My Name

Again, in the Beth Moore study, she talks about how Jesus grew up being favored among men and with God. Really cool thing I didn't know, "favor" really means grace aka charis which we all know is what my name is. I like how it really means the kind of grace "that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness". That's very expensive grace indeed! Because it's my name, I rarely really think about how deep that word really is, and how much it means for my life and my parents. Here's another, fuller (or is that more full) explanation of my name.

A lot of people who hear my name for the first time give me the normal, "Oh really?!" and then soften to a "that's beautiful actually!". Oddly enough, I don't find my name beautiful per se. Like the way Xaris is said doesn't make me react the same way a name like Laura or Sophia does (to name a few). But people think this name sounds beautiful, even when they don't know what it means. That's always been something I wondered about. Maybe the meaning just comes through, the fact that it's in the Bible as such may make people just connect with that subconsciously, spiritually. I don't know, I think I just want to romanticize my name more than I should.

As one can imagine, there were a few times in my life when I just felt awkward with my name (from substitute teachers to stupid boys taunting me to people being utterly unable to remember me for lack of learning; happening in different ways in both America and the Philippines), but I never ever didn't like it. It makes me wonder about the white stone and what sort of new name is Jesus going to give me? Maybe Sophia (which means wisdom)?

I also like how every part of my full name means something. Extra credit if you know them ;).