Asa Rose

I said in a previous post that I would tell you more about the name Asa...so here we are...more about her name...

Since we've been back in E. Texas, Joel's been really getting alot out of his devo.'s in 2 Chronicles. For a week or two before Asa was born, he was camped out in the story of King Asa, found in 2 Chronicles 14-16. King Asa was a great king. When introducing Asa in 14:1-2, it says that "there was peace in the land for ten years, for Asa did what was pleasing and good in the sight of the Lord his God." He tore down all of the things that were not of God and built up the things that were of God. Verse 7 says, "The land is ours because we sought the Lord our God, and He has given us rest from our enemies." In the last part of Chapter 14, Asa and his army were being attacked by the Ethiopians. They were very outnumbered. Asa cried out to God and said, "O Lord, no one but you can help the powerless against the mighty! Help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in you alone. It is in your name that we have come against this vast horde. O Lord, you are our God; do not let mere men prevail against you!" God fought the battle for them, and of course won.

In 15:2, a prophet is sent to speak to Asa saying, "The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with Him! Whenever you seek Him, you will find Him. But if you abandon Him, He will abandon you." Asa was hard-core...he followed God at all costs...he even "deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made an obscene Asherah pole."

Unfortunately, in Chapter 16 it shows how Asa began to trust in his own understanding instead of continuing to cry out to God. The plan Asa had when dealing with the king of Baasha worked great, but it wasn't God's plan. What seemed right in Asa's eyes (and probably all of his contemporaries) was inferior to the way God wanted to deal with it. "The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him." (v. 9)

It goes on to say that Asa became mad, his heart was hardened, from them on he was at war and he also began to oppress some of his people. He developed a serious foot disease and even when it became life-threatening, he did not seek the Lord's help but instead went to doctors. Sad end to his life.

So, that's the Asa that Asa Rose's name came from. Even the bad part of his life...much can be learned from it and it is just such a good warning to live your life fully committed to God and His ways at all times.

Over 24 hours after Asa was born was when we named her. We were just praying about her name and we really wanted the name God wanted for her. We liked several names, but none of the names really grabbed us and we just didn't feel like they were the names for our baby. We prayed, Joel opened his Bible to have his devo.'s, and then he said, "How about Asa?" Ding ding!! I said, "I love it." Finally a name with some grab to it. We immediately felt complete peace and felt like she truly was "Asa."

I did a search online to find out what Asa means. One of the meanings I found out later was "born at dawn"...a Hebrew male name. But, the ones that I saw first were for a Hebrew female, meaning "healer." How perfect!! It was total confirmation that Asa truly was her name. Not only do we need healing in certain areas of our lives right now as far as some specific relationships and issues that I can't really discuss, but it was just totally our baby...she had been a "healer" to my body already in her short 24 hours of life. As previously stated in the birth story, there were lots of things that had been so great about this birth...hardly any tearing was the major thing. We had prayed so much for that since I had bad experiences with that in the past. The other thing which is even more huge since it is long-term is the breastfeeding issue. I have been healed, praise God. Whatever was wrong with my body and breastfeeding before...it's gone...I am still breastfeeding exclusively with plenty of milk for Asa. So, HEALER...it was the perfect name.

We have 2-word descriptions for each of our children related to their names and what they mean and just our vision for them individually. Grady's is "noble knight." Hadley's is "sweet joy." Asa's, as related to King Asa's life and the meaning of Asa..."peaceful healer."

As previously stated, Rose comes from Joel's aunt. Maybe in the future I will go into more detail about Grady's and Hadley's names and how we were given their names and all.

So, there you have it...Asa Rose.

Also, Asa was a week old on Tuesday. She is doing great. For pictures of her first week, go to our website and click on the Pictures section: www.ebersoleonline.com.