What Names Have You Been Called?

Each time I speak before a group, it is my prayer that God be lifted up and I will fade into the background. So last Thursday before speaking I got up early to review the message and prepare my heart and mind for the task, I told the Lord that I wanted Him to be the focus and that didn’t want people to even notice or recognize me. Then off I went to teach a lesson on understanding how God can use each of His children as one of His vessels.

After the music had been sung, the musician prayed for our morning and that God would speak through “Inga.” I secretly chuckled to myself because it was not the first time that I had been called a foreign name like that--other times it has been Helga or Greta.  After teaching I laughingly told someone who commented on the slip of her tongue that I had gotten used to it over the years and that I really didn’t care what people called me as long as they call me.

On Friday night after my husband and I had gone to the movies to see Tom Hanks in Larry Crowne I ran into a girl who usually attends the Bible study and I told her that I had missed her the previous day. She then asked me who had taught the lesson that day and I informed her that it had been me. She then began laughing and said that someone had told her that she didn’t know who the teacher was, but she thought their name was Ingrid.  

Don’t you love God’s sense of humor and the way that He answers our prayers? So will you please join me in praying as I speak that God will be glorified and I will fade into the background as God becomes revealed to those listening?

John 3:30 He must become greater; I must become less.

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