Owen's Dedication

On February 9th, we dedicated Owen to the Lord. In reality, we dedicated his life to the Lord long before he was even born. But on this day, we publicly did so. I had hoped to do this when he was a bit younger, but time got away from me with the holidays, illnesses, SNOW.
His dedication took place at our church home, Christ Community Church, in West Chester. I wish we had videotaped it, but we had no idea Owen would be so entertaining. Pastor Scott did the dedication, and his earpiece/microphone wasn't working, so they gave him a hand-held microphone just before we walked up with Owen.

He held Owen, as he prayed for him, and asked that we all bow our heads. I bowed mine, and as Pastor Scott prayed, I thought to myself how nice and quiet Owen was being. Then I heard some muffled laughter amongst the congregation and someone quietly whispering, "he's grabbing the microphone" I lifted my head to see Owen trying his very best to get ahold of the microphone.

Eventually, Pastor Scott stopped mid-prayer and said, "Here, why don't you just hold it." :)

As a gift from the church, they gave us this "My Faith Book" which is divided into sections with different faith-based activities based on Owen's age. It has sections directed at us, as his parents, and then sections directed at Owen. It's actually pretty neat and I'm hopeful we'll remember to reference it through the years.

Both our families attended the service and came back to our house afterwards. It was the first time we had both our families in our house at the same time- there were 24 of us in total, 8 of which were children. It was a bit loud. :)  But we loved it!

We enjoyed a nice brunch together, and then a quiet rest of the evening just the three of us.

I am overjoyed by my son, and that's putting it mildly. Just completely in love with him. When Justin and I were deciding on a verse to use for his dedication, I kept coming back to the same passage. We considered several- and really, there are tons of wonderful verses to choose from. But whenever I read the passage from Colossians, I felt as though they were my words, coming from my heart.

Colossians 1:9-10 says, "… Since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives. So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God." This is our prayer for you, Owen.

We pray consistently that you would come to an understanding of God's plan of salvation at the earliest possible age, and accept him as your personal Savior. We also ask for wisdom as your parents. That we would raise you up into the young man that God would have you to be. That you might see God's love in us and through us. What a huge responsibility we have as parents. Thank you to our family and friends that have been such an encouragement to us. Your prayers are a constant blessing.