The Difficult Challenge of Naming a Child

I, being a girl, have always thought about names for my children, in the event I had any someday. Over the years, those names have changed and some have become as common as Joe, Bob, and Debra. However, when you are faced with actually having to name this beautiful life growing in your belly, it becomes some sort of indescribable challenge, like no challenge ever faced before. When we found out we were pregnant, the name choices began to fly out of our mouths - we thought, piece of cake. If it's a girl, we'll name her this; if it's a boy, we'll name him this. HAHAHA! In mid-July, we found out that we are having a boy. By this point, we thought we had decided on Ethan Thomas. However, after the passing of my Dad in May, I decided that if it was a boy, I would like to have "James" as his middle name. James is a family name on my dad's side, carried down through the generations. It is normally used as the first name, such as James Olen (my granddad), James Ronald (my dad), and James Allen (my brother), and so on. It is naturally my brother's duty, if he has a son, to name him James something or another. But, I wanted to, in some way, carry on and honor my father's name. So, my husband, being so wonderful and gracious, agreed to James as the middle name. For a little bit, we entertained the name of Graham Allen (both family names on both sides). However, if we have any children in the future, and none of them are boys, I would miss my chance at having a James. So, back to Ethan James. We were happy with this choice until one day, a friend of my husband's mentioned the name Hagan. At first, we thought, eh maybe not. But, the more we said it and after putting it with James, we decided we really liked that name, too. Back to decision making we went. For weeks, we went back and forth between Ethan James and Hagan James. This huge decision all of a sudden became the focal point of all of our conversations, as crazy as that may be, but it literally consumed us. Finally, one recent Sunday in church, the preacher included Romans 8:28 (the verse that goes with Ethan in a name book we have) in his sermon. Ronnie & I turned to the verse in my bible, and it was underlined (from a previous lesson in college, I believe). We both looked at each other and just knew the little one's name would be Ethan James Cason. We went on to read the next couple of verses following verse 28, and this is what it says:

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified."

So, that, my 2 readers, is the story of how we finally decided to call our firstborn Ethan James. Now, we move on to the easier things: getting his room ready, the actual delivery, and this thing called parenthood for the next forever! Ha - just kidding of course; now we are faced with the real challenge of raising him up in the ways of the Lord and praying daily he sees the truth and the way of our God.