What is Submission?

Submit - yield: to accept somebody else's authority or will, especially reluctantly or under pressure. To yield one's person to the power of another; to give up resistance; to surrender.  -Websters 1913

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." - Ephesians 5:22

"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." 
-Genesis 3:16

Wow, what a word!  Does even the mention of the word make you defensive?  Does it make it want to lash out at Eve and ask, "what were you thinking?"  If we are all equal in Christ, why do I have to be the one to submit?  Well I'm here to tell ya, that God never promised it would be easy, but He did promise that He would always be with us, and that He would be our strength.  Paul tells us that we must first die to ourselves, put off the old man { he wasn't telling wives here to ignore their husbands :) } and put on Christ, for HE is our only hope!  Without Him, we wouldn't be able to submit to our husbands.  But we have come so far from this principal of scripture today, that women respond by saying, "Submit??  Your joking, right? That was then."  Girls are brought up today to be "independent ....who needs a man?  we're just as capable as they are."  Yet today women are unhappy because they aren't being "respected".  I'm sorry to say, there is No R.E.S.P.E.C.T. (I'm sure Tina Turner popped in your head right now) in being "independent".  Why is a man going to go out of his way for a woman when we have told them over and over again that we don't need them, that we can do anything that they can do...like we have to something to prove or something!  

But, back to the word submit.  No matter what our excuses are, no matter how many times feminism wants to flair it's ugly self, God has commanded us as women to submit to our husbands as unto the LORD.  It's not a request or even a suggestion, He has commanded us in His Word.

"Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are..." - 1Peter 3:6  

"That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." - Titus 2:4-5 

It all comes down to a matter of the heart ... have we submitted unto Christ first and foremost?  Or our we wallowing around demanding our own way?  "But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." - 1Peter 3:4

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." - Hebrews 4:12

Like I said earlier, it will be rough at times.  But if we have the right heart-itude and fill our lives with Christ and His love, things will run a lot smoother!!