Sweet Submission

Wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

Ephesians 5:22-24

Sometimes women—married and single—get all worked up about these verses, especially the word submit. But when we understand what God’s idea of true submission is, we can relax. God’s purpose for submission has nothing to do with controlling us or keeping us under His thumb. Instead, God opens the door for His absolute best for us.

Nothing is sweeter than living in submission to God because He knows how the abundant Christian life works best. Following His commands is evidence of our submission, and we have a much easier time following them when we remember that His way is the best way. Living out God’s commands in the power of His Holy Spirit sets us free in every single area of life!

In the first years of my marriage, I didn’t listen well to God or to my husband, but when I read this passage, I knew God was at work to change me. God has not used anyone more than my husband, Mark, to help me see things in myself that I could not see and to encourage me to do things I never would have done.

After the first year of Sweet Monday in our home, Mark said, “Kim, write your ideas down. This outreach has been so successful in our home, other women can do it. If you write it down, I will go and make fifty copies.” I did not want to do it, but when these verses in Ephesians kept ringing in my ears, I knew following Mark’s advice was really an act of submission to God. More than ten years later, Mark used our savings to foster my idea of helping women become more confident and comfortable as they face breast cancer. I would not have done one thing without a few serious, sweet kicks in my pink pants from Mark! I would have missed God’s best if I had refused to submit to my husband’s leadership.

When we take the risk and submit to God’s methods, we open the door for Him to come in and bless and grow us in miraculous ways.

Let’s encourage one another in this sweet submission role. Joy follows obedience!