Hello, My Name is...

Over the past few years, I have been learning a fundamental truth. I say "have been learning" because for me, this is one of those things I have to keep learning over and over because I tend to stop believing it.

As I may have mentioned, I am a writer (unpublished for now), and one of the things I love doing is creating characters to populate the stories I write. One of the most important things about each character to me is their name. I have been obsessed with the meanings of names since I was a child, and I have a huge book at home that organizes all the first names you could ever think of into groups by country of origin. I was always a little disappointed with the meaning of "Cheryl" which is typically "Dear one." It was just kind of boring to me. Combine this with the fact that people tend to forget my name a lot because I am shy, and you get someone who feels unimportant because name and identity are so intertwined in my head.

As many of us girls did in the '80's, I got a Precious Moments mug with my name on it. I never used it at home, so I brought it to work a few years ago for the times when I want to have tea or something. Like a lot of things that sit on my desk, it became part of the landscape and I never really looked at it for a long time. Then one day, I had been feeling a little low, unlovable and unloving, and I happened to pick up this mug and look at the definition of my name on the back.

Beloved One of Grace and Beauty.

This brought tears to my eyes immediately and I thanked God for my name, and for who I am because of Him. He has been teaching me over the past six years or so that I am important, I am loved, and I am one of a kind. Reading these words on a mug, that I have had sitting right in front of me for years, at just the right time, put an exclamation point on what He has been whispering to me all these years. It was, for me, a "precious moment."