"22Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 25Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
28So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband."
So, for many of you who know me, I'm a very independent, most of the time outspoken woman. I'm a very take-charge kind of person. I like to lead and be center of attention. I'm not a very good follower at all. Which in most cases, this is all good. It was very easy for me to say no to peer pressure in high school, however, I'll be the first to say I did make some mistakes. Being a leader, definately is good when it comes to homeschooling. I sing alot in front of crowds, so being able to entertain comes natural to me. And there are not many "strong leaders" in the church, so I have come in handy a time or two there.
However, with all this being said, after reading this passage, there's lots to be said about being a follower! I've read this passage many times before, but here lately, I think God has really been speaking to me on this. Recently, I started reading a book called "Homeschooling and still married!" by Todd Wilson. You can not successfully homeschool, unless you are successful in your marriage. It reads on to tell of all the things a man really wants from his wife and how she can do her part in marriage. Such as, telling her husband he has big muscles! (Sorry, Ronnie, I had to put it in here ;) Now, all you feminists out there, he has also written a book to husbands saying the same thing about their wives. Ronnie and I will be reading it next.
There's a section in the book that talks about all a husband really wants is to provide for his family and for his wife to believe and trust in him. See, this is where I struggle. Ronnie and I have many financial issues because of mistakes we've made. I know with all my heart Ronnie will and wants to take care of us, however, just trusting that he will without my nagging is my downfall. He wants to make decisions most of the time and I have not let him in the past.
I've been praying a lot lately, for strength to let go and trust. To trust Ronnie, and, even when he makes mistakes, also to trust the Lord our God that he will provide for us. I have to constantly remind myself, has he not already?
I woke up this morning to check my facebook and found a beautiful post from my wonderful husband!!! You see, 8 years ago, on September 16, we met. And I was reminded once again of our amazing love story. I was a senior in high school and I sang the National Anthem at all the home girl's games. It was volleyball game, which is my favorite sport, and we were playing a county rival, Springs Valley High School. When I came in the door I saw a group of guys, some of which I was already friends with, from Valley sitting over in front of the concession stand. As I walked by to check in at the score's bench one of the guys, Derek, who I had been in 4-H with for years, stopped me. He told me his friend, Ronnie over here thinks your cute. I said "hi" and just blew him off. Derek was not really the type of guy I would ever date, so I really couldn't see myself dating one of his friends. Not to mention, I had just gotten my heart severely broken by another boy who had just broke up with me a couple of weeks earlier.
I proceeded to sing the National Anthem, (looking back, Ronnie has told me he fell in love with me when I walked in the door, and then fell in love all over again when I sang. Now, what girl wouldn't just give anything to hear that!!!), and then I tracked down my friend CJ to help with my physics homework during the game. CJ just happened to be sitting with our friends from Valley, so I had to sit a bleacher down from Ronnie the whole game. CJ and I cheered on my best friend Lindsey and worked on physics.
The next couple of days, my friend Tina, who had a locker beside mine constantly nagged me about going out with this Ronnie guy, and so I finally gave in and let some mutual friends of our set us up.
Our first official date was riding 4-wheelers after the Paoli Parade and we grabbed a bite to eat at Hardee's. Ronnie bought me a cheeseburger and a coke and honestly I fell in love. I know, that's horrible and he's teased me several times for being a "cheap date", but I couldn't help it! All I had ever wanted was a man to take care of me, and for the first time I felt like I had found that.
After a few short months of dating, Ronnie proposed and then was shipped off to Iraq. He came home on two weeks leave and we got married. And 8 years and 4 children later, here we are!!!
Well, once again, God has blessed us beyond our imagination! Friends of ours had been renting this house and we had attended a party for church and come inside to take a tour. We absolutely fell in love with it at once! So we told them when they were ready to move on to call us. Within a couple of months they told us they found a new house and would be moving out, so I facebooked (because that's what you do in these new age times) the landlord and ask if we could be on the waiting list for. Within a couple of weeks I was told we could move in. So I put our trailer up for sale on Monday, sold it on Thursday and we moved into the new house on Saturday. Only God, could prepare such a move! However, Satan was hard at work too!! All day Saturday, I had the worst, I mean the absolute worst allergy attack!!! I was absolutely worthless. Thank goodness for our dear friends that helped us. Between them and my wonderful husband we got everything moved in one day. However, it wasn't all roses. Ronnie and I fought to start off the day and I cried, but being the loving husband that he is, he quickly told me he was sorry and told me to just go to the new house and do as much unpacking as I could.
So now, I've spent the last two weeks unpacking and putting away, buying new appliances, painting, decorating, and trying to keep up with laundry, meal planning, and homeschooling all at once. Oh, did I mention we still have storyhour, youth group, gymnastics, and soccer going on?
See how hard it is to keep up! Lindsay's bed has not made it into the new house yet. We're painting it to match the rest of the furniture in the girls' room. Doesn't seem to bother her, though, does it?
