Tag: Isaiah 43

by name part II: naming lydia evelyn.

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If you read Part I, you read my story of how, in the very process of pursuing to learn about this calling to motherhood, I did a lot of reflecting on the idea of “names.” The Lord gifted me with revealing the meaning behind my very own name.

Everyone is different in how they approach the naming of their child. Throughout the Scripture, we see God naming His children something specific and profound that represents their calling, or His promise to them, or a reminder to glorify Himself. Several times in the Bible from Genesis to the Gospels, we actually see God’s people that are renamed after a transformation. (Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel, Simon to Peter, Saul to Paul.) The pattern of the Lord’s voice tends to be “Your name shall be _____, which means ____.”

“…your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” (Genesis 17:5)

“‘You shall be called Cephas’ which means Peter (or rock).” (John 1:42)

So after New Years Eve in a great midnight reveal when we discovered that we are having a baby girl, we took one final day to pray in confirmation of her name. The Lord gave me the sweetest vision that next morning.

Her name is Lydia Evelyn, which means beautiful life. I have known her name since the beginning of creation, before I formed the world. I have called her by name. She is mine.

In a whirlwind of emotions that included humility, joy, unworthiness, excitement, and tears of worship and praise, the Lord gave us the clearest vision on behalf of our daughter. She is not our own, she belongs to the Lord. We have the privilege of carrying and raising her, but the Lord is the one that has named her, created her, and called her into life. Seeing her grow and feeling her move every day is nothing short of a miracle to witness as He creates this life inside of me. Our God already knows her by name.

In an attempt to document all the miraculous ways that God has revealed Himself simply through the naming of our daughter, I’ll start from the moment that Kevin and I decided to start praying for a child. I meet with a friend regularly for prayer and accountability, and I asked her if she would pray that the Lord would provide a child for us. A few days later, she sent me a text message that she felt the Lord calling her to — for some reason — pray for a baby girl. I pondered this in my heart but remained open-handed.

 

L Y D I A .

A short time later, Kevin and I found out that I was pregnant. After the initial shock and excitement we began to process the reality that our lives would never be the same. I’ve always loved the name Lydia, not only because it’s a family name, but because of the strong female character she is in the Bible. Coincidentally, that very next Sunday at church, our pastor preached a sermon about Lydia in his introduction to a series on Philippians. Lydia’s story is documented in Acts 16 as the first Christian convert in all of Europe. Her hospitality and openness to God allows Paul to share the gospel in Philippi and plant a church there, opening the door to sharing the gospel across Europe.

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.’ And she prevailed upon us.” (Acts 16:14-15)

While we didn’t know the gender yet, in retrospect, this message was another gift from the Lord that confirmed her name. When we looked up the meaning of Lydia, we found that is can also mean “beautiful one.”

 

E V E L Y N .

Evelyn comes from two different parts. We love that it is a combination of Eve, which is my middle name, and Lynn, which is my mother-in-law’s middle name. Yet it’s the meaning behind the name that the Lord used to truly confirm this. The Hebrew root for eve means “life.” After reading my last entry, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise as Eve is destined to be the mother of the living.

 

L Y D I A . E V E L Y N .

So as we put this together, we found that her name would mean “beautiful life.”

Her name is Lydia Evelyn, which means beautiful life. I have known her name since the beginning of creation, before I formed the world. I have called her by name. She is mine.

A beautiful life, already, not yet even born, is who she is. We pray and we ask God that this would be His promise to her, that she would be destined for a beautiful life that reflects His glory.

“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1)

by name Part I: fulfilling eve.

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I’ve been thinking a lot about names lately.

Have you ever googled the meaning of your name? Surely most of us have. Margaret, my real name, means “pearl.” Eve, my middle name, means “mother of the living.” I never really thought much about the meaning behind my name. Pearl is kind of cool, a precious gem, but not sure about the whole mother-of-the-living thing. In fact, I found that latter one to be a little strange and simply ignored it–until recently.

From the months of September to December, specifically between finding out that I am pregnant with our first child, to discovering her gender on New Years Eve, my husband and I spent quite a bit of time talking about names. We found ourselves feeling certain convictions about the name of our child.

We want there to be significance and meaning.
We want to call him or her by name as soon as we can, before birth.
We want to start praying for him or her by name.

[For the rest of the story on us naming our daughter Lydia Evelyn, read Part II of this entry.]

 

D I S C O V E R I N G .

In the meantime, I picked out a book off the shelf of my favorite bookstore called Missional Motherhood by Gloria Furman. My hope was that through reading this book, I could begin to prepare for the calling of motherhood spiritually, while simultaneously making preparations physically and practically.

In the early chapters of the book, Furman states that motherhood isn’t just a calling for some, for those who are married or those who are biologically able to bear children. In fact, she argues that all women are created to live in missional motherhood through making disciples. Making disciples, after all, is a calling of all believers (Matthew 28:18-20). As women, we make disciples by nurturing those around us, serving our communities, and showing compassion for our neighbors.

With this new perspective I realized that it’s not just now that I’m expecting a baby that I’m called into motherhood. This calling doesn’t just begin in May, when our daughter Lydia Evelyn will be born.

For as long as I’ve been a believer, the Lord burdened my heart for lost college students. I was only a sophomore in college when I responded to a calling to become a Young Life College leader and lead my first Bible study for freshmen women. This calling has never left, and the Lord has called me into a strategic “mothering” role of college students, which through the years has now transformed into a “mothering” of pretty much anyone He’s placed in my life, whether at church, work, in my ministry or in my neighborhood.

As I kept reading, the author continued to explain motherhood throughout the Bible. To start, she zoomed in on the creation story, examining a snapshot of the world’s first mom.

“The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.” (Genesis 3:20)

God revealed something new to me in that moment. The meaning behind my name was not weird or random. My name was in fact a calling.

In this life, I am fulfilling a calling by God to mother the living. I am fulfilling Eve.

 

L I V I N G .

In the present, I want to serve people in my home and disciple young women. I want to nurture those in my community. Many of the character traits that we typically think of moms having, I have the opportunity to do every waking minute. Even in my full-time job in college athletics, I am serving young student-athletes constantly in that mothering role. I have no excuse for a lack of application to follow this call!

And at the same time, I am learning that the Lord has called me into motherhood in the traditional sense as I watch my womb grow. I will raise our daughter in a lifelong pursuit to disciple her to know Jesus, to love God, and to serve others.

I have been called into missional motherhood. The Lord gave me a special gift by softly nudging me that, indeed, that’s what He named me to do. Yet this isn’t just my calling because of my name. He created women with unique traits that make us exceptional at nurturing and serving others. We all, as women, are called to use our God-given intelligence, compassion, and empathy for His glory in our homes, in our workplaces, and in our communities.

Thank you Lord for this reminder that my calling to motherhood is not dependent on waiting for a healthy baby to be born in May. I have the privilege of living out this calling today, in this hour. Where would you like me to begin?

“But now thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.’” (Isaiah 43:1)