I was on the verge of reopening, rereading ang reviewing my daily devotional books and notes for the past three years when I came to this part, a page in Elizabeth George's A Woman After God's Own Heart Daily Devotional - which made me evaluate my self as a wife for the previous year 2013.
Submit. Submission. Submissive wife. Allow me to go into the details of my marriage with Rex.
Fortunately, the heavens blessed me, good Lord, I married a man who has the same faith like mine and we are both Pastor's kids - reasons why we came to know each other. After we tied the knot, it was when we discovered we have a lot of things in common. We are both homebuddies and we can sustain long hours to days staying inside the house just lurking in bed and in the sofa, watching movies and drinking tea. We hoard books because we always find time to read and we love dogs. We like mountains, rivers and trees and we at most consume farm produce and fish. We always eat but we do not eat to be full. We are hooked with sleeping. I mean, we sleep a lot particularly on days where there's no work and the children's school declares a holiday or no class at all then we sleep and sleep and sleep. We love reading the Bible and we prefer quite times - apart! We do family devotions with the kids but we pray separately in bed. He prays for me and I too lay my hands on him head to feet.
Our roots came from the same places: Ilocos, Mountain Province and Benguet. That's why we didn't find it hard to get along with each other's families and relatives. We have almost similar home, culture and church upbringing and trainings when we were young and single that helped us big time dealing with our starting years in our God-and-man-blessed-matrimonial. But still, it wasn't that easy.
Of all the many things we have in common, we too have numerous differences. I married a 100% choleric while I am only 50% out of it, 25% of me is sanguine and the other 25% is phlegmatic. So I have to deal with this one-word-man and he has to face 24/7 this woman hormoned by three personalities. When he talks, he talks a lot. But when he prefers to keep mum then he can do that all day. We discuss on things but he seldom talks so much about his opinions, ideas, plans and even his feelings - his emotions! There are times he'd do this, do that without my knowledge. I love details (yeah, right) and he is so generic! He is into furnitures and I dream of appliances! He gets dogs from his clients with or without breed and brings them at home and I ended up feeding them, giving them a weekly bath to cleaning their mess! I tend to keep things at home in place and in order - clothes only, socks only, books only, mobile chargers only, keys only - but there's this one man who keeps on mixing all things and I can't just get rid of him because he owns the 50% of my house and my things and he's my husband! I married a man who's my almost 60% opposite! We're staying under one roof for more than five years now and somehow we managed to live peacefully (laugh). We wake up in the morning as a wife and a husband, as parents, as workers and we retire for the night in bed as lovers (wink). We do not sleep with heavy hearts, we talk and we pray.
Going back to the word submission. I may not be in the same situation where Sue is in (please see photo above), her partner is not a Christian and she sees it difficult to ask for his opinion about her life's direction because of that. But what did Elizabeth George told Sue? As long as her husband isn't telling her to go against the Word of God, then Sue has to submit to him because Sue is his husband's wife. And should I do it too? Of course! Not because my husband is a Christian. Not just because I am obliged and I needed to. But because it is written in the Bible and I am responsible for what will be the outcome if I will go hardheaded towards my husband.
Fortunately again, heavens blessed me again, oh You really are a good Lord, Rex is a kind of husband who would ask me for a yes or a no when it comes to decision making that involves me, the kids and our family. I can only count using my fingers the major decisions he made without consulting me (let's even out from the major items the minor ones like bringing dogs without my consent and putting bats and snakes' meat inside my fridge!). If I tell Rex a 'no' he'd take it and that'll be a forever no to him even if I already changed my mind! No more backwards. Overall, when Rex says he can do it, he'd mean it and he would and I strongly believe he can right from the start. I am practicing the FAITH. The faith which comes from my Father to Abraham and to Moses, to David, to Jesus Christ, to my biological father and now the faith I have in God that whatever comes in our marriage, that the faith I have in my husband will be justified by the faith I anchored to my Saviour.
Let me suggest wives to get daily devotional booklets/books from our local publishers like OMF Lit. Inc. I always purchase a lot of them every mid year for December gift-givings.
