My story of mutual submission in marriage

For married couples, being able to submit to your spouse out of a place of humility, strength, and trust can help to build love, respect, and  marital intimacy.  My wife demonstrated this concept early in our marriage. 

I remember studying for the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and taking some timed practice exams.  During these practice exams, I did everything I could to focus on the task on hand and minimize distractions.  One afternoon while I was taking an exam, our cat decided to bring into our home a live bird.  During my short break between exams, I closed the door to the room that the bird was deposited at and proceeded with the next section of the test.  During the test I could hear the bird flying around the room next door, running into things, and punctuated with moments of silence.  My wife eventually returned home and I eventually finished my practice exams.  I told her about what had happened during my break time and our cat's gift to us.  I looked around the bedroom where our cat had deposited her gift to us.  "No bird," I naively thought to myself as a looked around the room. 

Not too long afterwards while my wife was napping on the bed with our cat, she called me into the bedroom.  There sitting on our curtain rod was the "missing" bird.  With much restraint and perhaps amusement, my wife kindly submitted to my plan of how to remove the bird from our home.  Holding a broomstick backwards I lifted up the handle towards the bird and expected that it would walk onto the broomstick and allow me to gently carry it out of our home and return it outdoors where it belonged.  The bird had other plans and it dove down towards my head, flew into a mirror, and knocked itself unconscious for a few moments.  Being the manly man that I was, I screamed like a little girl as the bird dove towards me.  Seizing the moment, my wife quickly grabbed a plastic bag, scooped up the slightly unconscious bird, and carried it outside.  The bird eventually flew away and so did, what I thought, was my awesome idea.  In the process of my wife submitting to me (and eventually I submitting to her much better plan), I felt both respected AND realized the ridiculousness of my plan.  In her place of strength in meekness, my wife taught me that true submission, as I know it, is good for marriage, especially if you need to rid your home of unexpected birds.

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