what's in a name?

after tossing around in my head for sometime..
i've decided.
to shed off my name and take on a new one.
it might not seem like a big deal.
but it is for me.
it's not something i take lightly.

i feel like i've let go a part of me,
the part that i was born with,
the part that had been with me for a good 26 years.
the part that all my friends know me by.
it's like giving up a part of my identity.

in the age where equality between men and women is exercised and exhorted, where husbands and wives engage in power struggles, where manipulation is just another way of life.. i go back to how things really should be.. between a man and his wife.

Matthew 19:5-6
And he said, "This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Since they are no longer two but one, let no one separate them, for God has joined them together."

Ephesians 5:22-24,33
22. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
23. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
24. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
33. ...and the wife must respect her husband.

Ephesians 5:25-33
25. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
26. to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
27. and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
28. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-
30. for we are members of his body.
31. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
32. This is a profound mystery-but I am talking about Christ and the church.
33. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself..

Colossians 3:19
You husbands must love your wives and never treat them harshly.

Proverbs 19:14
Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord
(hey, i'm prudent!)

So, yes. It's official.
You can call me Juliana Chan.
i'm taking on my hubby's name.
in this age where women hardly takes on their husband's name.
i'm doing it.
cos i'm embracing the significance behind it.
cos it's not just a name.
cos he's my husband.
cos i'm his wife.
cos i'm his.

so... adieu Juliana Huang.