Repentance<\/a> for more details. As you noted, people were baptized soon after they accepted the truth. While some aspects of repentance may take a while, it doesn’t have to be a long, drawn-out process.<\/p>\nOften, when a person decides to become a Christian, he knows the direction his life needs to take, but there is a lot to learn. “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen<\/em>” (II Peter 3:19). In that growth, you learn more about things like faith, repentance, and baptism. The things that you have done take on greater meaning, but it doesn’t mean that you didn’t do them correctly. What you described doing sounds like repentance to me.<\/p>\nI know you are disappointed that you had sinned before being baptized, but that was the past. Focus on the future and where you are going.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I can remember on the night before I was baptized, I sinned. After that, I prayed to God, told Him I was sorry, and wanted to live my life for Him. I don’t know if I had time to turn from my sins since I got baptized the next day, but I was so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[52,50],"class_list":["post-68082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-baptism","tag-repentance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24451,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-much-repentance-is-needed-before-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":68082,"position":0},"title":"How much repentance is needed before baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a few things that bother me from time to time and I can't seem to be at peace with it. The topic of repentance comes to mind. I have read through some of\u00a0your articles, as well as other articles, regarding repentance and its necessity for baptism (which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40530,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-a-person-in-an-adulterous-marriage-have-to-get-divorced-first-before-he-can-be-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":68082,"position":1},"title":"Does a person in an adulterous marriage have to get divorced first before he can be baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The following scenario has been presented to me by another person for my thoughts and guidance on it: I have a tough situation. A man I've known most of my life was baptized the other day. This man was in adultery. The church went ahead and baptized him. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48825,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-fear-i-didnt-have-the-right-attitude-before-i-was-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":68082,"position":2},"title":"I fear I didn’t have the right attitude before I was baptized","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: First off, I would like to say, I grew up in a church of Christ. A few years ago, I was struggling with hardcore sin in my life. My brother died that year, and it woke me up quickly. I was partying, drinking, smoking weed, cussing, having sex, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38938,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-i-realize-that-i-had-sins-after-baptism-does-that-mean-i-need-to-be-baptized-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":68082,"position":3},"title":"If I realize that I had sins after baptism, does that mean I need to be baptized again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, After spending most of my teenage and early adult life in the Baptist Church, I came upon the\u00a0Interactive Bible Study by Ronald Boatwright, which talked about how to be biblically saved.\u00a0I was actually baptized for the correct reason a few weeks ago. However, I've been wondering if I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47373,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-we-have-sex-one-more-time-before-our-baptisms-will-god-forgive-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":68082,"position":4},"title":"If we have sex one more time before our baptisms, will God forgive us?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I recently converted to Christianity and so did my girlfriend. We both have been in a very sexual relationship before we found God. We have been trying hard not to do anything sexual, but we messed up once, felt horrible, and asked for forgiveness. We're getting baptized soon,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60795,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-get-baptized-while-being-in-a-relationship\/","url_meta":{"origin":68082,"position":5},"title":"Can I get baptized while being in a relationship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 11, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm a 21-year-old male. My Father is a pastor. I'm in a relationship with my sister-in-law. Now I wanted to take baptism, but I have concerns. Do we need to break our relationship in order to get baptized? She is a very good girl, and I preached the gospel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}