The Day I Surrendered My Daughter

Sometimes we as Christians get so wrapped up in being in the right place at the right time for God, that we forget that He already has us right where He wants us. For those of us who are parents, that’s raising our children to be the godly offspring God means for them to be. We don’t need to sign up to go to some remote jungle, it’s sitting right in our living room!

The most important mission trip any of us will ever take will be from the delivery room to our home’s front door.

As I laid on the delivery room table embracing the daughter God had given us, I saw the salvation of the world through her eyes. As deeply black as they were, there shone a light of awareness that led me to making the commitment to be a witness to her as I did. It was all so nicely put down for me. My marriage covenant with my husband was not so that we might be blessed with children, but that God might be glorified with a continued legacy.

Malachi 2:15a states, “Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit they are His. And why one? Because He was seeking godly offspring.” I understood from that point on that although she was conceived of the love shared between my husband and I, and that I had carried her and labored through her birth, and that I would sustain her during her formative years, my daughter wasn’t mine.

To dedicate our children to the Lord is to not only acknowledge that they were given to us for a short time, but to actively teach them in the ways of the Lord. Child dedication is not merely a ceremony before the rest of the congregation, but a genuine act of obedience in raising our children in the knowledge of God, His truths, and His commandments.