“S” Word in the Headlines

Last week, former volleyball star and model, Gabrielle Reece, was in the news when she dared to talk about the power of being a submissive wife to her husband. Here is an excerpt from an article by Erica Ritz as published in The Blaze (April 14, 2013):

“Gabrielle Reece, the former volleyball star and model who filed for divorce less than five years after tying the knot to surfer husband Laird Hamilton roughly 17 years ago, recently wrote a book explaining how she got her marriage back on track.

“The key? In My Foot Is Too Big for the Glass Slipper, Reece credits an ‘old fashioned dynamic’ and abiding by more traditional gender roles — and has created a firestorm in the process. ‘To truly be feminine means being soft, receptive, and — look out, here it comes — submissive,” she wrote. … ‘I think the idea of living with a partner is how can I make their life better? So if I’m the woman and he’s the man, then yes, that’s the dynamic. I’m willing and I choose to serve my family and my husband, because it creates a dynamic where he is then in fact acting more like a man and masculine, and treating me the way I want to be treated. Which is — I’d like to be cherished, and I’d like someone to look after me in that role.’“But, perhaps anticipating the coming controversy, she added, ‘I think because women have the ability to set the tone, that the ultimate strength and showing real power … is creating that environment. I think it’s a sign of strength.’’

What Gabrielle describes as an “old fashioned dynamic” is actually a biblical principle outlined in the Scriptures in I Peter 3:1-2:

Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

This verse can be like fingernails on a chalkboard for women, as seen by the media frenzy created by Gabrielle’s story. Outside the context of Jesus’ life example and the power of His Holy Spirit, the idea of submitting to your husband sounds wimpy and humiliating. Many who have completed The Cry of the Hidden Heart study, however, have learned the mysterious and redemptive power of following God’s instructions for wives. Leave it to the Inventor of marriage to know how it best works.

Discover for yourself how to be God’s definition of a strong woman by signing up for one of our soon-to-be-forming summer classes, or ask a friend or sister to do The Cry of the Hidden Heart study with you by ordering the book off our website.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24