For the past few years, God has put a continual burden on my heart to learn as much as I can about being a helpmeet, for that was His ultimate purpose in creating Woman.
And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
~ Genesis 2:18 ~
I love Hebrew, and find the original Hebrew words fascinating:
"And
Yehovah 'Elohiym said, It is not good that
man (
Adam) should be
alone (
bad); I will make him an help meet (
literally a help, or succour; support) for him."
Succour is an old English word that is not much used today. Here is its definition in the
1812 Webster's Dictionary:
v.t. Literally, to run to, or run to support; hence, to help or relieve when in difficulty, want or distress; to assist and deliver from suffering; as, to succor a besieged city; to succor prisoners.
For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.
~ Hebrews 2:18 ~
n. Aid; help; assistance; particularly, assistance that relieves and delivers from difficulty, want, or distress.
Succored: pp. Assisted; relieved.
Succorrer: n. He that affords relief; a helper; a deliverer.
Succorless: a. Destitute of help or relief.
Thus, our job title as women is to literally help, relieve, support, and I would add, encourage the men in our life.
On my first Journey to the Heart, back in Spring 2011, Dr. Gothard put that description in a very simple sentence, which completely changed my life. That is that '
Our God-given role as women is to encourage men to Godliness'.
I understand that this may be a sensitive subject to some young women, because maybe God hasn't brought your "Adam" into your life yet. Well, me neither!! :) However, I think we need to take a step back from the sometimes all-consuming desire of marriage, and look at the big picture.
One time, I was sharing this revelation with a friend, and another gal who was listening took offense to it because she was in her mid 20's and still unmarried. In her mind, if
that was our purpose in life, than she was obviously failing it as a woman, as were all other women who God had either called to a life of singleness to serve Him whole-focusedly or were too young for marriage.
I think this is where we often get our focus off-track. Though God's design for us is to be an help meet for our husbands, it starts with being helpers at home as little girls; helping our fathers (be wary though of usurping your mother's position!), our brothers, and those around us.
In Bible times, the unmarried women lived at home: serving their families and working in their communities -- far from just "sitting around". Though the Bible doesn't specifically share all the details of unmarried womens' personal lives, history tells us that wise young women were industrious, prosperous, and brought in income as well. Look at the Proverbs 31 woman: to do all she did, she had to practice doing that
before her marriage. Just as it is not easy to live a sedentary lifestyle, and then spontaneously go run 6 miles, neither is it that way in womanhood.
Hadassah lived at her cousin Mordecai's home when she was gathered for the king. (Esther 2)
Rachel kept her father's sheep, and
Leah, as the older daughter most likely had a large amount of responsibility serving in the home. (Genesis 29)
Mary, a mere youth, probably lived at home still during her espousal, before visiting Elizabeth (Luke 1:27), and
Miriam was at home -- able to watch over Moses, before later helping her brothers with the Israeli Exodus.
So, the question is,
How do we accomplish this?
1) Find ways to serve. (And I would add--look around at home first, as I am realizing it is so much easier to serve outside the home, especially in our day and age, but our families, mothers, and younger sisters (and brothers) desperately need and miss us!!)
2) Study womanhood in the Bible, and seek to apply it:
Proverbs 31, Titus 2:4-5, 1 Timothy 2, to name a few.
3) Seek to disciple others. Though we may feel so inadequate, knowing how much we need to grow (I know I sure do!!), God doesn't want us to use that as a crutch. He wants us to be actively sharing and discipling others {in humility},
while we are maturing in Him ourselves.
Get creative!! One of Satan's biggest lies is that we are to be "just waiting"... Yes, waiting, but not "just" waiting. No, we are supposed to be
productively waiting.
More on that in my next post...
Oh, if I could only always grasp this!!! This has become an almost utterly consuming passion inside of me, though I so often fail to really, fully live it out, however, God is faithful, and He continues to teach me. The hard part is really applying it...
That they (older women) may teach the young women to be sober (moderate, curbed, controlled), to love their husbands (or fathers, brothers, etc.), to love their children (or siblings), to be discreet (temperate, self-controlled), chaste (exciting reverence, pure, modest), keepers at home (watcher/caretaker of the home), good (useful, pleasant, joyful, upright), obedient to their own husbands (or fathers-as the authority--submit/subject one's self, yield to another's admonition/advice), that the Word of God be not blasphemed.
~ Titus 2:3-4 ~
PS> Sorry it took so long to get this posted!! I meant to finish it a few weeks ago, but well....I was busy trying to live it.. ;)
