Eli Aaron Gause
Aaron means: exalted, mountain of strength, and messenger
We feel so much significance with his name... for everyone reading this, we feel that "messenger" has particular significance. He has message for each one of us...several messages, really. We feel his spirit guiding us not only in his name, but in so many things we say right now. The message is truly from him and we pray to be clear conduits to relay the message.
And Gause. Several months ago Jason was thinking about what a name means. This was before we were expecting Eli. A name used to be very significant. It defined you in many ways. For example, people knew that if you were a "Smith" you were a hard worker, or if you were an "Anderson" you were always honest, or if you were a "Jones" you could be counted on... He felt like names don't have as much meaning attached to them as they should. So, together, we set out to figure out what GAUSE was supposed to mean. It took us a few months of praying and seeking the guidance of the spirit to identifying so short, concise phrases that we could use to teach ourselves and our kids who we are. Here is what we came up with:
G: God first in all we do
A: Agents to act in righteousness
U: Understand and keep covenants
S: Stand immovable for what is right, no matter the price
E: Endowed with power to serve
1. God comes first ALWAYS; if we do this, everything else pretty much takes care of itself
2. We are agents to ACT and not simply to be acted upon (2 Nephi 2:14, D&C 58:26-29)
Elder Bednar talks about this quite a bit:
Bear up their burdens with ease
In the Strength of the Lord
We have been given agency... We need to use it to act...in righteousness.
3. We need to keep the covenants we have made, but how can we keep them if we don't even understand what we have covenanted to do? Understanding has to come first. I think that understanding our covenants is a process, but as we keep the part we understand, we will understand more and more what God is telling us.
4. Self explanatory
5. Endowed with power...what kind of power? The power of God! ALL good things come from God and are made possible by this power. Do we realize that this is the power of the priesthood? I think that we understand the "power of the priesthood" in such a limited sense. It is literally the power that God gives us to do everything good we do. Why has God given us this power? One main reason is to serve.
We are so happy to have a name for our boy!
