Journey to Surrender

I'm a little overdue with my response to the seven links challenge, which  several other bloggers have tagged me with.  It was a fun and challenging exercise to pick a single post for each of the seven questions, but I did cheat a bit with a few of my answers, as you will see.

So here it is at last...

Your most beautiful post
The Bridal Paradigm - A Quick Reference On Surrendered Marriage

This was an easy pick. The bridal paradigm is sheer beauty in the way it offers us a glimpse into the very heart of God concerning marriage. Amazing insights about marriage flow from our understanding that Jesus is our Bridegroom and we are his bride. I wrote this post as a sort of preface to this blog, and have updated it a few times since. For a more extensive examination of the topic of the bridal paradigm as it relates to the surrendered marriage journey, check out my Notable Series on the sidebar called “What I Believe About Marriage.” It starts here.

Your most popular post
Respect, Submission and Trust

This post had the most individual page loads of any I’ve written, though the one listed below under “most helpful” was a very close second and actually had more unique page loads (sorry for the blogspeak – it basically means more different people actually saw the one below than this one, even though this one was viewed more times). I decided to go ahead and pick this one because I think there is so much confusion and misunderstanding about what these words actually mean in their biblical context. I feel I offered a balanced and informed approach to what can be a very contentious topic, which maybe is why so many kept (and keep) coming back to read it.

Your most controversial post
Love, Respect and Submission

When I started writing a year and a half ago, I expected to get a whole lot more push back than I have. After all, some of the stuff you’ll find in these pages cuts pretty strongly against the prevailing cultural norm. But with a few exceptions, the discourse has been rather civil. With that said, I’d have to say my posts on authority in marriage that focus on headship and submission seem to stir the most emotional responses, one example of which is linked above. As in this case, most of the negative ranting has come from those without a Christian or biblical world view. No surprise there.

Your most helpful post
Intimacy - As Much as You Want

It seems that everyone is looking for more intimacy in their marriage, as demonstrated by the frequent responses to my New Reader Survey (which you can take if you never have using the link at the top left corner of my blog). In this post and the corresponding series on intimacy I challenge couples with the notion that you can have as much intimacy in your marriage as you want. Don’t believe it? Take a look and see if you agree.

A post whose success surprised you
What if My Husband Won't Lead?

Month in, month out, this post consistently gets more Google search hits than any other. This lends some pretty weighty support to my theory that many wives are desperate for their husbands to step up and lead their marriage and family. In an interesting and cautionary side-note, however, the second most popular search engine result page is the one entitled “What if my husband acts like a dictator.” Hence my consistent call for husbands to be both strong and good. One more interesting Google tidbit - I almost never get linked by searches like, "my wife won't submit." 

A post you feel didn’t get the attention it deserved
Shame and Intimacy

Shame is one of the biggest killers of intimacy in marriage. I was surprised it didn’t hit home with more readers and garner more discussion and backlinks. I think that might be because shame is a stealth weapon that the enemy uses to keep couples from reaching deeper intimacy. Most people have a lot more shame issues than they even realize. The link above kicks off my series on shame and intimacy.

The post that you are most proud of
The Body Image Battle

I wrote this hard-hitting post to husbands to get them to engage on behalf of their wives in the body image battle that rages against them on a daily basis. This is a topic I feel very strongly about and an area where I feel husbands really need a wake-up call. I recently wrote a companion post to wives called The Body Image Battle Continues.


Part of the challenge is for me to tag other bloggers with the challenge, but since I'm so late to the party, I think most everyone has been tagged already.