Are You A Rebellious Wife?

In his book, Instructing a Child's Heart, Tedd Tripp writes,

"People rebel by actively or passively refusing to recognize God's authority."

Every once in a while, I meet someone who has blatant disregard for God's authority over his life. You probably know a few that want nothing to do with God and perhaps don't even believe in Him. However, most of the time, rebellion I see among adults doesn't manifest itself in the two-year-old temper tantrum variety (believe me, I know exactly what that looks like!).

No, most rebellion I see occurs among the people that sport bumper stickers with the fish symbol or "Honk if you love Jesus" and then cut off someone in traffic with an angry glare. Or they tell little white lies to get by at work. Sometimes they live however they want during the week, then show up on Sunday at church with their Bibles and an everything's-great grin. These are the people that give lip service to God, but in reality are ruling their own lives with complete disregard to His authority over them.

Sadly, that happens a lot in marriage. It is rare to find a woman who will even give lip service to the fact that her husband is her authority. But even those who do, often rebel in ways like this:

• They agree upon a certain budget with their husbands, then spend whatever they want, disregarding his wishes.
• They speak to other women about their husband's faults and arguments that they are having with him.
• They feel that they are more "in tune with God" so they disregard his thoughts and override his decisions on Biblical issues.
• When he disciplines the children, they step in and assert their authority over his, confusing the children.

All one needs to do to rebel against the authority of a police man trying to pull him over is to keep on going...to ignore the policeman's order. We can go on "refusing to recognize" authority, but essentially, by ignoring our husbands' authority over us, we are ignoring God's.


Jennifer Self is a disciple of Jesus Christ who loves following His plan for her life as a wife to the most wonderful man in the world and mama to four little blessings. Her days are filled with spending time with her man, homeschooling, preparing reasonably healthy meals and keeping the dust bunnies and the clutter monster at bay with a little blogging mixed in. After her family has been taken care of, she dabbles in her other passions of reading, health and music. She blogs about her life, her Heavenly Father, marriage, parenting and home at www.joyeverafter.blogspot.com and real food for real families from the perspective of real faith at www.growingreal.net.