Ephesians 5:21

"Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God."
Ephesians 5:21


I like how this verse talks about submitting to each other. Sometimes it is hard to submit, because we want to appear strong, or submitting feels like giving in, or giving up something. But what God is talking about here isn't some power play by a tyrant... he's just talking about how to get along in the world, and make it better--for ourselves, as well as other people. As humans, we have strengths and weaknesses. I know we *want* to just show strength most of the time, but showing other people our weaknesses not only helps to build trust and a loving, united, Zion people, but it also helps us *improve* the weaknesses. Talking about them, getting other people's advice and help. It's good.

I'm not suggesting the totally radical... don't hand over your house or car keys or the passwords for all of your bank accounts to your neighbors in order to build trust... but there are some basics that we can do in order to submit to each other and learn from each other. Today, maybe we can try just opening up a little more, and telling something about ourselves to someone else... something that isn't bragging. :) Maybe we can try listening and validating what someone else is saying before (or instead of) jumping in with our opinion. We submit naturally to the people we love sometimes, valuing their ideas more, thinking about their contributions more than other people's. Today, let's try to afford that same deference to people we don't know as well.