What Are You Contributing To The Family Name?
by on Nov 30th, 2010 at 12:01 am
“A good name is better than precious ointment” - Ecclesiastes 7:1a, ESV
“Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory...” - Psalm 115:1a, ESV
Twelve summers ago, a friend of mine was 80 miles into a 500-mile road trip when her car died on the interstate. I drove out to meet her and realized we would not be able to rescue her car without the assistance of a tow truck.
I called the owner of the body shop in what was then our small town. Rollie was his name. He retrieved the car and fixed the malfunction. I brought my friend back to my grandparents’ house to wait out the inevitably high towing and repair bill. We tried to figure out how we would be able to cover the bill so she could return to her home as soon as possible, and just thinking about the problem troubled us. We were poor high school students then. How would we ever cover the costs of repair?
Within a few hours, the dreaded call from Rollie arrived and we went to the car shop to hear about the financial damage that would accompany the damage to the car. When I asked him what we owed him, he said something that took me completely by surprise. He said, “Well, the McCunes have been good customers for thirty years and have always paid their bills on time. I’m sure you could use a free repair today.” He handed me the keys and my friend made it home that night without paying a penny for what should have been a four-digit repair.
I was stunned by Rollie’s response to my question. I was also humbled to receive a gift that came as a result of the care my grandparents, father, aunt, and uncle had taken to preserve the family name in our community. Their honesty, faithfulness, and diligence with their money came back to bless me, and I was now challenged to do my part in the years to come by preserving the honor of the McCune name.
A name is not a cheap tool of identification. Our family will inherit blessings or cursings depending on how well we, as men, preserve or enhance it. If I conduct myself honestly, lovingly, and responsibly in my community, I will give my son the gift of a good name. He will win opportunities he did not deserve, just as I did, because people trust the McCune name. If I use what good credit my family has earned on personal indulgence, I’ll make life much harder for my children. They will have to face ridicule and distrust at almost every step so long as they people they are with fall under my sphere of influence. While hardship for sake of Jesus’ name is acceptable to me, hardship as a result of McCune stupidity is, well, just stupid.
Now, I don’t believe that we exist to glorify our own family names. I think that a good family name is the byproduct of diligent and faithful living. The only name we should actively and primarily exalt is the name of Jesus. However, we do a disservice to both when we live recklessly, selfishly, and sinfully. A man who does that is better off not creating a next generation.
A man of God will bring glory to God and honor to his family by the life he leads. He does not need to be perfect, but he should be honest, confessing imperfections and humbly leveraging his strengths for the sake of the King of Kings and the citizens of His kingdom. Inevitably, honor will be given, by others, to the men who keep to this pattern. Such honor might not come in the form of national or worldwide fame, but it could show itself in the quiet respect that forms among other men who know the difference between a man of honor and a male of dishonor.
The challenge for you today is to consider how you are contributing to both of your family names: your family of birth and your family of new birth. Consider the following:
- Are you helping your co-workers/co-volunteers/community or being a drain on their patience, time, and resources?
- Are you being a reliable and welcoming neighbor or do those who live around you view your home as one to merely pass by or avoid?
- When you engage in commerce, are you doing so honestly and fairly?
- If you had a younger sibling or future child attend your school, would they find their time at there more pleasant or difficult because of your reputation with the teachers and administrators?
- Would your employer hire consider hiring another family member because of your conduct as an employee?
Your family name is elevated or deflated as a result of the cumulative effect of years of diligent or negligent conduct. Perhaps, you are fortunate enough like me to inherit a name that has a good reputation in a number of communities. Perhaps, you have inherited a name that is poorly regarded because of the previous actions of other relatives. Your challenge as a man will be to restore the name. You might even have the opportunity to move away from home, like me, and establish roots in a new community that does not know of your family name.
Either way, you have the chance to establish the reputation that your spouse and children will enjoy or hate. Whatever your situation, do not neglect your family name. Honor it by glorifying God through living life according to His prescribed patterns of life. In doing so, you will inevitably be a blessing to those around you, and they will, in turn, honor your family name by persecuting you for Christ’s sake or considering what your family has to say about Him.