Helpmeet

"Helpmeet: (Origin): from the phrase an help meet for him  i.e., a help suitable for him, in the Authorized Version of the Bible (1611)" - www.dictionary.reference.com

 

Because this word comes from the Genesis story in the Bible and refers to Eve, most pastors I have hear use "helpmeet" are referring to a wife.  But today I want to talk about the help that's oh-so suited to me: my husband.

 

Many of our friends didn't "see it" when we got together - in many ways my DH and I are quite different.  When I fell in love with him, he wore those baggy, Hot Topic black pants with all the chains on them, had long, curly black hair, and did not have what you'd call a bouncy personality.  I'm a hearts-and-balloons kinda girl myself, and was pretty happy-go-lucky and sweet.  

 

But when we fell for each other, we fell hard, and got married a year and a half after we started dating.  What I discovered about DH after I fell in love is that we are as well-suited as two people can be.  We agree about almost all our politics, spirituality, finances, parenting, and plans for the future.  And I like that a lot; I'm not the type of person to be able to overlook big differences in most of those areas. 

 

More than that, he is a help most suited to me: he does the math on what we can afford, he figures out our savings and credit cards; he cleans what I can't/hate to clean; he cheers me up or brings me down to earth as needed; he restores my faith in myself.  

 

I try to be the best help for him, too, so that we both feel like we're getting the better end of the deal, which is what I once heard is the definition of a good marriage.  He and this daughter of mine are the two best things I've got going these days, so I do what I can to make them both as happy, fulfilled, and at rest within myself as they make me.

DH reading on the couch next to my teddy bear, 2005