As we were leaving for Mass, my brother exclaimed "You look like you stepped right out of the fifties!" I hadn't planned on wearing a vintage inspired outfit, but when I glanced in the mirror I realized he was right, haha!  To top it off, I wore my Audrey Hepburn sunglasses after Mass, so I really looked the part.

A couple of weeks ago, I heard a sermon that I thought I'd share my thoughts about with you all.  During the sermon, the priest pointed out that in everything God has created, there is a natural order, there is always someone in charge and someone obeying.  In our world today, obedience is looked upon as meaning that the one obeying is less in worth or dignity than the one giving the order or request, when this is not the case at all.  For there to be peace and a productive outcome in pretty much any area of life, there must be someone, or something, obeying something else.  The military, the religious life, any kind of business, families...all of these completely fail in their purpose when there is no obedience.  Today I'd like to talk about obedience in families because it is such an important problem right now.  Firstly, I'd like to point out there is a difference between voluntary obedience and slavery, but the lines have been intentionally blurred now so that we can hardly tell the difference between them.  I'd also like to mention that the virtue of obedience only requires you to obey as far as the person giving the command has authority to command you.  NO ONE can command you to sin, or to do something against your conscience, no matter who they are.

       

Thanks to the feminists of the last couple of centuries, most women are appalled and disgusted at the idea of obeying their husbands and respecting them as the head of the home.  They visualize living in servitude, with no rights, while their husbands may do as they please with no responsibilities, which is precisely what the devil wants them to think.  Obedience is a wonderful and holy virtue that was so prized by Our Lord that He spent His entire life living in obedience to His Mother, Our Lady.  There is absolutely no question as to whether Our Lord was inferior in any way whatsoever to Our Lady, but He still willingly submitted Himself to her God-given authority as His mother, even asking her permission before He began His Passion, and according to several saints, if she had withheld her permission, He would not have gone through with it.  Our Lady too, was far higher in dignity and sanctity than her husband, St. Joseph, but she obeyed him and trusted him as the head of their family regardless.  It was a refusal to obey authority that turned the angels into devils, and it was also a refusal to obey that caused our first parents to bring sin into our world.  With our fallen nature, obedience is difficult for us because we like having our own way, and this is how it helps us become saints.  By intentionally giving up our own wills and desires, we are growing in grace and virtue.  Men are called by God to be the leaders and protectors of the family, while women are given the task of supporting and helping them, as well as bearing and raising children.  We were all created specifically for these roles. despite all that the feminists and Marxists have done to try to convince us otherwise.  It is a well established fact that men are naturally better fighters and protectors, as well as more natural at taking charge in a situation, while women are natural caregivers and homemakers.  You can hand a man a baby and, nine times out of ten, he won't know what to do with it, but hand the same baby to a woman (or even a girl as young as nine years old, in my experience) and she will instantly know how to hold and and calm it because of her natural mothering instincts.  (This is one of the many reasons abortion is such a horrendous evil; it goes against a mother's most basic and important instinct to protect and nurture every child, especially her own, when she murders her unborn baby in the cruelest way possible.) For a woman to care for her children and run her home smoothly, she needs to be sure that she and her children will be safe and protected from whatever evils or difficulties that may come their way, and a good wife will trust her husband to do this.  For a man to protect and preserve his wife and children, he needs to know that they will respect his authority and trust him when he makes decisions.  If the husband and wife do not cooperate in this way, the family is in chaos.  The wife does not trust her husband enough to let him make the decisions for their family, the husband cannot lead the family without his wife's support, the children see the lack of unity and most of the time take advantage it by refusing to obey as well, and the home breaks apart. In Catholic marriages, one of the vows the woman makes is to obey her husband and trust him, and it's a very important vow for her to remember and keep.  Every family is like a small kingdom, and no kingdom can survive long when the queen does not support her king.  With this being said, obeying your husband does not mean you have no say in the decisions he makes: as his wife one of your jobs is to help him in making wise decisions, but to respect whatever is his final say. And it is the man's duty to see that he is not a tyrant, and makes sure his decisions are what is best for his family.  When husbands and wives live in this manner, in obedience to God's design for the family, not only their family, but all of society is benefited by it.

//Outfit Details//

Blouse: Goodwill

Camisole: ThredUp

Skirt: Consignment Store/$2.50

Shoes: The Shoe Dept./Old

Scarf: Gift

Earrings: Charming Charlie (I believe they're sold out now)

I hope you all have a blessed and beautiful week!

Tell me what your thoughts on obedience are in the comments! God bless...=)