The  fad of the monogram is with us once again, this time in epidemic proportions.

When I was in high school, more years ago than I will admit to, we girls wore monogrammed blouses and sweaters and had necklaces with our fancy initials on them. When I got married my husband’s and my combined initials were intertwined significantly on pillowcases, bath towels and silverware.

Monogramming used to connote a certain elegance – but today everything seems to sport a monogram. From curly-cued initials on backpacks to monograms on the rear windows of Jeeps, our personal stamps adorn just about everything. And that’s what they are: personal stamps to differentiate our blouses, pillowcases, backpacks or Jeeps from everyone else’s, and to make them our own.

What got me thinking about monograms was, of all things, a Bible verse I read today: “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3) For a minute I wondered if that was the correct wording.

Years ago that verse jumped out and grabbed me and I personalized it to make it my own: “You will keep her in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You because she trusts in You.” And that’s the way I memorized it – replacing the generic masculine pronouns with the feminine ones which in my mind made that verse just for me. It might as well have had “VBH” monogrammed on it. So when I read it today I was confused for just a second because my “monogram” was missing – it was a verse for everybody, not just for me!

And of course it is a verse for everyone. But it’s also God’s Word which He led me to personalize that first time I read it – when He monogrammed it just for me.