Thursday, March 15, 2007

Only If They Deserve It

So here is a radical idea: God wants wives to submit to their husbands--EVEN WHEN THEIR HUSBAND IS A BONEHEAD!!! What? Surely not! Let's consider some situations.
#1 Something breaks at the house. Husband tells wife not to do anything because he will fix it when he gets home. Wife, knowing husband will only make things worse, calls a repairman. When husband gets home he either sees the repairman still there, or sees the bill for the repairs that have been made. But wife had no choice, because she KNEW she was better able to handle the situation than husband. History has proven that. Right?
#2 Wife is preparing to go to Ladies' Bible class. Husband has some work to do and does not feel he will finish if he also has to keep the kids. He asks her to stay home this time. Wife, not feeling sorry for husband because after all SHE always has work to do while the kids are with her, goes anyway. After all, doesn't he care about her spiritual needs?
OK, we could think of examples all day. Perhaps when you think of submitting to your husband, you also have good intentions, EXCEPT those situations when you are clearly right and he is wrong. After all, God gave you a good head on your shoulders, right? He surely does not intend for you to follow when the leader does not know what he is doing! This is submitting only when you have deemed that your husband deserves it. This is not what God intended.
Let's look at a scripture:
22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Eph. 5:22-24
A friend recently began reading Created to Be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl. She called to tell me she was stuck on the part that said the job of leading the family is better to be done poorly by your husband, than done well by you. She said she just couldn't see giving up control of some things to her husband because he was an idiot!
This is a problem of perspective. The Bible doesn't say anything about submitting to our husbands when they deserve it. It says to submit to your husband as to the Lord. And He always deserves our submission! So don't think about if your husband is qualified or not, remember that when you submit to your husband, you are submitting to God. Trust Him to take care of what happens next. Oh, and in case you still have some doubts...the last part of that verse has 2 very important words----"in everything." This is what God calls wives to do. Will you obey and trust God?

4 comments:

  1. so where do i fall
    love ya
    ske

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thankfully, under the headship of Christ!
    No, I have it pretty easy! Obeying this verse would be much harder if you were 95% bonehead instead of 95% wonderful.
    :)bke

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  3. Very well put. I wish more wives had this perspective.

    I clicked over from your comment at Everyday Mommy.

    ReplyDelete

I don't get to talk to a lot of actual grown-ups during the day, so your comments make me really happy! :)