Learning to Be a Helper (My Chicken Soup Devotional story)

Have you helped your hubby out lately?! I confess, it's not always the first thing on my priority list with three children at home…which is what inspired this story...

Learning to Be a Helper

“The Lord said, “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” 
(Gen. 2:18)

           

            It was an ordinary, chaotic weekday morning. A floral canvas lunch box needed to be filled, breakfast needed to be served, backpacks needed to be packed, hair and teeth brushed, clothing properly picked out and put on all in time to get our oldest daughter, who was in kindergarten, to the bus and our youngest to her preschool class on time.

            In other words, as usual, the needs of my children were far more pressing than those of anyone else in the house (read: my husband!).

            “The children need to be eating in two minutes!”

             “They need to be dressed in fifteen. The bus comes in twenty!” 

            In the midst of scrambling eggs and buttering toast for our two girls, he often finds a moment to fix me a cup of coffee, cut a grapefruit into sections or make me an egg sandwich for the road.

            “Here you go babe,” he’ll say as he slides them across the counter to his manic lunch making wife.  

            I am embarrassed to confess that not only do I do no such thing in return, but I often forget to even offer a “thank you.”

            Then, one day, several weeks ago I reread a scripture in the book of Genesis that really impacted the way I started to think about things.

            “The Lord said, “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him (Gen. 2:18).

            A helper? Perhaps in the early years of dating and marriage I strived to help, but in the six years since becoming parents “help” had become such a large part of taking care of the girls that there seemed little time or energy left for helping my husband in tangible ways. If anything most days left me asking for help from him rather than offering help to him.

            On this particular morning, several days after reading that passage I decided to do something that would surprise him; I made him a toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwich and ran outside (in the snow!) to start his car while he was getting dressed.

            As he came flying down the stairs to head out the door to his morning sales appointment and raced to find his keys I smiled and said, “They’re in your car. I started it for you.”

            Stopped in his tracks he looked at me with raised eyes and a confused grin.

            “Really?!”

            “Yes. Really. And there is some toast wrapped for you to take on the road.”

            “For me?” He almost laughed, “Where did you come from?”   
         

            The question was well deserved. While there are many times I have wanted to be a helper to him, I have allowed the needs of the children to take priority over the needs of my husband, leaving him to fend for himself.

            I’m realizing that, even in the midst of the busyness of raising small children, I can be more deliberate about finding small ways to help him.

            When I am being a “helper” even in the midst of the mayhem I am not only serving him, but HIM—the heavenly Father who brought us together in the first place.

           

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for my husband. I pray that you would help to show me ways to be his helper today. Please forgive me for the ways that I have neglected his needs and give me the strength and energy I need to be a good mother and wife. Amen.       

This story/devotional can be found alongside the encouraging voices of 100 other women in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Devotional for Wives  (Available on Amazon and at other major booksellers).

If you are a wife you will definitely be encouraged by the stories in these pages…it also makes a sweet gift (:


By the way…I'm giving a copy of the book away this week! You can either leave a comment here or on my previous post about being published in this book and I will randomly draw one name to be the lucky winner. You must comment before the end of the day on Friday. I will draw a winner and post their name here on Saturday morning (: