by Tracy Glockle

Created on: November 10, 2009   Last Updated: November 14, 2009

Our nature longs to do our own thing, to be our own boss, to make our own way. And in spite of all the blessings of American society, those blessings often cater to this side of our nature. When we live all day long fighting for and establishing our rights as Americans, as Christians, and as women, it's difficult to come home and mentally stop asserting our rights. Suddenly, within the walls of the home, we lay everything aside and willingly submit to the desires and needs of everyone else.

In addition to our daily obstacles, a greater obstacle to the woman's role of submission is the fact that very few, if any of us, truly understand what that role is and what it means to Biblically submit. We cringe when preachers preach on it, we sigh and flip pages when it comes up in our reading, we close our eyes and nod and say in our minds, "Yeah, yeah, yeah" when it comes up in conversation. But preachers don't preach on it "too often" and men don't make "too big an issue of it" when you consider the number of times this command comes up in the Bible (I Peter 3:1; Col. 3:18; Eph. 5:22; Eph. 5:24). In nearly every instance where women, and specifically wives, are given their role, the command centers around the idea of submission.

So what's the big deal? What does it mean? Proverbs 31:11-12 captures the idea of submission beautifully, but the beauty originated where marriage began - at Creation. When woman was created, God created her with a single purpose in mind, to be a helpmeet for Adam. Adam was commanded to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Eve's command was to be Adam's helpmeet, to help him carry out that role. One aspect of helping him carry out his role was through childbearing. But the chief attitude and responsibility of the woman from her first breath was one of submission.

Thus, we square our shoulders and brace ourselves for our miserable existence, right? Oh, how Satan has deceived us! And that's just what our arrogant resistance stems from - a deception. Everything that God instituted at creation He called "good." God doesn't create anything that is distorted, damaged, or dysfunctional. That's Satan's expertise. When we buy into Satan's lie that our role of submission is miserable, or when we believe the world's portrayal of submission as mindless obedience, we fall into the same deception Eve did when the serpent first tempted her with the fruit. By refusing to submit to our husbands, we bring ourselves, our husbands, and our families into that desolate life outside of the Garden, outside of God's will.

What is this beautiful submission? It is the role of loving supporter. As little girls we dreamed of pleasing a Prince Charming, worshiping his every word, adoring every action. When we did fall in love and marry, we vowed our everything, our very being, to this one "love of a lifetime." We entered marriage blissfully eager to please - till we realized that he was human and didn't always meet our needs. Then competition was born, and with it a new mindset of "you meet my needs, I'll meet yours." How far we've fallen from the example of submission that Christ left for us,

"Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Phil. 2:6-8 (emphasis added)

As you care for your husband as his loving, submissive supporter, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.

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