Love: "Aye, Aye, Captain!"

Being a wife is like being the first mate and your husband is the captain. Your family is a big ship sailing through the sea of life. Sometimes there are storms and sometimes there are calm seas. The captain is in charge of the ship, but you as the first mate have to work just as hard for the ship to make it to your destination. The captain watches out for potential problems, such as icebergs, and then directs the others to steer around those problems. That is what the husband should be doing in our families. Watching out for spiritual, financial and other problems and then guiding the other members of the family around those hazards. Both jobs are equally important in running a tight ship. We as wives, need to make sure that we don't become the captain of the ship. We are to be the first mate, according to 1 Corinthians 11:3. We do all the work necessary to keep the ship running and take measures according to what the captain says. Not that our husbands boss us around or take advantage of us. They are to love us as Christ loved the church and gave up his life for it. The captain is to put the safety of the whole entire ship into first priority in every decision he makes. Not just looking out for his own needs, but the needs of the entire ship. A lot of times, women, including myself, hate to let the captain be in charge. But God has put them in charge and in order to honor God in our lives and our marriages, we need to allow our husbands to be the captain. We must proudly and humbly accept the position of first mate. According to the Life Application Bible Notes, submission is not giving up or being less important, because we all were created in the image of God equally. Instead, it is mutual cooperation and commitment. Husbands and wives should work together as a team, putting the others needs in front of their own, just as the captain and first mate work together to keep the ship going. For the wife, that means willingly following her husband’s leadership in Christ. It is not binding or oppressive, but rather one of service and humility. If the first mate on a ship did not follow the instructions of the captain, that would be called mutiny and the ships safety would be in jeopardy. When our husbands try to make a decision based upon what he thinks is best for our family, we need to allow him that privilege no matter how much we don't want to. If we don't then our family will be in jeopardy of hitting an iceberg and becoming the next "Titanic". We have to stop complaining about this, and accept that God knows more than we do, so if He says this is the way it should be then there must be a reason for it. That is just the way that God intended it to be and there is no getting around it, no matter how much we women want to think that we should be in charge too. Now don't go thinking that I'm a poor lost little women who is stuck back in the prairie days. I have a college degree and have worked outside the home. I like to make decisions as much as anybody, but as much as I don’t want to admit it, I am convinced that is what the Bible says. It takes a lot of the pressure off of us women knowing that our husbands are taking care of our family so that we don't have to as much. Then we can be free to make our homes a place of retreat and encouragement for our husbands and children. Our homes should be a place where people are drawn to, especially those who live there. That begins with us women, and our attitudes. Think about it and pray and ask God if there is a decision that your husband is trying to make and you are hindering him from doing so. Sometimes we have to let our husbands make mistakes so that they can learn from them and become better leaders. Sometimes they might be right even when we think they are wrong. Either way, God has called us to support them in whatever they do and He will guide us and help us to know when we need to let them make a mistake or when to speak up. If we seek God in all that we do and know that He is in control, then we will not be hesitant to say, “Aye, aye captain!”