Dash of Sparkle: Being A Biblical Wife in a Modern World

You Want Me to What?

"Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 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. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything."

~Ephesians 5:21-24~

Today's verse can be a little scary... am I right ladies? After B and I were engaged I did a lot of reading on how to be the perfect wife. B is probably wondering where all those books are, haha ;) Any way... I did a lot of reading on a lot of subjects: how to pray for my husband, how to pray for my marriage, how to cook a great meal, how to be a fun wife, how to support my husband, how to help my husband, how to submit to my husband. Wait... what? Submit? Anytime I read over the word submit I would skip to the next chapter; anything to get past having to "submit" to my husband. In church and in Bible studies, we read through Ephesians and try to learn all the wonderful lessons that are being taught but when I read through it as an engaged woman, it hit a little close to home and in a very different way.When I read through our verse for today, this what I saw:

"..... Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands......For the husband is the head of the wife......."

I was reading with a closed mind and with a closed heart. I was not being open to what God was teaching me. I had always been an independent person and could (correction... can) be a stubborn person. I had my way of doing things. I had my own routine. I got up at a certain time, I did my laundry certain days of the week, I liked to pray a certain way, I liked to eat ice cream out of the carton, I liked to cook certain meals. You get the picture. When you're single and living life on your own, you grow accustomed to doing things your way. I knew what I was signing up for when I said "YES" to B's marriage proposal but, submitting to someone? Ummm... excuse me? I was not going to be a doormat. I was not going to let someone "lead" me anywhere. I could "lead" myself. Right?... WRONG! God does not want his daughters to be doormats. He wants us to be strong, capable women who can help their men out in our day to day lives. The more I went back and read through today's verse, the more I prayed. I asked God to show me what submission looked like and asked God to make me comfortable with stepping into this role of being a wife. What did I learn? I learned that being submissive means letting go of my ego and some of my crazy control habits. {Sidenote: I am still working on this! There is a small part of me that is slightly Type A!} It means letting my husband fulfill his role as being a leader in our home and supporting him in this important role. Being submissive means taking a step back and being you hubby's partner. We were after all created to be a "helpmate". What's that saying?... Behind every great man is an even greater woman. True, true but I was actually going for the following verse ;)

"The Lord God said,"It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him"... So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman', for she was taken out of man."

~Genesis 2:18, 21-23~

God created us specifically for that reason... to help out our hubby. It is our role as modern wives to help our sweeties by holding them accountable as spiritual leaders, help them continue their walk in God's light, and help them take us out on fabulous dates! Submitting ain't such a bad thing, ladies. It's a high calling and a high honor from our Father. Like myself, many women automatically assume submitting means letting your spouse do anything and everything they want and we just nod and smile. Once I opened up my heart, my mind, and my eyes, I learned it is not a negative word. It's actually a pretty special role. It is up to us Christian gals to trust what God says and to trust this role that he has provided for us to fulfill. God did not create us to be doormats for our hubby. He created us to be their partner for this crazy thing called life! So go give that handsome man of yours a big ol' hug and smooch and see what you can do to help your man out today.