Won Without a Word

I was so excited about rearranging my office that I considered all the possibilities while I cleaned the house. I wondered if I could get David to build me a frame to turn the air mattress into a day bed.

I remembered a Duvet cover I could put over the air mattress and mattress pad. I could store our extra bed pillows and throw pillows on it in place of back cushions.

Then I remembered the bed raisers we are not using. I could put a piece of plywood on them and put the air mattress on top! I got the bed raisers out, dusted them off, and put them on the table next to a post-it note saying, “Plywood cut to the size of the air mattress.”

When David got home, he read my note and said, “You want to spend $45.00 on plywood?”

“Would you rather spend $400.00 on a day bed?” I replied.

The “Chatterbox” in my head had a field day, (see “Crash the Chatterbox” by Steven Furtick).

“He always says ‘no.’ ” (He didn’t say no.)
“He said ‘yes’ all the time when you were dating, but changed after you said, ‘I do!’ “ (Not true.)
“He spent more than $45.00 on a St. Louis Cardinal’s game ticket.” (That’s a different category in our budget.)

I knew I had to stop this thinking and let God handle it. I threw the note away and put the bed raisers back on the storage shelf.

I thought, “Maybe God will give me a day bed!” I didn’t nag, get angry, or bring up the subject again.

1 Peter 3:1, “Likewise you wives, be submissive to your own husbands,…they may be won without a word…” Modern English Version

It surprised me when David brought the subject up after church. “There’s some plywood in the garage I could use.”

“Thank you, Jesus!”

“Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in. The holy women of old were beautiful before God that way, and were good, loyal wives to their husbands. Sarah, for instance, taking care of Abraham, would address him as, ‘my dear husband.’ You’ll be true daughters of Sarah if you do the same, unanxious and unintimidated.” The Message

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Submission is:

Functional – a distinguishing of our roles and the work we are called to do.

Relational – a loving acknowledgment of another’s value as a person.

Reciprocal – a mutual, humble cooperation with one another.

Universal – an acknowledgment by the church of the all-encompassing lordship of Jesus Christ.

Submission is voluntarily cooperating with someone, first out of love and respect for God and then out of love and respect for that person.

Life Application Study Bible