This Saturday night Cindy Sokoll will be speaking about "Submitting to our Husbands" at Biblical Femininity. More than likely some of you are thinking that there is no need for you to come since you don't have a husband and you think because of that it won't have any significance for you.If you have had those thoughts let me share a some of my heart with you. One thing that I have learned in my first 4 1/2 months of marriage is that it's hard, mostly because of my own sin. And submitting to my husband can be quite challenging at times even though I understand the Biblical basis for it. But I do believe that it would be much more challenging if I didn't know what I know and have heard the experiences of women who have gone before me.
Let me ask you this. Do you have a desire to be married someday? If you are even considering the possibility that you might be married someday, my encouragement for you is that it would be wise to "get a head start" on understanding submission to a husband. And to hear and learn from older women's experiences could be invaluable for your future marriage.
If by some chance you are a women who believes that you will never be married and you have no desire to be, more than likely you will still have to be in submission to someone at some point in your life. Most of the Biblical principles of submitting to husbands also apply to other submission relationships. Plus, when is it ever a bad thing to sit down and listen to some older, wiser women share their thoughts from their life experiences.
In conclusion, if you are not planning to come to this Saturday's Biblical Femininity, I urge you to reconsider. I can guarantee that if you come with a heart to learn and hear from the Lord, you will not regret the time invested there.
Additional Thought (updated 4/7)
I was hanging with Shelli Majeski this morning and we were chatting about BF this Saturday and she brought up a good thought about the single women coming, so I thought I would share it. Her thought was that even as a single woman, you still have a husband: Jesus Christ. And you can and should pursue to understand and walkout submission to him as your head even before you have an earthly head/husband. Shelli pointed out that the better we are at submitting to our heavenly head the easier it will be to submit to an earthly head. So, if there is no other good reason to come to BF this Saturday, come because you have a desire to learn to and walkout submission to your eternal husband.
Why is it so hard to submit to our husbands, when as Christians we are submissive to each other?
ReplyDeleteEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! <-- yes I really sat at my computer and eeeeeeeeeked after reading Shelli's thought because I am SO learning submission to Jesus in the job area (He ultimately picks them, I just apply and trust Him) and the more I learn about Christ and the Father, the easier it is for me to love & obey!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU MRS. JEN SMITH & MRS. SHELLI MAJESKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) God has given you two women so much wisdom :)
ReplyDeleteHey Jen,
ReplyDeleteI deliberately waited until after BF to respond to your post, so as not to detract from what you were saying or trying to accomplish with your gals. I don’t disagree with what you said, but I do think you used a pretty broad brush to address all single women. I want to offer a different perspective as a single gal.
I was out of town this weekend so was not able to attend BF. However, last month, when the topic was loving your husbands, I made a deliberate and prayerful decision not to attend. Not out of bitterness or a sense of “this doesn’t apply to me,” but in order to guard my heart. For me, as a 38 year old single woman who deeply desires to be somebody’s wife someday, my singleness is not only an immense source of pain and wrestling with God, but it is also my deepest point of shame. So when something like this (or a wedding or bridal shower, for that matter) comes up, I don’t just automatically attend or not attend. I ask Jesus about it. Sometimes I need to be there, sometimes for practical or relational reasons, and sometimes to meet Jesus there in the midst of those emotions. But the battle always becomes not daydreaming about my own wedding or marriage for weeks following an exposure to something marriage related. Sometimes that’s a battle I need to engage with, sometimes it’s one I need to flee. Last month, I felt a call to flee, and I spent a quiet evening at home with the Lover of my soul, instead of listening to a teaching that would have left me daydreaming about an earthly lover that God may or may not bless me with.
I felt like some of that yearning and wrestling that single gals, especially as we age and continue to remain single, was left out of your post, so I wanted to address it, and say that I think there are some single gals who definitely should have been there Saturday night, and some who definitely should not have been.
Jen, I have a ton of respect for your life. Thanks for sharing, and for your passion for the gals you minister too.