Verse "of the week"

We had a really busy weekend. We started a "new" every-other-Friday-night bible study (more on that in a bit), then had a party to attend on Saturday, a barbeque on Sunday after church and then only time for a short nap before our weekly Sunday dinner with friends. Good thing Zeke is so good about staying up late and being busy! Although I will admit by a half hour after bedtime on Sunday night he was starting to get frazzled. Even Rockband wouldnt keep him happy.

I was getting a little frazzled too, to tell the truth. And it would have been even worse but I kind of cheated by making Bakerella's super easy Oreo Truffles and bringing them to 3 of the above said events instead of trying to come up with something different to bring to each one. The deliciousness of the truffles made up for the slight rudeness I think...

So little down-time this weekend. But it felt good to get back into the swing of things. And Zeke was happy to do something other than play with his Ark, which is his new favorite toy. Or maybe that was me that was happy to have something to do other than play with his Ark...
Anyways, now to my point. We started a "new" bible study in 3 Strand (you know "a rope of 3 strands isnt easily broken" and all that...its a group in our church that focuses on godly parenting and marriage). And I saw "new" because we are doing the Love and Respect book, which Josh and I have actually already done twice in our 3 years together, once right after we got married and once just a few months ago. And I have a sinking feeling that God is going to bring this up over and over again in our lives until I actually learn something from it...it may take doing the study a lot more than thrice, lol.

Its actually a great book. The subtitle is "the Love she most desires/the Respect he desperately needs" and the jist of it is farily apparent: wives want to be loved...no they NEED to be loved and husbands NEED to be respected and its hard to believe but they need this just as much as we need to be loved. Crazy I know. Who wants to be respected more then they want to be loved? My husband apparently. He told me so.

And these roles, to love and to respect are clearly defined in the bible:

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 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. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Ephesian s5:22-33

Ick right? We arent taught, us american women of the 21st century and all that jazz, to use words like respect or worse submit when it comes to our husbands. They can be hard words to swallow. And I very often suck at the practise of them. Luckily I actually have a great deal of respect for my husband, I wouldnt have married him if I hadnt, its just not really in my nature to ACT respectfully. Which I need to do. I mean it would hardly count if Josh loved me but didnt act lovingly would it?

Its a struggle to say the least.