Practical Ways to Be a Helper

Earlier in the week I explored somewhat of what it means to be a helper to our husbands and since then, I've been contemplating what that looks like practically. Based on what Barbara Hughes says in Biblical Womanhood in the Home about being a helper and following the steps of the Holy Spirit, the ultimate helper, we are to: 1) Encourage, 2) Comfort, 3) Come Alongside, and 4) Help.

When thinking about ways to encourage & come alongside my husband, I can easily see how that attempt could transpire into nagging, suggesting, reminding or mothering -- all tendencies that we women excel in at times -- but instead, what would it look like if I just took my husband to Jesus in the way that I encourage him? If we look at Mark 2:1-12, we see the beautiful faith of the men who brought the paralytic to Jesus. They even cut a hole in the roof of the house Jesus was teaching in and lowered him down ... what a scene that would have made! I'm not saying that our husbands are incapable of walking to Jesus like the paralytic, but one way that we can encourage our husbands is to take them to Jesus when they're not thinking about it, when they can't or they just need us to help them. This is one way we can demonstrate and grow our faith in Jesus' ability to lead us and our husbands. In verse 5, we see how faith plays out: "When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Not, men who brought you to me, your sins are forgiven ... but you, paralytic, the one who couldn't even walk to me on your own, YOUR sins are forgiven. How amazing!

Practically, I think this means that we pray for our husbands individually and alongside them ... that God would daily transform them into the godly men that He desires them to be, that they would have the strength and ability to lead their families to Jesus well and exhibit the traits of godly men to their families and others in their circle of influence. And gently and lovingly speak the truth of scripture to them and just plain love them! (Love them, duh ... but we need to remember to love our husbands for who they are, not what we want them to become and without letting our selfish desires get in the way!)

Let's try this out and see what happens!

Check out some of these creative suggestions at girltalk to see how prayer and just loving our husbands can be lived out each day! (These suggestions were made based on a series they were doing on 'Doing Your Husband Good' from Proverbs 31:12.)