An Old-School Biblical Viewpoint

This essay is strongly controversial and is not to be judged upon your opinion of my beliefs, which are my convictions.  Please understand that religious viewpoints have a private and personal origin.  I didn’t write this to offend anybody nor to be judged in an unfair way.  These viewpoints are from life experiences and are recorded here for your reading as a little insight into a different way of thinking; maybe you can even find enjoyment in the read.

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Eph. 5:22-33 is the scripture that best fits this article.

My husband and I are about to celebrate our forty-third wedding anniversary, December ’09.  We married with the idea of having a Christian life together and raising a family according to scripture. I was raised in a Christian home and became a Christian at age nine. My husband on the other hand was not raised in a Christian home, but he became a Christian at age seventeen.

We met at a youth function for my church, ten months prior to our marriage, which took place in 1966.

He is the only boy I have ever dated in my life. I was not his first girl, but I got to be his last. Our first baby was born one year, one month and two days after our first wedding anniversary. This was the most precious time of our lives, so far. This precious little baby boy was ours. Eventually we had three more children, two girls and another boy.

Early on we decided to base our marriage upon the biblical concept of marriage, which places the husband at the head of the home and his wife his helpmate. This has worked well for us. I was accustomed to this type of marriage through my parent's example. My husband was never so privileged. The scriptures have been his teacher, and he has succeeded in bringing up a fine family.

It is not easy to be subservient to anyone, but there are rewards involved. When a wife becomes a helpmate to her man, she is telling him that he is her protector and provider; he needs her cooperation to be the best husband and father to his family. A man has the ‘eternal ego’. His wife can feed this ‘bird’ so her husband lives a dynamic life.  In other words, if she fails at feeding it, they will both suffer. The ego motivates a man and helps him to have a good self image, which in turn helps him take care of his family in a way no other human factor can.

If a man is constantly knocked down by his wife, he becomes a follower instead of a leader. He lets his wife run the show; let's face it, one person or the other has to lead the marriage. In my opinion of the biblical perspective, a 50/50 administration of marriage is deceitful because it doesn't work, not the way a family is supposed to work.

It is important for the wife to help her husband so he can be the man God intended him to be. God put the man over the woman, and the woman over the children, as Christ is over the church. God intended marriage, through his plan, to be the backbone of our country. Again, this is my opinion, but our nation lost its backbone when its women began shouldering responsibilities in the family that clearly were given to husbands, the protector and provider of his own family. Our families are in a lot of trouble, and divorce is running rampant.
         
The scripture in Ephesians 5 states it this way:

"(22) Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. (23) For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. (24) Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. (25) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (26) to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, (27) and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (33b) Wives see to it that you reverence your husband." (NIV)