Followers

Gee....time flies when you're having fun. I've been so busy trying to avoid the election campaign, watching gas prices go up, and dodging pink eye at the preschool where I work, that I didn't realize it was so close to the deadline for signing up as a Follower to win a free book!

But before we review the fine print of that offer, can we talk about this Follower issue? See, it's Sunday and today I did what I've done for the last 51 years of Sundays - I went to church. Church was great today. (Umm...I'm don't mean some Sundays aren't great...) However, today we baptized three people at our church. One was an almost 80 year old gentleman - and a gentleman he is. Sweet spirit and can tell a story or two about the good 'ole days! The other two were a grandmother in her 60s and her 8 year-old great granddaughter. How cool is that?

Just a spiritual refresher course here, in the Baptist tradition - and many other denominations - we baptize to show that we have given our lives to Jesus and decided to follow Him. It's an outward expression of an inward decision.

Now ya gotta know, we Baptists dunk 'em. A precious 5 year-old, who'd apparently never seen a baptism, sat my me in church today. When the first person went under and came back up dripping wet, she said in wide-eyed amazement for everyone to hear, "Was there really water in there?"

So I got the privilege of explaining to her the symbolizim of being baptized to indicate a decision to follow Jesus. It must have scared her because after I'd whispered the condensed version of Baptism 101, she asked, "When can I go home?"

Maybe you can see where I'm having a hard time with this blog follower business. Follower boxes are on blog posts and websites everywhere. And what does being a follower mean in blogworld? Well, I'm a follower on some other blogs, and I hope it means that I'll just pop in, read the new post, maybe make a comment, and then get back to polishing my nails or cleaning the bathroom.

So it's just a little awkward asking people to follow me when for 51 years I've heard about following Jesus. But, now that you know you're not required to give an offering

or listen to a sermon (which aren't bad things to do!), if you haven't signed up to be a Follower, you might want to click in the blue box to the right that says, "Join this site." And that, my friend, enters you into the drawing to win a free book.

Then, if you want to make a comment on the blog and, in turn, post this blog on your Facebook or Twitter page, you can have two more chances to win my book MORE THAN JUST A PRETTY FACE. And you don't even have to get wet to follow!

REMEMBER: DEADLINE FOR THIS OFFER IS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 29.  (See previous post for full contest entry details.)

Happy following!