What's In A Name?

As parents, my husband and I have the privilege of naming our children.  As time progresses, we've given the kids shorter and shorter names.  For one, We realized how challenging it has been for my side of the family to pronounce their names.  And for two, God has placed these names in our minds in such orders.  Amazingly, each of the children lived up to his/her name.  He knows our children even before they were born.
"For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb."            --Psalm 139:13

After having two boys, my father was pleased to have a little girl and named me "sweet-smelling fragrance"(馨).  

I could not say that I loved my name.  Anyone who's heard my name would comment: "It sounds just like a boy's name."  or "oh, it's the letter for carnation."  Neither did I wish to be a boy or wanted to be forever associated with motherhood.  

The worst took place on my first day of class in grade school.  Everyone was required to fill an entire page with his name (more than 50 times).  Since there are many strokes in my name, while most of the kids finished this task in minutes, it took me the whole 50 minutes to barely reach 2/3 of the page.  My face was burning red when the whole class realized I was the only one undone.  I was in tears thinking how unfortunate my name was.  

After turning my life to Christ, I began to appreciate my name from God's perspective.  One day, the Scripture reading came from the book of 2 Corinthians:                 
                                                                               
"14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. ¹⁵ For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. ¹⁶ To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? ¹⁷ Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God."     --2 Corinthians 2:14-17  

Followers of Christ ARE the pleasing aroma of Christ.  I AM that aroma of Christ to both the saved and unsaved.  That's my name!  The fragrance of God!  That's what I should live for, so that others would see Life or the conviction of turning to Christ.  

What's your purpose in life?  What's in your name?

中打也可以!

日前, 我與大哥在網上聊天.  他問我為什麼不用中文輸入.
我想, 有何不可?
大部分時間, 我複製和粘貼大哥在網上寫的字句.
偶而, 會需要用漢語拼音或在Google 網上翻譯.
然後我發現, 雖然花的時間較長, 其實中打也可以!

能用中打後, 我已成功的為一個基督教網站翻譯網頁, 甚至可以和我剛找到的高中老同學在網上聊天.  真棒！

中打還有其他"育兒"的好處, 我會在我的下一篇文章談到.
在那之前, 請原諒我蹩腳的中文...

The Lesson Of Waiting

Before summer started, F came home with a long face one day after her swim practice.  Later I found out that she did not get promoted to the gold girls' swim team while her best friend got moved up.  She said, "I am very upset that I don't get to be in the same group as mimi.  What if she makes other friends and forgets about me?"

While F is very relational motivated, my husband is very goal oriented.  He thought F was good enough to move up and would not mind talking to the coach about it.  But before heading to the coach, we talked to God in prayer about this.

"Why wait, Lord?" I asked.  Through prayer, I grew more and more confident that God thought holding her back was necessary.  At the end, we decided to submit to God's timing and not interfere with the coach's decision.

Summer came.  Then, we found out that F made the junior company dance performance group.  Had F gotten moved up to gold girls', that required 4 hours of practice daily during summer, she would not be able to commit to this junior company at all.  God's timing was perfect!

In order for F to refine her strokes, my husband asked her (new) coach for one-on-one coaching time during the summer.  Little did we know that coach Alex had been observing her, thought she had potentials and knew exactly what her weaknesses were.  Perhaps it was the eagerness to be reunited with her best friend, perhaps it was coach Alex who knew how to motivate her, perhaps she was better rested during summer, F's improvement was tremendous.  Coach Alex's words of affirmation gave her confidence.  She listened well, worked hard and tried to apply what she'd learned daily.  She became the star swimmer in her team.
Toward the end of the summer, coach Alex had a talk with me and said that not only was F ready to move up to gold, but she would also be "in the middle and above" (in English, that means she would not have to play catch up and could be better than the average gold girls).  Another good news is that coach Alex who has now knows F so well, will also be "promoted" to be the new gold girls' coach in fall.  God's plan was good!

That night, F got on the phone to tell her best friend the good news.  As the girls giggled and squealed over the phone, my heart was full of thankfulness.  Had we gone ahead of God and talked to the coach, F would have missed the opportunities God had planned for her to grow.  We would have, too, missed a God sighting.

I do not enjoy waiting.  Waiting to be old enough to go to kindergarten, waiting for the summer to come so we could go on that camping trip, waiting to be 16 to start driving, waiting for the admission letter from college, waiting for the day to graduate from college, waiting for that someone to come along to start a meaningful relationship, waiting for the baby to be born after 9 months of pregnancy...and in this case, waiting to be approved that F was good enough.  But, waiting is a discipline in trusting in God.  Who had waited?  Abraham and Sarah waited for their 1st born to be given by God.  Joseph waited for God's purpose in the faraway Egypt.  David waited for God's timing to become the king of Israel.  God always knows best and He wants His children to have faith in His goodness and promises.  When He wants us to wait, through our act of obedience, we will surely see the fruits.