Sunday was the big dedication at church, and I am proud (and totally surprised!) to say that Libbi far exceeded our expectations! :)
The baby dedication ceremony at our church is not quite as formal as it may sound. We don't baptize or sprinkle babies. Having them dedicated is not a guarantee that they will go to heaven. We believe that the dedication ceremony is an outward symbol that we have made (as parents) to commit ourselves to raising Libbi in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. As parents, we dedicate ourselves to raising Libbi in a Christian home and do our best to show her the love of Jesus through our words and actions. We stand in front of our family, our church family, and our friends and pledge to do this (and ask them to take part in it, too). We pray that when Libbi is old enough to understand the meaning of salvation that she will ask Jesus into her heart and follow that profession of faith with baptism, but until she is developmentally and spiritually ready to comprehend all of that, we pray that she will see Jesus in our lives.
(If you have any questions, feel free to email me and I'll do my best to answer them :))
Before the day of the dedication, we went to a little class to help us better understand the process. One of the things that I have been praying about lately is to be more purposeful and intentional in my life. I want to make purposeful and intentional decisions in my marriage, my spiritual walk, my relationships, and my parenting. When I went to the pre-dedication class, we were encouraged to write a letter to Libbi and choose a life verse for her. Along with those tasks, I was also given a list of questions to think about and talk about with Jeffrey. I thought they were really helpful in my quest to become more intentional. Of course, they are things that I have thought about before, but I/we had never said, "this is what we believe about....., and this is how we plan to enforce it...." I thought I would share the questions in case you were interested:
1. Write down your vision for your child's future. what values and character traits do you want active in their lives? What are your dreams and hopes for them?
2. What values and character traits that you wish to see active in your children are currently under-developed in your own life? How will you plan to develop in this area?
3. How will you instill spiritual disciplines in the lives of your kids as an every day practice? What tools will you use to develop your child's spiritual disciplines?
4. What things can you do to help create spiritual rhythms right now? (meaning, how can you incorporate spiritual disciplines in your child's life on more than just Sunday mornings?)
You might remember that I was super nervous about her sitting in the ceremony and going up on stage with us, especially since she is in that stage of having conniption fits at the drop of a hat, but she was awesome!
Now, I have to admit she did have a little bit of "positive reinforcement".....
.....during the one hour ceremony she consumed two bags of m&m's (fun-size), a large sugar cookie with sprinkles, a cup of juice, some fruit loops, goldfish, apples slices, grapes, and anything else her little heart desired.
We were basically doing anything and everything to keep her content - if that meant sugaring her up, then so be it. :)
Of course, they called up each family in alphabetical order, so we were second to last. ;)
Which actually turned out to be a blessing. We had to wait in the (deserted) hallway until it was our turn, so Libbi was free to run around and get some energy out.
Once we were "on deck" we came into the room and listened to the family before us, well, Jeffrey and I listened....Libbi was too busy yelling "More!" (m&m's) and "BUUUUU-BUUUUU!" (she could see Buddy sitting in the audience) ;0)
Once we were on the stage, we had to read a portion of the letter that we had written to Libbi. Another reason why it was a blessing to be at the end of the line......if I had to listen to everyone else read their letters, I would have been a crying mess by the time it was our turn! Thankfully, we only had to listen to one family (and I couldn't even hear them because she didn't step up to the mike). Believe it or not, I made it through my letter without even crying! I shocked myself! I think I was just too distracted by Libbi (who was grabbing at the paper and trying to get m&m's from me) and too nervous to cry.
(yes, she is eating m&m's while on stage....)
While we were on stage, there was a picture of Libbi up on the big screen and the life verses that Jeffrey and I chose for her. The life verses basically represent our prayers, hopes, and dreams for her life. We chose Zephaniah 3:17 ("For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With His love, He will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” ) and Philippians 4:8 ("....whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.")
We were given a Bible for Libbi and a sweet book to save for when she is older. After we returned to our seats, our family was charged with the same commitment of living their lives as an example of Christ. My brother prayed for all of us (as Libbi was telling everyone "nite-nite") and then we all breathed a collective sigh of relief as the dedication came to an end - ha!
I wish we had a few more pictures, but since we had skipped naptime and Libbi was officially "crashing" from all of her sugar, she was pretty much d-o-n-e at this point :)
We were so thankful to have all of our family there to share in this day with us. Libbi is one blessed little girl!
Finally, thank you for sticking through me with this long and "wordy" post :)
I am linking to a video that my friend Amy posted on facebook. I tried to find it on youtube, but you have to pay for it, so I'm just linking to the facebook page if you're interested. It is a beautiful video about God's intricate design, purpose, and plan for babies. Well worth the 3 minutes to watch it! (It is a church's facebook page, so I am pretty sure that you do not even have to have a facebook page to watch this - let me know if it doesn't work!)
Video Link:
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."
~Deuteronomy 6:4-7
