Being Dedicated

Last night at church (we go to church on Sat. evenings) we had our Madeline, Anna and Gideon dedicated to the Lord.  We do not believe in baptizing babies, but we do believe in publicly committing ourselves to raising our children to love the Lord.  We recognize that each of our kids have their own free will and ultimately it will be their decision to choose God or not.  Ryan and I though, will do everything in our power to raise our children to know God and to have a personal relationship with him.  Prayerfully, they will desire God and will accept Him into their hearts and then at some point being baptized will come into play.  But, that will also be their own decision.

Now that our little theology lesson is over, last night was really a nice time.  We go to the same church Ryan's family goes to.  His siblings also had some of their children dedicated.  So, we had all four of the siblings on stage with 8 out of the 12 grandkids up there.  We also all had some family there, so we were quite a large group.  We all went out to eat afterwards, which was a little chaotic, but still fun.  The food was really yummy and all in all it was a good time.  I left the evening feeling grateful for family and friends, but mostly I felt a deep sense of joy for our five beautiful blessings that God has entrusted us with.  May we do him proud!

Julie