Note this balanced advice: “Wives, be subject​—be submissive and adapt yourselves—​to your own husbands as a service to the Lord.

If you are a wife, would you not respond favorably if your husband was a loving head and applied this advice: “You husbands should try to understand the wives you live with, honoring them as physically weaker yet equally heirs with you of the grace of life”? (1 Pet. 3:7, New Testament in Modern English) This is how the wife in Florida responded when her husband took his responsibility as a loving family head seriously. She says: “I, in turn, did not resent my part.” Note: “my part.” What she meant was her responsibility to follow the Bible’s counsel to ‘be submissive and adapt yourself to your husband,’ looking to him for leadership and guidance. That may not be easy, especially if problems have already developed. But if you as a wife have such a problem and truly desire improvement in your marriage, applying that counsel may be well worth the effort.