A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to be a guest blogger on www.2aiming3arrows.com, a website devoted to raising children (arrows) according to God’s plan. I wrote about my experience as a new mother aiming my infant arrow towards God. If you haven’t read it, check out Confessions of an Amateur Archer on that site. Anyhoo, I thought I’d share another strategy I’ve employed as a new mother to help guide my son’s spiritual journey in a Kingdom direction.

I began with his name. Gabriel King Whitaker. Years ago in planning for my future son I liked the name Braxton. I really wanted a distinguished name for him–something that would be impressive on a job application and sound like it came from a long line of wealthy people. But I also wanted his name to have a significant meaning. When I discovered that my first name means strong and virtuous, I could see how those words lined up with my life. This is no boast about me, y’all. This is a boast that God’s Word is true. Romans 4:18 C says,

…according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be.

This scripture refers to the faith Abraham exercised to receive God’s promise that he would be the father of many nations. God spoke those words over Abraham’s offspring, Abraham believed it, and Abraham received it. I am bold enough to also believe that the words I have spoken and will continue to speak over my son’s life will be in his life. My belief is based on the spiritual principal (found in Proverbs 18:21) that my words have creative power. I am convinced that even a person’s name is a declaration about what will be in his or her life. Each time their name is called, their destiny is being spoken over them. Now no offence to any Braxton’s out there, but when I looked up its meaning I wasn’t impressed. “The son of Brax” said nothing about the kind of person my son would become, so I ditched that idea. Truthfully, naming him after my husband Russell wasn’t an option either because “red” wasn’t gonna cut it. 🙂

The name Gabriel was actually inspired by a friend of mine at my bridal shower. Everyone participated in a game about predicting my future as Mrs. Whitaker. My first child’s name was one of the questions. She predicted that my daughter would be named Gabrielle Joy. As soon as I heard it I fell in love. I knew that Gabrielle was the feminine version of Gabriel and that Gabriel was the angel who delivered the news of Jesus’s birth to Mary. Besides that, it just sounded good coming out of my mouth. In doing further research I discovered that the Hebrew meaning is “God is my strength.” That settled it for me. Although my first born was a boy, I still wanted to use that name. Not only would my son be God’s messenger, but he would do it in the strength of God. That is what I wanted spoken over his life each time anyone addressed him.

Now about that middle name. King was my husband’s step father’s last name. He is the man who raised him, and we wanted to pay homage to him. I was totally against using his first name, which was Sonny, so the last name had to do. I’ll admit I had a few reservations about naming my son King. 1. I didn’t want others to think that we were arrogant to choose that name. 2. I also didn’t want Gabe to become arrogant and think he was somehow more privileged because of it. Despite my reservations, my husband was sold on King. No matter what other middle names I suggested, he wasn’t budging. But to God be the glory! I found comfort and confirmation in the Word. Here’s what I found in Revelation 5:10.

And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

All of my apprehension vanished when I read this. The Bible declares that Jesus Christ, the most humble person to walk this earth, made us kings unto God, so it can’t be arrogant to make this claim. Also when I think about a king I think about a person who is chosen to lead like King David was. I want my son to know that he is called King, not because he rules over everybody (no, he will NOT run things in our house) but because he is a godly leader in doing what is right. And yes, I want him to reign in life, dominating every challenge and pitfall Satan tries to put in his path. As soon as he is old enough to understand, his father and I will teach Him these things. We will teach him that he is to use his leadership to set the right example and to draw people to Christ. We will teach him that he, as a child of God, is supposed to be the head and not the tail, above and never below in every situation. We will teach him to be a king not only in name, but in character. In that way, we are being intentional in establishing a foundation for him to be used by God and forming his future each time we utter his name. In other words, we are naming and aiming our baby arrow towards God.

Now I’d like to hear from you. Have you seen the fruit of your name’s meaning manifested in your life or the life of someone you know? Have you chosen your child’s name based on it’s meaning?