Child Dedication

Our children are precious to God, parents, and the local church. The Bible teaches that God owns everything, including the very children we are given (Ps 24:1). We are called to be good stewards of our children (Ps 127) and to raise our families in a Godly way (Deut 6:1-9; Ps 78:1-6; Eph 6:4). We also see many Biblical examples of prayers for the blessing of children, most notably the example and prayers of Jesus (Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:15-17; Matt 19:13-15). Child dedications, therefore, are opportunities for our local church to acknowledge children as gifts from God, seek God’s help in faithfully raising children to the glory of God, to remind the church of their corporate responsibility to one-another in this endeavor, and to pray that God will save these children from their sins one day by grace through faith in Christ.

For many parents, they like to dedicate all of their children to the Lord for the following reasons:

1. To acknowledge to the Lord they are only stewards of their children, who ultimately belong to the Lord. (Ps. 127:3-5)
2. To ask the Lord to give them grace to raise them in His ways (Deut. 6:7)
3. To ask their local church to help them raise their children in His ways (1 Tim. 3:15)
4. To ask the church to commit to the parents that they will help them raise their children in the ways of the Lord (1 Tim. 3:15)

Clarification: This does not grant salvation in any way as salvation is a personal decision of faith and repentance from the child alone before Christ.