Talking back to your husband is a NO NO!

That’s Right….but hear me out why!

This is how I personally view our family dynamics in our Jesus loving home, my dear husband is the commander in charge, leaving me secondary commander in charge. We have four children as follows big brother who is 16, big sister who is 13, little brother who is 8, and little sister who is 5. If you have a five your old or younger child in your family then you really know who “runs” the household! 😉 Just kidding!

I respect my husband’s authority as the leader in our home, and everyone is very clear on who has the ultimate say. It’s comical to me, when the little children want something they always ask their Daddy, but when the big kids want something they usually ask me in hopes to charm their Dad into letting them get what they want. When they want something really bad, they charm me. Kids learn how to be master manipulators I think straight out of the womb! I always tell them we will see, but first I have to ask your father. Often times I just make them ask him. I can see their excitement turn quickly into fear when they realize I will not budge with out my husbands say so.

I love that I can trust my husband to have the final say in our home. It takes a lot of pressure off of myself to be honest. It also makes me feel loved, safe, and secure under his authority as my husband in my life. My husband is very thoughtful to listen to my views, respects my opinions, and suggestions as we co-parent our children together. Ultimately though, I understand he does have the final say, even if I don’t always full heartily agree with him. He is never harsh, hard, pressing, criticizing, rude, oppressive, inconsiderate, abusive, or control starved. He does give me the freedom to make my own choices, but is honest when I ask him for his opinion on any topic. To be a God-fearing leader of your family, you must love God and love your wife.

If you are a woman who wears the pants in your house hold, this post was not intended to offend you in any way or bring judgment against how you run your home. We are all given the same free will to choose what works best for us.

I was at the gym today on the treadmill, cardio day, for one full hour. Who ever says that running frees your mind, has never entered mine! If I am going to be running on a treadmill for an hour, I have got to be thinking of anything that will make me feel like that hour just flew by! Cardio is just straight up BRUTAL!

My thoughts are like a ping-pong balls bouncing to and fro all over the place up there. I think about things I am thankful for, things that I need room to improve on, conversations I have had, or conversations I listened to over the past week.

For example, I was thinking about how I was cleaning my room on Monday and over heard in the back ground a speaker on the Joyce Meyer Tv show explain how parents are the shepherds of their children. That phrase blasted my ear drums like the sound of a new-born baby crying three rooms down. It stood out very clear and left an impression on my heart.

We as mothers have such a great responsibility shepherding our little baby sheep, with endless opportunities to reflect Christ’s love and obedience in all areas of life.

I did try to drowned my thoughts out with some Skrillex music as I ran my little heart out.

I ended my cardio with a cool down walk and turned on my Joyce Meyer Podcast. If you can’t tell I really love that woman! She was cracking me up today because she was sharing how it has taken her over ten yearsbut she finally is getting over not talking back to her husband. She made it seem all giggles but conviction struck my heart, and wouldn’t let me forget how I had acted the night before.

I have been brainstorming for some fun posts to blog about in the future that are on the topic of marriage, so I have been doing my bible studying on the topic. Ironically enough I read over 1 Peter 3 for like the 20th time in my marriage a few days ago. It’s funny how God will leave a trail of bread crumbs for you to follow when he is teaching you something.

We as Jesus loving wives are called to be submissive to our husbands.

When I heard her talk about not talking back to your husband the inner diva inside of me blurted out, “What!! Why!? He is not my father, he is my Husband! This makes me feel like a little child, and I am not a CHILD!” That of course was the flesh me, but as I took into consideration the benefits of being submissive they out weighed my prideful heart. So please don’t throw something at the screen when I tell you, we should not talk back to our husbands! Before you get all GIRL POWER on me, read for yourself!

Acting like a spoiled little brat has always rubbed my heart the wrong way. Sure if feels good to throw a fit the size of Texas, but I feel like If I don’t want my kids acting like spoiled little brats, then I shouldn’t either.

I was quickly reminded of my actions and what resembled how my five-year old would act over not getting her way. I threw a fit in our car last night in front of our 3 children. We were heading to the Middle School to watch big daughter perform her dance at The Night of the Arts. There were absolutely no parking spots available and we were running late. After circling the parking lot my husband tells me to park where they keep the dumpsters. I thought about it for a second then continued to storm off. He just laughed at me and told me to park else where. I don’t like when people laugh at me, so in my anger, fear of possibly missing her dance, and frustration of not finding a parking spot, I yelled, “I AM GOING TO PARK WHERE I WANT TO PARK!!” I was upset because I had trusted him to direct me to a good parking place and here he was suggesting I park by the dumpsters where we were sure to be boxed in! I murmured off some more words, ones which I can’t even remember right now, but I know I was upset. I don’t lose it often, but every now and then the inner diva well she can’t keep her mouth shut! I had an awful attitude for a few minuets to follow. All the while my 16 yr old was in the back seat laughing at the free entertainment of Mom acting like a child. (shame)

We are the shepherds of our children. Our actions, our words, they listen and they watch. If you have teenagers, believe it or not, yes they too are watching, and listening to how you talk and treat others you interact with every second of the day. I believe that the teenagers are actually hoping we slip up so they can use it as an excuse to enforce their own sense of independence when they are being reprimanded.

Talking back to our husbands teach our children these things:

1. It’s okay to act like a spoiled brat, and lose all self-control of our emotions.

2. Disobedience to Authority.

3. Disrespect to Authority.

4. How to be Defiant.

5. How to have a proud and prideful heart and attitude.

6. Rebellion.

7. It is okay to argue until we get our way.

8. How to speak out of anger and not out of love.

If mom doesn’t respect my dad, then why should I? If he always has the finally say, then why is she trying to buck the system? We are leading by example to our children how to be under submission to authority in our lives. Our babies are only our babies for a very brief moment in their lives. They will soon be under the authority of God, Teachers, Coaches, Bosses, the Law, etc..

I pray right now for you and me to take the weakness of being hard-headed and defiant and rely on Jesus’s strength when we want to lash out in anger to our husbands when we don’t get our way, so that we may be quick to respond in love. I pray that we are reminded by the Holy Spirit to ask for help in this area that we struggle with, having a prideful heart. I pray that God would give us a measure of faith in our husband to trust his authority as the head of our household. I pray that we rise up to the challenge God has called for us as wives to love our husband and submit to them.

By being a submissive wife, our husbands, our children, our marriages, and ourselves will be blessed for it!

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. James 1:19

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:5

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Ephesians 5:24

LOVE

Leigh Leigh

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Related Post on Marriage and Submission HERE!!!!

“Working Out” My Transformation Story (pics)

Good Morning on this Fabulous “Fit” Friday!!

You may have already checked out my Body after Baby post, if not you should check it out now!

Today I wanted to share with you how working out has changed my perspective on the way Faith operates in my life! But Before I share this with you take a look at some physical evidence for yourself!

In the photo to the left I am 20 years old Mother of zero kids and I was probably if I could guess around 136 pounds. I am also five foot 6 inches in case you were wondering. The photo to your right was actually taken about a month ago. I am 29, 128 pounds a Mother of two Children that came from my belly. I am actually a mom of 5 but I can’t take credit because only two came from this tummy! As you can see from the two photos there is quiet a bit of difference going on with my body.

I actually made this photo collage for a Friend’s Facebook Page “God’s Fit Girl.” I was hoping to link her page her to my blog, unfortunately at this time she has taken a break from Facebook and deactivated her accounts, therefore I can’t link. I would like to come back in the future and try to link her up here.

She was giving away a God’s Fit Girl Tank to the first 5 transformation stories posted to her page. I was her first one! I have to admit, besides putting up before and after pictures on my blog for the world to see a few months ago, I have never been brave enough to do this and was freaking out a little to go through with it. Free Cute Tank Tops have that power over me! 🙂

The reason I wanted to share this Transformation with you today is not just to inspire you to work out or take better care of your body, of course those are a given, but today, rather I would like to share with you how working out has helped me understand how faith works and proof that I can trust God.

First of all let’s define Faith, shall we!?

¹faith

noun \ˈfāth\

: strong belief or trust in someone or something

: belief in the existence of God : strong religious feelings or beliefs

: a system of religious beliefs

Merriam-Webster.com

There are so many beautiful scriptures on Faith in the Bible. I do suggest a Web search on Faith scriptures.

In my human mind I tend to be wired to be skeptical and analytical by nature. I also have a flesh that wants instant gratification! This desire for instant gratification has grown with my ability to access the Internet and all of it’s information in the palm of my hand, 24/7.

When I began working out I didn’t seem to acquire the results I wanted because I had no faith in what I was doing and didn’t trust the process. We all think if we go on a diet for a week we are going to lose the weight we put on over a long period of time. It DOES NOT WORK that way!

As I have been praying for a way to get this across to you so that you can understand it I have been dealing with a challenge. But I am going to try my best so here we go! Faith is a belief; something that we commit to fully, and we trust. But we can’t see it. This confuses us because we want to see tangible evidence that faith actually works and can be trusted.

I ran over 2 Peter 1:5-7 a few years ago in my bible. Something about this scripture just ingrained in me that there is a natural process that occurs when we step out in faith and keep digging in. Our Faith, Our Hope, Our Knowledge, Our Desires, Our Character, etc.. they all GROW!

2 Peter 1:5-7 “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control;and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.”

I actually remember writing this out on card stock and posting it on my dresser mirror so that I would continue to read over these words so that they would start to stick.

While this scripture was helping me grow in my Faith in Jesus and encouraging me to stay in his word and pray for knowledge, self control, kindness, it was also inspiring me to test this theory so that I would be able to see transformation take place physically!

We know that when we give our hearts to Jesus he fills us with his Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit produces fruit in us. Here is a reminder of the fruits of the spirit: LOVE, PEACE, GENTLENESS, PATIENCE, FAITH-FULNESS, SELF-CONTROL, GOODNESS, KINDNESS. I know that I have access to all of these “fruit” and were I lack, I can pray and ask God to develop these fruits in me!

In my mind I took the scriptures from Peter and I connected them to my life style change.

Since Faith was going to represent my Body this is what I ingested from this scripture.

“make every effort to add to your faith goodness”

(Make every effort to add GOOD things to my body; water, protein, fruit, veggies, complex carbs)

“and to goodness, knowledge”

(Make every effort to add knowledge about Working out and making my Body healthy) I would ask questions about weight training, portion control, cardio, realistic goals, how to burn fat, calorie intake, etc.. Knowledge goes A LONG WAY!

“and to knowledge, self-control”

This was and probably still is my biggest obstacle! SELF CONTROL! I was going to have to put in the effort to practice self control on what I put in my mouth, and how committed I would be to a work out routine! Self control will always be a work in progress!

“and to self-control, perseverance”

Good old perseverance! Just when you think you have the self control down, you actually have to continue to keep the self control, continue, to practice the self control, continue to live out that self control! Whew!! Persevere through those hunger attacks, those negative comments from others, preserve through those days when you feel like it’s not working, you don’t have what it takes, you will never accomplish your goals. Persevere through insecurities you have established along the way own your own or by others. Persevere through the pain of getting through your first cardio class and you think your body if fixing to fail you.

“godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.”

Godliness! I just took from this that God did design my body, it was made for his glory not mine, and I should take really good care of it so I can be around in good health to complete the mission he has set before me here on Earth! Brotherly kindness, eh well motivating my friends and my family to fight the good fight of self doubt and no hope of achieving success with their Weight struggles! I need to be kind to my body as well! I should intake healthy foods, drink plenty of water, and get a good amount of sleep each night. Showering is also good too for my hygiene! 😉

Finally LOVE! I should absolutely LOVE my body! This ties in again with taking care of what God gave me to begin with! I should not only love my body, but My soul as well! Working out increases endorphins which make you happy! It reduces stress, and helps you tire out so you can sleep if you struggle with not being able to sleep at night! Working out has a magnitude of perks, just look them up for yourself!

Now back to the Fruits of the Spirit. I know first off, I can do and accomplish all things in Christ who gives me strength, Philippians 4:13. Did you notice that when I am building my faith I actually use some fruits of the spirit? Love, Kindness, Patience (to persevere), Goodness, and of course Faithfulness.

When I started to focus on my Body and use all these tools found in 2 Peter 1:5-7 guess what? My BODY STARTED TO CHANGE! It started out with small changes, but after time, dedication, commitment, and faith in myself, trust in the process, my body started to change! My chunky tummy started to shrink, My legs began to get firmer, for once in my life I could actually see that I did in fact have some muscle under my skin after all! I could lift more weight over time, run farther, and I had so much more energy! My clothes dropped sizes, and the pounds of weight dropped as well.

IF I COULD TRUST THIS PROCESS in 2 Peter 1:5-7 TO WORK FOR MY BODY AND ACTUALLY SEE PHYSCIAL EVIDENCE THAT IT DID INFACT WORK, I COULD BELIEVE THAT IF I COMMITED MY LIFE TO CHRIST IN MY FAITH I COULD TRUST THAT ALL THE PROMISES THAT GO ALONG WITH LIVING MY LIFE WITH CHRIST WOULD BE EVIDENT IN MY LIFE!

Hebrews touched my heart when I learned with out faith it is impossible to please God, because he wants us to have faith;trust in him and his word and what he commands us to do!

If you have been struggling with your weight or your faith in Christ, can I just challenge you today to test the theory!? Maybe you have little faith or are weak in your faith and you need physical proof? Use your body as a test. Start focusing on the challenge to change it through the process of working out and eating healthy. Maybe you don’t need or want to test it that way. Then use 2 Peter to build your faith in the Lord. Seek him through bible study, prayer, but friend you must, must, have a little faith, dig in, be strong, be kind, love, have patience, endure, preserve, and fight the good fight of Faith in Christ Jesus!

Maybe you have little doubt or feel like your faith is too small! Let me leave you with another life changing, faith building scripture.

Luke 17: (NIV)

⁶He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

I didn’t just transform by body, but my mind, my faith in Christ, my hope for a good future, and my love for others. I can’t give God enough thanks, praise, and credit for all the good things he has done within my heart and my life! I pray the same for you reading this!

Transforming YOU is a BEAUTIFUL thing!

Be you, Be Beautiful!

–Leigh Leigh

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