On Easter weekend, I got to do a baptism for a friend’s young daughter. I wanted to celebrate the value and worth of this adorable and lively child, in a world that would try to deny her value over and over as a person of color and a female. I wanted to affirm, with her family (and to remind The Church), that part of being a faithful Christian is to speak up, fight injustice, and value your own worth. So I wrote these vows, and mixed some of them in with some of the traditional baptismal vows.
The entire set of my original vows is below; it is also in a PDF document.
Will you be responsible for seeing that (NAME/S) is brought up in the Christian faith and life, while being open to his/her/their questions, doubts, or challenges? Will you help her/him/them, with your prayers, love, and hard work, to grow into a Christ-like life of compassion, justice-seeking, and love? Will you teach and model for (NAME/S) how to learn to forgive, and to call to accountability, to speak up and to keep silent, to know his/her/their own worth and value and to stand up for himself/herself/their self? And will you give (NAME/S) the grace to be an imperfect child, and yourself the grace to be imperfect parents and godparents, asking forgiveness, forgiving yourself and trying harder all the time? And will you all promise to live, as best you are able, a life of laughter, joy, hope and love, knowing always that you are not alone?