This weekend we had Levi’s baby dedication at church.
As parents, Ryan and I believe that children are a gift from God, and that becoming parents means that we are entrusted with the awesome responsibility and privilege of raising them to the best of our ability.
To us, having a baby dedication ceremony is merely a public confession of something that we do every day:
There is not a night that goes by that I don’t thank God for the beautiful gift of Levi’s life, and not a day that goes by that we don’t dedicate ourselves to the incredible task of raising him to be a young man who loves God and loves people according to our faith.
As Levi comes of age himself he will choose if he wants to follow God or not. That is his decision, not our own.
Our commitment to him in the meantime is that we do our best to demonstrate God’s heart of love, compassion, kindness, grace, acceptance, humility, wisdom, justice, and mercy so that his view of God will be as accurate as possible as it comes time for his faith to become his own.
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| {levi was busy preaching up a storm and waving to everyone during the entire thing.} |
So as we stood up in front of the congregation along with my in-laws at Levi’s baby dedication, we publicly declared our intention to walk out our commitment to him in teaching him and training him in life and faith. We thanked God—once again—for the amazing gift of Levi’s life, and we dedicated our little family to the One we believe is the Giver of Life and All Things Good.
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| {and... now for the double-handed wave. also pictured, "nanny and bop" - ryan's parents.} |
Dear friends, isn’t it an amazing privilege and responsibility to have children? What is one thing that you are dedicated to that helps you to parent your child well?
adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2010
do not reproduce without written permission
It is SUCH a privilege. The more blogs I come across, I am learning of the most amazing, sad, and persevering stories- and it makes me realize how truly lucky I am to have a healthy little boy :)
ReplyDeleteI love that your blogged about this. It is such a huge responsibility - especially for as a believers - to train our children to walk in the ways of the Lord and to love Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. Especially because we have to first be able to model that for them...its overwhelming at times - but then, that's why we can be thankful for God's grace, to fill in the gaps where we miss the mark.
ReplyDeleteI am of the same frame of mind. We dedicated our son about a year ago. You are right, its not our decision to make. We can only point them in the right direction and pray.
ReplyDeleteI love this blog...seriously do!
ReplyDeleteAnd on a side note: totally awesomeness that Levi has a "Bop"! Isaac and Phinneas have a Bop as well :) I love that name for Grandpas!
Beautiful photos! Love the casual attire. We've been wanted to dedicate our daughter as well, but it's been such a fiasco with the dedication dress -- use a family heirloom, buy a new one? To get my sister's dry cleaned is $45! Crazy!
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