When we stop being afraid of what men can do to us, or angry about what they have done, and start serving the God whose image they are made in, then men will start filling our church pews again.
And our husbands will rise up to their full potential to be spiritual leaders, to be prophets and priests of integrity and Pentecost, to be speakers into lives and providers of families and protectors of daughters and mentors of sons.
{The Lost Art Of Servanthood}
Emily Wierenga wrote those words. She is getting beat up in the comments section about teaching that wives are commanded to submit to their husbands. She tells of a friend of hers in Lebanon whose husband broke out some of her teeth when she became a Christian. She stayed with him and he became a Christian.
Oh, this angers many women. "How can you support abuse?" Her husband will be in heaven praising Jesus for eternity because she fought silently for her husband's salvation. Women are willing to fight for many things but for some reason to fight for your marriage and your husband is not worth it? {Of course, she doesn't condone physical violence against women and neither do I but uses this example as the power of submission.}
She tells how her mum wore the pants in her family so she grew up not respecting her father. Are men partly responsible for women wearing the pants? I am not sure but it is worth considering. Maybe if men would stand up to their wives and say "No" and stop being afraid of their wives, they would have more authority in the home.
However, what responsibility do women have in the feminization of men? Men fearing to be leaders in their homes? Men abandoning the Church? Men no longer wanting to support and protect their families?
I believe women hold a great amount of responsibility in this area. In the quest to be equal with men, women have systematically destroyed masculinity and in the process destroyed femininity. God has made it very clear that men are to be the leaders in the home and wives are to obey them in everything. This creates peace and order, something that God highly prizes.
True happiness and joy is found in serving others. When you learn to truly love and serve your husband, your home is put in order, God's order. I admire Emily for taking such a bold, strong stand on submission and putting it out there for all to read. Of course she will be ridiculed. The world doesn't like God's message and ways. They love to pervert His ways and make them look ugly.
Show the world how beautiful biblical submission is in your own marriage. My son recently told me that one of his friends decided to take on my 30 Day Challenge of not arguing. They made it four days without arguing. They are going to start over. Never give up! Practice makes perfect. Learning to not argue with your husband is the first step to taking off those pants once and for all and allowing your husband to wear them!
Emily's story ends this way ~
For all of my dad’s sermons the greatest message he ever gave {and continues to give} was with his life, bent over the bathtub, washing my mum as she lay semi-unconscious; cutting her toenails, changing her Depend’s and cooking baked potatoes in the microwave night after night for supper, for years.
And suddenly Mum began to laugh at his jokes and lean on his arm and tell him he was handsome. And suddenly my dad’s shoulders straightened and his home became his ministry. And his children rose up and championed him, and called their mother blessed.
The greatest among you shall be your servant.
Matthew 23:11
