Hello my cyber peeps….it’s been a little bit since I last posted.  Life has been a little busy but your always on my mind :).  Tonight I just wanted to talk about my name, Carmen.  No, I’M NOT BEING CONCEITED..LOL.  Growing up I really didn’t like my name, not really sure why.  I remember asking my Mother “why didn’t you name me Crystal?” Of course her response was “you look like a Carmen!”  Typical Mother response right? LOL  I started liking my name after I saw a Hispanic girl on the Channel 9 PBS TV show Zoom named Carmen.  Then in high school I met an upper class-man named Karmen and my sister had a friend named Carmen.  Now I felt like my name was cool and it grew on me….REALLY, SMH.

This says a lot about how we allow people to influence our lives even down to our names.  Well, the only person I want to influence me on that level now is GOD…His view is really the only one that matters.  I’ve often wondered why God changed peoples names in the Bible.  For instance, Abram became Abraham which means father of many nations; Saul became Paul after his conversion; Jacob became Israel; Simon Peter became Peter which means rock.  There are numerous other examples.  But when you look closely at lives of the peoples names being changed, God changed their names to match the purpose He had for their lives after their spiritual conversion.

The Hebrew/Latin meanings for my name are Garden of God; garden; song.  I prefer the Garden of God; song meanings.  I don’t remember if my Mother named me Carmen because of the operas Carmen, from a baby book or divine intervention.  And I’ve often wondered in my life what those words meant in relation to me.  The operas are tragedies…love stories gone fatally wrong.  You have a beautiful woman, not knowing her worth and seeking love in all the wrong people for the wrong reasons which lead to her demise..who wants that name?  Although I can relate to seeking love in the wrong people which had me in a spiritual death….thank God my life didn’t end.  So, I prefer to think it was divine intervention that played a part in my name.

Last week I had a little light bulb moment when I was reading a book called Purpose Awakening.  The author was talking about how only God knows our real names.  We find that out by seeking Him for our purpose, our identity in Him.  So, as I’m reading this the Holy Spirit brings to my attention some powerful stuff.  Every morning since I got saved in 2015, the Holy Spirit places a song or words of a song in my spirit.  I initially thought this was strange since I can’t sing a lick, can’t hold a note so I knew I wasn’t being called to be a singer or Psalmist LOL.  But it was a way for God to honor my prayer requests: center my thoughts and keep my mind from roaming.  I’ve also come to realize it was His way of speaking to me, bringing me into praise and worship, initiating prayers, making me grateful for my life in Him, encouraging me, giving me revelation and confirmation in matters through songs.  I think that’s why I love praise and worship music…I can oftentimes find the direct phrases/words in the scripture.  I love various genres of music but I need my praise/worship songs…they feed me along with reading the Word.

Giving my life to the Lord has become a Garden of God with beautiful melodies in my soul not a tragic operatic song.  When I think of a garden that God is tending…things are in bloom, being pruned for more growth, soil (heart) is nourished by His Word and love, my mind is being transformed and renewed…All for His glory and purpose.

So it really doesn’t matter how my Mom came up with my name or how I used to feel about it, I know divine intervention was at work.  I was Carmen even before my Mother knew I was Carmen.  Even when I didn’t appreciate my name, God knew I would eventually see the purposeful meaning in it…I’m a garden of God’s handiwork being melodiously changed by Him.  How AWESOME IS THAT…..CARMEN!!!

Seek God for your real name.  Walk in your God given purpose. God thought of me and still thinks about me…..CARMEN!!!

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