Know The Name

August 26, 2025

Sisters and Friends,

I want to tell you about the day I learned my mother’s name. I was around four or five and my mother and I were doing a little shopping. We were living in Monroe, Louisiana at the time and the store was called TG&Y. It was a five and dime store and they had a toy aisle that I really liked. As we were walking into the store, my mother said stay where I can see you. I shopped with her for a while and eventually made my way to the toy aisle, she could see me and I could see her. After a while, I looked up and I could no longer see my mother. I went up and down the aisle looking for her. Finally after running around the entire store, I went to the front of the store and told the lady at the register that my mother was lost.

The woman at the register asked, "What's your mother’s name?"

I said "Mommy".

She and the women in line laughed and then she asked, "What does everyone else in your family call your mother."

I gave her the name and she asked, "Are you sure?"

I nodded yes, because that’s what my grandmother, aunts and cousins call her.

At the age of four or five, I did not know that everyone called my mother by her nickname.

The sales clerk took the microphone and made an announcement to the store.

"Prissy, please come to the front of the store, you have a lost daughter".

Then we waited.

And waited

Do you know that Prissy did not come to the front of the store?

Women in the line began to point to other Black women in the store asking, "Sweetheart is that your mother?"

"No".

"Is that you mommy?"

"No".

Finally, my mother walked past the register. I ran to her and asked, "How come you didn’t come up to the front to get me".

She said, "I told you to stay where I can see you and the clerk never called my name."

I said, "Well what is your name?"

Have you ever felt lost? Stuck? Unsure? Maybe you’ve been navigating through days, that turn into weeks that turn into months, that turn into seasons and seasons that turn into years, of petitioning God and your prayers are still unanswered? I’d like to share three highlights from my traumatic experience at that TG&Y store.

• Stay where God can see you. I was supposed to be in the toy aisle. I was never supposed to go looking up and down the aisle for my mother. On the way home she told me, she always knew where I was. "Just because you couldn’t see me, didn’t mean I couldn’t see you." Likewise, God is never far from us. The Holy Ghost resides in us and oftentimes we are looking everywhere else for God, when what we seek is within. As a Christian, it should be our desire to be in the presence of God - that’s in fellowship, in worship and in service to others.

• Call God by the name of your need. There are over 100 names of God. There are songs and scriptures about His various names. There is a name of God for every need that we have. This is significant because when we say His name, we release his nature. Lastly,

  
  

• God has distinct relationships with all of his children. It’s ok to ask God what should I call you? Even Moses asked, who should I say sent me.

As we enter into an intentional season of releasing and letting go, I simply want to encourage you to learn our Father’s names. He will answer, when you call.