I’ve shared this before—I’m a genealogy geek. And I’ve snagged some interesting findings that reveal a lot about me, my husband, and ironically, our relationship. Here’s some of what I’ve found …

I have several very distant lines that lead to royalty in my family. I’m a descendant of dozens of knights of England, several medieval crusaders from France, several French kings, and last but not least, the famous emperor Charlemagne.

Amazingly, my husband also has royalty in his family tree. His ancestors include many knights from England, one who was Lord Mayor of London in 1563 (who also had a bad habit of speaking his mind a little too freely about Queen Elisabeth the first, and often found himself jailed for such disrespect). Finally, this line goes back even further to several kings in ancient Wales, France and Italy.

But what’s even more mind-blowing, I discovered that within this royal line of my husband’s is an ancestor, “Moses White,” who’s also an ancestor of mine! Moses is our shared great-grandfather eight generations back. I guess you could say that makes us “kissing cousins!” Yikes!

Now I’m not telling all this just to brag on our illustrious ancestral history (well, just a little), but mostly I want to say, this really explains A WHOLE LOT.

• First of all, it explains why I try to rule over my husband like I’m his “lord and master.”
• I often think I’m queen of our castle and try to “chop his head off,” if he resists my orders.
• I can let my tongue fly a little too freely just like my dear old jailbird grandpappy.
• And I can be just like those chivalrous knights and crusaders when I “fight to the death” over an issue simply because I think the principle is true, or more importantly—that I’m right!

“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.” Ephesians 5:23-24 (NIV)

Ancestral excuses aside, it doesn’t matter how I’m wired or who I’m descended from or how true my purpose is (which usually isn’t as true as I think it is). God wants me to submit to my husband and not because my husband is superior to me. God wants me to learn to give my husband what he needs for our relationship to be solid and strong …

And I cannot respect my husband without submitting—listening to, taking in, accepting, honoring—my husband.

And what about verse 25 in that same passage?

I don’t know about you, but submitting doesn’t seem nearly as tall a task as loving and giving up your life for your spouse. Wives, I really think we’ve got the good end of the bargain here!

Now I must admit that this is still a work in progress for me. I’m strong willed and a little too analytical to let things slide easily … But I’ve come to recognize the power of submitting and respecting my husband. Yes, I said “POWER.”