Are you ready to get married?

A couple in my office the other day asked me if I thought they were ready to get married. I asked him, "Are you submitted to her heart?"

He paused and then stated that he did not understand the question.

I asked her and she quickly yet quietly said, "No."

"Then No. You are not ready. He does not know what he is doing and you are willfully not doing what you are supposed to be doing."

I have seen one thing that the Holy Spirit does again and again in relationships. When a man is in love from his heart, not from infatuation or sexual entanglement, but from God-given heart love, he willfully, joyfully and horribly submits to her heart. Not her head, or her mouth. But her heart and only her heart. A good father senses this and this brings him great peace and rest when he realizes that his daughter is marrying a man after his own heart, for he too is submitted to her heart.

I am wonderfully and completely and horribly submitted to Tori's heart. Anything and I mean anything she can ask me from her heart is hers. Always and forever. Anything. And it would be mine to give with great joy and without hesitation.

I have told this story a thousand times and it is key to my relationship with Gabi, my wife. I was being discipled by a Sergeant named Don Conant. I was madly in love with Gabi. And she with me. For the first time, I really wanted to love her, to love someone with all. And I soon realized that there were others that could provide for her better than I could. I thought it would be noble to step aside and let another "more" worthy man take care of her. My friend and mentor, Don, asked me a simple question, "Is there anyone who is going to love her more than you?" I knew the answer. I was wonderfully and completely and horribly submitted to her beautiful heart. No, there was no one who would every love her more than me. I knew that.

A man is spent in his noble task when he is wonderfully submitted to the women's hearts in his life. A man can do no wrong when he stays so...

A woman is wonderfully encased in God's love and protection when she is wonderfully submitted to the men's hearts in her life. And a woman can do no wrong when she stays so...

What grieves my heart is for the women and men who have no heart to be submitted to... Their lives are lives of confusion and pain, chaos and seeming meaninglessness.

My daughter bought me a pedometer for walking. God's provision for my future health is found in my submission to her heart in that pedometer. Complete and unquestioned obedience to her heart. What a place the world would be if Christ-like followers practiced that discipline.

What if Christ is wonderfully and completely and horribly submitted to our hearts?