Bad Habits Rearing their Ugly Heads or The Joy of Submitting to My Husband

I love the way the Lord has designed the family. I realize that any woman who subscribes to the mantras of the feminist regime is probably cringing at this very idea of a woman being submissive to her husband, but I  love it. Putting into place the proper order of authority in a household brings blessing to everyone in the family. 

In the past, we have had this hierarchy of responsibility wrong in our house, which is why I can say that things are so much better the way they are now, with Eric submitting to the Lord and me submitting to him and the Lord. It takes an immense burden off my shoulders. If only other women knew how much of a burden they are carrying by not doing things this way! It's amazing how much less stress you will feel if you work at submitting to your husband (although, it didn't feel like less stress at first for me). Sometimes, if I'm telling the whole truth, I have to admit that I fall into old habits, and that is where this story comes into play.

Eric has always helped me to choose our homeschooling curriculum, but this year he helped even more than usual. I especially wanted to seek his opinion of our Bible curriculum. We didn't have a lot of money to spend. I wasn't able to purchase the material that I had hoped to purchase for this school year, but we have so many resources on hand that this didn't matter. One way or another, our Bible curriculum was covered.

The week before school started, Eric suggested that we simply continue where we left off last year, studying the Old Testament and correlating it with Victor Journey Through the Bible. Being always submissive of heart, I, of course, accepted this idea immediately and determined to do it even if I didn't want to. I flitted to the bookshelves, pulled out the book and began to absorb the material with fervor, getting more and more excited about how much the kids were going to love it. 

Ok. That's not true. If it was, I wouldn't be telling you this story.

I did my let's-discuss-this-til-we-agree thing that I do (did I just write that?) which really means let's-discuss-this-til-you-agree-with-me (again, did I say that?), and Eric said something like, "Well, you can try that devotional that you like if you want since you're the one teaching it, but this is what I think is going to be the best thing for our kids." Right. I looked through both books. I remembered our last school year and how much I wanted to distance myself from it. Victory Journey Through the Bible was one of last year's books, and I wanted a completely fresh start. Still, this book is a great book. Not all of last school year was terrible. I thought about it. I prayed. I listened to the Holy Spirit.

I don't remember the name of the devotional now because I ended up submitting to Eric's authority on this one. It only took the Lord about half a day to remind me that I was supposed to allow my husband to lead on issues such as this one even if I didn't agree. The thing is, I didn't actually disagree with Eric. I was just falling into my old, very bad habit of not trusting my husband to be the leader God designed him to be.

What did God do with my submission? My kids are absolutely loving our morning Bible lesson. On the days when I have chosen to plan to read half a passage(because some of the passages are several chapters in length), thus eliminating the need to read from Victory Journey Through the Bible until we've read the other half the next day, they are disappointed. They love it. LOVE!

And me? I'm enjoying it too. Watching the kids gleaning information straight from the Word without anyone watering it down or needing to explain every single detail is amazing. Amazing! I'm so glad for Eric's leadership in our home. Next time, I'll just listen to my husband in the first place and save myself a lot of time and energy. I hope. That is the way the Lord intended things to be afterall, and I find that doing things His way is always best.