Baby Dedication Sunday

In October our church held a baby dedication service, and we decided to have Olivia dedicated. Eliana and Addie were both dedicated by our pastor at our Vietnamese fellowship, but he moved to Michigan, so it was a little sad that we weren't able to ask him to do Olivia's as well. First, let me explain what baby dedication is NOT. It is not infant baptism. As scripture teaches, only those by volition who've placed their trust in the finished work of Christ on the cross receive salvation. Baby dedication is not forgiveness of sins or assurance of salvation for the future. Rather, it is us as parents and our church family as a community dedicating our child to the hand and purpose of God and committing ourselves to bringing her up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We commit to instill in Olivia the importance of knowing, trusting, and serving Jesus, and to pray for her daily. We promise to teach our children the things of the Lord by example, and to provide them with spiritual sustenance. It is our hope and prayer that when Olivia is older, she will come to know Christ personally, and choose to give her life over to Him. "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6.