“May He grant you according to your heart’s desire and fulfill all your purpose.”
Psalm 20:4 NKJV

I grew up dreaming of becoming a wife. I wanted so deeply to be the kind of wife Laura Petrie was from the Dick Van Dyke Show. Sweet and kind. She was often willing to put together a dinner party at the very last moment’s notice. In her frazzled, harried state she would pull it all together without a hair out of place or a wrinkle in her perfectly flounced skirt. Her pearls even seemed to gleam a brighter white when Rob walked in the door. That’s what I wanted.  A TV show fantasy.

My childhood wasn’t a bad childhood. For the most part it was seemingly normal. My parents both worked; my dad the bread-winner, and my mom the income supplimentor.  She was also the finance wizard, the grocery getter, the house cleaner, the decision maker. She ‘wore the pants’. It was a far cry from the joyfully submissive Laura Petrie. When my dad did try to be the decision maker, chaos in our little townhouse ensued. His effort was met with her anger. They fought. They argued. They were silent. I grew up in a home where the silence between husband and wife was deafening. But still I longed to be a wife. I longed to be a different kind of wife. A wife more precious than rubies.

Rick and my first year of marriage was a bit difficult to say the least. It was a power struggle. In fact, that struggle lasted for more years than I would like to recall. Thankfully, that’s vapor in the wind to the Lord. See, He put on my heart through a study of Abraham and Sarah in the book of Genesis, as well as in 1 Peter3, the beauty of being a submissive wife.

“For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.”
1Peter3:5-6a (ESV)

And He backed it up in the book of Ephesians.

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should in everything to their husbands.”
Ephesians 5:22-24 (ESV)

Submission does not equal less than; submission equals loving reverence to the Lord. Deep, abiding faith in our Great Big Jesus Christ! The One who draws our lack-luster hearts to love like His that is solid gold, shining with goodness!

When my choice was to submit to the Lord instead of my own selfish desire for control, my longing became my reality. I am walking out the beauty of marriage as a God-honoring wife. I’m not Laura Petrie. I’m better. I am the wife, not drawn by creative minds in a television studio, but created by the Master of the Universe.  I get to live out the desire of my heart to serve God through serving my husband and my family. My heart is steeped in joy and gratitude!

Article Written by: Samantha Ewing