Consider Anthony, who was baptized at a young age. “I was the first child in our family to be baptized,” he relates. “After my baptism, I received a warm hug from my mother. I had never seen her happier. There was so much joy, and I felt so strong.” There was, however, another side to the picture. “For quite some time, there had not been any young people baptized in our congregation,” Anthony continues. “So I felt very proud of myself. I also took pride in my comments and talks at the meetings. Gaining people’s praise and approval became more important to me than bringing praise to Jehovah. I really did not have a close relationship with him.”

Like Anthony, some may have made a dedication more out of a desire to please others than out of a desire to please Jehovah. Even so, God expects such ones to live up to their promise to serve him. (Compare Ecclesiastes 5:4.) Without a personal attachment to God, though, it is often difficult for them to do so. Anthony recalls: “The intense joy that I had at my baptism was short-lived. It was not a full year after my baptism that I fell into serious wrongdoing and had to be reproved by the elders in the congregation. Repeated misconduct led to my being disfellowshipped from the congregation. Six years after my dedication to Jehovah, I was arrested and jailed for murder.”

What about Anthony? “I began to think of the time when I had so many spiritual goals centered around doing Jehovah’s will,” he recalls. “This was painful. But through all the pain and disappointment, I remembered Jehovah’s love. It took a while before I was able to pray to Jehovah, but this I did, and I poured out my heart to him, asking for his forgiveness. I also began reading the Bible and was surprised how much I had forgotten and how little I had really known about Jehovah.” Though Anthony has yet to complete the prison term for his crime, he receives help from local Witnesses and is on his way to spiritual recovery. Gratefully, Anthony says: “Thanks to Jehovah and his organization, I have been able to strip off the old personality, and I strive to put on the new each day. My relationship with Jehovah is of utmost importance to me now.”