The Weaker Vessel

There was just way to much to say about this topic to keep it in the comments section. An annonymous person has asked what this term means and having lived as the weaker vessel all my life and loving it, I felt compelled to answer the question.

A "weaker vessel" is a biblical term given to women, that does not mean what most people think. The term weaker vessel gives vissions of a woman who is supposed to completely do as her husband says, never having a right to an opinion. Also that she is inferior to him in every way, and therefore should subject herself to his dominance and tyranny. It may create visions in your mind of a woman who cowars in her husbands presence.

If the person who made that comment knows me very well they will know that anything but the above mentioned is true about me. With six children to train (yet another biblical word), educate, and bring up in the admonistion of the Lord I have no time to be week and without opinion.

At any given time I like to think of myself able to take Mike in a good wrestling match, at least I used to think I could. Voicing my opinion over issues is common unless the gauntlet has already been dropped. Though I'm more likely to cry over issues than my husband, I'm not easy given to tears.

In the above paragraph I've just explained the three ways that I'm inferior, yet I am not, to my husband. First would be physical. By all means Mike certainly has the stronger body if he choses to use it the way it has been designed. His body was by divine design meant for good hard work, and I'm certainly inferior to him when it comes to lugging shingles up on top of a roof. However my God given duty is by no means for a weakling. Bearing, and raising children is not something easy for a man to do, either physcially (obviously), or emotionaly. God did not design him to be strong in this way, but he did design me to be strong like this.

In our household Mike has the upper hand in the last decision. Sometimes nothing, anything, or everything I say my influence his final decision on a subject. Sometimes the last decision is left to me, but again he is the one who decides that. My opinion is taken into consideration, but I'm not the one who makes the final decisions on the path our family is to take in life.

It is well known that women are much more easily given to tears than men. For some this is more so than others. Some women will cry for reasons unkown, and often those who aren't given to tears easily will sometimes cry without knowing why. Other women are hard as a rock when it comes to crying, though I've met very few of these. While my training of the children leaves little room for off the cuff emotions there are times when I'll cry over circumstances that barely moves my husband emotionaly. Once again we were designed this way by God in order for us to be the affectionate mothers we were designed to be. Knowing our own tendencies to give over to emotions better enables us to understand the emotions of our children, and therefore making it possible for us to better tend to their emotional needs.

So in a sum of the questions posed here's my final unexpounded upon answer. We are weaker physicaly to withstand what may be required of a man, we are weaker in our ability to make good decisions because our emotions have a tendency to affect our decision, we are weaker emotionaly just exaclty as God has designed us, to be better mothers and caretakers of others hearts.

I'm by no means a perfect example of the weaker vessel, but anybody who may know me will know I do not exemplify the typical image that may appear in your head when you think of the term "Weaker Vessel". I consider it a priviledge to be the weaker vessel. I've never done anything more fulfilling in my life than bearing and raising children.

I have a little disclaimer that I would like to insert here. Because of the lack of training boys to be men there are way to many men that are the "weaker vessel". So my little article cannot be applied to all men.

Hope this helps to clear up why I call myself the "weaker vessel" and why the term by no means is putting myself down, rather it is a position of God given glory. If you have any more questions about it please feel free to ask. I love sharing information about what God has done for us, and why we are created as we are.

Denise

A Name Has Been Chosen

Just wanted to drop a quick note and let everyone know that a name has finaly been chosen for the little white kitty. We have chosen Alaska.

Denise

Changes

I'm changing the layout and look of my website. Mostly because I wanted to be able to share with others the great homeschooling tools I've found online. Also, because I wanted to get some permanent pictures of our family on the site. I'm beginning to think that what I need is a website, not a blog, and I haven't even finished adding my links yet. Actually, I have created a webwsite but haven't fine tuned it yet.

I'm working on figuring out computer talk (HTML), and if that can't be accomplished I'll go the easy route with a pre-existing template for the website. On the website there would be several different pages to view including photos, family, adventures, church, and of course a blog.

As I said though I'm in the process of getting that all figured out.

Denise