What you fail to understand is that every marriage has its own dynamic based on the personalities involved. Every couple has to find what works for them inside the biblical framework.
I understand that and I agree that every marriage is unique and that they have to find what works within the Biblical framework. I don't agree with Christians saying they don't need to be within the Biblical framework.
If it doesn't look like yours, then what is that to you? Like I've said before, opinions and biblical interpretations are like belly buttons....everybody has one, some of them are really fuzzy. Your insistence on "my way or the highway" is what ticks people off, especially women.
I get a lot of that 'my way or the highway' vibe from your posts. What I'm talking about is when the Bible says for wives to respect/reverence their husbands, and your disagreeing with that and saying that a wife should only respect her husband if he deserves it. It's a contradiction of what the Bible teaches. That's not different personalities working within the Biblical framework. That's arguing for something outside of the Biblical framework.
What I can understand is someone saying they are having a rough time with their husband and he's behaved badly, and it is difficult to respect him, she's praying for grace to respect him, etc. I totally understand that.
Jesus died on a cross for sinners who didn't love God. Look at Stephen. He was serving men by preaching the Gospel to them, the message of eternal life. When they stoned him to death, he prayed to the Lord to forgive them. One man, holding the garments of those who stoned Stephen, found forgiveness and preached the Gospel throughout much of the known world a that time.
We didn't earn Jesus' love. The crowd that stoned Stephen didn't earn what he did.
By your posts, you come off as on the more extreme end of patriarchy, something that has been shown to be harmful to women from time immemorial.
That's feminist philosophy. Abraham was a patriarch. So were Isaac and Jacob. God made covenants with them, so patriarchs aren't all bad. I know I mentioned feminism earlier. Mainly it's because those who are entrenched in feminism have difficulty accepting the woman's part in Ephesians 5. Christian men may not claim to be living up to their role, but at least they acknowledge its their role, in my experience. We just usually say stuff like, wow, like Christ loved the church. That's a big obligation.
We don't want to be superior to men, we want equal footing. Yes, there are some who are strident men haters and honestly, I can understand where they're coming from...HOWEVER...when you make statements like "all women want a man to provide for them".
I didn't put it that way. I said its natural for a woman to want a man to provide for them. That doesn't mean every woman thinks or feels that way, but a lot do, and I said that it's natural.
The only conclusion I can come to is that you feel threatened by strong, independent women who refuse to be doormats. And no, we don't want men to be doormats either...
And then I read this and I think that when someone challenges your thinking on husbands and wives roles, you resort to feminist rhetoric about women being doormats, under men's thumbs, etc. I don't mind a woman being strong, but as far as attraction goes, the body builder type isn't appealing to me. I don't care for big shoulders. My wife isn't a body builder with big shoulders, so it doesn't matter much what other women do with their muscles. I appreciate my wife's emotional strength though. Independence? That's not a good quality in a spouse. If someone is too independent, husband or wife, it's going to be hard for that person to work well with others, IMO. Independence is a myth. Mountain men who live alone and eat their own game and eat the inner layers of pine bark to stay alive are somewhat independent, but they are dependent on God for the game and the trees being there. Then if they get sick and have no one to help them, they are in trouble. If they need a general store at the bottom of the mountain to buy their furs and sell them flour, they aren't completely independent.
