Almost a year ago (which is just mind-blowing to me) I got baptized at my church in Washington. It was one of the best decisions of my life. Now I’ve shared this story a time or two, but let’s face it: no big story or testimony is ever just a “It all happened on the fourth of Never-ary and boom my life was changed!”

That may be how it seems, but come on—there’s signs leading up to it: your life is changing, right?

For me it started back when I was a wee little lass: on the date of my birth, way back in 2008. I’ve been raised in a Christian household, surrounded by nurturing parents, good role models, grandparents aunts and uncles who professed their faith, and various churches or church events that all encouraged my faith journey.

Now, there hasn’t really been a time where I haven’t been a Christian. A Christian, yes, but one who acted on my faith, no. I didn’t care, I believed in God, I liked church, I prayed (mostly when I needed it) but it wasn’t until late middle school early high school when I started taking my faith seriously. This meant attending various small groups, making an effort for my faith, taking the time to read my Bible and worship, and surrounding myself with good influences.

Early on, God was already preparing me for when I would choose Him and not just live under my parents faith.

I had been thinking about getting baptized for almost four years. Now looking back, four years did not feel that long—live was moving fast, we moved from Massachusetts to Washington, and a variety of big things happened—but for the chance to get baptized? When you live in a Christian household and go to church every week? That’s a long time considering how many baptism chances you get!

I think I passed up about six opportunities to get baptized over the years, if not more.

And each time I watched a baptism at a church, I was overjoyed for the baptismees (that’s a word now) but also a little bit sad that I wasn’t baptized.

Watching others baptisms was beautiful, but I felt as if baptism felt unachievable for me.

Why, despite the chance to get baptized being such a dream, did I think I couldn’t have it?

After I decided to get baptized and talked with my pastor about making that decision, I realized that a) it was the devil and b) it was fear, which in a way, was something the devil used to prevent me from committing my life to Jesus.

I had constantly been questioning, “What if it’s the wrong decision? What if it’s a mistake?” Yet while I was asking myself these things, I knew they were wrong—but it still held me back from taking the step to get baptized.

‘What ifs’ took over my faith and convinced me that no matter what decision I made, it would be wrong.

My pastor asked, “What is holding you back from making this decision?”

I had told him, “I don’t know. I’m scared that if I get baptized, it’s the wrong decision.”

In response to this, he had prompted me with, “What would be the consequence of that if it were the wrong decision?”

I told him, “Nothing.” If it was the wrong decision (which it obviously wasn’t), it would be fine—sure, it might be a casual throwaway of a beautiful faith or offensive to take something like that so lightly, but I wasn’t being physically branded or marked with an iron or anything like that.

“Exactly. You’re hearing fear and lies. Now what would be the outcome of getting baptized if it were the right decision?”

“I’d finally be choosing to dedicate my life to God and showing everyone that I’ve given my life to Him.”

And with that, I knew immediately that I was making the right decision. It was a matter of talking it out—which is something I often need to do as an over-thinker— and it changed my life for the better. I haven’t thrown away my faith, I haven’t regretted it.

None of the fears I had about getting baptized came true—because they were all lies.

But that’s enough of my story, you’ve heard it before and don’t need to hear it again. Instead, I want to ask you some reflection questions:

Where have you seen God working in your life? How long has He been waiting for you to love Him in return? And if you haven’t already, then what is stopping you from giving your life to Him?

Thanks for reading, I hope you found this post encouraging!
~Willow

Note: Tomorrow there is not going to be a Sunday Encouragement post. That is because, on the morning of Christmas Eve, I am going to be posting a Christmas Eve encouragement-type post. It’s going to be full of good stuff, so be sure to check it out!