Names Are Precious
Yesterday I talked about my name. I hope you don’t mind if I talk about that one more time.
I don’t talk to myself just a whole, whole lot, but sometimes I do. Occasionally when I have goofed something, I call myself Chuck E. Cheese. To my recollection, no one else has ever called me Chuck E. Cheese, but people have had several nicknames for me. My favorite names are my real name, Charlene, because that is what my precious husband Ray calls me and also Mom, Ma, Mama, Mo, Mum, Moless (the names my kids call me), and Little, the name my grandkids call me.
As I mentioned yesterday, my daddy was Charles so I am Charlene.
Daddy and me at his mom and dad’s house, when I was in second grade
Also as I mentioned yesterday, my family’s pronunciation of Charlene begins with the same ch sound as in Charles or cha cha cha, which is no problem for the folks in my little girl hometown or for the folks in Gainesboro. That’s the way Charlene is pronounced around here. But Cha Cha Cha Charlene doesn’t roll off the tongue so easily in other places. I can’t tell you the times I have introduced myself as Charlene and the person I met immediately called me Sharlene with the soft ch sound. I really don’t mind at all.
It is funny though . . . . Oh, no! Do you think they think I don’t know how to say my own name?! Oh, me!
My high school friends called me Charlie and spelled it Charle because of my being a girl. One college friend called me Chuck.
But, as I said, sometimes when I goof, I call myself Chuck E. Cheese. Folks have a lot of names they call themselves when they goof up — some of them not so nice. Folks have lots of not so nice names they call other folks when they goof up, too. That’s too bad. Names are precious.
As mamas we need to be very careful what we call our children. Our words sink deeply into their hearts.
He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments;
and I will not erase his name from the book of life,
and I will confess his name before My Father
and before His angels.
He who has an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation 3:5-6