grown-up toughie: submitting

"Wives, submit to your husbands as you do to the Lord. For he is the head of the home..."

Ephesians 5:22-23a

I'll be the first to tell you this is not my favorite verse. I don't consider myself a feminist or anything and I'm very partical to the 1930s way of life for women, but I like to have things the way I like to have them! I mean, who doesn't?! So when it comes time for me to submit to my husband's judgement, I tend to pout. But God didn't say I had to like it, he just do it.

This particular time that I'm referring to involves the stove that came with our house. At this point in my life, I've learned use what is useable and ignore that ugly. This stove was uuuuuggggllly! But on top of that, it was in pretty bad shape. Three of the four coil eyes where popping out, the knobs didn't have marks so we couldn't tell what tempurature we had set the thing to and they didn't always turn like they should, so they stove could still be on and we wouldn't know unless we touched it. Can you say "major fire hazard"?!? I can!

We decided it would be safest to leave to stove alone and eat take-out and microwaveables until we could buy another. Didn't have to be new, didn't have to be pretty, it only had to work.

After being married for three weeks and not being able to cook my new husband dinner, I started to feel like a pretty crappy wife. How am I going to be a 'Leave It To Beaver' mom without a stove?! Then Tommy found someone selling a five-month-old stove for $200! I was so excited! AHHH! Instead of buying it immediately, he took a few days to think about it (side note: he always does that. he is such a resonable shopper. I, however, am an impulse buyer). I came home from work on cloud 9 one day, knowing that he had called the stove person and so excited that I would have it by the next day. But when I walked in, it wasn't quite the senario I had dreamed up. Tommy told me that he just didn't feel right about this stove. I threw a tiny tantrum and argued for a while; stomped off to our bedroom like a little kid. Remembering the verse in Ephesians, I took a deep breath, walked into the living room and told Tom through my hot, angry tears that I would sumbit to what he thought, but I did. not. like it. I pouted to my mom and Sydney for a few days, but saved face in front of Tommy. I even told God I didn't like it. I figure I might as well be honest since He knows my heart anyway. Tommy is my husband and the head of our family and I will do what God tells me, but it is HARD!

Oh, but God know better than I do and He always sees what I can't. Why do I fight and question?!
A few days later Tommy took me out to lunch and a movie and when we came home, this is what I saw:

a beautiful, brand-new Kenmore stove from my sweet, sweet husband! I love it so much! I am so grateful to have something this nice! We've cooked on it almost every nice since it came to live with us.


Basically, the act of submitting sucks because it's hard realizing you can't have what you want, but if you have a God-fearing husband who wants what is best for you and seeks God in every decision, it will be just fine.


(No, this is not the only experience we've had with sumbitting, the other ones just aren't long enough to blog about, but Tommy is always right! And admitting that tastes like vinegar!)