The kids got in a tangled discussion of the order of succession for who was the ‘man of the house’ when I was away.  And also the woman of the house, the girl of the house, the boy of the house . . . They were serious.  They had concluded that I was the woman of the house when the lovely one is away, for example.

The actual woman of the house joined the conversation.  I continued to listen in while hanging protective sheets for a remodeling project.

She talked about sex roles, and marriage, and somehow the conversation ended up with a woman taking her husband’s name.

She said something like, “when you take your husband’s name, you become part of who he is.  You help him with his important goals and he loves you.”

Then she looked at my son.  “It’s the same for all of us when we take Christ’s name.”

I thought that was profound.