“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”. 1 Samuel 16:7

Our interaction with other people is a source of many paradigms on each other. We then have several opinions on each other which can improve our potential but also kill the potential inside us. Unfortunately, many of us are tempted to accept these opinions as truth and tend to decide on them. The reality is that many of our opinions are not necessarily consistent with the opinion of our creator. No wonder the Bible said in Luke 16:15 “What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight” or 1 Samuel 16:7 “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”.

The reading of the passage of first Samuel provided no evidence that someone in the family of David or around him would have predicted something useful about him. Indeed, from his own family to King Saul or even the prophet Samuel, no one had seen a kingship potential in him. The prophet Samuel, who was a spiritual man with anointing, looked at the physical appearance of Eliab and said “Surely here before the LORD is His anointed” while God rejected Eliab. Jesse the father of David suggested the first three sons probably because of their war experience with King Saul (1 Samuel 17:23). His brother Eliab in front of whom David received the anointing treated him later as arrogant with a wicked heart when David was about to defy Goliath. The final opinion on David before he went to the palace is the one from Saul who sees him as a child (1 Samuel 17:33). While the entourage of David was underestimating him, neglecting him, and giving him different names (child, arrogant, wicked heart) that could easily kill his potential, God looked at his heart and his experience as a shepherd and saw a kingship potential.

I do not know the name people give you. They may give you names based on past mistakes, or your weakness/flaws, or even invent names that have no consistency with your personality/experience because of jealousy. Whatever name they give to you, remember the name that matters the most is the name by which God calls you.

May God help us to recognize the potential he put inside us