I should have probably started here in our discussion about the virtuous wife…for it will encompass everything else.
“…but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him….and He made woman and brought her unto the man.” Genesis 2:20,22
The term “help meet” is not a noun, like it is usually used. The word “help” is the noun, and the word “meet” is an adjective meaning “suitable”. A better translation is “suitable helpler”.
Adam was not complete. The family was not complete. Society was not complete. There needed to be something more, something different. Her name would be woman (“taken out of man”.)
This is where the feminists lost it. They refuse to recognize that being different is a compliment. Adam was not good enough for the task at hand all by himself. He needed HELP!
This arrangement was not just for the garden. It was the original, created design of the family and it is just as applicable today as ever.
It all starts at one place for us women: Our main job on earth is to HELP OUR HUSBANDS.
That job has many faces. It may be as simple as encouraging him through a challenge. It may be running an office for him for his line of work. It may be keeping his underwear clean and serving as Vice President to his company all in the same day. Whatever it is, that is our first calling.
Understanding that changes a lot. And unfortunately, we are not the only ones affected by feminist thinking–our husbands have been too.
I hear women say, “my husband wants me to work outside the home”. It may be that he just doesn’t know there is anything else…he may have even been taught that it is insulting to ask his wife to stay home to manage it!
(More on what to do if your husband wants you to work and you don’t in the next post!)
A friend of mine made a great point to me once. She said, “How many men do you know send their wives off to work for another man, then turn around and hire some other woman to be his secretary? That’s like cutting off your arm and getting a prosthesis!”
If families would submit to God’s plan for them, we would not only be peaceful, content families (with much higher marriage success rates), we would propser and be able to reach our fullest earthly potential!
I’m about to connect some dots here…
Some may think that I’m a little idealistic (I’ve been accused of worse ;-), but dream with me for a moment…
A man and woman understand their complimentary roles. They also understand the “fruitful and multiply” mandate. They understand the dominion mandate. They begin to think in terms of “family economy”. (Chuck Swindoll said that a family is a micro-civilization.) They live in America where earning a living from home is within almost anyone’s grasp.
Their efforts are multiplied as their family grows and works together. Children are not a burden–they are an asset to the family. (I’m not necessarily talking about farming either.)
This is a very real possibility. And while families who are already “mid-stream” may not be able to implement this model competely, now is the time to prepare our children.
I know of a family with nine children who are preparing them with this vision. They are starting new businesses, one by one, like a little miniature corporation, to be able to “hand off” to each of their children as they marry.
This is great! They’ve each worked hard to help start and operate the businesses, all under their father’s oversight and hard work, they are all learning brilliant management skills, and their father is able to direct their specific gifts and talents toward the business that suits them.
It is a beautiful picture of a modern-day “dominion taking” by one family…just as God designed it!
Ask your husband, if you haven’t yet…”How can I best help you?” And be honored to have been given this prestigious position!
