Submission (continued)

If you missed my earlier post on submission, you can read it here.

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

"For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

"Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing."

Ephesians 5:22-24

I have not been married long and I don't pretend to know all the answers. I'm just sharing what I learn as the Lord teaches me.

In my Devotions this morning (still studying submission) one of the passages of scripture was Ephesians 5:22-24 (above). It is my choice, as a wife to be submissive. People can tell me that I need to be submissive, or I can read that I need to be submissive, but unless I make a choice to do so, I will not be submissive. And who am I supposed to be submissive to? My husband. Ephesians 5:22 says "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands..." As Elizabeth George put it, the "Who of submission, is our husbands." Now about the how.

The last part of verse 22 tells us how to submit: "as unto the Lord." The root of submission is submitting to God. Colossians 3:23 says:

"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men."

In every thing that I do (including submission), I need to do it as to the Lord. If my focus is on submitting to the Lord, than I will be submissive to my husband. God placed my husband as the head over me, as He is head of the Church. Yes, I know this and have studied this many times. But it is always good to be reminded of things, and I am always in need of improvement.

On a little "side note" if you will, submission starts with your heart attitude. The Lord has taught me a lot about my attitude over the past couple years. At one point, when I was leading a bible study group with several other young girls, I put together a whole study on one's attitude, because of all that the Lord was teaching me. However, it seems that no matter how many times the Lord has worked in my heart on something, time goes by, and before I know it, I need to go back and be re-taught, or at least reminded of the things that I've learned (like with submission). Anyway, I want to end this post by sharing a quote with you by Charles Swindle. My Dad uses this quote at his manager's meetings, and brings it up in our family Bible Studies quite often as we should be reminded of it daily. Someday, when we have our own house, I want to do a stencil of it on a wall, or something like that. I want to put it in a prominent place so that I can see it daily.

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company... a Church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past ...we cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one thing we have, and that is our attitude...

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitude."

- Charles Swindol -