Nora

It'd be cool to say we had some God-moment for picking our daughter's name, but really it was the first name we both really liked as we looked forward to having kids. The judge is still out on the boy names for us, so we're glad Nora came out the way she did after both Thai and Chinese doctors said "maybe" a girl.

As we were exploring possible boy names we came across the meaning of Nora in our handy dandy baby-names iphone app. Nora means "light." It's part of the Hebrew word Menorah, which you know to be the set of candles Jewish people light at Hanakkuh. It's been really fun in recent weeks and days to be drawn to the meaning and significance of light in the Bible and to have our prayers for our daughter be the same. As you pray for her we'd love for you to join with us in these two things:

Matthew 5:14-15 says: "¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house." (Also: Isaiah 49:6)

What a blessing it would be to have a child that's a light to her friends, teachers, c0-workers, and to the people in the ends of the earth. Also our prayer comes from the following verses:

Psalm 119:105 - "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path." (Also Psalm 19:8; 27:1).

Light reveals what is true about our surroundings. When light isn't pure or bright it can lie to us and make it hard to see the right path. God's light reveals lies not seen in darkness and reveals clearly what is the truth path when there are so many. This is a challenge for everyone, but especially as a young woman, she needs to clearly see in all situations what is truth and what is a lie so that she will stay far away from lies about God, life, or herself that are just too easy to believe. John 8:31 says that the truth will set us free. There's so much freedom that comes with knowing that you're in the truth and on the right path. Our hope is that she will always see truth illuminated by God alone and find freedom in that.