The question seemed to leap off the page during my quiet time. "If you were to ask God to change your name, what would you want your name to be, or to mean?" Now there was a question to ponder, and in some ways I had been pondering it for years.

When I was a little girl, my friends and I would play. Part of the fun was in choosing new names that we liked better than the ones we had. None of my childhood friends felt that their parents had given them appropriate first names—including me. Worse yet were the "unmentionables," those, of course, being our middle names. Heaven forbid we even allow them to surface in a conversation, which, by the way, is something I still struggle with to this day.

My friends and I were little girls playing and having fun. None of us had ever given any consideration to the fact that our names might actually have some sort of special meaning, or that our parents might have had a purpose behind them when they had chosen them for us. Spelling, sound, and personal preference were what was important to us at the time—and we sure did come up with some interesting new names all imaginations combined.

All of us have since gone our separate ways and the comical thing is that in each of our lives much has changed, but our names remain the same. In time, I found that my name does have special meaning and actually it is quite fitting for me. My parents did not do such a bad job after all in choosing a name for me.

It is deeply meaningful to me, to find that God as my Heavenly Father, has also chosen names for me. He calls me: Beloved, Treasure, Jewel, Daughter, Friend, Joy, and Faithful, just to name a few. I am touched by the fact that all of the names God calls me are terms of endearment, and all have special meaning. Most of all, they reflect a love that I find so amazing.

As I sat tonight thinking on what I might ask God to change my name to, the word "precious" came to mind. All of us long to be precious to God and to others and though many other names came and went, that one stayed with me. I was just about to have a little discussion with God on the subject when the still small voice within interrupted me and said, "I call you more than precious…I call you ‘Mine.’" Overcome by emotion and blinded by tears that make it hard to see, again I find beyond comprehension the depth of God the Father’s love for me.

Perhaps your memory is scarred from days gone by when the names that were chosen for you by those from whom you longed for love and respect were mean, cruel, and unfitting. Words have the power to harm, but they also have the power to heal. God’s Word for you today, as His beloved child, is that you are not the sum of the names others have chosen for you. You are named by Him. You are His Beloved, His precious one, His Child. He knitted and formed you in your mother’s womb. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Most of all, you are His creation and His stamp of approval is upon you. He says that you are more than precious…He named you, "Mine."

Copyright 2004 by Melinda Lancaster