To Noah
On Your DedicationFrom Your Parents
Noah,
Before God placed you in your mommy’s tummy, you were the
desire of our heart and the prayer on our lips.
When we found out we were pregnant with you and saw your little beating
heart at your 8 week check-up, we instantly fell in love with you. Mommy cried with joy when she saw and heard
your heart beat and then cried every time we saw you on the doctor’s screen
until you were born. It was amazing to
see God knitting you together in your mother’s womb. We were so excited to welcome you into this
world. Your birth was quite an adventure
unlike anything we had ever experienced.
Finally after 9 months and one very long week of waiting for your
arrival, you were here with us to hold and love. You immediately became our greatest earthly
treasure!
Quickly after you were born we started answering the question
of who you look like more: your mommy or your daddy? Most people think you look like your daddy. But, Noah, you need to know that above
looking like your daddy or mommy, you bear the image of God. This gives you great worth and value. It also gives you great responsibility to
represent God well. This is very hard to
do without some help.
The good news is that you were very blessed to be born into a
Christian family. There are many
families in this world who are far away from God, but, by His grace, He has
drawn your mommy and daddy to Himself through his Son, Jesus Christ. Our deepest desire is to raise you in such a
way that you understand God and how to bear His image. It comes through knowing Jesus.
Today, Sunday March 17th, 2013, you will be “dedicated.” What this means is that we are making a commitment to God to use our lives to point you to Jesus Christ. We pray that our lives – the way we love each other and love you – would be a reflection of Jesus. It doesn’t mean that we have it all figured out. Nor does it mean that we are perfect, because, as you will soon come to realize, we are a work in progress. There will be times when we will not love you well and we will need to ask for your forgiveness. But we pray that God would use our mistakes to show you forgiveness and grace. We pray that our love for you will be a picture of God’s love for you.
This dedication is happening in front of several hundred
people who are part of your church family.
You see, Noah, you have your birth family that consists of your mommy
and daddy, your grandma and GG, and so on, but God has given you a massive
faith family. These are people who also
believe in Jesus and have committed to share life together. You are doubly blessed because both your
birth family and faith family know Jesus.
Part of your dedication is to entrust you to your faith family so that
they may be a part of your care and discipleship. There
are so many special people in this family that will feel very much like your
aunts and uncles, your grandmas and grandpas.
This is a great gift God has given you.
Our prayer for you Noah is that you will come to know Jesus
early in life. We pray that you will be taught
about God and what it means to walk with him.
We pray that you will understand that God created everything and know
how life works best. We pray that you
will trust Him and live in obedience to Him.
We pray that you will have a hunger for God’s word and that it would
bring you great wisdom. We pray that you
would have a deep love for serving others as you remember how Jesus served you
by going to the cross. We pray that you
would understand that there is a world much bigger than what you can see with
many different kinds of people who need to know Jesus. We pray that your life would point many to
Jesus.
We love you with all our heart,
Daddy and Mommy
XOXO
