We sit in a circle and learn each others names. I come to the little girl I know and she says something so quietly I cannot hear. The teacher points it out..."did you hear her?" I quickly shake my head because I already know the little girl's name. Except today this little girl in pigtails...she has changed her name.
She says, "My name is____________, ridin' a pink pony." Names mean something. We spend lots of time picking out just the right name for each child. It is the one thing our children carry with them throughout their life.
The little boy beside me he looks at me with his serious eyes and quietly comments. "There are no pink ponies." I wonder why God didn't make ponies pink.
We talked on Wednesdays this week about how God created in seven days. A complete world full of countless creatures with characteristics we could have never imagined ourselves. How he created it all with his words. He said it and it became real. Words have power...the power to create. And with those words and a little dust, he created us in his image.
Our words have some of that same creative power. I wonder if I am ever like the little boy. Reminding my children that pink ponies don't exist. It does seem at times that our children have impossible dreams. Things that we cannot see becoming reality. I often get caught up in what I think they should do and be. Pushing and prodding them forward according to my own dreams for them. Forgetting to listen to what they believe they can be.
When we are in the car this week, or at the dinner table... before bed we could tell our kids the story of their names. Why we chose it...what it means. (You could look up the meaning of their name in a book or on-line.) Let's ask them what they imagine about themselves. Let's remind them that though they have our eye color and their grandmother's smile, they were created in the very image of God...and that maybe somewhere out there pink ponies are possible.
