we're getting our 2 1/2 year old baptised. how do we explain it to him

[bebo100]

Hi

We're getting our 2 1/2 year old and 3 month old boys baptised.

We don't go to church services very often, and the 2 1/2 year old hasn't seen anyone being christened, so think he might not take well to having some water dunked on his head.

Any ideas how I explain it to him? Are there any books suitable for a toddler? Any I've seen are more aimed at older children.

Ideas please....

Thanks

I would explain why it is important to you to welcome him into the Christian family of a church you don't go to very often which I can imagine may be tricky...if it helps it's unlikely to be dunked more a splash on his forehead!

We were given one of these - it opens out, closes and reopens to a different picture- (a little bit like one of those fortune tellers you make out of paper), and has the basics of what baptism is about. Might be a fun way of discussing it?

www.amazon.co.uk/Baptism-Cube-Craig-Cameron/dp/0715143204/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445006117&sr=8-1&keywords=baptism+cube

I suppose it depends why you are doing it.

If it:'s because your faith is important to you, despite not going to church often, then I would start with that. Maybe a couple of visits to church before the actual baptism would help start you off (eg 'I liked going to church today because...' )

If it's family pressure, I'd probably follow the same route but perhaps emphasise the family aspect.

If it's for school reasons (although 2.5 is probably too late for that) then that's much harder - but just part of the whole question about how you would deal with your family beliefs not matching the school. If the school are fine with that, then probably explaining it as something which is done in your community is probably what would make most sense to him, and set the scene for later discussions about beliefs.