This Sunday, over 30 children will be dedicated as part of our annual Child Dedication service. This is a special series of services where parents get to publicly present their child to God and to our church family. The purpose of a Child Dedication service is to commit the child to God and seek the support and encouragement of Hoboken Grace.
While parents will make their commitment from the stage we, as Hoboken Grace, will make commitments to them. One of those commitments is to create a safe place for their child to meet Christ. We believe this is so important and we want to be able to create a place where their child can meet and grow in their relationship with Christ.
One of the things we teach in the Child Dedication class, which is a class that each family who is participating in the dedication must take, is that we want you to start praying every night with your child. My wife and I committed to doing this and have made it an active part of our nightly routine with our daughter who is now 4 years old.
We do this every night. Bathtime, Book, Bible Story and Prayer. Our daughter gets to pick a book of her choice and she also gets to pick a Bible story every night. We want to help you in growing your little ones in their relationship with God, so I thought we’d share some of our favorite books that are centered around faith, the Bible, and building their relationship with God.
- The Jesus Storybook Bible – this is the book we actually give to every child who is dedicated. It’s also one of my daughter’s favorites. The illustrations are great and it’s a great way to introduce your little one to the stories of scripture. It does a great job of pointing out how the whole story of scripture points to Jesus.
- What is God Like? Little Blessings Series – honestly, any of the Little Blessings Series is great for kids. We have both “What is God Like?” and “Why is there a Cross?” – written for children ages 3 to 6, to answer fundamental questions about who God is and what He’s like.
- Zaccheus and Jesus (Flipside Books) – This book is really cool. It shows you two different sides to the story of Zaccheus and his meeting with Jesus. It tells the same story twice from two different, biblical points of view. It allows the reader to enjoy the story of Zaccheus and then literally flip the book to read the story from the perspective of Jesus.
- The Action Bible – a great book for older kids. Have you ever wondered what God’s Word would look like if it was written as a comic book? This version sends you through the story of scripture in chronological order with amazing illustrations and a really easy and exciting way to engage with the Bible.
- NLT Teen Life Application Study Bible – a great bible for the teen and preteen in your life. It is full of notes and features designed to meet the challenges and needs of today’s middle school and high school students. It gives great notes and has application-oriented features focusing on choices, real-life issues, and stories of actual teens.
Lastly, I want to give you a fun practice that my wife and I have been doing and plan on doing again as we welcome our second child in September. It’s an incredible way for you to increase your devotional time too.
Get yourself a Bible with wide margins. This is the one we got for our daughter – the NIV Journal the Word Bible – and you use it for your devotional time. As you go through it, we invite you to highlight and write different thoughts for your child. Our daughter is currently four years old, but we plan on giving it to her when she gets older. Our goal is to pray, read, highlight, and write notes through the lens of a parent. So that when she gets older, she’ll have a Bible chock full of notes, highlights and passages pointed out for her by her parents. When we finish hers, we plan on doing it again with one for her little brother.
If we can instill one truth for you this Child Dedication weekend, it’s the importance of getting your child, no matter how young, to begin to see how God created them and who God created them to be. Grace Kids does an incredible job on a weekly basis and all of these suggestions above are just added bonuses to your daily routine so that your little one (or big one) is consistently hearing and engaging with God’s truth.
Scripture tells an incredible story of a powerful God whose love knows no bounds and as parents, we are responsible to teach them who God is and to model what it looks like to respond to His love.
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