A Name of Intention

Anna Joy Lynn is my pen name. Not many people have a pen name in this day and age. My nom de plume has a special meaning. My daughter came up with the name based on the meaning of the moniker she suggested for me. She is in my corner and has loved me unconditionally, through thick and thin. She suggested Anna which means favor, grace and graciousness. Joy is what it is. . . and intense kind of contentment, pleasure, gladness, delight, and glee. Lynn means near a lake or pond. She sees me as a Psalm One Woman.

This passage, Psalm One, is one of my favorite spots in the Amplified Bible. I know others refer to it as the “Woman’s Bible” because it is so wordy and verbose. It just so happens to describe my life and where I have been and where I want to go.

1BLESSED, HAPPY, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable is the woman who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly, following their advice, their plans and purposes, nor stands submissive and inactive in the path where sinners walk, nor sits down to relax and rest where the scornful and the mockers gather.

2But her delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God) she habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night.

3And she shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything she does shall prosper and come to maturity.

I bought a painting on my 30th birthday at the starving artist sale of a tree planted by a “crick” where the tree’s roots dip into the water and it leans in the direction of the sun. It’s not a perfect looking tree, but it is healthy and it’s leaf is green, no matter what time of the year it is. I pasted a copy of Psalm 1 to the back of the canvas so that whenever I have moved it, it reminds me why I bought it. It always hangs in a place where I can see it.

I aspire to be this type of “tree” woman, unmoved, drinking deeply of the water of the Spirit and providing shade and comfort for the suffering, tired and brokenhearted. So my pen name is just part of the destination of where I long to live. I still love my real name, but for now, it’s fun writing under a name of intention.