Are You Under the Umbrella?

The umbrella affect:  The Bible tells us that "the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church" - Ephesians 5:23.  

I've heard it described as an umbrella... The husband is the umbrella and the wife and children are underneath that umbrella.  So, it is the umbrella's job to protect.  It is his responsibility to lead his home spiritually and can you imagine the great responsibility this entails?  He will someday stand before God and give an account for, not only himself, but the direction of his family... just as a captain takes responsibility for the direction of his ship.

If, at this time, your husband is not taking this responsibility, of course, you don't want your children to suffer the consequences.  So, it then becomes your responsibility, as second in command, to hold the umbrella.  While taking on this tough roll, continue to pray that some day your husband's eyes and heart will be open to the joy he is missing.

And, when your husband's spirit comes to life and he realizes that he needs to be in charge of the spiritual upbringing and spiritual protection of his family, you need to hand over the reins and get back underneath his umbrella.  That may be a hard thing to do but, if you've been steering the ship for a while, he will still need your loving hand to guide him.  So, don't feel like you have been pushed aside, rather, with a sigh of relief, hand over that responsibility.

We see this type of guidance and trust... spiritual responsibility if you will, in Genesis 12.  In vs 13, Abraham and Sarah (actually Abram and Sarai in these early passages) are traveling to Egypt and Abraham tells Sarah, "tell them you are my sister".  So, basically, she has been told, by her husband, to lie to the Pharoah and princes of Egypt.  Sarah does as her husband has told her and God protects her because she has been obedient.  Now, I'm not, in any way, shape, or form, saying that we are not accountable for our own actions, but what Sarah did was to fall under the authority of her husband.  Or, in plain english, she was submissive to her husband.

If you haven't heard it from me before, I'll say it again... submission is NOT a bad word.  Submission is willfully giving in to the authority of another.  So, it doesn't say, in this passage from Genesis, what Sarah was thinking... she very well may have struggled with the fact that her husband was asking her to lie but she did what she was asked to do out of obedience or submission to her husband.  And, as I said, God protected her because of it.  

We need to have this same type of trust in our husband as the leader of our home.  It is our responsibility to allow him to lead by submitting to his authority and prayerfully following his lead.  Please don't miss that word, "prayerfully" because you, of course, don't want to take this to the extreme and think that you are untouchable because you are "just doing what you are told."... no, we are to have discernment and we are still asked to give advise, but the ultimate decisions should be left to our husbands.