On May 8th, we celebrated Mother's Day like everyone else. But the day was extra special for us in that we chose this date to dedicate Marshall to the Lord.
Having two little ones has me staying just busy enough to forget things... often. Sadly, one of those things was Marshall's baby dedication. Before we even knew of Marshall's existence, we knew that if and when we had him, he'd belong to the Lord. And while publicly declaring that to our church body is important, setting up a date to do it slipped my mind. I know there's no perfect age to dedicate a child, but I personally like to do it early on. Due to various scheduling conflicts, the earliest date we could do just happened to be Mother's Day. And in some ways, that was perfect.
I'm sure most moms can relate to feelings of inadequacy. Motherhood is no easy task. There's a thousand books written about it, blogs devoted to it, and endless theories on how to perfect it. But there's no such thing as a perfect mother. No matter how hard we try and how many books and blogs we read, we will always fall short. Yet amazingly, there is a perfect heavenly father whose wisdom we have access to. I don't know how I'd get through this season of life (or any season for that matter) without Him. As a Christian, dedicating a child to the Lord seems like a no-brainer. Justin and I are determined to do all we humanly can to direct our children towards the one and only God, who is able to save them and bring joy and fulfillment to their lives. We recognize that the more people we have supporting us -and them- with this goal in mind, the better. They say "it takes a village" to raise a child, right? So on May 8th, we walked up on stage at Christ Community Church with our little Marshall man (and Owen too), to express our desire to dedicate him to the Lord and to ask for help from our "village" of family, friends and our church.
Marshall man was 9 months old at his dedication, but thanks to his mellow, easy-going personality, he did great on stage and had no complaints being held by Paster Scott.
Following the service, our families came back to our house for a Mother's Day/Dedication Day brunch. Justin and I feel so blessed to not only have been raised in Christian homes by loving mothers, but to have SO MANY Christian family members, near and far, praying for us and supporting us as we parent our children. Thank you so much to all of you that have spoken into our lives and loved on us and/or our children. We cannot thank you enough.
Marshall- We love you immensely. The greatest desire of our hearts is that you and your brother would come to know and understand the magnitude of love the Lord has for you, and with that knowledge, you would choose to devote your life to serving Him. As your parents, we pray for wisdom to raise you as He would. We pray that you would understand and accept him as your personal Savior at the earliest possible age. At your dedication, we chose to use the same verses we did for your brother. We love these words and feel they reflect our thoughts and prayers for you perfectly. We love you!
"...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." -Colossians 1: 9-10
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