My Baptist Influence

While living in this wonderful home of Knoxville Tennessee I have been greatly influenced by my Baptist friends. I use Baptist for all the Protestant churches  really because they are the majority and to tell you the truth, I don't see much of a difference between them all.


The other day when I was getting greatly discouraged in our search for a new rental that would actually accept our pets, out in Utah, (Trust me when I say I've learned that most Mormons must be animal haters) from facebook, I called upon the help of my prayer warriors . It's a Baptist thing. Within 24 hours we had secured the perfect new home. And when I say perfect I mean the house we found included all of our needs and many of our wants. 


I would say my Prayer warriors worked some magic.Even if they weren't all Baptist. My friends are so funny. My Jewish friend sent me a message asking me if I didn't think her prayers would work. I told her to please pray and apologized for inadvertently leaving her out in the first request. So in all fairness I really can't be sure which denomination our miracle can be attributed to, but I do know that we all have a mighty God. 


My awesome brother and sister-in-law helped above and beyond the call of duty and from Utah looked at each possible home and gave us the o.k. or nay over the phone. One house was even accompanied by a live video stream. So, when I explained to my brother how excited we were for our new lease and how awesome his wife had been to help us, I got a little carried away. "David", I said, "I am so excited, I don't know what I did to deserve being blessed so much, but God is so good." David: "Did you just say 'God is good'?" Me: "Yeah, isn't he?" David: "If you're Baptist." "Alice, is there something you need to tell me about your religious affiliation changing while you've been down there in the deep South?"


Still very much a believing Mormon here, but I like to ponder on how the Baptists (and by Baptist I mean Protestants) have deepened my conviction. Bless their hearts. I can't help to have been influenced. They are some of the greatest people I have known. They have got me saying things like "give him grace" or "our God is a mighty God". One that I don't really say but you often hear down here is, "It's a God thing."


I asked LG what Baptists say a lot and he informed me that they like to talk of Jesus. They don't usually add on the Christ. I don't really know why that is. LG says that Baptist often say things like, "Trust in Jesus, Jesus loves me, I love Jesus, What would Jesus do?, Jesus is my guide, and my personal favorite just plain old Jesus."

I found it funny that I found this church sign a day after I started this post.

Although when Mormons refer to Jesus, we usually also include the title Christ with Jesus, I wouldn't say that we love Jesus any more. Baptists truly love their Lord. They often exclaim "lordy, lordy lordy." I don't think that they realize that this very saying takes the Lord's name in vain. I've told several of them this very fact. They were gracious about it. Of course. Protestants are some of the most gracious people I know.

Baptists traditionally eat out on Sunday after church. I remember explaining to one friend that Mormons are very strict about the Sabbath observance and try not to do anything that would require anyone else to work She laughed and said, "Well if you want to debate the principle with my preacher, you would have to come and find him after church at the restaurant with the rest of us."

LG and I were delightfully surprised at how much religion is a part of life here in the South. We have been strengthened and taught by our Protestant friends. I hope they know how much we love them, even if they call us UnChristian or worry that they were never able to "save" us. There is one thing that I know we have in common and that is a great love for our Jesus.