From My Heart to Yours
• Jan. 9, 2008 - Testimony: "Submission Brings Protection"
I think that the central theme to what God has been teaching and showing me in the past year and a half is that the blessing of submission is protection and that the primary tool God uses for the protection of women is the family. Psalm 68:6, says, "God setteth the solitary in families…but the rebellious shall dwell in a dry land." A commentary I read says that the dry land is barren of God’s blessings, which before they had abused.
God’s design is that life would be in the context of the family, and with the family comes submission to the role that God has placed me in. If I choose to rebel against this, then I will miss out on the blessings that God has for me. I’d like to enclose a quotation by Rushdooney regarding submission:
The alternative to submission is exploitation, not freedom, because there is no true freedom in anarchy. The purpose of submission is not to degrade women in marriage, nor to degrade men in society, but to bring to them their best prosperity and peace under God’s order…But in a world which denies submission and authority, every man serves himself only and seeks to exploit all others. Men exploit women, and women exploit men.
About a year and a half ago, this principle was becoming more and more clear to me. At that time, I was working at (a local conservative evangelism ministry). While my parents were away for a weekend, God really impressed upon my heart that if I was to properly fulfill my role as a daughter and learn to be a keeper at home as we are commanded to in Titus 2, I needed to quit my job and come home. I realized that by working at a job, I was not able to fulfill that commandment of being a keeper at home. That same weekend, my parents had also come to that conclusion and were praying for God to bring me to that realization as well.
When they returned home, we discussed it and determined that it was God’s will to move forward in that direction. At the beginning of August, I finished my obligations there and came home to serve my family. Even knowing that it was the clear will of God did not make it any easier. Throughout most of the summer, I wrestled greatly with the decision that we had made, but eventually I accepted the peace that God offered and found joy in my new direction in life.
After coming home, the principle of protection following submission was made very clear. When I think of protection, I often think of an outside source seeking to cause harm, but what I realized was that most often I need protection from myself and the battles of the mind, etc.
A situation arose, in part, because I had previously chosen not to heed my parent’s warnings and admonitions in a particular matter. It came to a head when I was on the verge of making a decision that would have had a significant impact on my future and would be going in a different direction then God had been leading me and my family. My parents stepped in and told me that I was wrong and that I needed to make changes appropriately. I regret that although I was submissive to make the changes that were needed, I was not joyful and did not make it easy on them. It took quite a bit of time for my heart to be in line with the direction that we had taken.
As I look back now, God has shown me a little of what my parents had protected me from. I will probably never know the full ramifications of the decision that I chose not to make. And even though my heart was not in line from the start, God still blessed my actions of submission and protected me through my parents. I want to say that I appreciate my parents who were willing to put their foot down, regardless of my age, and exercise their God-given authority in my life, contrary to a world which tells parents that they need to let their children go and make their own decisions. As long as I am living at home, no matter my age, I am to be submissive to their authority.
I had another opportunity to be protected by my family, although this time it was from an external source. God has shown me how daughters and women are vulnerable and need to embrace the protection offered and not to struggle against it. I’d like to include a thought from a book entitled Letters to a Daughter written back in the 1800s from a father to his daughter:
In addition to all the other circumstances which render her (that is his daughter) an object of deep interest, and in which she shares in common with children of the other sex, she is, in a higher degree than they, dependent on parental aid: there is a sort of natural defencelessness in her condition, independently of the fostering care of those from whom, under God, she received her being, that makes an appeal to a parent’s heart, which, if it be not a heart of stone, he will strive in vain to resist.
Contrary to what the world is teaching--that women need to be independent and self-sufficient--I learned that God has put men in a place to protect women from outside sources that would seek harm. Had I been alone and without the protection of my family, this situation would have left me very fearful and vulnerable. In conclusion, I would say that I have learned and am still learning (it is so very hard at times!) that the best place for me is to be submissive to the authorities that God has given me, and in so doing, I will enjoy the blessings that God has for me and not dwell in a barren land.
A young lady in her late 20s
UPDATE: Just a couple of months after this young lady made this decision, an absolutely stellar young man in her church began discussions with her father. To make a long story short, she is now married! She had no idea that this young man was watching this process, but he was! |
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