Ben's Baby Dedication

This morning at church, Andrew and I had Benjamin dedicated and my parents and several of our friends were there to support and encourage us. For anyone not familiar with a baby dedication, I will try to explain it briefly.

First of all, this is not a baptism/christening. Unlike the Catholic church in which I grew up, where a baby is christened as an infant, children in our Christian church get baptized when they are a little bit older, usually in elementary school. Instead, a baby dedication is a ceremony in which Christian parents make a committment before the entire church congregation to submit a child to God's will and to raise that child according to God's Word and ways. It can be done at anytime but is usually done when a child is a baby.

In the Bible, the ritual of a baby dedication is mentioned in the following passage:

"As surely as you live, my Lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord." And he worshiped the Lord there."
~1 Samuel 1:26-28

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Here we are in front of the church with Pastor Chuck Faber and the other families dedicating their children.



As Pastor Chuck congratulated us, Ben reached his arms out and wanted the pastor to hold him...so he did! Ben's such a friendly little guy...

Here we are with my parents at the church reception before we went out for brunch to celebrate. Ben was starting to zone out at this point after the excitement of the festival yesterday and because he had yet again missed his morning nap for the dedication service. But, he was revived once we got to the restaurant and was able to eat and have his milk. Once we got him home, however, he was zonked out for over three hours - the poor little guy was exhausted after such a busy weekend!