Jerry Hick's baptism

Here is the talk I gave at Jerry Hick's Baptism.

"And he said unto the children of men: ^aFollow thou me. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we ^bfollow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?" 2 Nephi 31:10

Jerry, you are making a very good choice by deciding to follow the example of Jesus Christ. As you are baptized you will come up and will be on that path that leads to the Celestial Kingdom. Jesus Christ is at the end of this path helping you every step of the way.

As you are baptized you are promising your Heavenly Father that you will take upon yourself the name of Jesus Christ, follow His commandments to the best of your ability and to always serve Him. And I know as you keep these promises you will receive many blessings.

I remember after I was baptized, my sister told me "now you are perfect, don't mess up."

Well, God knows that after baptism we will make mistakes. That is why He created a way for us to continually be forgiven, and thats called the Sacrament. As we properly repent and come to church and partake of the sacrament, we are renewing and remembering  the promises we made to our Heavenly Father at our baptism. Through the mercy of His Son, He also renews His promise to us and forgives us of those sins. Thus creating a way for us to progress, learn, and return back to him.

"As we make mistakes and repent of them through the Atonement and Sacrament, it is like stuffing those sins into a bad and throwing them off the edge of a cliff to forget them. But, like many of us do, we tend to tie a rope around the bag and our foot. As time goes by the weight of that bag tugging on our foot makes us pull it back up, reliving everything we put in the bag. Our Heavenly Father doesn't want us to suffer through the same things over and over. We must learn to forgive ourselves, cut the rope and let our mistakes be washed away."

Jerry, as you come out of the water, leave all your sins in the water. Forgive yourself and start going down the path. Remember baptism is that gate to that path that leads to eternal life. Your next goal, your next step on the oath should be working towards entering the temple.

Jerry, your Heavenly Father is proud of the choice you are making and He loves you very much!