The Beauty of Submission

During the sermon this morning my pastor talked about a wife's role to be submissive. He based his sermon on 1 Peter 2:13 - 3:8. Several of his points really stuck out to me, encouraging and challenging my actions.
The definition of submission (or as much as I could get in my notes) is: A divine calling of the wife to honor and affirm her husband's leadership and help him carry it out using her gifts.
Often we think of submission as losing the right to be an individual, unique and special. Submission is not: agreeing with everything the husband says (can disagree when he is not a Christian), leaving you brain and will at the wedding alter (you can think for yourself), avoiding every effort to change a husband (can win him to Christ without saying a word), putting husband's will before Christ's will (He is supreme over everything), getting all spiritual strength from husband, acting out of fear of husband (submission is a free choice).
As I was listening to the sermon I thought how can this apply to me? As a student with any prospect of marriage at least five years out how can I apply this teaching in my own life? A wife's submission is just one species of submission. In 1 Peter 2:13 and following it talks about everyone's submission to God foremost, government, and masters (bosses). 1 Peter 2:17 stuck out to me 1 Peter 2:17 "Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor."

The other part of the sermon was on Biblical womanhood based on 1 Peter 3:3-6. It say that women should not have external adornment, braiding of hair, wearing of gold, and putting on of clothing. This does not mean that all these are bad and you cannot do them, but we need to focus our time and energy in beautifying our inner souls. Biblical womanhood's deepest root is hope in God not in looks or finding the perfect husband. This hope yields fearlessness and brings a maturity that is aware of the suffering to come. And she makes beauty of matter of proportion and priority focusing on the adornment of tranquil, gentle, quiet, serene inner spirit. When a Godly woman yearns after these three things, hope in God, fearlessness, and adornment of the inner spirit, submission and true beauty will grow from it.