Submission doesn't mean you don't think for yourselves.
Submission doesn't mean you believe everything you are told.
Submission doesn't mean you allow into yourself mental and emotional abuse.
Here it is: someone has to be the final say. And the way it is supposed to work is that a husband's authority is a protection for the wife, not like a master and slave, but like two equal partners with the one in charge acknowledging his responsibility to keep his wife safe and always thinking what is in her best interest. She is not his child, but his partner who is more valuable than anyone else or anything in his life.
We are told to respect our husbands and the husbands are told to love their wives like Christ loved the church. He gave His life for His bride (and not when we, the members of His bride were so good...when we were rotten and could care less about being saved).
But I've seen women who in the name of submission believe lies about themselves, believe themselves to be worthless in the name of being submissive.
That's not submission. Those kinds of interactions resemble the devil's tactics.
Let's look at some verses used so often in this submission subject (I'll start with the verse before):
""For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior."
2 Peter 2:25, 3:1-2
Often we focus on what Pete is telling the wives to do, but what is it saying about some of the husbands? Pete is saying that THEY ARE WRONG. THEY ARE NOT IN OBEDIENCE TO GOD'S WORD.
Pete tells us not to say anything about it, not to nag because men don't like being told what to do. He says to just continue on pleasing God with your own actions.
Don't allow anyone (including those closest to you) to control you emotionally or mentally. If your mood and your self esteem are being decided by someone else's actions or words, recognize this and realize this isn't from God. You were bought with a price. You are precious. You are lovely. You are God's!
Don't lash back. That won't do you any good. Love your husband but don't believe lies. Love him as Jesus loves him.
This goes for your relationships with other people. Love them but don't enable them to live sinfully.
I didn't even touch on physical abuse -- just know that turning the other cheek doesn't mean Jesus condones physical abuse. That turning the other cheek verse (Matthew 5:39) is in context I believe talking about Christian persecution -- being insulted in the name of Christ. We aren't supposed to lower ourselves to insults and bad behavior of those who are against us because we stand for Jesus. We love them and shine for Jesus.
OK, I'm getting off my soap box. Women, you are precious and treasured. Men, you are too. I am definitely not a man hater -- oh, I love my Man! And I love my sons (one is a man now and my two stepsons are men too) and I love all the men in my life.
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28