"Amal Means Hope" -Em

I signed into Blogger, with a mission in mind. I had decided to write a blog about names. Much to my surprise as the Blogger page loaded, I was not alone in my endeavor. Another "blog artist" (of whose blog we follow) had created a blog entitled "Power of a name". Although I only know that this person knows someone I know, I somehow feel connected through a common idea. My thoughts on the subject are not quite as profound, but I thought I should share something I have noticed about names upon coming to Jordan.

Ever since we came to this lovely country, we have been meeting and getting to know different people. Since my first day in the weaving class at the YMWA, people have been telling me the meaning of names. One of the teachers in weaving is named Amal - I don't know how to spell it in English, but she told me it means "hope". Heba means "gift from God". Sajidah - "one who prays". Someone once asked, "What does your name mean?" My answer? I had no idea. In fact, I couldn't tell you what any of my family members' names mean. I'm pretty sure I was named after Emily Dickenson, but that's all I really know. So I looked it up online and found out that my name means "laborious" and "rival". Which translates into - difficult, painstaking, enemy, competitor, adversary... the list goes on. Needless to say, I'm not very excited to tell everyone I meet the meaning of my name. Now, it is true that one of my students calls me enemy, but surely she doesn't mean it... does she? Anyways... Hopefully I can overrule these attributes by the way I live and the way I treat other people. In fact, we are actually told in the book of Revelation that one day we will receive a new name, that God will actually write His name on those who overcome! So despite those seemingly unpleasant descriptors of the name Emily... there is hope! And hope is what keeps me going! With all of the death and destruction going on so close to us here in Jordan, it is easy for me to get depressed... but as I learned in the research of my name, there is hope! Someday we will all have a new name and a new nature. No more "enemies", no more war, and definitely no more death! So, even though "Emily" doesn't exactly mean what I want it to, whenever I think about names, I'll think about hope. "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."(Revelation 21:4)