I was in my mid 20’s and married just a few years when I came into a relationship with the Lord. I immediately started attending a mom’s group at my church where I was immersed with teachings on how to be a godly woman.
One of the first teachings I received was from Ephesians 5:22 about how wives are to submit to their husbands. That didn’t sit too well with me. Up until that point I was one of those “I’m a woman, hear me roar” types who wasn’t about to submit to any man.
Actually I was also carrying a lot of baggage from my past, disappointments in my life when it came to the opposite sex. They couldn’t be trusted and I certainly wasn’t going to bow myself at my husband’s feet. Well that was my first problem. I was looking at submission all wrong.
As the years went on and I began to grow in the Lord, I discovered the treasure of being a wife who submits. I learned that it wasn’t about being a door mat. I also found that it was quite freeing because it meant he had to shoulder a lot of the responsibility for things. I found that my marriage grew stronger as I lived out God’s Word.
I also discovered that my calling as a wife to submit is nothing compared to the calling my husband has. Husbands are to love their wives just as Christ loved the church (Ephesians 5:25). While I was so focused all those years on my role and how hard it was to submit, I didn’t give much thought to what was expected of my husband.
To love someone as Christ loves us is a much greater sacrifice than submission. Christ gave His life for the church. If that is the kind of love our husbands are expected to provide to us, then who am I to complain that I should submit?
When you begin to live out your marriage according to God’s ways then you find it to be not oppressive but freeing. And when you find yourself unable to do it then God says that His grace is sufficient for us…He will help us.
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