Monday, December 1, 2014

Dedicating Children...

Psalm 8:1
Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
    in the heavens.
Through the praise of children and infants
    you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.

This past Friday we gathered with our extended family who were in town for the Thanksgiving holiday and we dedicated our children to the Lord.
My husband and I with our two daughters as well as my brother and his wife with their daughter. Together each couple committed before God and family that we would raise our girls to know Jesus, setting an example for them with our lives and ultimately acknowledging that our girls were designed and made by our Creator, who knows and loves them intimately and whose they truly belong to.
My dad, the patriarch of our family, along with his bride, our other sister and brother as well as our cousin and his wife via Skype and our grandmother via speaker phone, joined with us, committing themselves to our daughters, to love and lead them continually back to Christ with their lives and examples. And standing to say they will support us as parents in our quest and challenge to raise these beauties.
It was a time filled with joy and some tears and plenty of welcome interruptions from the 3 year old, 8 month old and 4 week old daughters of our King. Scriptures were read by all and through them we heard God's heart for the little ones, charging us to step out in faith, press into Him in the inevitable hard times, and accept the challenge of teaching our girls to walk with Jesus, honor their bodies, minds and souls, and ultimately go against the flow of this world, shining as lights in the darkness. 
We will commit ourselves once again, in front of our local congregation of community and friends in January, but this decision to dedicate our daughters in front of family was truly beautiful and encouraging.
We're thankful to have a family of faith.

"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many.."
Deuteronomy 11:18-19

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