Baby Dedication

About two months ago, Dusty and I got to stand in front of our church and our family members, along with a few other parents, holding our precious Kanon and Remington, and dedicate them to God.  We committed to raising our children in the Lord's house, and to helping them learn about Jesus and leading them in the Christian life.  

I can't tell you the times I've spent dreaming of that moment.  I grew up in church and we actually didn't really do baby dedications at my church; however, Dusty and I changed churches to one closer to home 2 years ago, and it is something that is done twice a year at our new church.  In fact, just the 2nd time we went to church there, and the first time after having Chandler & Paisley, we watched the baby dedication service, with tears streaming down our face, not knowing if we would be able to ever be a part of giving our children back to God in a spiritual way, rather than the physical way we had just experienced at that time.


Also, as a note, we attend a Baptist church.  Unlike other denominations, the dedication is not the baptism or confirmation of children.  Baptist believe that a person must make the decision to be saved and follow Jesus on their own, and after that, it should be followed by baptism.  The dedication is exactly as it sounds, the dedication of our children to God and to raising our children in a Godly home.  

The dedication focused on this key verse:

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added

to you." Matthew 6:33

Put God first, in all we do, and especially in raising our children.  That was the message and is something Dusty and I want to keep our eyes on, remember and fall back on, at all times; in all circumstances.

The service included us making the following commitment, which I want to record here, so we can come back to this when we lose focus and remember what we said we would do; what we promised to do. 

We commit to raise our children on the authority of the word of God

We commit to dedicate our heart, soul, mind and strength to the task of allowing You to guide and direct our children through us

We commit to leading our children through personal relationship with You

We commit to raise our children in Your church

We commit to You, Lord

After the commitment, our pastor prayed over each family.  

More than anything, Dusty and I commit to these things.  We pray over our children that they will love the Lord and love their church and grow up to do amazing things for the good of Christ.  

 And I can't document this story without adding the fact that poor Kanon, as you can tell from the pictures, was just not feeling it.  In fact, he and Remington both started getting sick earlier that week with a stupid cold I brought to them and that poor boy cried through pretty much the entire 2nd half of the dedication service (which was really only about 15 minutes total).  He was hot, and tired, and just plain over it.  Little sweetheart.  I could not get him to settle down and felt awful.  Our pastor reassured me that it was fine when he walked up to our family to pray with us.  I'm thankful he said that because I felt terrible!!