Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. ~ Genesis 3:16

This morning I was reading Genesis chapter 3 as my daily Bible study passage. As I read Genesis 3:16, the Lord opened my eyes to something that I've been praying about for some timebeing submissive to my husband and living according to God's ordained headship of a husband over his wife.

When God created man and woman, He had planned for wives to feel joyful and blessed by their husband's headship. But because of Eve's sin in the garden, instead of being able to enjoy our husband's headshipto call it a joy and blessingGod mad it to be against our nature. We now are anguished over it and struggle with our husbands over God's ordained headship.

When we go against our nature and submit to our husband's headship over us, we are also submitting to God. Though we still struggle with it on a daily basis, we must continually remind ourselves that our husbands are our heads. When we are able to do so joyfully, and not with anguish, it shows tremendous spiritual growth on our part. If we are not yet joyful about our husband's headship, then we must work on our hearts and grow as Christians.

God's original plan was for wives to be joyful and blessed by their husband's headship; even when it goes against our nature, that original plan can still be achieved! But it requires actually working on being submissive and through prayer and meditation. Christian growth takes time; there is no magic pill! We must start again every day and learn from yesterday's mistakes. Over time God perfects our flaws and weaknesses. We must choose every day to be joyful instead of anguished; to feel blessed instead of cursed. God plants the seed; it's our choice whether to nurture it or ignore it.