{"id":46265,"date":"2007-04-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/sons-dont-live-up-to-their-names\/"},"modified":"2007-04-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-02T00:00:00","slug":"sons-dont-live-up-to-their-names","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/sons-dont-live-up-to-their-names\/","title":{"rendered":"Sons Don&#8217;t Live Up to Their Names"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In their fascinating book, <em>Freakonomics<\/em>, economists Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner point out that one of the first acts of parental power comes in the naming of a child. Many believe the name carries great significance. The case of the Lane brothers may argue differently.<\/p>\n\n<p>Back in 1958, a baby boy was born into the Lane family. Robert&mdash;the father&mdash;chose to name the boy Winner. How could the young man fail to succeed with a name like Winner Lane?<\/p>\n\n<p>The Lanes had another son several years later. For unknown reasons, Robert named this baby Loser. How tragic to doom this boy&#39;s future prospects with such a name.<\/p>\n\n<p>Contrary to all expectations, Loser Lane <em>succeeded<\/em>. He graduated from college and later became a sergeant with the New York Police Department. Nowadays, no one feels comfortable calling him Loser. His police colleagues refer to him as Lou.<\/p>\n\n<p>And what of the brother with the &quot;can&#39;t miss&quot; name? The most noteworthy achievement of Winner Lane, now in his mid 40s, is the sheer length of his criminal record&mdash;nearly three dozen arrests for burglary, domestic violence, trespassing, resisting arrest, and other mayhem.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3454,3555,3621,3701,3768,3771,3781,3797,3866,3960,3967,3971,4091,4513,4580,4633,4807,4818,5085,5140,5191,5219,5240],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-46265","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-attitude","tax_ctp_tags-challenges","tax_ctp_tags-circumstances","tax_ctp_tags-courage","tax_ctp_tags-destiny","tax_ctp_tags-determination","tax_ctp_tags-dignity","tax_ctp_tags-discouragement","tax_ctp_tags-enduring","tax_ctp_tags-family","tax_ctp_tags-fathers-day","tax_ctp_tags-fathers","tax_ctp_tags-grandparents-day","tax_ctp_tags-name","tax_ctp_tags-overcoming","tax_ctp_tags-perspective","tax_ctp_tags-reputation","tax_ctp_tags-respect","tax_ctp_tags-strength","tax_ctp_tags-testing","tax_ctp_tags-trial","tax_ctp_tags-uprightness","tax_ctp_tags-virtue"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sons Don&#039;t Live Up to Their Names - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/sons-dont-live-up-to-their-names\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sons Don&#039;t Live Up to Their Names - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In their fascinating book, Freakonomics, economists Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner point out that one of the first acts of parental power comes in the naming of a child. 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