Women Respect Your Husbands. Men Love Your Wives…
Women Respect Your Husbands
Men Love Your Wives…
My hands were tired. My heart was beating rapidly. I was scared. Standing on the corner of a street bustling with families, teens, and men resembling Russian spies out of a Jason Bourne movie, I was clutching my “evangelism” sign. It simply read, Women Respect Your Husbands, Men Love Your Wives. My mind was far from evangelism. Honestly, my mind was on how I picked the wrong sign. My sign was offensive. If I was a family walking down the street, the last person I would want to speak to was an American woman holding a sign that said for me to respect my husband. I folded. I began to talk with my translator and told her I felt it was best to put the sign up and walk around to try to talk to families instead. She agreed and we were off. Well, the night ended just as I had expected, uneventful.
As the week rambled on, my mind was stuck on that sign. Why would the church want to send that message? Yes, God called me to respect my husband, but how could that speak to someone on the street? I pondered this question often. What I didn’t realize during this time was that God was preparing my heart. He was about to pull back a layer of my heart like one peels a smelly onion.
On Sunday during church, a teammate retreated outside to gather her thoughts and wake up from our normal Sunday routine of listening to two hours of preaching in a foreign language. While sitting I felt like the Lord was telling me to go to meet her, to go listen to her thoughts and hopefully speak words of encouragement over her. The Lord had better plans. She was there to speak love and words of life into me.
We began a simple conversation about what is to come of team changes, future leaders, and World Race lingo. Not too long into the conversations we started to hit the “hurts, habits, and hang ups” that were affecting our outlook on the Race. I began to express my feelings of struggle with control. I want what I want. I justify my actions with reasoning. The baggage I carry because of my choices are weighing me down though. It is all oppressing a great spirit within me. My teammate spoke with authority from God and love from the Spirit. She asked pointed questions about this baggage that helped me peel back the stinkiest layer yet. Because of my selfish desires…. Because of my “I am woman, hear me Roar” mentality… Because of my arrogance… I have failed to respect and empower my husband during past experiences. I started to process this when another layer began to painfully peel back. I was taking the backseat on this Race because I knew my husband needed to experience success as a leader. I knew he would thrive as a team leader but only if I stepped to the side, or so I thought. I subconsciously knew I would somehow take control or ruin the plan God had for him.
Fast forward to the next night.
I lay on the roach infested carpet of our third floor apartment sobbing while confessing to my husband. Apologizing for past offenses and asking for accountability. I told him of my fears of ruining his Race, his leadership position, and our marriage. Of course, he talked me off the ledge of going too far with the new revalation. He lay beside me looking into my eyes as we spoke about God’s purpose for marriage. We, both my husband and I, are great leaders. God has given us a purpose…. We are no longer two leaders leading separately. We are ONE working towards ONE purpose., TO GLORIFY HIM!
In the end, the sign that I held tightly in my hand that thought provoking Friday night had much more of an impact than I ever thought it could.
