Daily Devotion Colossians 3:18

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. -Colossians 3:18

Don't shoot the messenger.  It says it, in the Bible, God's Word, submit to your husband.  I know it's not easy.  From the day I got married, this verse has worked in my heart.  First of all, I was 29 when I got married, a registered architect with an awesome career.  I had been living on my own since I was 18.  After 11 years on my own and being independant most of my life, all I could think was, 'Are you kidding me?  Submit to my husband?'  For those of you who think that that's an antiquated notion for all those bustled up, long skirt type women, I know where you're coming from.  This is off of my topic that I've been talking about, but I have to give you a testimony about what's been on my heart lately.
First of all, you have to notice that this verse doesn't tell us to love our husbands.  That's too mundane.  Of course you love your husband.  That's the way women are.  We see a puppy in a commercial and love that.  Women just generally naturally love things, husbands included.  God knows, though, that we're often tempted to do things our way.  Look what Eve did when she thought she knew best.  Boy, what a mess!  By nature we are multi taskers, making decisions on the fly and running with it.  With a personality like that, it's a little hard to step back and let someone else guide you.  I've been praying for Larry ever since I've known him.  We were both saved when we met and Larry was the church goer and I wasn't, so I had this idea that he was the strong spiritual one.  Well, after we got married, I started to see things that I thought should change in him.  So I started to pray for those things to change.  I don't know.  Maybe you all aren't as unspiritual as that, but I was just a baby Christian at the time and, like all babies, it was all about me.  It's almost embarrassing the things I thought should change in him.  It's definitely pretty comical.  After about 5 years of marriage and spinning my wheels in my prayer life, I started to pray for God to change me.  I started to pray for Him to teach me what to pray for.  After that, I started to pray for Larry in a different way.  Before this, I would pray for something to change in Larry and then I would underhandedly nag him about it - make little suggestions here and there.  When God got a hold of my heart, I started to pray for Larry's life to bring glory to God, for him to be a strong spiritual leader in our family, for him to direct our family in a ministry that would bring honor and glory to God.  The first thing that happened, without me making any suggestions at all, was Larry got up one morning and started doing morning devotions and memory verses.  Whoa.  Praise God.  Then we started doing family devotions.  Wow.  Amen.  Now, Larry is the type that doesn't like to get up in front of people.  He took an F in public speaking in high school because he wouldn't get up and do a speech in front of the class.  Then, one day, he calls up our pastor in Albany and asks him if we could start singing at the nursing home.  Not too long after that, he was given the opportunity to preach at the nursing home and he did, several times.  That was huge!  Just the faithful praying for those three things in Larry's life brought about changes that I couldn't have even imagined when I was praying for those little changes back when we were first married.  Instead of me deciding what Larry should be, I left it up to God.  You see, both God and I know my past and my present, but only God knows the future.  When I left it up to God to mold us into a family that brings Him glory, so much more was accomplished.
So this week we're having VBS at church.  It's been an amazing week.  Larry was asked to teach the middle school agers.  He stepped way out of his comfort zone and has been having a great time.  I'm amazed at God's goodness and power.  All I kept thinking about this week was how God can do wonders in people's hearts, both Larry's and mine.  I know this testimony was more about prayer than submission, but I want you to consider that if you begin to pray for God to serve His purpose in your husband's life, that the submission part will come a lot easier.  Let God be in control.