SERIOUS POST! SERIOUS POST!!!
Confession: I am not a fan of serious posts (which is why I don’t do them often), BUUUT today is an exception, so read on….
So Alfie and I joined a bible study with some friends and this week was our first official week on the marriage series we are doing. And it was great!!
In all honesty I went into it kind of grumbly…. “ugghh it’s a week night”, “grrr I’m going to have to rush from work to pick up colty then eat and rush there”…. “oye its going to be a long day”. You know the typical weeknight with children issues every family deals with. But God certainly worked through my grumbling heart.
The first lesson was centered around women needing love and men needing respect and how we interpret that from our spouse and it touched on Ephesians 5:22-25 (Wives submit, husbands love your wives). Now I have heard that text a bazillion times, just like every married Christian and have always been frustrated with the concept of submitting. For me, in my head, submitting was to be weak. To blindly follow and leave the fate of myself and family in my husband’s hands, especially when it came to something I felt I could do/plan better for. But boy is it a symbol of a strong wife to fully submit to her husband, to put in his hands (and ultimately God’s) the future of herself and her family. What I often forget it to look at the rest of the verse: wives submit to your husbands, as to the Lord. I am not just told to submit and to do so with mediocre actions. I am commanded to submit to my husband in the same extent that I would to the Lord. Yikes! YOWZA! Which is again explained in verse 24: Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ so let wives be to their own husbands in everything. Oh sweet Lord…Really? In everything??? Just the thought of those 2 little words makes me want to baulk. “Well surely He doesn’t mean everything.”, “He must only be referring to little things and things Alfie is good at.” Nope, I am pretty sure “in everything” is clear to mean EV-ER-Y-THANG. And that is one GIANT pill to swallow, because I certainly do not submit well or often, let alone in everything. But I am supposed to, supposed to hand over those reigns I like to control and essentially give it to Alfie (and more importantly give it to the Lord, and trust that Alfie is doing the same).
Whiiiiiiiiiiich if you think about it is a lot!! A lot of responsibility for the head of the household. Yet this was God’s plan and I am sure in his design of man he equipped them far better to handle that responsibility than us ladies. But the cool part is verse 25: Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her. WOW. When you think of that kind of love, so powerful that they would DIE for you, it’s not that hard to submit to, right? Because when you love something THAT much you can’t help but think of them in every action/ decision you make. You can’t help but to put them as such a priority. So if your husband loves you THAT much, then the submission should be rather easy, because YOU and your wellbeing are so much his purpose and goal (because he loves you so much) that he would do everything with you in mind. DING DING DING!! I GET IT I GET IT!! HELLO! Yes, this is me with a GINORMOUS light bulb going off!! LOL
And WOW that was only week 1!! CAH-RAY-ZEEEE. Great discussion (we were all there until 9:45 talking, when it’s supposed to end at 8, that’s how well it all went.) LOTS of laughter, lots of “ahh-haa” moments as you realize couples similar to yourself, lots of great stories and “examples” . Definitely looking forward to next week. :)
