Parental Relationships

My professor wants a little more autobiography and so I will give a little history of my life in this blog.

I am moved by a particular bit of St. Augustine's Confessions, which I read the other day. Augustine talks about his mother and his father. He says that his mother was a Christian, but his father was not. She tried to persuade him to the Christian faith by her "beauty of character." "So she endured his infedelities and never had a single quarrel with him on this subject. . . . He, in fact, though an extremely kind man by nature, was also very-hot tempered. But my mother knew that an angry husband must not be contradicted, not in deed nor even in word. Only when he had calmed down and become quiet would she, when she saw her opportunity, explain to him the reasons for what she had done, if he had happened to fly into a rage for no good reason." (Book 9 Chapter9)

Later he explains that by her quiet spirit her husband was finally converted.

This past weekend I spent the weekend in upper Washington attending my father's fifth marriage. I sat there remembering my own just two years previous. The wedding were very different. I was married for the first time and plan it to be my first wedding. The bonds and vows of marriage went through my mind a million times before they commited the words into audible vows. Marriage is a commitment between to people to stick with each other no matter what until death parts them. Infedelity is basically the one break in the chain of marriage that is just cause for divorce in my book. The vows of marriage are pointless unless the two making the bond are willing to actively keep their commitments.

As a wife now, I see that I have a lot to work. Augustine's mother was a good example of what a wife should be. She was quiet in spirit.

Peter writes in the Bible exactly what Monica was living.
1Pe 3:1 (1) In the same way, you wives, (2) be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be (3) won without a word by the behavior of their wives,
1Pe 3:2 as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.
1Pe 3:3 (4) Your adornment must not be merely external--braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses;
1Pe 3:4 but let it be (5) the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.
1Pe 3:5 For in this way in former times the holy women also, (6) who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands;

Thatt is the example I would like to follow.