The S Word

This morning, my pastor put this question on his facebook in regard to our latest series.

"I have a question for all of you Ladies. How do you feel about the word 'Submission'?"

I have been chewing on this one all morning and decided it was more than I could fit into a response on facebook. The truth is, "Submission" makes people squirm in their seats. I'm willing to bet women everywhere will be looking for the closest exit Sunday when it comes up. Of course, not all of us are scared of the unspoken S word, but society as a whole is. It makes people feel angry, inferior and confused. I'm pretty sure if we're being honest we can all come up with a slew of negative emotions that the word can bring. But, it isn't supposed to be that way.

Sadly, in our fight to be "equivalent" to men, I think we as women have done an injustice to society. I think our men have become afraid to lead because our women haven't let them. When we try to lead we become overwhelmed. We weren't meant to do it. We're doing the jobs of ourselves and our husbands. Then we throw our hands up in the air and say "I CAN'T DO IT ALL." Well, you can quit trying, because nobody asked you to.

Maybe this is a little harsh, but the whole women's rights movement thing has always aggravated me. I'm sure some of it needed to happen, but now that we're all "equal" I think women are expected to do a lot more than we were ever meant to do. When our husbands fail to lead us spiritually it frustrates us. But, haven't we put them in that position?

The longer I'm married, the less the S word scares me. I think so much of it is about respect. Our men need it, and when we give it to them they start giving us back what we want, which is love (check out the book Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs if you are interested in this topic). Let's all do ourselves a favor and figure out what the men should be doing and what the women should be doing. Then, let's all do our jobs. It's not about waiting for our spouses to start acting right. It's about you and I acting right and waiting to see our spouses follow suit.