God’s Gift Of A Baby

GOD’S GIFT OF A BABY

By: C. Mason Davis

A couple were about to have their first baby years ago. I was standing just inside the door next to her husband, hearing her scream, which made him unbelievably nervous. He kept saying to me, “Oh, she’s gonna kill me for this.” She started screaming again as she was giving birth and yelled, “I can’t do this…it’s too hard!” Just then a nurse who was in the room, leaned towards her, and said, “Oh honey, this is the easy part. What’s hard are the next 18 years.”

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

Psalm 8:2, “Through the praise of children and infants you have created a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.”

Baby dedication is a wonderful moment in which parents make a public statement of faith to raise their child under God's grace and wisdom. Dedicating your child to God shows that you recognize your child as a gift from God and you are dedicating yourself to being a godly example to your child. Baby dedication does not secure salvation, rather it is a symbolic moment of entrusting the child's life to God's will. Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Having a baby dedication for your child is not a requirement of God, but it is a sign of respect, as well as a show of intention and expectations you have for your child living in a Godly manner. Other than praying, it is a way to ask God for divine intervention in your child’s life from birth.

It begins, “Mom, God has created for you one of the most precious gifts that He could bestow on you, and that is this baby you have brought before us now. In return, God wants you to continue to grow in your love and trust of Him, to love this child unconditionally, to provide, to give, to teach, to learn, and to raise this child knowing, loving, and accepting Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. Sarah will always look to you for love, understanding, support, protection, the importance of honesty, as well as answers to life. Sarah will learn right and wrong from you, too. She will learn from you about her father, how you speak to him, how you treat and respect him, and all you do for him as a lesson to how women should be towards a husband, and all other people.”

“Dad, God has created for you one of the most precious gifts that He could bestow on you, and that is this baby you have brought before us now. In return, God wants you to continue to grow in your love and trust of Him, to love this child unconditionally, to provide, to give, to teach, to learn, and to raise this child knowing, loving, and accepting Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. This child will always look to you for love, understanding, support, protection, the importance of honesty, as well as life’s answers. She will learn what’s right and wrong from you, too. Sarah will see and learn from you, as an example of how you love her mother, how you speak to her, how you treat and respect her, and all you do for her, as a lesson to how men should be towards a wife, as well as all other people.”

“Baby Sarah, your creation by God is a gift from Him to your Mommy and Daddy. You are going to be raised to love and trust Him and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Your parents are going to be examples for you as you grow and learn. You’ll learn how to love, to laugh, to sing, to forgive, to know right from wrong, to be honest, to treat others as you wish to be treated, to understand, and to give. Mom, Sarah will learn from you how she is to be treated, to be respected, how to be a mother, how to treat and respect a man, and how to be a woman. Dad, Sarah will look at how you treat other’s as to know to treat others and how not to be towards others. It is from you that she will learn how she is to expect to be treated by a man, to be respected by a man and what she should expect from a husband and father to her children. Sarah will learn from watching you during childhood as to how relationships should be. If she grows up seeing you love, honor, obey, respect, protect, and be kind to each other, that is who she will learn to be. If she is raised seeing the opposite behavior in her parents, then she’ll learn that it’s okay to be negative, argumentative, lack respect, and not be kind. If you argue with each other, she will learn to think that it’s okay to argue rather than to talk calmly about issues. If you abuse each other, then she’ll think that it’s okay for someone to abuse her or for her to abuse someone. You will be the ultimate role model for her as she grows into womanhood and meets a man, she wants to spend her life with. It will be your example that will be the model of man she looks for, she accepts, that she loves. Sarah is going to expect to be treated by a husband by the way that you, her father, treats her mother. The way that you treat Sarah’s mother is going to be the kind of man she accepts into her life. Children will copy the behavior they see. Jeremiah 29:11 reads, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” It’s great that the Lord has plans for us, but do we always follow those plans? There’s a lot of responsibility to this scripture. It’s not up to God to raise your children for you, but for you to raise your children in the way that God has planned. There is a roadmap to these plans, and it’s called “The Bible.”