Mutual Submission

First of all is there anything better than a homemade grilled hamburger? Tonight we grilled hamburgers for my parents and then watched the finale of Dancing With The Stars. The burgers were great. I am rooting for Kristi to win Dancing With The Stars. Don't really care which David wins American Idol tomorrow night. Neither one of them would cause me to spend any money on their album.

Now on to today's post title. The other day I read this on a blog "I've often heard people question the whole idea of putting your needs before another because that is what Christians are commanded to do. To be honest, I've seen this concept abused most of the time. Sort of like the whole "wives should submit themselves to their husbands" topic. What does that mean exactly?"

I know I have bragged on him here before, but I am so very thankful to be in a marriage where it is easy to be submissive to my husband. I don't know if I have mentioned this in a previous blog, but Steve and I are complete opposites. You name it and we do not have it in common. He is a morning person, I am a night owl; he likes things planned, I like spontaneous; He likes to save money, I like to spend; I love playing games, he does not; I love to swim, he does not....and on and on it goes. But we have a GREAT marriage and the reason why is that we understand that the Lord brought us together for His purposes. We mutually serve one another. I wish I was as good at it as Steve is, but I continually try to work on getting better at putting his needs before my own. God placed me in Steve's life to make his life better and he in mine to make my life better. When you have a husband that is the living example of Ephesians 2:25-27, it is easy to be submissive. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself." Steve actually proposed to me promising to do his best to live out this verse and I can say for almost 19 years he has done it amazingly well. That is why it is easier for me to fulfill Ephesians 2:22-23 "Wives, submit to your husbands as 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." It brings me joy to put Steve's needs before my own, I just wish I was half as good as he is at doing it. Maybe one day I will be.

Call me optimistic but I hope there are more marriages out there where this mutual submission is lived out than not. After all it is the way that God meant for it to be.