"Weaker Partner"

Heather Koerner tells her story:

Many modern day feminists have tried to argue that they offer me honor while Christianity offers me chattel. But they've got it backwards. I only have to look around to see it. The hook-up culture, the abortion culture, the depiction of women in media — they're all proof. It wouldn't take me 10 seconds flipping the television to see that — though Ali is gracious enough to see the positives in our culture — there is plenty of chattel-like behavior towards women.

As a seventh-grade girl, I was incensed that someone would treat me differently because I was a female. Now, though, I take comfort in the fact that God commands my Christian brothers to treat me differently. God's balance, of course, is perfect. He commands that I be respected, but also that I respect. He commands that I be honored, but also that I honor. He commands that I submit to authority, but also commands that authority to submit to Him.

He understands my heart. After all, He created it. He knows that it may be difficult for me to accept my husband's authority, so he reminds me in 1 Peter to do what is right and not to give way to fear.

In seventh grade, and probably for years later, I would have told you that all patriarchal societies were the same — their only goal to puff men up in their own power. But not anymore.

Yes, some societies live that way, and it's a shame. But that is not God's way. God has given my husband the right, and the responsibility, to lead our family. But simply because I submit to an authority — as, in fact, all of us have to do — God doesn't see me as inferior, as inadequate or unworthy. The true message of Christ is quite the opposite and it's a beautiful thing.