BY CHERYL SKORDAHL
Last month I wrote about the helper design that God gave women at creation. We’ll continue this topic under the theme:
THE GOSPEL EMPOWERS AND COMPELS US
TO EXERCISE OUR DESIGN
“I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel…” I memorized that when I was 15 years old, and the message grows more precious year by year.
It is because of this “calling” this “redemption” that we can live our helper design – not in our own reason or strength, but through grace in the power of the Holy Spirit, as our catechism states. This grace, this redeeming love, breaks the grip of sin in our lives and empowers us to fulfill our creation mission. Is this truth so deeply ingrained in your mind, so that you will never become entangled in works righteousness? Even as a young seminarian’s wife, I was at the point of giving up on God because I was discouraged at my lack of ability to live the Christian life… works righteousness. When I realized that I needed to let go and let God, true Christian freedom came and I began living and doing in His power alone.
It is couched with this grace knowledge that I want to proceed to share some of the characteristics of a redeemed woman who is a true helper and fulfills her life-giving mission.
1. She is so grateful for God’s mercy that she gives forgiveness to others. Christ’s righteousness causes her to joyfully extend love and acceptance to others.
2. Her sights are on her heavenly home which restrains her from materialism.
3. She values the calling of wife and mother, but not so that they become her idol. She holds her family loosely before God.
4. She moves gracefully through different seasons and circumstances of life.
5. She is not focused on herself but extends herself to the elderly, the sick, the oppressed, needy and afflicted. Taking along her children or a younger woman to help train the next generation.
6. The redeemed helper knows that her marriage is a gospel picture to her children, the Christian community, and the world.
7. She knows that elevating herself, an individualistic approach, causes marriage and motherhood to be trivialized whereas a biblical perspective raises these relationships to the eternal.
8. She understands that her children are gifts to the church and she wants them to grow up as a part of this community. She teaches about the privilege to live and move among believers and to assume responsibilities to this covenant community.
What other ways are you living out your helper design? As pastor’s wives we remember that this design is foreign and offensive to the fallen world. The devil and the world tell women that there is a better way – a way of autonomy and independence. Instead the Lord through the gospel teaches and empowers us to live out our helper design. It is in the context of the Word where this design truly makes sense. Prov. 13:14, Prov 14:30, Prov 15:4. Can you find other Scriptures that teach and encourage women to live out their helper design?
