What's in a name

I wanted to share why we chose the name Anna Grace for our sweet baby girl. I don't want to forget how we chose the name, so here is the story:

We've been a part of a ministry to International students for the past 2 years. When you meet an international student and introduce yourself, they always ask "What does your name MEAN?"

Most international students can tell a great story about the meaning of their name and what it represented. Chinese, Nigerian, Korean, Eritrean....all had the same story...their names meant something. They were very proud of their names. This seems to have Biblical support.

Proverbs 22:1 says, "A good name is to be more desired than great wealth; favor is better than silver and gold."

With that in mind, Josh and I had the desire to pick a name that meant something. Josh is named after the bible character with such a wonderful legacy. I love that...but what name to give our little one?

I made lists of names we liked. Anna popped in my head one day after we had found out the gender. Just a few days later, I was reading Luke, and came across the story of Anna in Luke 2. Anna was a widow and prophetess who lived in the temple, "serving night and day with fastings and prayers." When she finally saw the baby Jesus, she immediately began to give thanks to God and tell everyone who was "looking for the redemption of Jerusalem." The words jumped off the page! I never remember reading of an Anna in scripture before. Ironically, Josh came across this same passage in his own personal Bible reading time. The scripture stuck out to him as much as it did me.

So, Anna it was. We both thought that the prophetess Anna from Luke 2 was a great woman of the Lord to be named after.

Then I learned that my great grandmother's name was Anna (on my dad's side), and that my great great grandmother's name was also Anna (on my mom's side). I thought that was cool too.

But what does Anna mean? Anna means "grace" or "favor". Perfect. So we named her Anna Grace, in other words, Grace upon Grace...because you can never have enough grace, and we knew we would need lots of grace to become parents.

"For of His fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace." John 1:16

"The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." Romans 5:2o

"But He gives us more grace" James 4:6

You can never have enough grace when it comes to the grace of our Heavenly Father. So we pray for grace to raise our Anna Grace. And we pray she would be able to grasp God's grace which was poured out through His son Jesus Christ.