Are you a person of your promise?

A person of their word is honorable. They keep their promises and demand others to do also.

This refreshing character reveals itself in our baptismal promises. Baptism is more than just the family gathering together to honor the birth of a new child: A Welcoming.

Baptism commits parents, God-parents, and the child to Jesus and his teachings. Christ instills his teachings and values into their lives.

Parents and God-parents have serious and solemn responsibilities to live out their own baptismal promises in order to pass on their Christian values to the next generation.

Children learn more by what they see than what they hear!

Parents choose to have children according to God’s plan, not their own, understanding each child is a gift of God. No one has a right to reject this gift, but to receive it freely and willingly. This is the first step of parents: to be open to life always. So too, mother and father should be in a committed marital relationship with each other and Christ.

God-parents too have serious responsibilities. They are not just friends, but they are mentors who live the Christian life actively. As God-parents, they take an active role of responsibility to pray for their god-children daily, correct them when necessary, and be a good example of what it means to be a Catholic. Parents choose god-parents because of their Catholic witness, helping them raise their children in the ways of God and his Church.

To intervene charitably when necessary is difficult, but parents and god-parents intervene protecting their children from temptations and sin. This is not popular, rather disciplinary and all discipline is difficult but needed. Discipline teaches their children goodness verses evil, truth verses lies, and justice instead of injustice.

Children are the greatest blessing that parents receive. They are also the greatest responsibility.  Instructing a child in the ways of the Lord is challenging, but better to raise virtuous children, rather than repair broken adults.

As we renew our baptismal promises today, we renew our commitment to Jesus to live his holy way — always. The holy way is the way of sacrificial love in which we live giving of ourselves to others so others, especially our children may have the gift of love.