Lin

On the home school example —

We actually had a similar situation in our family. At the time, we were doing the complimentarian thing (we had never heard some Biblical passages explained any other way and were just trying to please God.) However, I had a very loving husband who respected my opinions and recognized that on some issues, I heard from God best and on some issues, he heard from God best. When you get down to it, he never had the complimentarian heart!

Anyway, this was back in 1982 and i wanted to homeschool my son (we only had the one at the time). My husband, however, noting that my son and I, being so much alike (lol) tended to conflict, thought this would not be a good idea at all. Also, his job at the time was very taxing and he did not have much flexibility to help with homsechooling, though he never neglected fathering. We discussed and discussed. We couldn’t agree. However, instead of deciding to exercise his “leadership perogative,” as we believed at the time he could, we decided, “Ok, we both feel strongly about this. He’s in school now. We know what that is like. Let’s try homeschooling him for this next semester and then revisit the discussion after that. ”

It is possible my husband expected we’d throw the towel in before the semester was up, even. But……homeschooling actually helped my son and i to conflict less. He never returned to school and our other son never saw the inside of a classroom until college.

Since becoming egalitarian (or perhaps admitting that we have been all along), we use a variety of ways to make decisions (who it affects most, waiting and praying, etc) – really, being locked in indecision just hasn’t been a problem.