What's In A Name?

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Odd looks abound when people ask us the names of our daughters. The number one comment we get is "that's interesting." Coming from a person who shares a name with a few million other people and finding it quite dull, we decided to pray and seek the Lord about our children's names and be completely open to whatever He might tell us. I know He loves them much more than we do and knows their lives much more fully than I could ever foresee. That is how we came to the two unique names for our two daughters (one to be born soon).
Laomai Petra Cherry and Yasha Faithful Cherry
Laomai Petra:
Laomai is a Greek word in the New Testament that gives the idea that all healing is done by the Spirit of God. It cannot occur without Him. The Lexical Aids says it also means "to heal, cure, restore, to heal spiritually, to save, to bring safely through."
Petra was my grandmother's middle name. She did not like it. I loved it. It is a Greek word in Matthew 16:18 where Jesus tells Peter "on this rock I will build my church." That rock was the fact the Jesus was the Son of God.
Yasha Faithful:
Yasha is a word I came across reading Isaiah 30:15. The word saved in the passage is the Hebrew word "yasha." It is the root of Yeshua (Jesus) meaning "salvation."  It means to be delivered, saved, get help, give victory, rescue. It is the root of the word Hosanna which the crowds cry out in Matthew 21:9 when Christ makes His triumphal entry. Laomai who told us that Yasha was a girl when the dr said she was a boy, picked her name from a list we gave her. I asked God for confirmation and quickly received an email from a friend with Isaiah 62:11 in it. It states, "Say to the daughter of Zion, "Lo, your salvation comes." She has an glorious testimony already. I am not sure if it will ever grace this blog, but we will see. 
Faithful is a name Denbigh came across while doing his family tree. He found his 8th great grandfather in the 1600s that was named Faithful Cherry. This man had 12 children with biblical names. We fell in love with the legacy of how a love of Christ had remained in the family line through the generations.
©stephaniecherry.com

Comments

Stephanie said…
What a great story. I loved reading about how their names came about! Your daughters will know how much you guys love them and how you put the Lord first in everything just by knowing how they were named! Precious.
8:39 AM
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