Monday, March 31, 2014

Dedication

Sunday at church it was a family service with a parent dedication.  Growing up, we were baptized (water on forehead) when we were babies.  This was signifying that our parents were dedicating us to God.  When I was a teenager, I did Public Profession of Faith which is where I went in front of the church and well, publicly professed my faith.  Why do that? It's not only a way to make that commitment but to have support and accountability from the community (church).

Now being part of the Baptist church, things are a bit different.  It's actually sort of reversed. Parents dedicate their kids when they are little and the kids/parents/any person is baptized  (full immersion) when they make that decision to commit their lives to Him.

To be honest, now that I've been part of two different denominations, it doesn't really matter to me when any of it happens.  Baptize, dedicate, profess, whatever.  I think we often get caught up in the `rules' and ideals and forget what the overall importance is.  I am actually not a member of our current church (I've been there for 9 years!) because I haven't been baptized as an adult.  Not sure I ever will.  
Sunday, we, along with three other families, made a commitment publicly and this is what it was;

As parents, we love God and we have chosen to live in accordance with God’s commandments.  We understand and accept the responsibility for teaching our child how to love God and live a God honoring life.  We believe that our child is a gift from God to us and we are committing to love our child with a Christ-like love and pray that one day our children will come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Jackie was in charge of taking the group photo so obviously there were a lot of photos like the one above as well :)  Thank you to friends and family who joined us.  I know a 9 am service isn't the easiest to attend!   Although it was just a few minutes in the service, it's a lifetime commitment that we have made and we appreciate the support of our family (whether it be the family we were born to or the family of supporters that we have).
Then we had our families over for lunch.  The big kids played in the basement and the little kids ran wild all over the house.  I think the only time I wish our house was a tad bigger is when we have family gatherings but it could be that we just have large families!
Nice to have both sets of grandparents here!  Special thanks to Joanne, Jackie and Tyler for making soup.  
Kai said `I bet the dedication will make your Thankful Thursday'!  It might, but I wanted it to have a post of it's own.
I hope you had a wonderful  weekend. We did!

Love, Louise



3 comments:

  1. Awesome! Glad that you have chosen to dedicate your family to God! Interesting that for your church adult baptism is "required" for membership. Most churches usually only require a class on the history of the denomination at least that's what it is within E. Free and EMCC (Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada). Thankfully I just got spousal membership with Spencer being a pastor! I think membership is important but it seems to be very controversial. But good on you for dedicating your kidlets! It's not a popular thing anymore! We've had both kids dedicated at two different churches which are both different denominations.

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  2. I'm a born and raised CRC married to a born and raised Baptist, which made for some interesting discussions! We have come to the same conclusion as you guys.

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  3. Katrina-the similarities continue!

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