On Being A Helpmeet

Drink Lots of Water

This past couple of weeks I have had an attack on my body from the devil. It has caused much pain, weakness and concern. Just as I thought I was over the problem, it reared up again and I was once again battling it. But the Lord is working all things together for my God and He is my Jehovah Jireh, my provider and His Grace is more than sufficient for me. I am feeling better.

In the process of all of this I had quite a few medications to take – and as I HATE to take any kind of chemical remedy – I read and reread all the information about each one. One thing was very evident on several of the medications and that was that I had to drink inordinate amounts of water to keep from becoming even more ill as I took these things. I don’t mean just a few glasses of water – I mean HUGE amounts of water. I have finally reached the stage where I am able to drink 1 1/2 gallons a day without having to live in the bathroom. J

I must say that I have noticed several changes in my body since I began this excessive water drinking. For one – and this is so minor but a good point – because I do a lot of physical work outside, my hands stay stained and dry. My cuticles on my finger nails were always raw and peeling due to constantly washing them everytime I came inside. This morning when I was typing on the computer I rubbed my hands together and realized that my cuticles were not sore or peeling at all. They are actually healthy looking and smooth! Such a tiny thing but how interesting that even this has been healed by drinking so much water.

Now, to the point of all of this – as I was looking at my fingers and amazed at the sudden change, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart about the Water that I truly needed. Of course, this is the Word of God. For so many of us, we get into the ritual reading and general study that a lifetime of serving the Lord has led us to. But when we become attacked in some way, hopefully, we will immediately rush to the Word to renew our strength. But how much of the Word do we really seek. Do we get into the Word just enough to make us feel better or do we absolutely soak ourselves in it.

When I read about how much water I was supposed to drink, I thought, “How am I ever going to be able to drink that much water in a day?” I read an article about this and it said that it would require constant sipping all day. And that is exactly how I have done it - constant sipping. But, you may ask, how can you constantly sip the Word of God? There are too many things to do to be able to carry a Bible around all day long and read every couple of minutes. You are so right! It is not something that we can realistically do. However . . . don’t you just love the “Howevers”?!!

If you have embedded the Word of God in your heart and in your mind then you can sip on the Water of the Word all day long. Our family has always been big on memorization of scripture. I remember one time in Awanas (a group Erin and Olivia participated in when they were little) Erin learned 120 verses of scripture in 2 months. She was trying to finish a section before the program ended for the summer and bless her heart she walked around constantly with the papers in her hand and mumbled scriptures. To this day she can still recite them.

There are scriptures that I learned as a child in little choruses that now come to me in the most difficult moments of life and I can sing them and refresh my soul. We read a Proverb a day and when the girls were small I would have them write the one verse that touched them in our reading each day and one that we all still remember- Pro 21:23 “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.”

It is vital to our physical health that we drink large amounts of pure clean water every day. If you are drinking the proper amounts of water then you will not have time to drink soft drinks, tea, etc. You will be so busy just drinking your water that your thirst will be quenched and amazingly after awhile you will not even want to drink anything else. Sweet colas will taste disgusting to you and even fruit juices will be “too much”. I speak from experience.

How much more will continually sipping the Word of God cause you to lose your desire for the falseness of this world. If you are drawn to the world’s offerings then you are not drinking enough of the Word. Your spirit man will weaken and begin to die. You will find yourself craving the fake sweetness, the strong spiciness, and the chemically generated pleasures and pursuits of this world. Your body will lust for these things and your mind will reject the simple, clean taste of the things of God. But when you begin to create a desire for the Word by feeding your spirit man continually then you will desire it more and more and more. You will hunger after it and you will thirst for it.

I will close by saying again – No, I have not completely conquered this flesh I am in. No, I still have things of this world that I must battle. No, I do not say in any way that I have overcome the entire draw of this world. I imagine that I never will, at least until Christ comes, but I can say without doubt or question, this is my desire. It is my daily prayer and goal to reach that point. There is no question that Jesus Christ’ death and my acceptance of Him as Lord and Savior has made the way for me to overcome all of these things. But I am still striving, still seeking, and still crucifying my flesh everyday. And in my effort to overcome I am drinking LOTS OF WATER!

“. . . even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

Ephesians 5:25 - 27

I Know, But I Wanted Too!

Those words have been said so many times here in our home lately but just this afternoon did they strike me as to their meaning. Paul fed and watered the piggies for me this morning and I said, “Oh, Honey, thank you! You didn’t have to do that!!” And Paul said, “I know, but I wanted too!” I brought him a cup of coffee to his blacksmith shop and he said to me, “Thank you sweetie, but you didn’t have to do that!” My response, “Well, I wanted too!”

So often we do things out of shear love and appreciation that are not required of us. We just need to express our hearts and words seem to be completely inadequate. Have you noticed that the most satisfying way to show your love for someone is through an act of service? I mean just finding some way to DO something for them.

As I have pondered on that (wink, wink Sister Lori) the Holy Spirit has reminded me of the way most people act when they are newly born again. There is something inside of them that wants to DO. Remember in Acts 16 when Paul and Silas were praying and the prison doors opened and the jailer became afraid, thinking they had escaped. When Paul said that they were still there, the jailer said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The man wanted to DO something. He wanted to receive salvation and a new life but he also wanted to DO something in return. So what did he do?

He washed their wounds, he fed them, he was baptized and his entire house believed. Yahoo!!! This man wanted more than anything to return an act of love for the love that he was shown. Would you call this bondage??? Is this demanded? Is this salvation through works????? Of course not!!!!! This is pure, unadulterated L*O*V*E!!!!! The real thing! I love you and I want to DO something for you.

It is a spiritual thing – a supernatural thing – the give and take of a LOVE relationship. But in order to be truly fulfilling and satisfying it must be give and take on both sides. My husband, Paul loves me. He works hard to provide for me (through the blessing of the Lord). He takes out the trash, cleans the hog pen so that I don’t have too, repairs things that break, builds things that we need, and calls me during the day to tell me how important and cherished I am. This is just the tip of the iceberg! He seeks ways to bring joy to my heart and a smile to my face.

And what is my response? Do I just sit back and enjoy it all because I don’t have to do anything to receive his love. Do I gripe and complain; spend every penny he makes and then cry for more because he is supposed to not only provide my needs as a good husband but my wants as well. Do I ignore ways that I could bless him in return because he is supposed to love me unconditionally? Please!

I want Paul to come home everyday with a smile on his face, not just because he has had a productive and blessed day at work (which is what I pray for everyday) but also because he knows that when he gets home there is someone waiting for him that will bless him in every way she possibly can. Every thing that I can think of to do to make Paul happy to be home – that is what I want to do. From having quiet in the house so that he can have a few minutes to rest his mind, down to making sure the house smells like good food cooking to ease his hunger.

As the evening progresses I wonder if his feet are tired and hurting (mine usually are) so we take off his shoes and rub his poor feet. If he is bending and stretching a little more than normal, I suppose that his back is hurting a little, so either I or one of the girls will take just a minute to rub out the kinks. If he is not his normal, cheerful self then I know that something has troubled him and so I try to think of how I can ease his mind a bit. And one thing I try to never do is demand that he talk to me! Maybe he has talked enough, maybe he is pondering something that the Lord is dealing with him about. Maybe he is just mentally worn out and needs to be refreshed. Men are not like women and they need to be able to “not think” sometimes.

Now having said all of that, I want to go back to my original point of responding to love with action. As children of a living God, no, we do not earn our salvation. No, we cannot earn salvation even if we tried – It is the free gift of a loving Lord! Bought and paid for by our Savior Jesus Christ! But in return I want to bless Him – just like I want to bless my earthly husband. Not because He demands it of me but because it is my best to give.

I pray that in some way we all will give up something of our selves – something that our flesh desires – so that the world, the unsaved, lost and dying world – can see that life in Christ is a blessed life and one that brings untold joy. But also that we, as Christians, want to leave behind what our flesh desires and give all to Jesus. This is when we can be truly at peace.