What is a Baby Dedication?
Mother’s day this year was extra special for a few reasons. It was the first time I celebrated it as a mom and we dedicated Izzy at our church. I grew up in a Presbyterian church and as a young baby I was baptized. I heard about people choosing a baby dedication instead of baptism, but I didn’t really know the difference until I was older. Religion and religious practices can be sensitive topics. My hope in this post is that I can share what a baby dedication is and why we decided to do it.
First, what does dedicate mean? The King James Bible Page describes it as:
To set apart and consecrate to a divine Being, or to a sacred purpose; to devote to a sacred use, by a solemn act, or by religious ceremonies.
Did you know that Mary and Joseph dedicated Jesus in the Bible? He was later baptized right before he started his earthly ministry. Read Luke 2:22-39 for the full story of Jesus’ dedication. Here is a sneak peak from verses 22-23 (NIV):
When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”)
We knew before Izzy was born we wanted to do this. We even chose her name based on the meaning “consecrated to God” (read more about our name choice). As part of the dedication we gave our child’s life to the will and purposes of God. As her parents we make a promise to teach her about the Kingdom of God, Jesus’ love for her, and to raise her in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” It is up to Izzy to ask the Lord into her heart and to make Him her Lord and Savior. It is our role to raise her in the Lord’s ways. We believe salvation is up to the individual.
At church, the parents, families and babies were called to the alter and we prayed over our children. Overall, Izzy’s dedication was precious and we were so grateful to share this experience with our family and church family.
Here are some more pictures from our day:
Thanks for this post we are dedicating our daughter Avery on Sunday so it was an awesome read!
This was a beautiful post! Thank you for sharing Deborah. We will be dedicating our little one at the end of the month and I really appreciated reading this!
Thank you so much for sharing this, my little girl is now 5 years but we have never had her dedicated. We are happy to be doing it early July, I have been living g with this guilt. I really cannot wait. 😍 your family is beautiful 😘
Thank you! I’m so glad it touched your heart.
Thank you so much for the post. I am going to dedicate my son once he arrives.