submission

Recently a good friend of mine was preaching from these  words from Ephesians 5:

submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

 ²² For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. ²³ For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. ²⁴ As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

 ²⁵ For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.

She asked me what submission to my husband looked like in today’s culture. Here are my thoughts…

If I am to submit to Rich as I am to submit to the Lord that means submitting to his leadership and  choosing to follow and serve him.

It means being willing and open to hear and receive his observation and challenge in my life. It means not getting defensive when he tries to help me grow; recognising his wisdom, headship and leadership of me.

Submission means laying aside my own agenda, vision, passion, to allow him to move forward in what God has called him to do. This doesn’t mean my life is without passion and vision but in this stage of raising young children there are times where I have to entrust the fullness of my vision to the Lord knowing that he will bring it into fruition in his timing. 

When I view myself not as an individual but as a half with Rich it means that his success is mine, and my success is his. It means wherever he sees advancements in the kingdom I see them too. I find it helpful to have this perspective as it reminds me of the bigger picture of my life and our life together.

Submission to Rich means daily making small choices and decisions to bless him. Sometimes that means looking after the kids for longer so he can rest or cooking a special meal when I’m tired.  I think choosing to do this in the “smaller issues means that we have created a good foundation for love and submission in the “bigger” issues.