Sub-mission
What do you think of when you hear the word "submission"? If you're like me, your hackles go up, your muscles tense, and your brain speeds up into fighting mode. I do NOT want to be submissive. Leave that doormat position for someone else. I don't fly a flag that says "Tread on Me".
I truly believe that God doesn't want women to be treated like slaves, obedient to their husband's every whim. So why is that the first thing that comes to my mind when someone says the word "submission"?
I picture uneducated women in long flowery dresses with big white doily collars, doilies on their heads, and 8 kids (all the girls in long prairie braids). (No offense to readers who dress like this or have large numbers of kids.) Why does a stereotype appear in my head at the first sound of the word "submission"?
The first time I realized that I COULD be submissive was when Christopher West changed the definition of submission in the CDs that radically deepened my walk with the Lord.
Submission, he says, is SUB - MISSION. Women have a sub mission. Our main role is to be a helper (Genesis 2:18) not a slave. In the order of Creation, we help our husbands to fulfill their mission. Do we have a different mission? Well, my husband couldn't be writing a blog to women from a woman's perspective, but part of his role as a Christian man is to tell the world about the good news of Jesus Christ. This blog is a part of that mission.
If my husband disapproved of the blog and wanted me to spend my time on a more profitable pursuit, my job as a wife would be to listen, pray, and do as he asked. Since my husband is a Christian man, I know he hears from the Lord.
More often than not, when we have a disagreement (whether or not I win), I realize later that he was right.
How do we help our husbands to fulfill their mission? (This question is best asked within a Christian family where the men have their priorities straight - God, wife, family, world.)
I have a terrible problem being on time. If you want me to be somewhere, tell me to be there 15 minutes earlier than you really want me. I used to make my husband late for church ALL the time. Now, we go to church 30 minutes early, and I'm only 5 minutes later than he wants me to be - and that's with getting 4 children ready too. I realized that I needed to listen to my husband when he told me that if I cared about God that I'd get to church on time. To support my husband's desire to be a Godly man, I needed to work harder to do my part.
More recently, I had to type 70 pages of term papers for my husband's seminary classes and create 2 bibliographies. (He doesn't use a computer.) It took hours and hours. He handed it to me three days before seminary, and I typed and typed. I had to do it after the kids were in bed, because I couldn't chase kids and type. I went to bed at 2 am several nights in a row to get the papers done. No complaining, though. My husband's mission was to complete the courses necessary for him to minister the gospel to others. My sub-mission was to type the papers that proved he'd learned the material so he could pass the courses.
I don't always think of my life in terms of sub-mission, but from now on, I know that I'm trying to live in sub-mission.
In my in my world, sub-mission has a hyphen.
I truly believe that God doesn't want women to be treated like slaves, obedient to their husband's every whim. So why is that the first thing that comes to my mind when someone says the word "submission"?
I picture uneducated women in long flowery dresses with big white doily collars, doilies on their heads, and 8 kids (all the girls in long prairie braids). (No offense to readers who dress like this or have large numbers of kids.) Why does a stereotype appear in my head at the first sound of the word "submission"?
The first time I realized that I COULD be submissive was when Christopher West changed the definition of submission in the CDs that radically deepened my walk with the Lord.
Submission, he says, is SUB - MISSION. Women have a sub mission. Our main role is to be a helper (Genesis 2:18) not a slave. In the order of Creation, we help our husbands to fulfill their mission. Do we have a different mission? Well, my husband couldn't be writing a blog to women from a woman's perspective, but part of his role as a Christian man is to tell the world about the good news of Jesus Christ. This blog is a part of that mission.
If my husband disapproved of the blog and wanted me to spend my time on a more profitable pursuit, my job as a wife would be to listen, pray, and do as he asked. Since my husband is a Christian man, I know he hears from the Lord.
More often than not, when we have a disagreement (whether or not I win), I realize later that he was right.
How do we help our husbands to fulfill their mission? (This question is best asked within a Christian family where the men have their priorities straight - God, wife, family, world.)
I have a terrible problem being on time. If you want me to be somewhere, tell me to be there 15 minutes earlier than you really want me. I used to make my husband late for church ALL the time. Now, we go to church 30 minutes early, and I'm only 5 minutes later than he wants me to be - and that's with getting 4 children ready too. I realized that I needed to listen to my husband when he told me that if I cared about God that I'd get to church on time. To support my husband's desire to be a Godly man, I needed to work harder to do my part.
More recently, I had to type 70 pages of term papers for my husband's seminary classes and create 2 bibliographies. (He doesn't use a computer.) It took hours and hours. He handed it to me three days before seminary, and I typed and typed. I had to do it after the kids were in bed, because I couldn't chase kids and type. I went to bed at 2 am several nights in a row to get the papers done. No complaining, though. My husband's mission was to complete the courses necessary for him to minister the gospel to others. My sub-mission was to type the papers that proved he'd learned the material so he could pass the courses.
I don't always think of my life in terms of sub-mission, but from now on, I know that I'm trying to live in sub-mission.
In my in my world, sub-mission has a hyphen.
posted by Terri | 4:48 PM
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