Response to "Rooted and Grounded in Love"

       The first half of this blog doesn't start off too terribly. Lori emphasizes the importance of being raised in a loving home and setting a good example for your children. She elaborates on what it means to love according to 1 Corinthians 13, and urges us to love one another despite our imperfections. 

       But then she takes an interesting turn, and no doubt she fails to notice the irony. 

"Loving your husband means that you don’t think that your ways and opinions are higher than his. As Christ has forgiven you, you freely forgive him. You don’t seek your own way or what’s best for you but you seek what he wants and you try to make his life better. You’re not easily offended by him and your “feelings” aren’t easily hurt."

Though incomplete (and containing questionable portions such as the word "feelings" being used sarcastically), generally speaking this isn't a bad good description of what it means to love sacrificially. But isn't it interesting that she does not believe husbands should love their wives in this way? She teaches that the ways and opinions of husbands are higher than those of their wives. She teaches that husbands should call out their wives' imperfections rather than overlooking them. She teaches that husbands can expect their wives to submit to what they want and that it is her job to adapt her life to his. And she enables easily offended men who are driven primarily by their insecure egos by warning women to cater to their fickle emotions. In other words, the love she describes above is not mutual, but only goes one way. 

       The ultimate irony of this is that in Ephesians 5:22-28, wives are told to submit to their husbands, while it is husbands who are told to love their wives. Of course, any amount of thought on the matter and study of the text makes clear that these are not exclusive instructions; submission (in the sense of putting them first and being willing to sacrifice for them) should be mutual. In the same way, the fact that only men are specifically given the instruction to love their wives certainly doesn't mean that wives shouldn't also love their husbands (although this should necessarily be Lori's conclusion if she is determined to take the command to submit unilaterally, if she is to be consistent). 

       However, instead of reading the Bible for what it says, Lori, for some reason, has decided to exempt husbands from the command plainly given them in the text and has instead demanded that wives alone are to follow these instructions as well! One must ask, are there any obligations at all for husbands in Lori's world? It would seem not..

Link to the original blog: https://thetransformedwife.com/rooted-and-grounded-in-love/