I remember when we were choosing a name for Carson. Troy and I had 2 names chosen, one was Carson and one was Eliana since we didn't find out if Carson was a boy or a girl until he made his grand entrance into this world. We decided not to tell everyone the names, but I came up with a couple of names for our child. If our baby was a girl, I would tell people that her name was going to be Gertrude Maude And if he was a boy, then the name was Walter Henry. (I found these names in a list of popular names from 1920.) A friend, Jeanine, whom I mentioned the names told me that if I named my child Gertrude or Walter that he/she would need counseling by the time he/she entered kindergarten. And she was a school counselor!
Needless to say, Carson is not Walter Henry. Carson is Carson. Michael is Michael and Alex is Alex. Their names all suit them well. And I'm Tanya - Not Tonya. My parents named me after a country singer who had a popular song in 1976 entitled 'two sparrows in a hurricane'. But a name has power. There's a reason you have the name that you do. You're parents chose that special name for you. If you are female and you marry, then you often times take on the last name of your spouse. It took me a long while to say my name is Tanya Brown, instead of Tanya Gartamaker. (I still mess that one up sometimes!)
For me when someone uses my name (and says it correctly), then I automatically give that person my attention. They are speaking directly to me. They have called me by name. (Sometime I choose to ignore the 11 year old when he's trying to wear out my name, but normally I give my attention!)
So our challenge is to learn the name of someone new and call them by their first name. This can be the checker at the grocery store or Wal-Mart. Or maybe the waitress at the local diner. Perhaps someone from McDonald's.
For me, Travis at CVS while I was buying my MucinexD - Extra Strength! Trying to knock out this cold which has attacked me for long enough!
