I just was thinking about some things today and I ended up
thinking about this subject.
I know that trusting the Lord sometimes is easier than
trusting our husbands…heavy subject I know…even though we struggle sometimes to
trust the Lord we know in the end that He has never failed us and so trust
naturally…eventually comes. Trusting our
husbands sometimes takes a bit more effort because we see his faults and
failures before us; and for most of us the thought of putting control of our
life in the hands of another mere mortal is terrifying. What we need to understand is that by
trusting our husbands we ARE trusting the Lord. He ultimately has control.
I haven’t had to do this with too many LIFE decisions yet;
but in our last few years we have had more of those come our way. And at the present we are being faced with
potentially another big one. Now myself
I begin weighing ALL the possible scenarios in my mind…good…bad…and the
worse. Some of them I think I could live
with and then some of them I refuse to even think about…I know we’ve all been
there.
My mind went to a situation that we dealt with a few years
ago. To preface this…for 2 years my
husband had felt to do something; but whenever he would mention this I would go
NUTS. No other way to describe it. I FREAKED OUT. Eventually he just quit discussing it with
me. Two years went by and I finally
began to get the hint. Yes…it took that
long for the Lord to get through to me.
Pray for me.
I could go into a long story about why this was so scary;
but those things just don’t matter and most of them weren’t even true they were
just fears I had created.
We were driving home from church one Sunday and my patient
husband carefully approached the subject once again. For the sake of making my point I am going to
go ahead and tell you what it was.
He asked “Davita…(long pause)…what would you think about us
retiring from the youth group”?
Now mind you…that normally this would have sent me into a
long line of accusations and preaching.
For this time though the Lord had been doing some work on me. I swallowed hard…paused…and with more
sincerity than I had ever felt before I said “well…it will be hard for me; but
if that’s what you think we should do”.
I know that still doesn’t seem very submitted; but it was MILES from
where I had been 2 years ago.
As we drove we began to discuss it…calmly…rationally. I did more listening and he did more
talking. I could feel the Lord talking
and giving him the strength…and helping me keep my mouth shut.
When we got home we put the girls to bed and began to
discuss it more. I voiced my concerns that
I wanted to make sure it was the Lord’s will and he assured me that he felt it
was. Finally I could see he really
wanted to ask me something so I encouraged him to say what he felt.
He let it go. He was
afraid…my big strong John Wayne of a man was afraid…my heart fell apart. He was afraid that if he made this decision
that I would resent him for the rest of my life. Talk about a wakeup call. As he sat on the edge of our bed I noticed
for the first time how his shoulders slumped with the weight he had been
carrying.
At that moment I felt the Lord move into our
conversation. He was getting ready to
change our lives…our marriage.
When I opened my mouth I knew without a doubt the Lord was
in control.
My words with tears streaming down my face were “Phillip…you
are a GOOD man. I know that you love the
Lord and you are doing your best to follow him.
I know that you would never do anything that you thought would harm our
family; and I trust you. I’m so sorry
for all the times that you have tried to lead our family and I fought you; but
if you will give me one more chance I would like to follow you. If you will lead I will follow.”
When I did that he began to cry and I physically saw the
weight that he had been carrying for so long fall from his shoulders.
To this day I will never forget the transformation that took
place that night or the look of relief that washed across his face. Our marriage has never been the same. Not that we haven’t had small struggles since
then; but without a doubt we have never been closer to being ONE.
I promise if you ever experience something like this for
yourself it will change your life.
Since then I have watched the Lord work in so many ways…with
me, with Phillip; and with my children.
Change was the hardest thing for me to go through. It was hard for me to let go of something
that I still had a burden for; but over the last few years I have watched that
burden change. I am learning to trust
that my husband can hear from the Lord just as well, if not better than
me. I still love our young people…I
still pray for them always; but I feel the Lord has increased a different
burden in my eyes. I am raising two
beautiful girls whose ground I need to plant seeds in so that they can grow
into THEIR full potential in the Lord. I
am joyfully burdened with the calling of raising potential Bride members!! Oh my…where would we be if I hadn’t listened
to the Lord that night and trusted in the Lord?
Where would my children be? Thank
you Lord for mercy and patience in working with us.
I know in life there will be many more life choices we will
have to make…and you may all have to repeat this back to me someday; but for
now let me leave you with this song:
'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, "Thus saith the Lord!"
Refrain:
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er;
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
Oh, for grace to trust Him more!
Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
And in simple faith to plunge me
'Neath the healing, cleansing flood!
Yes, 'tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just from sin and self to cease;
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest, and joy and peace.
I'm so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.
Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, "Thus saith the Lord!"
Refrain:
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er;
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
Oh, for grace to trust Him more!
Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
And in simple faith to plunge me
'Neath the healing, cleansing flood!
Yes, 'tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just from sin and self to cease;
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest, and joy and peace.
I'm so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.