Dedicating Sam to the Lord!

"Now this is the commandment - the statutes and the rules - that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all His statutes and His commandments which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. ...

Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently, to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Deuteronomy 6:1-2, 4-9

Today we dedicated our 5th child, Samuel Hezekiah, to the Lord. I love doing this every time, but this time was a little different for me. I've known these words and sought to do them, but have really wrestled for so many reasons. Recently, God has really been teaching me what it means to love Him with all of my heart and all of my soul and all of my might, and I desire more than ever before to pass this along to my children. I know I am far from loving God as I should, but I pray that I will grow more in this everyday and that as I grow in loving God I will love my children better and they will experience the love of God and come to know Jesus. 

I am so blessed that God has chosen me as His child and that He has blessed me with 5 children. I do NOT deserve this at all, which I know more now than I have ever known before. Only in Christ can I hope to be what I need to be to mother these children that He has given to us. 

Thank You, Father, for blessing me with Jamey, Lillian, Reuben, Gabriel and Samuel. These children are Yours that You have loaned to me for a little while to teach and train diligently in Your ways. Help me to teach them, train them, discipline them as you are teaching, training and disciplining me. Father, save them by Your grace. In Jesus name, Amen!