Tell me about your "Dedication"

ezekiel3

For JWs, there is a two-step process for committing yourself to God. Before you get baptized in public, you are supposed to privately "dedicate" yourself to God in prayer.

I was a child who knelt in the corner of my room after completing my final "interview" of questions from an elder. I tried to be sincere, but I was aware I had no emotional currency (I was only 13, give me a break!).

Later on, I realized that my "dedication" was void as I felt no personal relationship to God. It was this vacuum that lead me to expose myself to non-JW beliefs and my eventual discard of all JW precepts. My current spiritual fulfillment have nothing to do with that naive "dedication."

When I ask other JWs this question (especially the ones baptized as youth) I get very similiar answers. How about you?

Soledad

good question, and your experience is very similar to mine--I was also 13 and felt no connection to God. I was getting baptized to get my mother and all others off my back.

Valis

Eh I was 14 and had to work with this drunk elder all summer mowing lawns, scraping paint, etc...Well he and my parents decided it was time for me to get dunked so we started in on the study. I don't think I wanted it as I had always done just about everything to not have to go to meetings imagineable..*LOL* Well the sick twist is that he was paying me 5 bucks an hour which was giving me more independence in all kinds of ways. Buying my own clothes, going to the movies, etc..So I did that all summer and got baptised at a summer convention. Finito.. Didn't do much for me and certainly wasn't enough to keep me from leaving 3 years later....

Sincerely,

District Overbeer

Gopher

It's an unspoken assumption that you dedicated yourself before the baptism. But in reality it doesn't really matter. What matters to the organization is the baptism itself. THAT is the day they get control over you. THAT is the day that you're told to write down as "the most important day of your life" -- yes more important than your wedding day, graduation day and certainly more important than your birthday!

How often did they ever say "the day you DEDICATED your life to Jehovah is the most important day"?

Nocturne

I was getting baptized to get my mother and all others off my back.

Yep...that sounds really familiar.

PointBlank

I was baptized at the International Assembly in Houston, TX in 1973. I was 16 and very serious about my dedication. It was only after years of spiritual malnourishment that I realized it didn't mean what I thought it meant.

PB

Narkissos

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/62945/1.ashx

sandy

My question is, how many of you actually "approached Jehovah in prayer" before you got baptized?

good question..... I did not know to do that until i was sitting in the assembly hall on the day of my dunking, and listening to the baptismal talk. i went home that night and made my dedication then immediately after masturbated. lol
i didn't pray again till the next night, i asked for forgiveness and strength not to repeat the behavior but jehovah never answered my prayer..... lol

Wolfgirl

I did this formal little prayer thing in my head, because I knew I was supposed to. But it didn't make me feel anything; none of my prayers ever did. I was only 13, what did I know?

nb-dfed

I think I was about 12. I always prayed when I went to bed, and I prayed ferverently, dedicating myself to god. I thought I was cognizant of my decision, but who could be at 12? I also think that getting dedicated and baptized was largely a popularity contest in the kh. Seems everyone was doing, and everyone was so proud of you! Maybe the presents were my motivating factor...

Tell me about your "Dedication"

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