Is He Ready?
For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints age 8 is known as the age of accountability, or the age in which a child can be held accountable for knowing right from wrong. Thus it is the age at which children are given the opportunity to choose to be baptized.
John is turning 8 in about a month and as such traditionally would be baptized. Living with Autism has thrown a new set of circumstances on this decision. Just how "accountable" is John? Does he understand what baptism is? Does he even want to be baptized? These questions and more have been a source of many discussions for Paul and me over the last many months. And have led us to have a few more conversation with John, than we normally would have, about baptism, what it means & what it entails.
We have come to the conclusion that the focus for John getting baptized isn't so much about having "sins washed away" but more about making a promise to Heavenly Father to follow the example of Jesus Christ. As to the accountability part, we will leave that one up to Heavenly Father to decide. But for how much does John understand? . . . I asked him some questions the other day to see how much his autistic mind really understands:
Q: Why do we go to church?
A: To be reverent and not scream and yell.
Q:Why do we pray?
A: Because we love Heavenly Father.
Q:Who is Jesus?
A: A God.
Q:Who wrote the Book of Mormon?
A: Heavenly Father.
Q:Why do we get baptized?
A: Because we are brave.
Q: What do you get after you are baptized?
A: Presents.
Q: What else?
A: The Holy Ghost.
Q: What is a testimony?
A: It means you get baptized.
At face value some of these answers are right from a Primary lesson, others made me, well, smile. But the more I thought about John's "nontraditional" answers . . . I realized they are all 100% correct! He may express things a little differently than you or I, but he understands things perfectly.
John is turning 8 in about a month and as such traditionally would be baptized. Living with Autism has thrown a new set of circumstances on this decision. Just how "accountable" is John? Does he understand what baptism is? Does he even want to be baptized? These questions and more have been a source of many discussions for Paul and me over the last many months. And have led us to have a few more conversation with John, than we normally would have, about baptism, what it means & what it entails.
We have come to the conclusion that the focus for John getting baptized isn't so much about having "sins washed away" but more about making a promise to Heavenly Father to follow the example of Jesus Christ. As to the accountability part, we will leave that one up to Heavenly Father to decide. But for how much does John understand? . . . I asked him some questions the other day to see how much his autistic mind really understands:
Q: Why do we go to church?
A: To be reverent and not scream and yell.
Q:Why do we pray?
A: Because we love Heavenly Father.
Q:Who is Jesus?
A: A God.
Q:Who wrote the Book of Mormon?
A: Heavenly Father.
Q:Why do we get baptized?
A: Because we are brave.
Q: What do you get after you are baptized?
A: Presents.
Q: What else?
A: The Holy Ghost.
Q: What is a testimony?
A: It means you get baptized.
At face value some of these answers are right from a Primary lesson, others made me, well, smile. But the more I thought about John's "nontraditional" answers . . . I realized they are all 100% correct! He may express things a little differently than you or I, but he understands things perfectly.
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