Elaina's Baby Dedication

On Mother's Day, our church always has a Baby Dedication, which is a time when parents of young children and babies come forward and promise to raise their children in a Christian home where the Bible is taught and the Gospel is preached. Our church (and all Southern Baptist Churches as well as many other denominations) do not believe that infant baptism is biblical, as we believe in "Believer's Baptism", so this ceremony (if you want to call it that) is what we do instead. Although it is called a "baby dedication", it really would be more appropriate to call it a "parent dedication" because the purpose of this occasion is for the parents to stand before their church family and commit to do all they can to teach their children about Christ, have them involved in church, and raise them in a biblical manner to the best of their ability. We had Ethan dedicated when he was just 2 weeks old at North Wake Church in Raleigh, NC.
Here are some pictures of that special time for Elaina:

Pastor Bobby taking Elaina from my arms to pray for her and for us as we raise her

Here Pastor Bobby was saying something to the congregation, and Elaina was sound asleep.

He prayed for each child that was being dedicated, as well as their parents.

This picture was taken before Pastor Bobby began praying for each of the children. At first, all of the parents respond by saying "I do" to specific promises about raising and teaching our children about the Lord.

Here's a picture of all of us parents standing in front of the congregation. I believe there were 5 children dedicated that day. To the right are our good friends Melanie and Jamie, as they dedicated Grayson.