Corona Devo 1988

I like to make banana bread--both for our family to eat and also to give away.  Either way, I find that a loaf of banana bread is a fun way to love someone.

However--my latest loaf did not cook for the full time and as a result, it was thick, wet-looking, and almost gelatinous.  I will not be giving that loaf away as a gift to anyone.

But I purposely made the decision to pull that bread from the oven before it was fully baked because that ruined banana bread loaf was a sacrifice, and I am glad that I put it on the altar.

What in the world do I mean?  

Well, the other night, after I had put a loaf of banana bread into the oven to bake, my husband invited me to go get ice cream with him at our local stand.  I love splitting the hot fudge brownie sundae with him, and I love going on a date of any kind with my husband, and I love my husband.  

However, too often I get buried in tasks, I power-through my chores, or I place duties in front of our conversations and his priority as my husband.  And so, while my dishes might be done, or the laundry might be folded..."dates", my husband and our marriage can get pushed aside.

But the other night, I chose my husband over banana bread, and it was worth the ruined loaf.

~~~

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.  

(22) Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do 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.  ~Ephesians 5:21:23

~~~

It might be hard to connect failed banana bread with making a positive marital choice, but when my husband invited me to get ice cream, I knew that I had a decision to make: Him, or a loaf of bread?  

Of course the answer should be easy, but too often, we (wives) can submit to our duties/chores/work/kids/sleep/selves first, and that is not the order of things that God holds for us in marriage.

If we submit to God, then (after Him), our next submission is to our husbands.  (Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.  ~Ephesians 5:22).

If we are Christ-followers, then the Bible gives us a picture of how our (healthy) marital love should look: Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything (Ephesians 5:24).  

Just as the church of Christ supports/helps/partners/joins-forces with Christ...we, as wives, should be the same support/help/encourager/partner/help meet to our husbands.   

And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.  ~Genesis 2:18

If we are a wife, then (let's ask ourselves): when was the last time that we were an help meet to our husbands?  (Isn't "help meet" a great term of God's?)

Often I botch my help meet role, but when I took the banana bread out of the oven (mid-bake), to accept an ice cream invite from my husband , it was the right (marriage-honoring) decision.  

I could have asked him to wait another 20 minutes (and I often do), but this time I chose to put him first in my choices, and this was one small way that I could be an help meet for my husband at that time.

~~~

Life is a series of choices, and God's Word guides us on how to make them.  If marriage is a choice that we have made, then the Bible guides us on how to unite/connect/submit/and thrive in the choices that we make in our marriages.  

God created marriage, and His intention and desire is for us to thrive in this beautiful institution of His.

But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ (7) ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, (8) and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. (9) Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”  ~Mark 10:6-9

But a husband and wife cannot thrive in union together if our decisions keep us separate instead of united.  Declining an invitation to ice cream isn't a sign of a failing marriage, but choosing to be together is always a sign of a flourishing one. 

Wives, sacrifice the banana bread (or whatever we are placing in front of our husband's) today...and let our marriage have priority in our hearts today.

And husbands have their own marching orders from God too: Love your wives.  And God goes farther than that...He also tells hubbies to give themselves up for their wives.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (26) to make her holy, cleansing 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. 

(28) In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  ~Ephesians 5:25:28

If a husband is loving his wife in these ways, then a wife's submission becomes possible and desirable.  

My husband loves me in many ways, and he knows that a hot fudge brownie sundae is one of them. 

I can submit to my husband in many ways, and putting him as my priority instead of the last fifteen minutes of a baked bread was one of the ways recently that I could love him through submission.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.  ~Ephesians 5:21

~~~

Do we have a decision to make in prioritizing our spouse (and marriage) today?  

If we weave God into our heart and our marriage, the husband and wife two-strand "knot" becomes a cord of three strands that is not quickly broken because God is intertwined in our choices regarding each other. 

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: (10) If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.  But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.  (11) Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.  But how can one keep warm alone?  (12) Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.  ~Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

I realized recently that sacrificing a loaf of banana bread is a fun way to be loved and also to love someone.

Blessings, 

Sarah 

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com