I find it SO embarrassing to be around women who behave this way.

"No matter how beautiful this woman was in appearance, she was ugly by her behavior of disrespect towards her husband." I can't stress how true this statement is! A woman can actually take herself from a 10 to a 2 in her husband's eyes, just by opening her mouth! When you think about the magnitude of that it's kind of scary. That is the main reason Peter drills down on the outward appearance for us, so we keep it in balance.

"Don't try to correct in him in how to be a spiritual leader. Let him become a leader by trial and error."

And there will be errors! None of us are born perfect. The walk through marriage is not a performance, it is an unscripted journey!

I'm a little late to this one, it's been a busy couple of days. I loved this post. Although Darrell does buy me flowers frequently, he does it for him! He knows I'm not the flowery type of girl, he just LOVES to give them to me!

What struck me as I was reading your post was that in the Song of Songs, romance seems synonymous with sex! I am not saying that romance LEADS to sex; nor should it. Doesn't he (the groom) constantly talk about her physical features? And her to him, the same? I don't know, just tossing some ideas about the whole "romance" conundrum. Have you studied this Lori? Is there any "romance" (the way the modern woman sees 'romance') in Song of Songs b/c I've not found it to be that way. In fact, in my days of feminism, I didn't much care for that book because it was .... "just about sex!" But viewed through the lens of biblical roles of femininity and masculinity, I find it a MUCH different read.

I am so grateful to have been born in 1964. My career as a keeperathome couldn't get much more splendid. Same job description ... but with ALL the modern conveniences (It's a VERY good gig) I think you are only limited by the limits of your own creativity.

"It's really that simple." I know right! So clear .... after you've learned it, but the waters can get "emotionally" murky in the beginning.

It is a great thing to seek counsel and knowledge from older women in regards to the directions given in the quoted Scriptures. But as a wife, I have to remember that the final analysis belongs to my [OWN] husband. I am not commanded to submit to another woman's (or her husband's) idea of what submission means or is, but to submit to my [OWN] husband. From experience, I have mistakenly tried to follow teachings of how other women might define submission that were completely unacceptable to my [OWN] husband. One incident had to do with hair and dresses and another one had to do with music. The women made excellent biblical cases and the loophole was always the verse, ".... better to obey 'God' " than man. They believed that they knew what was better for submission than my [OWN] husband. I'm somewhat embarrassed to even share this as it now seems silly that I could have even believed such a thing!

"The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Is the Hand That Rules the World" is a poem by William Ross Wallace that praises motherhood as the preeminent force for change in the world.

oh yes, peacemaking, of course. When I said "argue/discuss" I meant in a discussion of debating differing opinions, not as in "fighting". My point was a comparison that no real resolution is required for the friendship to continue. But if it simply cannot, we have the wiggle room in those peer relationships, versus none in marriage. For instance, I had to rearrange some boundaries ("wiggle around") in one particular friendship that did not allow for homeschooling in her understanding; she continued to try and talk to my kids about it being not a positive experience for them. As far as it was concerned on my part, I sought peace but did not seek to dissolve the friendship.

This is the conflict resolution method of feminists (Christian egalitarian). It is an effort equalize all relationships, so they use a broad stroke method to incorporate all relationships when in reality each relationship has its own method. Lori, you and I can use this method b/c we are peers. In a peer (The Body/Church) relationship we can "argue/discuss" a subject forever, but if it is a serious matter, there is room in a peer relationship to move apart from each other, somewhat. You and I are not ... "One flesh." In a parent-child relationship, it requires a different set of conflict resolution dynamics, but again, a parent and child are not ... "One flesh." In a boss-employee relationship, yet another set of dynamics. All of the conflict resolution methods can be stretched and reshaped to be applicable, depending on the relationship ... except for marriage. It is the only one where the two parties have become one flesh: No wiggle room to move apart and, therefore, there will never be any reprieve for unity. That's why when a wife continues to state her case over and over again (in the article I believe they call it, ".[...] keep talking about it [...]" ) she is told she is argumentative, a dripping faucet, or contentious etc .... because there will be NO resolution until SOMEONE yields. Submission puts the weight of this responsibility on us wives.

Keeperathome is actually one word: oikouros (oi-koor-gaws) and it is an adjective. An adjective describes the noun; it is a description of WHO a wife is rather than what she does. Our English translations (especially the more modern ones) seek to reverse the wording so that it is an "activity" (a verb) that can be done by anyone at any time ... meaning: after working a job outside the home which is fine as long as she is, "keeping a good house".

It isn't that women/wives are born/created to do house work. It is that we are created to GUARD the temple ... the home. The root words are: (a guard and be “ware) combined with (home/domestic/domicile or temple).

I see that my primary responsibility in creation is to be an overseer of EVERYTHING that happens in my home.