Friday, February 22, 2008

Names, Prophecies, and Asking the Right Questions

Caleb Isaac - faithful, bold, loyal - laughter
Chase Bradshaw - hunter, gatherer - (also reference to the "chase" after Aslan in the L.W.W.)
Ayden Joy - fiery, happiness

I'm amazed at how much kids live into their names. It's actually very shocking. It's like parents speak these prophetic words into their kids at birth and children live in to, or live up to, those names for the rest of their lives. If you haven't had kids yet - be very intentional about naming them well.

We've prayed life and leadership into our kids the whole way - I have prayed specifically that my kids would grow to be "leaders of men" - that they would "live into God's destiny for their lives" - that they would consistently "show their friends what Jesus is like."

And as a follow-up I have found it to be so important to ask my kids the right questions at the end of the day. Often parents talk about "how was school," and "what did you learn." More and more I've been asking my kids "how were you an example to your friends and teachers today?" and "who did you show Jesus to?" My kids are ready and willing to respond to those types of questions and it has been pretty cool to hear their examples of influence in their schools. The names we give our kids, the prayers we pray for our kids, the nature of the conversations that we have with our kids are critical in helping them to live in to their God-soaked destiny.

6 comments:

Larry Shallenberger said...

Great post!

Matt Donovan said...

This is a timely read for as we move closer to adopting our little girl. Her name has been a huge issues to say the least. Do we change it? Do we keep it? do we keep part of it?

With adoption there are some extra things to think about like her identity, building/keeping a bridge to the birth mom, our sense of blessing and, as you put it, prophecy into her life.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts naming children. They're helpful.

Unknown said...

That really is cool how your kids have grown into their names, and I can definitely see that. Makes you think of your own name as well and whether we fit into it?

Rachel: "Ewe" or "Lamb"

(hmmm)

Elisabeth:

"my God is an oath" or "my God is abundance" or "My God is a vow"

cool!

Derek said...

Kim and I have always talked about the fact that our names are made for clashes...

Derek = leader of the people
Kim = ruler

The potential is there for some head-butting don't you think?

Diane Pauli said...

We just picked names we like. I think one of them means "crooked creak."

We got this cool story Bible that we read to them every night. Conversations usually come out of it.

Diane and I are just in awe when we see our guys following Jesus!

Larry Shallenberger said...

Alexander: Mighty Ruler

Nathaniel: Gift of God

Cole: We chose this one as a derivation of Nicholas (St. Nick), the patron saint of children as Amy and I both minister to children. Perhaps, Cole will carry that torch.