{i wanna be just like you}

These are sweet days indeed.  As we prepare for our firstborn's graduation party, I've been paging through photo albums, scanning favorite memories, and joyfully remembering so many snapshots in time.  I find myself often smiling upon discovery of photos I'd forgotten.  Each one triggers treasured memories.

March 1995.  It was just over 18 years ago that my husband and I, snuggling our newborn son in our arms, brought him to the front of the sanctuary of our church.  There, standing before our family, church family, and God, we dedicated ourselves to raising our son in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.  We were young yet hopeful.  As first time parents, we had yet to learn how very little we knew.  What we did know was that we needed Jesus, and we desperately wanted Him to use us in our son's life; to capture our hearts first and foremost so that we could be setting the pace for our son to follow after Jesus with everything.

Following the pastor's prayer of dedication that day, our friend sang the following song.  The words have rung in my heart loudly throughout the years, reminding me of our goal and our mission.  Eighteen years since our firstborn's dedication, I look at him and marvel.  My heart whispers forth thanks.  There have certainly been times (many of them) when I've blown it and been anything but like Jesus; times when I've lost my temper, responded in selfishness, and simply dropped the ball.  Yet somehow, despite our inadequacies, failures, and sins, God has abundantly, faithfully, extravagantly poured out His grace.  As much as I was aware all those years ago that God was using us---sinful parents---to somehow impact our son and point him to Jesus, I had little knowledge of how much He'd use our son to impact our lives and direct our eyes to Him.