Becoming parents is a whole new ballgame. I know. That's not so profound. But seriously you start to realize all the responsibility that God has put on you when you are given a child.
That responsibility becomes even heavier when you start to think about leading and directing your child to love God and teaching them that He is the Lord of your life. (and oddly, I'm not sure most adults know what that means, much less how to teach their child what that means...)
I suddenly just thought of Proverbs 22:6, "Train a child in the way they should go and when he is older he will not turn from it."
That's all of our goals as parents, right? Teach them. Train them. Make them the best little people we can.
This past week we dedicated Gabbie at our church. We had to go through a brief class a few weeks ago at our church to help explain what dedication is as well as what it is not. It is not salvation, but rather a promise, commitment to raise your child to love God, and know all that they can about Him.
I can't wait to tell Gabbie all about her dedication because it sure ended up a little different than we originally planned (doesn't everything!)
Originally we were going to dedicate Gabbie 2 weeks ago. Well if you flip back through my posts, you'll see that was the weekend of our Winter Storm of the century. The Moncriefs were planning to come up on Friday for the dedication on Sunday, so they started their trek. What should have been a 2 hour drive turned into 5 hours because of the crazy snow, but they persevered and made it here for a great weekend. Unfortunately none of our other family was able to make the trip as originally planned because of the crazy weather - both of our parents as well as some extended family in Alabama were all planning to come.
Obviously we felt bad because the Moncriefs had made the trip and wouldn't be able to come back the next weekend, but our church chose to reschedule the dedication to the following weekend. So this is my opportunity for a big THANK YOU to the Moncriefs for coming up - enduring the elements and having a great weekend anyway!
So this past weekend, we finally got to do the actual ceremony. Usually there are several families participating, but we were the only ones. It was really special being all by ourselves. My parents, Brent's parents, and my cousin and her husband all came on Sunday to witness Gabbie's dedication.
It was a really special time and our church definitely does a very stellar job at making this a very unique time for families.
We chose a life verse for Gabbie which is:
"Be not weary in well-doing for you shall reap if you faint not." - Galatians 6:9
Brent and I have always noticed how determined Gabbie has been from day one: from holding her head up really early to being determined to get her little arm out of her swaddle so she could suck her thumb (Brent does a really good impression of her using all of her little might to get that arm out). We picked this verse to coincide with that determination and hopefully encourage her to continue that determination throughout her life.
Thank you to our parents and the Sapps for coming to to the dedication, as well as to the Moncriefs for coming the weekend before and our extended family for planning to come even though the weather wouldn't cooperate.
Here are some pictures from our special day....

Before we went into the service, our preschool minister snapped a quick family photo. A few minutes into the service, she presented this picture in a frame for us to keep. So special!
Our community life pastor, Brent Hutchinson talking about Gabbie and the specialness of dedication. Gabbie was enthralled with him.
Praying with Brent - Gabbie was definitely more interested in him than praying...



I forgot to take pictures with the grandparents and the Sapps at church, but we got them at the house. Here with Mammaw and Pappaw.

and with Pop Pop and Ti Ti.

very excited to see her Pappaw...