Tell me about your "Dedication" (page 2)

BluesBrother

Why is getting baptised at about 12 ot 13 seeming to be the norm for people like us who have latterly seen through the web of lies? Maybe there is a correlation there?

I was that age too, it was so long ago that pre baptism questions had not been invented. I just felt detemined that I wanted to commit myself to what I called "The Truth". I do not recall making a prayer of dedication.

Our Congregation Servant just asked me whether I would continue if all the rest of my family gave it uo. I said I would. Someone lent me a set of bathers and next week at the Circuit Assembly I was baptised. Simple as that.

bittersweet

I vaguely remember sitting in my bedroom and trying to figure out exactly what I was supposed to say in my dedication prayer. I always hated praying because I could never think of enough things to say. I remember being on bible studies and being asked to say a prayer and having anxiety attacks about it, lol. But back to the dedication thing, I was 15 and knew it would make my mom happy. I can't even remember the day I got baptised. I know it was sometime in December around Xmas time. As you can see it certainly held a lot of importance in my life!

twolips

Oh this is to funny. I thought I was the only one.

Listening to my baptism talk is when I realized I should have already made a dedication . So I did a quick prayer in my seat.

I was 13 and it was 1975. The sisters I was putting pioneer hours with (instead of attending school) sacred me to death when they said I would not survive armagedon unless I was baptized.

I didn't raelly feel anything either. Like I was knocking on a door that would never open. This made me feel so quilty and not apart of the group. It's so liberating to give up knocking on that door.

czarofmischief

I did it during the Watchtower. I felt this incredible pressure to do it, and then relief when I submitted. But the emotional connection with God himself as I have currently come to know him has only grown SINCE I've been expelled.

I was 12??? I think... it was 1990. Stupid.

CZAR

Jez

I was 16. I got baptised bec my boyfriend at the time wanted me to. I did not dedicate myself to God before the dunk. I was dating a 23 year old man. 6 months after my baptism, he date-raped me. Then told me that we would be forgiven by God if we got married. That marriage would nullify the wrongdoing. I just about killed myself, and basically did, by marrying him at 17. I was ressurrected at age 30 when I left the abusive bastard.

BrendaCloutier

I felt no personal relationship to God.

I didn't either. I did the prayer thing, sort of, after I passed all the questions, just like a test at school. I was 14. I was a good student. I did what I was supposed to do.

I got dunked, in an aboveground swimming pool set up for the int'l convention held in Portland, OR that year (1971, I think it was, maybe 72) at what is now PGE Park - local ballpark for the Padres farm team the Beavers, and soccer, etc. I even made my own modest swim suit!

When I came up, I expected some miraculous change in me. Some insight I hadn't had before, or some feeling of grace that I'd never had. Nada, nothing. Pffft. That's when the real questions began in me. "What did I just dedicate my 'life' to?"

I've since known Grace. It is the most awesome of experiences.

Hugs

Bren

Doubtfully Yours

I don't remember ever 'dedicating' my life to Jehovah, as the WTBTS says a person should do in private prior to baptism.

I just got baptized, at a very young age, because I wanted to please my parents so much, and to make them proud.

DY

Nosferatu

I too took the whole dedication thing very seriously. I was pretty close to it, but something about it just felt so wrong. Something in my brain was saying "Dedicating your life to serving Jehovah = being a slave." I was pushed around my entire life, and I was sick of it. I couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm now thanking myself that I never did.

Tell me about your "Dedication"

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