in the proper order…after my salvation. I have had perfect peace about my salvation and baptism since this time.

This is one reason I believe that it is so important to help children drive down stakes and remember their salvation experiences. That’s why I put the keepsake section in the back of Answers For New Christians. This little scrapbooking section lets children take pictures of their churches, thier pastors, their Sunday School Teachers to keep in their books. There is a place for the child to write his or her salvation memories, and a spot for parents and teachers to write blessings and prayers for the new Christian. These types of affirmations are very helpful. It affirms and helps children remember the details of their salvation experience.

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