Honor the Name

I have given this some thought over the years, and have a copy of great examples that I would like to share. I guess what started all of this was the fact the Lord has asked us not to take His name in vain. We all like to have our name remembered "correctly" and not misued or abused. I find that some names have slipped into a rather abused catagory and wondered why when I had learned where the name originated and what it really stood for. Lets see if you have the same idea when you have learned a little more.
The first name is Dorcas. Today it has a meaning so foreign to what it really means or stood for that it annoys me greatly. If you take time, not that you have to of course, you can read in the New Testament in the Book of Acts chapter 9 verses 36-42 about "Tabitah" which is the Greek for the Arabic name Dorcas. Now the first name mentioned has no harsh useage today, but Dorcas does. So, who was Dorcas? She was apparently a very lovely lady who lived during the time of the Apostles and who went about doing good to her neigbors and friends. When she passed away her body was lovelinly cared for and as the Apostle Peter was in a near by town, two friends were dispatched to have him come. When he arrived, he was taken into the room where Dorcas lay and seeing so many morners bearing the garments she had sewn and hearing of her many good works, Peter cleared the room. When he was alone, he knelt next to the bed where Dorcas lay and prayed to the Lord in her behalf. Her eyes opened, and she was returned alive to her friends and neighbors. Tabitha or Dorcas is also translated gazelle. In the English that means a small, graceful antelope. Hardly the image of something that would be classified in todays vanacular as a "Dorc". We need to treat the name of others with respect, and not allow ourselves to be brought into the crowds that know little about what they speak.
On the male side, I would like to discuss a word, that has been reduced from the name of some one who has made our everyday lives more bearable because of his great inventive mind and hard work. That word is "crap". You see it has been shortened from Crapper. Mr. Thomas Crapper was the inventor of the modern flush toilet. He was born and lived in England, and did his great work during the Victorian Era. He walked 165 miles when he was only 11 years old to be endentured as a plumber. Boys during that time, the 1830's, would have gone to work normally at age 9. Mostly in the mines. He traveled the distance to enter into his profession.
Plumbing at the time he started working with it was far from the sanitary condition we know today. The sewage systems were very primitive, and Thomas Crapper was a pioneer in developing a "water closet" that would flush away waste and save water. It is his invention that is used in every toilet used today. His inventions are too numerous to mention in this short writting, but he even worked on the porcelain toilet and at one time had a raising seat on some models for convience. He is responsible for the automatic flush used more widely today with the modern technology of the electronic eye.
The name "Crapper" was stamped on all of the products that Thomas Crapper produced, thus the name became a "word" and eventually reduced to slag in our language today. I doubt most people even know how the "word" originated.
There are no living family members of the Thomas Crapper family today. His last living relative was a female, a neice. She is now gone as well. Never married and had no children.
I guess the purpose of this writting is to help make us more aware of the dignity we should give to our own name, and out of respect give to others names as well. I only learned these facts when I was an employee of Fluidmaster who make the very flushing equipment that Mr. Crapper had invented so many years ago. I have a book about his life and inventions complete with pictures and details of the many things he made possible for our daily comfort. Why he even invented the stair runners that have saved many a slip on staircases all over the world. He was a very gifted man and certainly should have the respect and appreciation he deserves for the things he left for everyone in this world.
I guess this kind of fits into the same thought pattern as keeping the law. If you can keep the laws of God, you won't have any problem keeping the laws of the land. So it follows, if we honor the name of our Father in Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ, we should not have any problem with honoring the name of anyone from any age. Something to think about and hopefully become more aware of as we go through daily routines.

Written this 20th day of April 2010
by: Eileen Rosenberg