Journey to Surrender

I keep promising to report more survey results, but it’s been hard to squeeze it in among all the other topics that I want to write on. There is so much ground I want to cover, so many ideas and so little time. But I decided I’d better just toss out some results amid my other posts or I’ll never get to it.

So, here’s a few quick summary poll results about the readership here on Journey to Surrender.

• I was surprised at how evenly split the readers here are; 45% Male, 55% Female. I don’t know why I expected it to be more female dominated, but I’m very encouraged by the fact that so man husbands are interested in improving their marriages too.
• We’ve got experience on our side. The marriages of the survey takers tended toward longevity, with 72% married more than 10 years.
• Most people reported being in their first marriage (86%), but we did have some on their second marriage and even a few singles. That is way cool .
• I suppose due in part to the longevity of the marriages represented, most (85%) had children. Half had all their children still living at home and almost a quarter had grown children that had left home. I see a significant diversity in the stages of married life represented in the survey. I like that.
• It’s never too late to take the reader survey now if you haven’t:
  
  

We want to hear what you have to say!

I know that many of you have great real-life experiences to share with the readers here, and I want to encourage you to jump in and comment for everyone’s benefit. Share your thoughts, share your stories, share your opinions.

In case you aren’t comfortable posting publically, I’ve added a widget (left sidebar) that gives you the ability to send me an email message directly from the blog, without the need to go into a separate email program. Comments and question submitted to me using the widget will not be disclosed on the blog without your advanced permission. I will do my best to answer all inquiries as soon as possible. I take privacy seriously and will never share you email address with others.


A Little Shameless Promotion

If you know me at all, you know I’m not big into self-promotion. But I figured since I’m just writing about this blog and its readers today, I’d go ahead and point out a few new things I’ve added that make it easy to share my blog with others.

So, if you find Journey to Surrender to be helpful to you in your marriage, would you consider passing this blog along to your friends? Here are two ways you can easily and quickly do that::

• I added a widget (left sidebar) to give you an easy way to bookmark Journey to Surrender on a whole bunch of popular social networking sites that you might participate in: Facebook, Google, Stumble, Digg, and a dozen others.
• I’ve also enabled the new Blogger ‘Share Buttons” that appear at the end of every post and make it easy to share a post with folks via email, Facebook, Twitter, and GoogleBuzz. Please pass along your favorite posts!

Finally, if you are just visiting, consider subscribing either by email or RSS feed. You can subscribe by filling your email address in the left sidebar subscription widget.

I promise, I’ll be back to real content next time!

In today’s Man Up Monday discussion, I want to encourage you to examine your role as a “covering” for your bride and get you to answer an important question:

What kind of covering are you providing to your wife?

Part of the authority that God gives husbands comes in the form of providing spiritual, emotional, physical and material covering for their wives. But what does it mean for us to provide covering for our wives? Consider for a moment that the literal interpretation of the word often translated as “submit” in Ephesians 5 implies that a wife is “to arrange herself under” her husband. But think for a moment, what kind of covering are you inviting her to remain under?

For me it’s helpful to consider various coverings in the natural and whether or not these are fitting metaphors for the kind of covering I want to be for my wife. For example, in the area of garments, do I act more like a comfortable sweater, providing warmth and protection, or do I act more like a straightjacket by stifling, controlling and restricting her freedom?

Here’s just a quick list of some other types of covering, some desirable metaphors, some not so much so. Take a look at my list, then add your own with a comment below.

• Umbrella – provides shelter from the storms and protection from the elements of life
• Ground cover – some ground covers, like ivy, tend to invade everything and takeover, even where it doesn’t belong.
• Phone/camera cover – protects something of value that may be delicate and breakable, perhaps even irreplaceable.
• Mask/Makeup – Do you try to make your wife into something she was never made to be, as in covering with a mask? Or do you try simply to enhance and beautify her natural self, as in a tasteful application of makeup?
• Pool cover – keeps stuff out that doesn’t belong.
• Bible/book cover – closely protects something of value that you want to last but without restricting use or movement
• “I’ve got you covered” – does she know that you are watching out for her and that you have her protection, safety and wellbeing at heart?

There are dozens more kinds of covers that come to mind. Some of these we would want to emulate in the leadership of your marriage, others perhaps not. The important thing in this is to take seriously your role as a cover for your bride, to not neglect or run from this responsibility, but to execute it in a way that provides protection, refuge and comfort without stifling, controlling or interfering with your wife’s true nature and calling.

Can you think of other covering that would be a fitting metaphor for a husband’s role as a covering for his wife?