Thanks, ladies. I appreciate your responses. Keep 'em coming.
I said the word "obey" in my wedding vows and to be honest, I didn't give it much thought at the time. As a Christian, I've always accepted the fact that God commanded wives to be in submission to their husbands, but as we began preparing for this topic, I found my feathers getting a little ruffled. I found out that I wasn’t really feeling this whole notion that someone could just rule over me. I began to do some more research on the husband's role. What I've learned is this: more often than not, the majority of men and women do not understand how marriage was set up to operate in this first place. Though women were commanded to submit, men were commanded to love us with a sacrificial love. Someone wrote a great explanation of how a husband should love his wife. It said, “…you are willing to live for her—to sacrifice your desires for her desires; to constantly serve her and put her needs before your own; to set aside your own preferences, comfort, and welfare to please her and meet her needs.” Who wouldn’t have a problem submitting to a man who loved them like this? Here’s this thing: a man who honors and loves their wife with a sacrificial love can’t possibly control and dominate her at the same time. Unfortunately, there are a lot of men who aren’t ready for this type of love or to be fair, some who are simply ignorant to what a sacrificial love really means.
