Are you his helper?

The title is a throw back to the book "Are you my mother". A little bird pops from his shell, alone in the nest he goes to find his mother. He asks all those in his path "Are you my mother?" At the end a Snort puts the bird back in his nest and his mother shows up. I guess I am praying for God to be our Snort... to put us back in our nest... only this time to see if we are the helper God has created us to be.

In class we discussed what a helper is... someone to encourage, trust, confide in and most important to come along side or assist.

How are we doing? Were we taught to assist our husbands? Did growing up in our generation influence the way we treat our husbands? Honestly, when was the last time a TV show portrayed a capable, hard working, wise father? The Cosby Show, 7th Heaven? Most were in the 60's and maybe even earlier. Leave it to Beaver and Andy Griffith Show come to my mind. Mostly men are portrayed as dumb, gluttonous, incapable men and sometimes not even existent! Have you thought about the way you treat your husband? Do you treat him like he is Ward Clever or Clark Griswold? Is the way we treat him helpful?

Also do we take a few minutes to actually help our husbands? I have to admit that there is something at my home I have waited almost 4 years for my husband to do... My thoughts were... "I'm gonna nag him forever about this. I can't believe he hasn't done that yet. I am over it, it can just stay that way." HHmm, that is NOT a help to my husband, really it is a selfish, self serving woman that thinks it's ok to think less of my husband when I myself am not willing to do the same thing. Truthfully, I am 100% capable of getting it done, without his help. I have just been passing judgement on him for the last 4 years. Shame on me!

God's Word says "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things" Phil 4:8. So does that include my husband? Of course it does! He has so many ways he takes care of me and the kids, who am I that I should dwell on his failures, I am to dwell on his strengths, the whatevers... the "if there is any". I think it means if I can search my mind and find ANY shred of positive attribute in him... I am to dwell on that!

Finally we were reminded that our husbands are sinners. (See Romans 3:23) As a matter of fact, you and I are sinners. Who are we to think our husbands are anything less than ourselves, sinners. Can you really be less than a sinner anyway? And if I'm a sinner, I must be faulty, therefore I must have issues too! You mean I don't have my own pedestal from which to order my mere mortal husband around from? Well, as the Word says in Ephesians, God is head of Christ, Christ is head of the Church, and the man is head of the woman. I just don't see a pedestal there.

This week's challenge: Make at least one change to be a helper to your husband. Make sure to record it in your journal and record any changes that happen. Even if your husband doesn't notice you can rest assured that the Father does!
Let the Son shine,
Brandee