Dedicating Arella

Last month Church Project had a baby dedication.  If you're not familiar with baby dedication, it's basically where the parents have the opportunity to stand before the church and dedicate themselves to raise their child to know, love and live for Christ.  It's also an opportunity for the church to pray over and support these families on their mission to raise their children for Christ.  So, it's for the baby, but it's definitely for the parents, too :)

When you decide to dedicate your baby, they suggest that you pick a life verse for your child.  A life verse is a verse or passage in the Bible that is significant to you.  It may define your life, give you inspiration or direction, or it might be something that you hang onto as you face difficult circumstances.  This was a doozie for me.  How in the world do you pick a single piece of scripture that you want to somehow define, help or guide your child for her whole life?!  But you know me, I never back down from a challenge.

Getting dressed up for baby dedication

I had no idea where to start or what to look for in terms of this all important life verse.  So after flipping around aimlessly for a while and doing a bunch of random word searches, I closed my bible and just started thinking about my sweet girl and her beautiful name.  

She obviously has a different name- Arella (pronouned ah-ray-luh).  We wanted something a little bit different and with meaning.  Arella is Hebrew, and it's basic meaning is messenger.  Her middle name is Joy because that's what she is to us.  So we have Arella Joy, our little messenger of joy.  And that's been something that I've prayed for her since the beginning- that she would live up to her name, grow up to be a messenger of joy, a messenger of the good news, the freedom, grace and mercy found in Christ.

So I searched again with this in mind, and I found it almost immediately!  The life verse we chose for Arella Joy is Romans 10:14-15.

"How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!""

I will always pray that she come to know and passionately love Jesus Christ so that she might go out in the world and have beautiful feet, spreading His good news!

Here are some pics from the baby dedication.

On the left is our childrens' pastor, David, and on the right is Church Project's lead pastor, Jason.

Some of Arella's peeps also getting dedicated.

Arella enjoyed clapping for her each of her friends.

 I love our church!  They are so supportive, encouraging and fun!

I think she likes her life verse and is really taking it to heart.  Just yesterday she was trying to see if she had beautiful feet yet...