Alexa’s Baby Dedication

This Sunday, Jan. 30th, Chris and I were privileged to commit ourselves to the Christian nurturing of our daughter, Alexa Hope. My heart’s desire had been for our family to be a part of our church’s annual baby dedication ceremony (always held on Sanctity of Life Sunday) ever since we started trying to have a child. It’s been over two years of waiting & trusting and the Lord granted us that humbling privilege in 2011. It was also special to share this day with my parents (Mimi & Pop). What a special day to not only reflect on God’s faithfulness throughout our journey to have a child but also to remind us of the incredible trust Miss Alexa Hope is from our Heavenly Father. She is our perfect, undeserved gift and we had the opportunity to share that with our church family as well as commit our lives to raising her in the fear and knowledge of our Sovereign Lord.
Twenty families and twenty-three children were dedicated during our Sunday evening service (I prefer to call it a celebration of life). Each family and their child or children was presented to the church. We were given the opportunity to share the story behind our child’s name and if we had a life verse or prayer for him/her. Then our pastor presented each child with a beautiful personalized Bible (in pink for Miss Alexa, no less) and the parents with a certificate of dedication. Bro. Ronnie gave the parents a charge as to what Biblical parenting looks like and then the church was invited to pray over the parents/children at the close of the service. Here is his charge to us – good for any parent (or parent-to-be) to hear:

Two things that particularly stuck out to me as a couple of the pastors prayed for us were these petitions:
- We know that as your children grow, they will receive lots of information about Jesus Christ, the Heavenly Father, and the Bible; however, we pray that they take this information one day and have a personal revelation about these Truths and that this revelation will change their lives forever.
- We also pray that one day these children will tell their parents, “I know the Truth today not just because you told it to me many times but because I saw it lived out in your lives everyday.

Wow! That truly resonated with my heart and I do pray the Lord will enable us to show Alexa how to follow Christ every moment of every day – even as a 10-month-old Alexa gets so much. She needs to see how much her parents love her, how much they love each other, and most importantly, how much we love our Savior. She needs to know we aren’t perfect – we’ve just been forgiven – and we’re a work in progress too.

I’ve included the video of Alexa’s baby dedication and also included what we shared so you can follow along.

Alexa’s Baby Dedication – Sunday, January 30, 2011

THE STORY BEHIND THE NAME: “I have always liked the name Alexa – nothing very scriptural about that. Alexa is a variant of Alexandra and means "man's defender or protector. We had another middle name picked out for a girl – if the Lord ever blessed us with one. However, following a season of infertility and a miscarriage, the Lord continued to place scriptures in my heart with the theme of “hope.” I didn’t even realize this until I began journaling about all of the Truths I had clung to during this season of what seemed to be “hopelessness” & learning, yet again, to trust Him deeper still. As I wrote out each scripture, I kept underlining the word “hope.”
These scriptural promises weren’t about placing my hope in the promise of having a biological child (because I couldn’t trust that would ever happen) but rather in placing my hope in Him – a loving Father who can be trusted. A Father who is perfect in His faithfulness, His timing, and His purposes. He taught me through that season, He was always worthy of my worship, my praise, and my trust . . . in infertility, in the loss of a child, in any circumstance. So we decided if the Lord ever granted us a little girl - "Hope" would be her middle name. And . . . here she is! Aside from our salvation, we consider Alexa Hope our greatest gift from the Father of Hope. And yes, much like salvation, this gift is totally undeserved. She is, indeed, our “Hope Fulfilled” and we are humbled to be entrusted with such a perfect gift to raise in the fear and knowledge of our God.
SPECIAL PRAYER AND/OR LIFE VERSE: 
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  Romans 15:13
--Our prayer is that Alexa will trust in the Lord at a young age and that her life will be characterized by the hope that only comes from our Father.
THESE ARE ADDITIONAL VERSES WE PRAY FOR HER LIFE: “For you have been my hope, O Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth. From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb. I will ever praise you . . .
But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long, though I know not its measure. I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign Lord; I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone.”  Psalm 71:5-6, 14-16
In light of being Sanctity of Life Sunday, the morning service was a celebration of God’s greatest gift to us aside from salvation – life. Included below is Pastor Ronnie’s morning sermon. It’s a touching & personal account of his grandson’s birth (his grandson Radcliffe was born with a serious heart defect).

We also wanted include the following videos that were shown during the morning service. They speak for themselves and we pray you pass them on to those who fight for life and for those who aren’t sure what they think. We MUST be the voice for those who have no voice!

Get your tissues ready . . . this is powerful!

US Representative James Lankford (OK)