“Your name is known by God. Even if your earthly name feels random or insignificant, it is precious to God. He wants you to understand the meaning of your given name, and — even more — He wants to give you a new name and identity. Are you ready to hear it?”- Esther Fleece Allen
“Lift your eye and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host and calls forth each of them by name.”- Isaiah 40:26 (NIV)
In Chapter 1 (“How You Get a New Name”) of Your New Name: Saying Goodbye to the Labels That Limit, Esther Fleece Allen stresses that our names represent the most essential thing about us. Usually, our name is the firs thing people know about us. Yet, our name hold far greater significance and sacred history than any first impression ever captures.
For example, Esther’s mother named her after the character played by Barbra Streisand in the 1976 version of A Star Is Born. However, that name held little personal importance for the author. Even so, Esther’s name makes her distinct, just as your name makes you distinct. So, when someone gives you the simple gift of remembering your name, that creates a strong impression. On the other hand, we feel angry, sad, and even disappointed when others misuse, laugh at, or minimize our name.
But, Esther wonders, is there more to naming than sounds and syllables? Because in the ancient world, given names reflected who a person was or who they would become. Many of us, Esther asserts, have no idea what our name really means or the reason our parents chose it for us. Therefore, Esther believes, we’re missing out:
” . . . if we’re not aware of the very first word spoken over our lives, are we not missing out? Are we missing the gift of pressing into the meaning of our name and living it out? We are told that words have the power of life and death (Proverbs 18:21), and so does living out the right name. If we take a look at the Bible, we see God pays a lot of attention to naming things. God bring things into existence by naming them.”
Today’s question: Do you truly believe your name’s precious and known to God? Please share.
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Tomorrow’s blog: the Annotated Bibliography of How Happiness Happens
