R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
‘Find out what it means to me’…um, no. We need to find out what it means to RESPECT our husbands. This classic song is still a favorite feminist mantra:
Imagine Sarah singing this to Abraham. Sarah, who called her husband lord. Sock it to me, Mister Abraham doesn’t cut it. This demand for respect does not portray a meek and quiet spirit (1 Peter 3:4). It’s a haughty, self-centered and demanding spirit. Now I’m not saying women were made to be ruled over by tyrants, trampled on or treated as second-class citizens. Women and wives are to be respected, too. But God calls women to respect their husbands while he calls men to love their wives. We’ve already covered God’s created order in the Cherish series. The husband is the head of the wife. For review, start here.
I have been dreading this series. This booklet has been on my nightstand, inserted in my Bible, and buried under a pile of magazines. I’ve been trying to avoid it all winter and now that it’s spring, it popped up again, just like that.
Not so long ago, we whined about not being cherished by our husbands. Now it’s time to confess that we’ve not held to biblical standards in reverencing our husbands. Just as Mike said he doesn’t cherish me enough, I must admit I do not respect him enough.
John Davenant (as quoted by George Swinnock – the man I voted as human husband of the ages!) nails it when he says:
“Affection or love, which is the husband’s chief duty, is pleasant; but subjection or obedience, which is the wife’s main duty, is painful.”
I give that statement a hearty amen.
Davenant goes on to say:
“Subjection is so much against the hair, that many, like untamed heifers, kick and fling if the yoke comes near their necks…”
Just as we used opposite examples in the Cherish series, we’ll do the same here. Here’s a woman who does not respect her husband. For the untamed heifer (and it has nothing to do with her weight) what better example than TV wife Roseanne:
There are many examples of Roseanne disrespecting Dan and ruling over him, but so many of those episodes were too vile to post. Even this one is not quite appropriate (sorry about the bra-clad banshee scene), but it makes the point. This is what inner beauty is NOT. What flows out of her mouth is coming from her wretched heart. And the audience roars. But it actually is the sad state of many families where husbands and fathers are totally disrespected. In fact, most TV dads have been portrayed as imbecilic, effeminate, crude, or a combination of all three. Think Homer Simpson, Al Bundy and so many others…
And so we begin this new series with the question: what does it mean to reverence, submit to, respect your husband? To entice you to follow this blog series, I’ll leave you with another fabulous John Davenant quote:
“An obedient wife is the likeliest woman in the world to command her husband.”
Get it? He will love you, love you, love you the more you submit to him. And don’t we all want to be loved and cherished?
Take heed. Obey your husband. He will cherish you all the more for it.
Divorced, Reformed and Remarried 