Skip to main content

Something Greater Than All the Money in the World

"A good name is more desirable than great riches, to be esteemed is better than silver or gold."  Prov. 22:1

One of the best things about living in the same general vicinity as your parents and in-laws is being asked by a new acquaintance if I'm related to "said parent or in-law".  So many people that I come in contact with in a variety of places have a knowledge of either mine or my husband's parents.

There is no better feeling than to have a reputation of honesty, integrity, and Christian influence preceding you merely because of your relationship to someone else.

Well, a good name is one of those gifts that brings some great responsibility with it.  I get the honor of claiming that name, but I also get the task of maintaining that good name and bringing honor to it.

I don't only get a good name from my earthly family, but from my Heavenly Father. 
 
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:  who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."  John 1:12-13
 
At the age of seven when I asked Christ to come into my heart, I became a member of God's family and I began wearing His name.  I shudder to think of the ways I've trampled on His name through the years.  Whether it be blatant sin that was present in my life, or simply refusing to share His name with the lost world around me, I have not always brought glory to my Father's name.
 
If you are a child of God today, then you are wearing the name of God everywhere you go.  Do you wear that nametag proudly?  Or do the people you come in contact with even know who you are divinely related to?
 
Perhaps your earthly lineage has given you nothing to brag about.  Well, if you are a Christian, then you have a Heavenly Father and a Brother in Christ, and that gives you a better family tree than any earthly family could ever provide you! 
 
Have you been responsible with the name that was given to you when you were adopted into God's family?  Search your heart today.  Maybe there's someone in your life who needs to hear about the invitation that God has extended to every single person to join His family.  Make a commitment today to wear His name proudly and boldly before everyone you meet. 
 
 
 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Heartfelt Reflections of a Country Church

The smells, sounds, and people of country churches stir an emotion within me that is deep and powerful. For those who have never had the opportunity to experience this blessed experience, let me explain.   From the moment you step into the vestibule (never called a foyer in a rural church), you instantly smell the footsteps of every person who has crossed that threshold - the mother with a load of kids in tow, the farmer, the truck driver, the wayward child. If those paneled walls could talk, they would tell of grace and guilt and sorrow and joy that couldn’t be hidden on the faces of the souls that dared to cross that doorway. Those walls would write books of clinched fists, tears on the altar, and singing from the saints. The smell of the aged carpet, whose color may have caused an outright quarrel in a business meeting, the creak of the floor, and the golden memorial tags lead you to a nostalgic thing of days gone by - a pew, padded if you’re lucky.   As you wait for the ob...

I love my kids, BUT. . . .

"Schoolhouse Rock" was one of mine and my husband's favorite educational past times.  Bob Dorough, writer for "Schoolhosue Rock," was a genius when he put educational factoids to quirky music and cute cartoons.  From the preamble to the Constitution, to parts of speech, multiplication facts, how electricity works, and much more, Mr. Dorough slyly disguised learning and actually made it fun! Like all good parents, we passed this educational relic on to our kids.  One of our favorite songs from "Schoolhouse Rock" is without a doubt " Conjunction Junction ."  Its jazzy rhythm easily gets stuck in your head for the rest of your day ( sorry in advance! ).  This song teaches how conjunctions mechanically work in a sentence and what their purpose is.  The conjunction 'BUT' is one that we use all the time to connect two sentences or a clause to a sentence. "I like pizza,  BUT  I don't like olives on it." "I want to...

Taking the Mask Off

If I’ve learned anything over the last few weeks of wearing masks when going out in public, it’s that wearing a mask makes it hard to breathe.   The trapped air recirculating in and out gets thick and burdensome. The same is true for the invisible mask I wear on the days that I’m trying to hide the reality of what’s going on below the surface.   There comes a point when the air that has gotten trapped between my invisible mask and my unfortunate reality gets so heavy that ripping it off and gasping for a dose of fresh, life-giving oxygen is the only remedy.   ( Cue the proverbial mask selfie that everyone has had to take during quarantine. ) I think many of us frequently wear a mask, intentionally or unintentionally, to hide the reality of what’s underneath. We mask up to present a façade. A watered-down version of the true us. A suffocating misrepresentation of our current existence.  We’re all guilty.  One of my favorite person...