Our Life on Christ

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Submit, Woman, Submit!

FUNNY FRIDAYS




We are trying to post something funny every Friday. To stay with the "submission" theme that we had going this week, this comic cartoon was the best thing we could find! Work with us.

The funny thing is that some men probably act like the man in the image. Wil didn't take it quite this far (he would have gotten all too familiar with that bell if he had) but, at one point in our marriage, he was close! He never demanded that I submit in such a physical, service-oriented way but he did make extreme decisions and then expect me to automatically submit "as if to the lord."

True Story Stories:

Oh, there are so many stories running through my mind from the past when Wil tried to force his hand. I will tell you two situations.



We're Moving!

When Wil and I got married at the age of 21, I had never lived in an apartment. I was spoiled and moved directly from Mommy and Daddy's into our own cute, 1.5-story home with hard wood floors, an island in the kitchen, new cabinets, new appliances--wait, I degress but, goodness I loved that house!  A few years after living in what I thought would be a home that we would live in forever honestly, Wil made the following announcement, "We're moving. Into an apartment."

I think I cried. I can't remember but, I'm pretty sure I did.

I went along with it, reluctantly agreeing to have common walls and share laundry machines with strangers (at least we didn't have a common bathroom), but I wasn't happy...until I actually started living in our new place. It turned out that I liked apartment living just fine. Wil had made a good decision but the way he went about coming to his conclusion and enforcing it was all wrong.


You Can't be Her Friend Anymore.

I had a childhood friend, "Judy," who was still my friend and still single after I became a married woman. Our friendship changed a bit after my wedding because she was frequenting places and doing things that I had no interest in doing. Most of the time, I felt that our relationship was very one-sided with me always being the giver. Wil shared my sentiments but instead of just listening to my complaints and trying to understand, he demanded that I stop being her friend.

Why do men always try to solve a problem; why can't they just listen?!

I eventually cut down on the amount of time I spent with her and the friendship ultimately dissolved. I am a much happier person now that "Judy" is no longer a fixture in my daily life but I resented Wil for a long time because he tried to force me in a direction that I wanted to navigate to on my own. Again, he had the right idea but his approach was all wrong!

So what have we learned, husbands? When you read your Bible don't take verses out of context, talk to your wife and get her feedback instead of trying to move her around like a piece on a game board, and don't ever try to use a bell to summon food (or anything else)!

How has the "wives submit" verse been used (or MISused) in your house?

6 comments:

  1. [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Anji Mabon, Anji Mabon. Anji Mabon said: Comic cartoon about wives submitting & blog post: http://ow.ly/3cMNJ [...]

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  2. Hey guys, I LOVE the way you guys have learned to look at the big picture and work things out in a practical way. You give me HOPE! see some many people who are married normally fall into the following two groups: 1. I'm married and I hate it, and I'm not happy with my spouse so I'm leaving. or 2. I'm married and I hate it but I'm not leaving so I'm just gonna live out the rest of my life in misery! I think seeing that over and over again cause many people to NOT desire to even get married. What you guys are doing is restoring hope that even though there are pains in marriage, there is also JOY!

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  3. Right! Marriage is not easy, but the things worth having will always be challenging, they will require hard work, commitment and faith. Marriage is a precious and holy covenant made before Christ, but the way we treat it is pretty sad. If only we valued it as much as we did say our careers, friendships or education. If we were half as committed to our marriages as we are to the things in life this world would be a much nicer place. I just hope that people learn that life is going to be tough and that the difficult things we encounter will usually strengthen us and bring us the best rewards. Stick in there people!

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  4. Thanks, Mandrae! It took as a long time to get to joy in our marriage. We fell into the first group and separated from each other...TWICE! We were never on the same page with anything. We still disagree about some things but now that God is our foundation, we are happy, healthy, and whole. We are able to appreciate our differences and use them as tools to move us forward.

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  5. Welllllllll....I disagree with you, young uns! lol But that's okay. You seem to be workin' it out. But I think ya'll are tryin' too hard...IMHO!

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  6. Thanks for the comment, Gail...even though you "disagree"! :) I wrote this so long ago that I had to re-read it to find out what exactly the post was about.

    What is it, can I ask, that you disagree with; how are we trying too hard?

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