Our Covenant with Elijah Jason

May 4, 2008

Mars Hill Bible Church

“For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me what asked of him, so now I give him to the LORD.” I Samuel 1:27-28

Our Little Elijah,

We have been waiting, hoping and praying for you for a long time. It is our great joy and honor to have you finally join us. Not a day goes by that we don’t thank God for the little miracle He has given us. As you begin to take little steps, with Mommy’s help, we as a family take a big step. Today we are dedicating you to God. We do not take this covenant lightly. God gave us a very big responsibility when He chose us to be your parents. We promise to demonstrate Christ’s unconditional love to you, and to each other.

We chose to name you Elijah because in Hebrew it means “Yahweh is my God”. After all of the struggles we have been through we knew there was no name more appropriate. God kept his promise with us. God has given you to us to teach you about His promises. We promise to raise you in a home that will teach you to trust God as your leader.

We want so many things for you Elijah. We have struggled writing this because there is a long list of things that we want for you, but this is not about what we want. It is about what God wants for you. God has created you a certain way and we promise to help you discover what you were created to do. We hope that you can learn to love God with all that you are, and we know that everything else will follow.

Elijah, Mommy promises to always love your Daddy. I promise to respect and honor him in my actions, my words and my thoughts. I will try my hardest to demonstrate to you the unconditional love that Christ has for you. My hope for you is that you will always rejoice God in the good times, turn to God in the hard times, listen to God in the silent times, and trust God all of the time. Mommy loves you so much.

Elijah, as your Daddy, I promise to love your Mommy until the day I die and then beyond. Jesus gave us the ultimate example of this love, and I promise to strive towards that example with Mommy, with you and with others. In this way, I promise to show you how to treat your wife. I promise to always take time out to play with you. I promise to help you grow both physically and spiritually. I promise to always look out for you and provide for you. Daddy loves you lots!

We promise to look to the future with hope, and look to the past and learn.

We promise to provide a home for you that is loving and safe, and that honors the Lord.

We promise to love you unconditionally, even when unconditional is hard to do.

We promise to learn from your innocence.

We promise to laugh often and not take life too seriously.

We promise to use Christ as our example in everything that we do.

We love you,

Daddy and Mommy