Today when I woke up, I checked my email which is under Bailey Seng. Then I checked my Facebook which is Bailey Seng Kuert. I called my doctor’s office and I am Bailey Seng because my medical insurance hasn’t switched over. Then I get into my car which is under Bailey Kuert. I will drive to Physical Therapy later today and check in under Bailey Kuert because the car accident is under my new last name. All that to explain that it is important that I know who I am in these scenarios to not create confusion. When being asked what my name is, my answer depends on who is asking me. I would get in a car accident 5weeks after getting married just so I can have name craziness ensue! :-) I love my name though. My first, my middle, my maiden and my new last name.

When I attended Bible School, I was in a class called, “Ministry Gifts and Callings”. Sounds like it would be full of great things and identity right? Well, it was, but I didn’t always see it that way. Mainly because one day we had an entire class on the meaning of your name and how God named you. I sat there completely frustrated thinking this was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard ( no offense to my incredible teacher). I thought, “My name is not Sarah, Mary, or Ruth. My name isn’t even in the Bible and it means something stupid. I wasn’t even a Christian when I was named so how on Earth does this relate to me. My parents, not God named me. And why am I paying money to hear this?” It was the only time in Bible School I was defensive. This was because God in fact DID name me and called me for a purpose.  My name linked my God given identity for my life AND further rooted me as a daughter of the Most High. This frightened me as I was ok with there being distance between God and I and me just being a lowly servant of His. However as the weeks unfolded, I found myself learning about my name. In the course of the next year, I was asked to speak to the youth on preassigned topics. Not once, but twice in a row I was assigned, “Motivational Gifts and the Meaning of Your Name”! Great!! Yes out of everything I could be assigned to, have me teach on the one thing I didn’t believe in! God is funny like that and what He deposited in me has proved to be invaluable. I surrendered my hesitations and frustrations and started studying material to present to the youth. I’d looked up Bailey before, but it wasn’t until I looked up m middle name, Kristen, that my identity clicked for me. Kristen is a derivative of Christian and literally means “anointed followed of Christ”. When I read that, I cried.  I have a testimony of coming to The Lord, that I knew well and upon reading this I realized that every time my name was called out, Jesus was calling me into my destiny. When my mom used the middle name as most moms do when you’re in trouble, God was sweetly speaking,”Hey anointed follower of my Son, come to me. You’re mine.” Upon further study of “Bailey”, I came to find out it means bailiff, or overseer, steward, one entrusted with another’s wealth and wisdom, able, and in a Bailey-Motte castle, a Bailey is the defensive wall protecting the inner court. If you know me at all, that is about as accurate as you could get ;-) My maiden name even means, “one who’s marked by fire” hello Holy Spirit& my red hair ;-)

I share this because learning just one tiny aspect of my God given DNA forever changed me. To learn that God, the beginning and the end. The everlasting to everlasting called me Bailey Kristen Seng/Kuert and called me His own in incredible. Now He obviously used my parents and obviously they’re human and so am I, but the beauty is His love and affirmation over us transcends our weakness. I often get prophetic words for people or affirm them based on the meaning of their names. This happens with me I believe because I didn’t believe in it at all and God deeply rooted it in me. No matter what Your name is, I encourage you to look it up and find out what God is saying in and through that. May you too find yourself as a son and daughter of His love.