Living Up to Your Name

This week we talked a little bit about personal characteristics and how those sometimes line up with the meaning of a person's name. The Bible shows us that names are very important and can form someone's personality or identity. However, God also gives us a choice, whether or not we want to become who our name says we are. So I did some research on all of the first names in our class, and here are some of the meanings that I found:

Ana - gracious, woman of grace
Andrea - courageous
Ariana - holy, set apart
Asly - beautiful meadow
Evette - life, abundance
Ivanna - gift from God
Jensy - beautiful spirit
Karina - pure and clean
Mariam - wished for child
Valery - brave
Vivian - full of life
Abner - father of light
Carlos - manly, strong
Daniel - God is my judge
Jimmy - representative, agent
Luis - famous warrior
Marcello - war-like
Marco - guardian
Miguel - like God
Mike - like God
William - protector

Wow! Those are some incredible and important names! All of us have the potential inside of us to be the people of God who rise up and fulfill these meanings, but only if we decided that is what we want to do. John 10:2-4 tells us that we are His and He calls us "by name." What an amazing privilege to be known by the Creator of the universe and to have Him call us by our names! I hope we never forget that God knows who we are and also who we can be if we give our whole lives to Him. We can be brave, strong, pure, holy, beautiful, gracious, and so much more if only we allow Him to take control of our lives and mold us into people who are more like Him!