Precious Names

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When our oldest granddaughter was six years old, she wrote her name in the snow while she and I were playing with her brothers. Naturally, I walked over to take a picture. Then she told me, “I wrote yours over there.” My heart was happy when I found Little written by her gloved hand, even though only the “Litt” was still there.

She had already been thinking about my name earlier that day. While she and her brother were playing school, they invited me to join them so I sat down in one of the chairs in their “classroom.” At one point, she called on me, saying “Charlene” with the cutest expression which said, “I’m doing something special, calling my Little by her first name.”

When a new child comes into our family, we consider carefully what we will name him or her. That name will always be special to our child and to us. I have always been happy about the names my parents chose for me, Eva for my mother Evelyn and Charlene for my daddy Charles.

We need to be careful how we speak the names of the precious ones in our families. Hearing our names spoken lovingly is comfort to our hearts. Hearing them spoken harshly creates pain in that same place.

God is kind to give us His most precious blessing through just one name.

Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed
in the presence of the disciples,
which are not written in this book;
but these have been written
so that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;
and that believing you may have life in His name.
John 20:19-20

When Jesus gave us what is known as “The Lord’s Prayer” in the Sermon on the Mount, He taught us that God’s name is hallowed, meaning “holy.”

Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Matthew 6:9

The Lord’s Prayer, modeled by John Bell,
manufactured by the Mintons pottery company
in Stoke-upon-Trent, England, c. 1847.
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Gift of Patricia and Martin Levy, 2017.

God cares very much about how we say His name, as He taught us in the Ten Commandments.

You shall not take the name
of the Lord your God in vain,
for the Lord will not leave him unpunished
who takes His name in vain.
Exodus 20:7

The Ten Commandments monument on the grounds
of the Texas State Capitol in Austin.
Courtesy of The Lyda Hill Texas Collection of Photographs
in Carol M. Highsmith’s America Project, 
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

I am so sad about the proliferation of people using God’s name in vain. How heartbreaking to see “OMG” in texts and on T-shirts and to hear “Oh, My God” coming out of the mouths of people of all ages when they are happy or surprised or excited or when something bad has happened. When did those three words replace “Oh, no!”  and “Oh, wow!”?

“Oh, my God” are wonderful words of praise, and they are words we can say when we need to call on God to help us. However, the phrase is not appropriate to say without any thought of our heavenly Father at all.

These are some ways that God’s Word uses those precious three words. That is how we should be using them, too.

To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
O my God, in You I trust,
Do not let me be ashamed;
Do not let my enemies exult over me.
Psalm 25:1-2

I delight to do Your will, O my God;
Your Law is within my heart.
Psalm 40:8

Do not forsake me, O Lord;
O my God, do not be far from me!
Psalm 38:21

O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, hasten to my help!
Psalm 71:12

Let’s remember and train our children to remember:

The works of His hands are truth and justice;
All His precepts are sure.
They are upheld forever and ever;
They are performed in truth and uprightness.
He has sent redemption to His people;
He has ordained His covenant forever;
Holy and awesome is His name.
Psalm 111:7-9

 

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