Dedicated!

Well... we finally did it. Yesterday, on Sunday, March 14th, we had our two babies dedicated to the Lord. For those of you who are wondering what that means I will explain. It all started thousands of years ago. A woman named Hannah was desperate to have children. She prayed constantly that God would give her a child, and promised that if He did she would give the child back to Him. She did not complain about her situation, but praised God in spite of her circumstance. Then, one day, God granted her request. This barren woman gave birth to a perfect baby boy, whom she named Samuel. After he was weaned, she brought him to the temple to be raised up in the Lord with the priest Eli. He became one of the greatest prophets in Israel - anointing David as king. Hundreds of years later, when Jesus was a baby, Mary and Joseph brought Him to the temple to dedicate Him to the Lord in a similar fashion. Today we brought Paige and Elijah to Hope Fellowship, our temple, and took them up in front of the entire congregation. There we pledged to raise them up in the Lord, to give them back to Him and to trust the Lord in His plans for them. Our Pastor, John, prayed over them and he and the church as a body pledge to do their part in encouraging the kids in the walk with the Lord and helping to lead them in His ways. Even better, Paige and Elijah got to share this day with their cousin Evelyn, who was also dedicated yesterday. What a glorious celebration! The beautiful gifts of our children that we have been given by God we now joyfully entrust back to Him. The truth is that we have to do this everyday, and have been doing it since they were born. But much like a baptism, it is an outward ceremonial expression of what we do in our hearts and with our actions each day we walk with Jesus. It was a simple, beautiful thing that we are so blessed to have had the opportunity to do.