Much of our culture has a serious identity crisis, especially among people my age and younger. They don't know where they come from in relation to their family or national history. As a rule, having a past sheds light and purpose on your future. It helps you see previous mistakes and take actions to avoid those in the future. It allows you to see the purpose and direction of your forefathers, and then decide if you want to follow that or improve upon it. It gives you a place in general, a context if you will, for the events going on around you and for the direction of your life. You can see where you came from and why you are the way you are when you have the whole history of your family, nation, and preferably world, as context.
Without this context we have a generation who moves through life without much purpose, essentially lost. I don't just mean spiritually lost, although that certainly does contribute greatly to context of life. I mean these young people around me don't have a purpose, a calling for their life. They mostly jump from one form of entertainment to another. The reason they are in school is to get a degree, which will get them a job, which will get them better forms of entertainment. Ask a young person sometime what their goal is and it will boil down to something like this. Many of them have learned from their parents, or society, to push through most of life as fast as possible to get to retirement so they can enjoy themselves. (Obviously this isn't everyone, and I don't have anything against retirement, but this is still the majority of young people I meet.) These are the same people who daily vote away their freedoms and much of their income either because they assume it will make life easier or safer, or because they don't have the motivation to understand what they are doing.
Right now some of you are thinking I really need a pick-me-up and what on earth this has to do with names. There's a purpose, I promise I'm not just being a Debbie Downer!
Chris and I have seen this tendency and don't want to repeat it in ourselves or our children. We want to provide our children with as much history about their family, nation and world as possible. We want to help them find significance and purpose in this life. Obviously this will mostly be accomplished through their education, but we think it can begin with something more basic than that - their name.
Names are traditionally very important. It is forever the title you as a person will be identified with. Honoring the family name has been a goal of girls and boys alike for generations. What you do reflects on you upbringing and family history. In Biblical history, names always had a significance associated with them, often relevant to the events at hand. Major life-changing events called for a name change (we see this with Abraham, Sarah, Jacob and many others). We see name changes like this in many other cultures as well.
Sadly, this seems to have gone to the wayside in conjunction with life context. This is evident in some recent and widely publicized child names, like 'Apple' (I'm sure you can think of many others!).
So then what names are we considering, you may ask? Get ready, you may consider them a doozy, but at least now you have 'context' for our choices! :)
For a girl we are considering Evelyn Hope. Evelyn was my grandmother's name. She had a huge impact on my life. She effortlessly demonstrated hospitality to all her guests, made my sister and I feel important and took time to take us along and teach us what she could. She was also an amazing Christian woman. I saw her minister to anyone who was in need, older people in our community, poor and dirty 'Rainbow Children' that no one else wanted anything to do with and ladies in prison just to name a few. She followed and respected her husband, becoming an exceptional example of what a lasting marriage looks like (they were married almost 60 years when she died). For these and many other reasons, I would want to name our daughter Evelyn. If she becomes half the woman of God her great-grandmother was, she will be beautiful indeed!
We like the middle name of 'Hope' for two reasons. One, we have great hope for the future. In spite of my previous rant and concerns, we are seeing changes in the church and community around us that are promising, and we have great hope for what the Lord will do with these changes. 'Hope' is also to help us remember where our hope should lie - in the Lord. Even if the future doesn't become as bright as we expect, that's okay. We have a better and more eternal hope!
That's actually the more acceptable name, are you ready for the doozy?!? Just remember, I don't make fun of your names... well not too much! :)
For a boy we are considering Ebenezer Jude. I know, I know, the first thing you think of is Ebenezer Scrooge! Remember the end of that story though? He was a changed man! Anyway... Ebenezer means 'stone of help' specifically referring to the stone Samuel erected to honor/remember the help of God in an important victory over the Philistines (1 Samuel 7). Ebenezer is also important in one of our favorite hymns 'Come Thou Fount'. We desire to acknowledge that it is by God's help that we have come this far and by His help that we plan to continue forward. We really feel this is true. During our five years of being married with both of us still being in school we have had the privilege of seeing God's tangible provision time and time again. We really feel that it is 'by Thy help I'm come, and I hope by Thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home' ('Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing').
Jude refers to the apostle Jude, who also wrote the epistle of Jude. We feel that the book of Jude is a timely reminder for the season we are in. In Jude we find encouragement to stand strong in Christ and contend for the faith during a time when the church is in danger both from within and without. With the memory of what God has done in our past and the challenge to stand strong in the present, we feel this name will give our son purpose and hope as he faces the future.
Before you ask, yes we are open to nicknames and even have some possibilities for both names already in mind. Also, if our children find it easier later in life, we are totally fine with them going by their middle names. Although it may be unusual, we feel strongly that naming with a purpose is important, and I am quite satisfied with our options.
Now we just need to find out which one we are going to get to use! Stay tuned, because tomorrow we get to find out if we are having a boy or girl and I hope to let you know ASAP!
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