That family name…it can bring good thoughts or bad thoughts. Some of us were fortunate. We were raised in a family of love and security. (Notice I did not say perfection.) Others think of their childhood and their family with disdain or brokenness or hate. The remembrance of our family name brings up emotion of some kind. It is rare to have no emotion at all when that name is spoken.

Our family was a regular family of the fifties in the South. Our parents had survived WWII and the Great Depression. They had married and started a family. They worked in textile mills and farmed on the side. Very few people had money in those years. However, most people owned their land and home. We always had plenty to eat and never felt the fear of “lack”. When someone would ask who I was…I was never ashamed to tell them who my family was. It never occurred to me to shrink back from who I was.

Our Dad was very clear that no one was better than us, no matter how wealthy they were. He  was also quick to tell us we were not better than those who had less than we did. He gave us the confidence to be who we were. What an awesome gift.

When we were born into our family, we carried our parent’s DNA. We were their children. We could say we weren’t their children, but that didn’t make it true. There was nothing we could do in any way that would change who we were. Their DNA was in every cell in our body.

We see this clearly in the physical world. Why then do we get anxious, fearful, or doubt that we are the children of El Elohim, the true and living God? Why do we entertain the idea that somehow we can not be His child? Why do we listen to that evil voice that tells us Abba will throw us away or disown us? 

When we give our life to Christ…When we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that our God raised Yeshua from the dead, scripture declares us washed clean and members of the body of Christ. We are a new creation. We are part of the family of God. We carry the family Name. We have His spiritual DNA. Scripture says we are a new creation.

As in any family, when we sin, we are disciplined. But again, the Word says our Father disciplines His children. Discipline is one more proof of Whose family we belong to.

We carry His family name as surely as we carry our physical family’s name.  We are His child. He is our Father. Never doubt. Remember, we can’t change our DNA.

We are secure. In Him.