The use of endearing names to describe lovers isn’t a new thing, it can be traced back to Bible times. Although, some would say Adam used pet names to illustrate his wife, there’s a deep insight into this beyond the poetic rhyme.
What name will you call your spouse?
There’s power in the name you bear or you call a thing. Names are not just ordinary appellations or tags, they determine the course of a person’s life or situation, or describe the event that led to their birth.
God was the first person to name a thing. He called the light day, and the darkness, night. Adam also gave names to all the animals on earth.
Whatever name you call a thing or situation is what they become. This is why death and life are in the power of the tongue. The name you call yourself in the midst of your challenge is what you become. The name you call your spouse is what they become, I don’t mean the pet names.
But in the context of marriage, what name will you call your spouse?
It’s easy to find an endearing name to describe your spouse, but beyond that, there’s an influence that names exert on the bearer.
Adam called his wife three different names, and they had significance to the role those names played in his life in marriage.
1. Her REVEALED name
Do you know that it’s not the day God brought his wife to him that he gave her name?
Study verse twenty-three clearly, Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones.” Although it may seem to happen in a jiffy, he gave her a name by divine revelation.
Adam called his wife:
“Bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh”
What did you think this name means?
Bone refers to support or strength while flesh means covering or protection. And the fact that “My” was added meant that she was tailored to complement him.
What name will you call your husband?
Forget those Romeo and Juliet endearing names, it’s not bad though, but what revelation of the role of your wife or husband do you have in your life?
If you don’t have an understanding of the role they play in your life, you will never cherish them when the chips are down. No wonder Adam easily pointed accusing fingers at his wife because she made him eat the fruit.
2. Her PROPHETIC name
When you pay further attention to that same verse, Adam said, “She shall be called Woman.” Why? Because she was taken out of a man.
Who is a woman to a man in marriage? And who’s a man to a woman in marriage?
What a woman is to a man in marriage is not what another woman is to him outside marriage.
In marriage, a woman is a womb-man to a man, that is, she has the capacity to bear and nurture whatever seed the man deposits into her. She’s a personal support and covering system to him.
Abram couldn’t see what his wife’s role in his life was, but when God changed their names, He made us understand that Sarah shall be the mother of many nations (Gen. 17:15-16).
Dear husband and wife to be, what prophetic name will you give your spouse? After your demise, will your name still have impact in the life of generations to come?
Don’t just be a wife or mother, husband or father, be known for something tangible that has both earthly and eternal relevance.
3. Her ACCURSED name
There’s a name that some men call their wife during the blissful years of their courtship or the early years of marriage; but a few years into the union, the name changes.
After the curse, Adam changed his wife’s name to “Eve” (mother of all living). And from that point, Eve was only known to produce children for Adam. Her role as a help meet was relegated to making babies (Gen. 3:20).
This is why some men believe that the only good a woman can do is to make babies or cook, and some who don’t want to be committed in marriage hire women as “baby mama.”
Does your wife’s relevance belong to the kitchen, and the other room? And as a man, are you only relevant when there’s need for sex or some mundane things?
If you are a woman reading this, what do you want to be called in the life of your husband? “Iya Sola,” “Mama Nkechi,” “Mother of my children,” “Daddy this or that,” or those names that confines men and women to secondary roles in marriage?
Wake up women, your primary role in a man’s life is not to make babies. This may be a bitter pill to swallow for men who haven’t discovered their divine purpose. If you have delay in child bearing, raise spiritual children or mentor great children.
The likes of Mother Teresa and Mary Slessor never had biological children, but their influence couldn’t be forgotten in the pages of history.
Don’t go into marriage with no other thing to offer than to make babies. Become everything to your spouse that no secretary, gate man, house help or cook would complement them the way you’d do.