Who's the Boss?

When I was a kid, I loved watching Alyssa Milano, Tony Danza and Judith Light in that sitcom, "Who's the Boss?". The show revolved around the antics of a professional single mom and the single dad housekeeper who comes to live under her roof with her and her young son. The show's humor played up the twist on the gender role reversal as she left each day for the office and he stayed home seeing to the children and the chores.

Growing up, my mom ran most everything around our house. Dad was responsible for the lawn being mowed and maintaining the family's two vehicles. As this was my experience, I naively believed that this was how every family functioned. When I married, I learned that was not the case.

You see, my in-laws did a fantastic job raising my husband. Ladies, try not to be jealous! He cooks, he cleans and he takes great care of the kids. Wally doesn't look at the things that need to be done and classify them as his job, or my job, but our jobs. The responsibilities need to be taken care of. In his eyes, what does it matter if I do them or you do, just as long as they get done?

When we first married, I didn't know how to handle this. You may be thinking that I was nuts, but I did have a really hard time. Looking inside I realized that my issue here was one of control. I had to let go of it.

It wasn't that Wally didn't think I could cook, or he didn't appreciate my ironing. It wasn't that he loaded the dishwasher wrong or vacuumed the carpets weird. I wanted to be in charge.

One way that I have learned to submit to Wally, is by letting him do things, not for me, but for us, our family. This is one way that I submit to his leadership. I try to let him be the man around the house that God has called him to be.

Are you letting your man be that man?