It’s Mother’s Day so we are going to skip ahead in I Peter to his words to husbands and wives.

In some ways Peter’s words to wives will seem out of touch with modern life. He asks them to be “submissive”—to live a pure and reverent life and to minimize their desire for jewels and clothes. In our modern world this sounds old-fashioned and insulting!

It may help to look Peter’s words to husbands—he tells the husbands to respect their wives and treat them as equal heirs of God. And he warns them that, if they do not, God will not listen to their prayers!

Peter is not in any way giving men the “right” to run roughshod over their wives and claim absolute authority. If there is not a genuine respect and partnership in marriage, then we are falling short of God’s ideal.

I think Peter wanted to encourage marriage as a means of serving each other. Rather than asking, “What is my right?” Peter wanted us to ask, “What does my partner need?” Rather than asking, “How can I get what I want?” Peter hoped we would want to give what the other needed.

I think Christian marriage and Christian families should be counter-cultural. Our goals are different. Our hopes are different.

Instead of being fear-based, we can be love-based. Instead of being about possessing and controlling, we can be about blessing.

Let’s celebrate our mothers and the women in our lives—and let’s think about who we are. We are very different kinds of families because we are people who belong to Christ.