Dedication

She was two weeks old. Her father was holding her as the congregation watched and participated in the Dedication Service. She slept peacefully even as the pastor held her. There were three children dedicated this morning during the early service. Some were a little older and waved to their grandparents and aunts and uncles in the congregation. As the parents promised to raise their children in the “fear and admonition of the Lord,” tears came to my eyes. I remembered the time we presented our daughter to the Lord in a similar ceremony. It was March 1964. My beloved Dr. Paul took her in his arms and spoke of the awesome responsibility of parents as they raise the child God has given them. Of course we all make mistakes but we do the best we can, and there comes a time when that little one must make a personal decision of faith.

I often wish that I could go back and have a Do Over. I wish that we could go back and raise our daughter again. I wish that I would have been more patient and perhaps encouraged her to have made better choices in certain instances. We did the best we could with what we knew and of course we each bring our own upbringing to the job at hand. I wouldn’t want to change her – she is such a terrific person, I think. And, thankfully, she is very forgiving. She once told me that she loved her childhood even though she wished that she would have gotten her horse earlier.

I was reminded of how forgiving the Lord is, too, as we celebrated Communion.

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