Dedication

 I've written before about how grateful I am that my parents chose to have me dedicated to the Lord when I was just a baby. I know different denominations have different traditions in the worlds of infant baptism and infant dedication. Though I have attended a few different denominations of churches in my lifetime, all of them have followed the infant dedication tradition. 

When I was a baby, my parents (and probably my sisters and grandparents, too) stood in front of the church and promised to teach me about the Lord, pray for me, and bring me to church. And then the people of the church promised to support my parents, pray for me, and invest in me as I grew up in the church. 

I've had the privilege of attending baby dedications for several of my friends' children down through the years, and it is always beautiful to see families promising to be intentional about investing in their little ones in this way!

(The above photo is of me with baby James, the last baby whose birth I attended. The lady in the photo with us was the doula for the birth.)

Yesterday, we had the privilege of being invited to the dedications for Tim and Justine's two children. One is a baby, and one is a toddler, and they were dedicating them both. We'd never seen a dedication done quite this way, and while there were pieces of traditional dedication that I missed (like the inclusion of the entire church body), I loved the personalization of the day. 

The church took each participating family (and all extended family and friends) through separately, and we stopped at different stations throughout the church. The first station was to remind the children of how much Jesus loves them. Then there was a part for the parents, then the grandparents, and then the representatives of the church itself promised to care for and invest in the children. It was really very meaningful to hear each part.

(We got a group picture at the end, but it was taken by the church photographer, so I don't have it yet.)

It was really special that they included us along with their family. We were so grateful. We had no idea, when we came to this job, that we would find such a good friendship in this family, and we're so glad it has continued even past their time of working with us! And we are also so glad to see them leading their children before the Lord!