Monday, September 28, 2009

Submission


Here it is, the long awaited post (considering it's been well over a week since my last post (: ).
The above picture is from this past Saturday, on our way from N. Attleboro, MA to Montpelier, VT. The weekends book signings were not the greatest in sales, but it was a great trip. Yes, even though we didn't find a place to spend the night until 9:30pm. :) Most of the Motels/Hotels/Inns were full because it was Parents' weekend at the nearby college. So yes, it took us awhile to find a place that had an opening. When I went to look online last week to find a place, there weren't any openings then, so we expected it to take us awhile. We ended up staying in a nice Motel (Twin City Motel) that was only 4 minutes from our book signing the next morning. That worked out really well. Now for the object of this post:
When we left the book signing, I started out driving. I had packed us sandwiches and fruit that we had for lunch, on the road, and then Scott reclined and took a nap. Normally he has a hard time taking a nap in the car (me, on the other hand, that's a totally different story), but he fell asleep and slept for at least an hour and a half. While he was sleeping I called my Mom because when I had talked to her in the morning, she invited us to come over for dinner when we got back to CT (they were also making Apple Pie, and my Mom promised to make me a BLT with fresh bacon. That sounded really good since I didn't have anything prepared at home, and our estimated time of arrival was just after 6 o'clock.), so I was calling to tell her that we'd be there (remember, we weren't in CT yet, so I wasn't disobeying the law). :) We decided that we'd go straight to my Parents' as there was no need to stop by our place first.
Before I go any further in my story, let me remind you of my recent studies in my quiet time with the Lord.... A Woman After God's Own Heart. That's what my goal is. I'm reading through Elizabeth George's book and studying Scripture on the same topics that I'm studying each day. One of my prayers since I've been married (and long before I was married also), was that the Lord would give me a heart of submission. That includes submission in the little, day-to-day things.
Okay, so back to my story. By the time Scott woke up, we had less then 2 hours left of driving. Then, with approximately an hour left of driving, we hit the 5:00/5:30 traffic. So, Scott got out our big Road Atlas that we just bought at Borders last weekend. (Good thing I was driving so he could look at it, because I don't have much experience with road maps, although I'm getting there.) After looking at the map, he said we should take exit 74 and there were some short cuts we could take that would get us to my parents faster. Well, at the moment, the exit numbers were going up and the GPS (the trusty mechanical device, that only I think is trusty, Scott doesn't trust it as much) said that we should take exit 72 (obviously 72 must come before 74 since we're going up in numbers and the GPS had us getting to my parents at 6:27). Scott was looking at the map and said that, although that exit would work, we should take this exit because it would be a faster route. In my heart, I knew I should do what he said and even if it took us longer, it would be worth it because I let him lead instead of insisting that we should take *my* way. So I said that I would go his way (and I prayed that it wouldn't end up being a longer route). Almost immediately after that, the numbers all of a sudden changed and exit 74 was 1 mile away and the next exit (exits 73 and 72) was 12 miles away (let me insert here that the traffic had greatly increased). I was so glad that I had made that decision to trust my Husband and go with what he said. We took exit 74 and then we followed Scott's directions. Twice he saw a shortcut on the map and said for us to take that way, and although it didn't look much different from the other direction, I didn't question him, I had learned my lesson, and I'm so glad that I did. I know I will still struggle at times with wanting to do something *my* way, and I will no doubt want to question him at times, but I am praying more fervently than ever that I will stop first and ask myself, "how important is it that we do it *my* way?"
To top it off, when I got up this morning and went to start my Bible Study, what do you think today's chapter was on? A heart of submission. It usually takes me at least a a couple days to go through one chapter, and I love how God gave me a physical lesson on Submission, and now to make sure that I really get it, I will be studying submission over the next couple days.
Many blessings to all my readers, and I hope you all have a lovely day. I'm off to reply to some emails from over the weekend, and then start some packing (hopefully) or dishes before I leave to go clean this afternoon. And as for this evening.... we will be having dinner and then playing Phase 10 with Scott's grandparents (last time we played for 3 1/2 hours (: ).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's amazing how smooth everything goes, when we decide to give up our own will. :-)

Blessings!
KallyLyn

Fair Maiden said...

So true! :)

Anonymous said...

I think submission is is one of the hardest things to learn.

~HW~

Trisch said...

Ah, yes! I thought I was so submissive until God started dealing with me on "true heart submission"--starting with Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot! Then fostered on by a Nancy Leigh DeMoss conference (her little booklet "A Biblical Portrait of Womanhood" can be gone through in a month's time and I have worn the cover off of my 10 yr. old copy doing just that! Keeps me in line! :) )

God has shown me to trust my husband, even if I think he doesn't understand. Several years ago there were three incidences within about 6 months--first was about laundry, second about homeschooling, and third was about goats!

So it's good to follow, and it makes God even bigger in our lives! I'm so much happier than I was 15 years ago as a fretful, expectation filled wife!

How nice you are learning these lessons *early* in your marriage!

Bless you as you continue growing in Him!

HUGS!

Trisch (your mom's T-Tappin' friend! ;) )