To Love, Honor and Obey

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my marriage lately. More specifically, I have been thinking about my self-centered flesh and how that affects all areas of my life, including my marriage and the tone of our home. Did you know that the people in my house (big and small) are not responsible for my happiness? And the world does not revolve around me? Thankfully, my wonderful husband did not point these things out to me (although he would have been justified in doing so.) But, boy is it effective (and convicting) when God points it out. There are some lessons that I need to learn on a quarterly basis. It is July….I’m right on track.

Out of curiosity, I started reading “The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands” (not billed as a Christian book, but as of yet I haven’t found any admonitions to wives in it that go against scripture.) I’m only about half way through and get a little beat up each time I pick it up….in a good way. As wives (and some of us as mothers also) we have a huge responsibility and our role plays a monumental part in the lives of our families. How well are we handling it?

This can be daunting and make some of us want to crawl under the covers and never come out. (You mean I have to do all of my daily tasks and be nice too? –sin nature speaking) Let us not forget we have the God of the universe in our corner and not only does everything that we face go through Him first, He desires the best for us: abundant life. (John 10:10; Jeremiah 29:11) The crazy thing is, God does ask things of us, but will give us the ability and strength to do those things (Him doing it through us) and then blesses us on top of it! I believe this is so evident in our marriage relationships and family units. If we are willing to give up our selfish notions, concerns about “me”, and put others first, we are the ones that end up blessed. It is win-win for everyone!

I found this great article in Christianity Today about Respect (submission) and Love in Marriage and thought I’d share it. Definitely worth reading. Here’s an excerpt:

“Submission is not an event following a disagreement when my husband uses his 51% vote to break the stalemate. Submission, according to Paul, is a life-long orientation towards all people I love, my husband topping the list. It’s a command for all women and all men, a major theme of the good life in Christ threaded throughout Scripture.”

http://www.christianitytoday.com/mp/2008/002/1.23.html