It is not easy for us women to think that we were made just to help a man. We would prefer to think that we were made because things cannot be managed without us, because we are so wise and talented, because we are able to administer and organize and make things move.
It may be that God gave us wisdom and abilities to organize and administer, but we were nevertheless created so that we might help alongside our husbands. We must understand that God created the world, that he gave us life, that we must live according to his will, that helping is exactly the right thing to do, and that by doing so we will bless our partner and will ourselves be blessed in what we do.
The husband is the head of the family, and we are beside him to help him lead the family. If he has responsibilities in the congregation, we must stand by him, support him, and rejoice that he is serving God. We must recognize the privilege God has given our husband if he is serving the Lord and must, for that reason, be absent from the home or needs to bring home guests. These guests may not be our best friends. They may even be youth who make us uptight, who make dirt and noise. Or perhaps he will have work sessions that go on into the late hours of the night.
When I help my husband serve God, we both get blessed. Working alongside someone but not leading is not demeaning. It is a ministry and a privilege given by God.
And what if the husband, in ministering in the congregation, doesn't fulfill his role as the leader of the family? We must still help him! We can encourage our husband to take the lead, to pray and to read the scriptures when the family is sitting together, to discover and use the abilities God has given him.
By God's design the husband is the head of the family, the wife the helper who stands beside him. Husbands for their part should let their wives help, the two of them serving the Lord together as a team, so that both will be blessed.
- 27 MARCH -