Submission in Marriage

**This conversation came up on a bulletin board I visit, so I thought I would add some thoughts here, it's random, but that's what a blog is for, hey?**

God is deliberate, and the words of Scripture have a purposeful placement. The first thing that the Bible instructs is that husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church, to be willing to give up his life. If one takes a snapshot of Christ's life, He was overall, a kind and loving man, with an intense drive for truth and justice. He was non-judgmental, but also stood up strongly for what He believed to be right according to God. When it came to His followers, His believers, he chose to be tortured, humiliated, and killed for them - slowly and brutally, which is the ultimate way of setting aside one's own desires and selfishness. Then and only then...God instructs us, as women, to respect our husbands. It is my firm belief that the order is right there, as it is presented in the Bible, that the husband is first responsible for being other-focused in his marriage, that he strives to lead by sacrificing. Not by making all the decisions, but by setting aside his selfish pursuits that might cause the marriage to be out of synch (for example, that he wants to go fishing all weekend, but he's a dad and husband and so chooses to spend the weekend with his family, or takes his kids fishing and then comes home early to take his wife on a date), and that a wife, in response, can respect this man that doesn't just declare his love with words, but lives a life of love by his choices and actions. The submission, in our interpretation, has zip to do with financial/household/familial decisions and everything to do with how we treat one another. It's about mutually respecting each other's gifts and abilities and empowering ourselves as a couple by combining those gifts.

This is an example from our marriage: I was attempting to do this kind of submission thing as taught by an old church of ours (that didn't last long - our church attendance there). One thing I did was always "let" The Huz drive. Because he's the man, right? And the man needs to be the driver of the home, and what a great opportunity to show him that I trust him and turn over my "need" to "drive" by a literal metaphor! Good stuff, right? Well, I remember about 2 weeks into it, after the fiftieth time he missed the exit, and the forty-seventh time he was going 45 in the 70 lane and I had bit my tongue and bit it and bit it and bit it and just stayed calm and smiling because I was submitting, dammit. Finally, I couldn't take it, when we ended up 30 minutes late because he drove past the exit we needed. We just both yakked it up about it, sparring back and forth and realized that both of us hated what we were doing. He hates to drive, he is not gifted in navigation, and he loves it when I say, "Turn here, turn there. The exit is in a mile. Now in a 1/2 mile. Exit here. HERE! EXIIIIITTTTT!" because he is not so much a GPS system.

I've since learned that that literal example is a great metaphor for other areas of our lives. I am better at directions, so I drive and navigate. Or he drives and I navigate. I am terrific at planning, so I make plans for us as a couple with friends and he's thrilled that we have things to do that he doesn't have to decide about. He's very, very gifted in finance, and so he is in charge of paying the bills and we both sit down to budget together. There are certainly things that I ask him to make the final decision on, if I'm feeling out of my league or too emotional to see straight. And there are things he asks me to decide, if he's too emotionally entangled or doesn't feel he has enough knowledge.The idea of "wifely submission" to me, is just off the mark of what Jesus intends for our relationship. My husband feels cherished, valued and respected even when I make decisions. As do I, when he does. Even if he disagrees with some of them, he also tells me that he trusts my judgment and he will agree to be on board, even if he doesn't understand why or how...because I'm a smart lady. For him to be the final decision maker in our marriage is just ... illogical. God doesn't sit up there and make all our final decisions for us, we have to take that responsibility on ourselves, so why should our husbands have that power?