Dear Reader,
I know I still have yet to post the Part 2 to the submission post, but God has really been dealing with me on various other issues lately. This is more of a confession post. This post will be short, but I wanted to state a few things. One in particular, I have in all of my life sought to win the praise and adoration of others, not for the sake of Christ, but for the sake of self. . . myself. I do not believe that in even one act of kindness, generosity, or work of "good", have I sought to make much of Christ. In this aspect, I believe that I have been so prideful to think of myself before God. Please join me in prayer that I would DAILY see myself and works as worthless without the redeeming work of Christ and the love of God. He is the ultimate end to everything, and deserves ultimate glory. O God help me! Thank you for the immense grace and mercy and patience you have given this undeserving child!
" 6 But dhe gives more grace. Therefore it says, e“God opposes the proud, but dgives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. fResist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 gDraw near to God, and he will draw near to you. hCleanse your hands, you sinners, and ipurify your hearts, jyou double-minded." James 4:6-8 (ESV)
Desiring God Sermon Link
Sincerely humbled,
Brittney
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
A New Vision for an Old Lesson: Part A
Well, as you can see I have neither kept my word or kept up my postings. (Is that even what you call it?) Either way, I apologize, I could in part blame it on the fact that I have been out of town for most of this summer, but that would just be a ridiculous excuse for not keeping up with this.
A LOT has happened since I last posted. Most of which I will have to get to in a later post. Which obviously won't be next week, but hopefully soon. What I have to talk about today though is, I think, of greatest importance to the housewives of today. Yes ladies, this is about submission. But just as you close out the blog, please stay! This is not your regular submission post. I have recently come across a message by Caroyln Mahaney (CJ Mahaney's wife) titled "Being Subject to My Husband"(Part of a message series called "To Teach What Is Good". This whole message series is available for download for free from Sovereign Grace Ministries. Most of what I will be writing here, are not going to be my own words. I will Italicize the words that are from this message. ( I will try to post in to parts, since it will be lengthy.)
(Pause for a brief plug here: All Wives/Mothers should read the book "Feminine Appeal" by Carolyn Mahaney)
So here we go.
First and foremost, I find a great sadness in today's "Marriage". Most marriages, even in the church, end in divorce. And it causes myself to wonder, why? Why is it that even people who are within the Body aren't able to uphold the picture of Christ and his Church? Well yes, as you are thinking, we are fallen, sinful humans. Yes, I agree, but should we always blame our inconsistency with being made in the image of Christ on such a wide generalization? There has to be more to story. A true "why" or more specific reason. I think it's because so many of us, myself included, have never really fully grasped what marriage is for. We have been taught by society to think that marriage is for love, for our happiness, for our fulfillment. Although these things should and do come from a well grounded marriage, they are not the purpose. Marriage, and it's components are for God's glory, to show Christ's love for the church, and the church's submission to him. Not for our glory. Our fulfillment is secondary. And for us to fully give him the glory, he has given us specific roles. It is important to note that in every passage in the NT describing the roles of husband and wife, the wife's role is to submit to her husband. Carolyn says this. "It is imperative that as Christian women we evaluate our understanding and practice of submission. Not based on our own unique perspective or personal experience, but in view of God and his purpose for our lives."
That we are suppose to submit, I knew. But I have struggled with the how or what does it look like. So, Carolyn helping me out, I sought the definition: The word subject is translated from the Greek verb “hupotasso”, which means to acknowledge or recognize positional authority. It means to voluntarily place oneself under. It means to find ones place in rank.
She then goes on to say that submission was ordained by God, from the beginning. Did you get that? Beginning, meaning before the fall, when God saw everything as "good". So it wasn't a result of the fall, or something that man came up with, or a result of cultural normalcy. It was ordained by God at creation, PRIOR to entrance of sin. . . Before sin warped our relationships.
Quickly, what submission is not: (Taken directly from the message's outline, not my words)
(On a completely unrelated note, if anyone can tell me why the bottom part of this post is smaller than the beginning, and how to fix it that would be great! :) )
A LOT has happened since I last posted. Most of which I will have to get to in a later post. Which obviously won't be next week, but hopefully soon. What I have to talk about today though is, I think, of greatest importance to the housewives of today. Yes ladies, this is about submission. But just as you close out the blog, please stay! This is not your regular submission post. I have recently come across a message by Caroyln Mahaney (CJ Mahaney's wife) titled "Being Subject to My Husband"(Part of a message series called "To Teach What Is Good". This whole message series is available for download for free from Sovereign Grace Ministries. Most of what I will be writing here, are not going to be my own words. I will Italicize the words that are from this message. ( I will try to post in to parts, since it will be lengthy.)
(Pause for a brief plug here: All Wives/Mothers should read the book "Feminine Appeal" by Carolyn Mahaney)
So here we go.
First and foremost, I find a great sadness in today's "Marriage". Most marriages, even in the church, end in divorce. And it causes myself to wonder, why? Why is it that even people who are within the Body aren't able to uphold the picture of Christ and his Church? Well yes, as you are thinking, we are fallen, sinful humans. Yes, I agree, but should we always blame our inconsistency with being made in the image of Christ on such a wide generalization? There has to be more to story. A true "why" or more specific reason. I think it's because so many of us, myself included, have never really fully grasped what marriage is for. We have been taught by society to think that marriage is for love, for our happiness, for our fulfillment. Although these things should and do come from a well grounded marriage, they are not the purpose. Marriage, and it's components are for God's glory, to show Christ's love for the church, and the church's submission to him. Not for our glory. Our fulfillment is secondary. And for us to fully give him the glory, he has given us specific roles. It is important to note that in every passage in the NT describing the roles of husband and wife, the wife's role is to submit to her husband. Carolyn says this. "It is imperative that as Christian women we evaluate our understanding and practice of submission. Not based on our own unique perspective or personal experience, but in view of God and his purpose for our lives."
That we are suppose to submit, I knew. But I have struggled with the how or what does it look like. So, Carolyn helping me out, I sought the definition: The word subject is translated from the Greek verb “hupotasso”, which means to acknowledge or recognize positional authority. It means to voluntarily place oneself under. It means to find ones place in rank.
She then goes on to say that submission was ordained by God, from the beginning. Did you get that? Beginning, meaning before the fall, when God saw everything as "good". So it wasn't a result of the fall, or something that man came up with, or a result of cultural normalcy. It was ordained by God at creation, PRIOR to entrance of sin. . . Before sin warped our relationships.
Quickly, what submission is not: (Taken directly from the message's outline, not my words)
1. It is not a position of inferiority. (Equal but different function)
“Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ,
and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is
God.” I Corinthians 11:3
“ . . . heirs together of the grace of life.” I Peter 3:7 (KJV)
Genesis 1:26, 27; 2:23; Galatians 3:28 (Equal but different function)
2. It does not denote weakness. (Carolyn states that it shows far more inner strength to submit than to let our natural independence take over. It is weakness that is displayed when a wife doesn't submit to her husband.)
3. It is not brainless obedience. (Gen.2:20 Helpmate)
“Submission is the divine calling of a wife to honor and affirm her
husband’s leadership and help carry it through according to her gifts.”
John Piper
“Submission is the disposition of her spirit to support his initiatives or
the inclination of her will to say yes to his leadership.” John Piper
"In order to effectively help and serve our husbands as wives, we need to develop our gifts, we need to maximize our potential, we need to bring to our husband our ideas and suggestions, we need to offer them our wisdom and our insight. We need to communicate our feelings. However if a conflict of opinion arises and cannot be resolved through discussion, our husband is the one in authority to make the final decision, and our responsibility as wives to submit. It is a response of an intelligent woman who fears God, understands scripture, motivated by a understanding of divine order, loves her husband, and ultimately wants to glorify God. Being submissive is the mark of a wise woman." -Caroyln Mahaney
"Our society shows us different. The idea of a wife submitting is demeaning. We are influenced by what surrounds us. The culture is not to be the source that defines our behavior. God's word is the source informs our belief and determines our behavior. The bible defines our role as women, not our culture. God's word is the authority in our lives that determines how we live. Therefore, we need to continually be evaluating our hearts and assessing our behavior to make sure that the values and objectives of our society have not penetrated into our own way of thinking and living. We need to develop a biblical conviction with regards to the doctrine of biblical submission. We must be ever seeking to grow in our understanding and application of what it means to be subject to our husbands. If we neglect this pursuit, we will be vulnerable and susceptible to the influence of our culture in both attitude and action." -Carolyn Mahaney
Not only do we have society against us, we have the sinful desires of our hearts. Genesis 3:16 states, “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Desire, as in the negative form, meaning that we want to have our own way, to control our husbands, or to manipulate. Oh how I really do wrestle with these desires! We all do! It simply reveals the sin in our hearts. We need to guard our hearts of these sinful desires!
I admit that at times, especially in the beginning of my marriage, that I have felt trapped. As if there was no way to escape from this horrible mindless submissive prison. Oh how wrong I was, and still am at times! John Piper has an illustration that describes it well, “…two women may jump from an airplane and experience the thrilling freedom of free-falling. But there is a difference: one is encumbered by a parachute on her back and the other is free from this burden. Which person is most free? The one without the parachute feels free – even freer, since she does not feel the constraints of the parachute straps. But she is not truly free. She is in bondage to the force of gravity and to the deception that all is well because she feels unencumbered. This false sense of freedom is in fact bondage to calamity which is sure to happen after a fleeting moment of pleasure.”
"Women who are seeking freedom by pursuing unbounded independence are sadly headed for calamity. Because they denied the truth... Submission to which God has called us is the path to true freedom." (truth being God's word and order) - Carolyn Mahaney
It takes humility to submit. This I know to be truth. Situations arise where I have the opportunity to submit, and alas I fail. And why do I fail most of the time? Because I am to prideful to breathe in deep and simply say, "ok". Small instance, when Ava Joy was 9 months old, we went to a Mexican restaurant. She got hungry. So I reached for a chip. Lee told me that she wasn't ready for a chip and told me not to give it to her. I, being overly confident in her chewing capabilities decided to give her a chip anyway, reassuring him that she would be fine. It didn't take long for her to choke, and being 9 months it scared her. It frightened her so much that she cried and cried till she literally threw up the little bit of chip she had swallowed. After that Lee said that she couldn't eat anymore chips until she could talk and communicate with us, the age he said would probably be around 4. Oh how I thought this was ridiculous. It ended in a very calamitous state. Over a chip (or so I thought). If I would have only submitted in that small thing. Now, every time someone tries to give her a chip, we either have to say no, or ask daddy. (Side note: He finally let her have a soft ruffles chip the other day and she ate it fine :) ). But I realized that most of the problem was my attitude about the whole situation. I knew better than he did, I fed her all the time. I should make the decision on what she can eat, after all she it hungry. It's just a small chip, it'll get soggy. All of these things were in my head, and not once did I pause those thoughts and say yes to my husband. Giving Ava a chip in and of itself was not sinful, but my lack of submission and more importantly my obedience to God was.
It takes humility to submit. This I know to be truth. Situations arise where I have the opportunity to submit, and alas I fail. And why do I fail most of the time? Because I am to prideful to breathe in deep and simply say, "ok". Small instance, when Ava Joy was 9 months old, we went to a Mexican restaurant. She got hungry. So I reached for a chip. Lee told me that she wasn't ready for a chip and told me not to give it to her. I, being overly confident in her chewing capabilities decided to give her a chip anyway, reassuring him that she would be fine. It didn't take long for her to choke, and being 9 months it scared her. It frightened her so much that she cried and cried till she literally threw up the little bit of chip she had swallowed. After that Lee said that she couldn't eat anymore chips until she could talk and communicate with us, the age he said would probably be around 4. Oh how I thought this was ridiculous. It ended in a very calamitous state. Over a chip (or so I thought). If I would have only submitted in that small thing. Now, every time someone tries to give her a chip, we either have to say no, or ask daddy. (Side note: He finally let her have a soft ruffles chip the other day and she ate it fine :) ). But I realized that most of the problem was my attitude about the whole situation. I knew better than he did, I fed her all the time. I should make the decision on what she can eat, after all she it hungry. It's just a small chip, it'll get soggy. All of these things were in my head, and not once did I pause those thoughts and say yes to my husband. Giving Ava a chip in and of itself was not sinful, but my lack of submission and more importantly my obedience to God was.
(On a completely unrelated note, if anyone can tell me why the bottom part of this post is smaller than the beginning, and how to fix it that would be great! :) )
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Well then, I guess I have fallen on the blogger train. Where to begin. First off, I do not in the least bit think of our life as so interesting that people would want to read about it. This blog is more or less for the intended purpose of keeping myself accountable to continually see the truth and works that God so faithfully is bringing about in our life. It has come upon me that as a "homemaker" I struggle with making my time "intentional" and therefore waste much of it on fruitless activity. I have been so encouraged by my sisters in Christ (many of which are unknowingly doing so: such as @AmberHarrelson, @KatieDouthit, @HopeSewell, @OliviaPugh) who whether intentional or not are using their everyday lives as a window (through blogging) for everyone else to see the Glory of our LORD Jesus, and the redemption he brings throughout everyday life situations. I, and I am sure many others, are indebted to you ladies for your testaments of faith.
This is a very daunting task, as I find that I am very quick to start something, and very less likely to stick with it. I hope to share blessings with you at least on a weekly basis, and through your comments and feedback gain wisdom and understanding to carry out the task of a godly wife and mother.
"But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere." James 3:17
-Brittney
This is a very daunting task, as I find that I am very quick to start something, and very less likely to stick with it. I hope to share blessings with you at least on a weekly basis, and through your comments and feedback gain wisdom and understanding to carry out the task of a godly wife and mother.
"But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere." James 3:17
-Brittney
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