Baptism Talk on The Gift of The Holy Ghost to An Eight-Year-Old

This was a talk given to my brother-in-law at his baptism on the gift of the Holy Ghost. I am modifying it for the blog setting. Some of the things I put in brackets are things I didn't say because it is more than I would expound upon to either an eight-year-old or a new convert.

Congratulations! I want to start by reiterating a little bit of what [your brother] said. You just went into the water. Now back in the day, eight years ago, before you were born, you were immersed in water and you had your spirit come into your body. Then you were born, right? You were born to your dad and your mom and they were already in the kingdom of God, so you were blessed, and you grew up in the church. You were taught about the gospel, you go to primary, and now you're eight, and when you're eight, just like [your brother] talked about, that's the time when you are ready to choose, right? You're ready to make that choice. Its like being brought to the front door of the kingdom of God and being asked, 'do you want to stay in, or do you want to leave?' and what did you choose? [Stay in] Well the door to come in is baptism, which includes being fully immersed in water, which you just did, and [being fully immersed in] the Holy Ghost [or baptism of fire]. Ok. Well that is like the water and the spirit when you were born eight years ago. Now you get to be born again with water and the Spirit.

You just finished the water part, what's next? [Confirmation] Yes, which is where you receive the Spirit [or Holy Ghost]. In a couple moments you'll be in the kingdom of God and you can have God with you all the time. Do you remember the first article of faith? [We believe in God, the Eternal Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost] Absolutely! Since you're in the kingdom of God, you can have God with you and the third one that we just talked about is the Holy Ghost. And that's what you're about to receive, that gift. That gift of having God with you all the time. Ok? It's like coming into the kingdom, in the front door, on the first floor [the telestial kingdom], and you've got the Holy Ghost with you all the time. What can the Holy Ghost do for you? [Comfort you] Absolutely. He can also teach you. He teaches you what it's like to be in the kingdom. [He also prepares you to grow in the kingdom and to find and climb the stairs up to the second floor, the terrestrial kingdom, and the third floor, the celestial kingdom.]

You know how you sometimes get toys as gifts, right? And sometimes you look for the toy and you can't find it. It gets lost, right? Sometimes the Holy Ghost can be like that. There are two reasons that you can't find your gift of the Holy Ghost. One of those is, you just don't know where it is. Right? You look for it and you can't find it. The other is when you decide, 'I don't want it right now.' [You make that decision when you decide to sin.] Ok. Those are two ways that you don't have that gift with you. And there are two things you can do about it. The first one, if you decided that you didn't want it with you, and you change your mind and want it back, the way to get it back is to go to church every Sunday and worthily take the sacrament. In the sacrament prayers it talks about what you can do to have the Holy Ghost with you all the time. And that includes the repentance process. You probably learned all about that and you'll get to practice it now.

Now the second one is where you just can't find it. This is usually because God has taught you what to do and now He thinks you can do it on your own. Ok? There's a phrase that I like to say to my kids its, 'you can do anything with help.' Right? And who's always there to help you? The Holy Ghost, and Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. They're always there to help you when you don't think you can do it on your own. Well sometimes they step back and they say, 'We taught you what to do and We think you can do it.' And so they help strengthen you. And the Holy Ghost sometimes is like that. You may be looking for an answer, you might be trying to figure out what to do and you don't know the answer right away. Usually that's because they are saying, 'go ahead, We know you can do it.' And they encourage you, and teach you.

I know that God is there for you. I know He is there to help you, to teach you and to help you grow and learn to do things all by yourself so that you can have the strength that you need. And I know that Jesus Christ is the one that made that possible. And I say that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.