As some of you may know, about 5 1/2 weeks ago I launched into a 31 day marriage challenge.  And in typical “I read on mommy time” fashion, today, I just read day 6.  That’s right, it’s taken me over 30 days to to get to day 6, but I keep encouraging myself by saying that the race is not for the swift, but for he that endures to the end (or who almost dies trying).

I usually tack the daily challenge onto my daily devotional time, but with vacation and summer break I’ve sort of fallen off the horse.

So I’ve cleared the first section of the book about domestic tranquility (the first 5 days), and today I began the “Respect” section.  Da-da-da-dun!

As the book suggests, I began by reading the Daily Affirmation of a Happy Wife out loud to myself.  And as usual, I couldn’t make it through the first sentence without gagging.  Listen, I’m a work in progress, but hopefully, by Day 15 (which I should make it to around Christmas time), I’ll be able to recite the first sentence with confidence!

So, back to today’s daily challenge, which was about respect.  The author gave two personal examples of what it looks like to respect your husband when he’s cut of you off in mid-speech or when everything in you screams, “How dare you! Do you know who I am?!  Maggot!  (I threw in “maggot” for effect.) :o)

I can personally attest that if I had experienced either one of her two examples (both of which I have in the past), I would struggle with responding in a God honoring way.  As I’ve said in previous posts, I’m allergic to the word obey. But I want something better for my marriage. And even more than that, my first motivation for not responding in my flesh is to honor the Lord in my response to my husband.  And thankfully, this is an area that I can continually grow in.  Wherever  I am today, I don’t expect to be tomorrow.  Firstly, because I love Christ and seek to please Him. Secondly, because Christ causes me to care about my marriage.

Essentially, I’m prone to let my husband to lead AS LONG as he leads in a way that I agree with. I’m OK with him being out front and executing AS LONG as I’m controlling things behind the scenes.  And I have a feeling that that’s something many of us as woman struggle with.

But a good take home here would be to know that even when our husbands are, “lazy, harsh, insensitive or foolish” as the author puts it, we can still have peace in submitting to and respecting our husbands because we trust God: we trust that following God’s prescription for marriage is best.

Even when we can’t trust our husbands, we should take solace in knowing that we can trust the Lord.

I like this book.  Every daily challenge presents a struggle for me, but it never leaves me feeling demoralized and without hope.  I’m sure there’s lots of struggle coming my way as I work my way through the following 25 challenges, but I’m up to it – and I suspect that you are, too! :o)

Linking up with these fabulous, Christ centered blogs: Grace and Truth |Faith and Fellowship Blog Hop | Faith Filled Friday.  Give them a visit!

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