It is a blessing to be here this morning. I was very much enjoying the Sunday school. As Brother Phil Beachy mentioned this morning, it fit very well with our week of meetings. And I really enjoyed the discussion we had here, some of the wisdom that came out of that. My heart was kind of burning with the thoughts from that. since it's what I've been very much thinking about the last few days and preaching about. So this morning, continuing on the subject of the home, I've titled this message, Suitable Helper, The Role of a Godly Woman. So we'll be talking about the women this morning. This is especially for married women in a sense, and yet certainly not only for that by any means, There'll be some specific things said for that as you'll see, but it is certainly for all godly women I I Felt a freedom this weekend until last night and this morning I'm not sure if It's God's interest in this message or the devil's or both, but it feels like a The devil would really like to hinder. Our son, Brian, which is with us, our nine-year-old son, got sick yesterday afternoon. And that happens all the time. There was nothing real unusual about it. But when you're away from home, it's extra unhandy. And he wasn't able to be at the gym night last night, and wife had to make a trip back to check on him and all that. It's a little distracting. And before I went to sleep, I was concerned about it. Hopefully he can sleep good and all that. And I did fall asleep then in peace, but then this morning I just felt it again. Not that I'm concerned about his sickness, but it's just a bit distracting and I just feel a bit of an oppression. And so pray for that. As you sit there this morning, I think, The message is something that is especially, that the concepts are especially powerful as it relates to the home. And for some reason, whenever I talk about the role of a godly woman, I feel a special something in my spirit because there is something about the role of a woman in the home that is very powerful. So we'll see how the Lord directs. I have probably more I'd like to say than what I'll have time for. So you can pray for that too, that God would just direct me to say what should be said and admit what doesn't need to be. I'm gonna read again this morning, Psalm 127 and 128. And if you don't mind, stand again for that, for those that can. Psalm 127 and 128. Starting at 127, verse one. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows. For so, He giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. 128.1. Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord, that walketh in his ways, for thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands. Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house, thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children as children, and peace upon Israel. And you may be seated. Proverbs 31 verse 10 says, who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies. And it's so true. The longer I'm married, the more I believe it. the more I value my wife, I really do, more and more all the time. Proverbs 19.4 says, house and riches are the inheritance of fathers, and a prudent wife is from the Lord. 1 Peter 3.7 says, likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge. giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered. And I really do believe, you've heard it talked about before, but I feel like, you know, God has proven this to me in our experience and others I've observed that when we do not honor our wife, our prayers truly are hindered. When we do honor them, when we do have the relationship we should, there is a special power that God brings into our lives to do his work. Our prayers are unhindered at that point. Another version says it this way, live with your wives with the proper understanding that they are more delicate than you. I do have a few things I would like to read again this morning. I have a book I hadn't brought before. It's called His Brain, Her Brain. Very valuable book. It's written by a Christian couple. And there's something here they have to say about a woman that I like how they say it. I think it's powerful. They talk here about these verses from 1 Peter and what the word weaker really means. And he says this, One day I was in the physician's lounge of our local hospital having a cup of coffee with a psychiatrist friend named Peter, who had grown up in Greece. Peter was my local expert in the Greek language, so I asked him how he interpreted the Greek word asthenes, and I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right, but that's the Greek word translated weaker. As he explained the various descriptions, by the way, he mentions before this that that word is difficult to translate properly into English. There's not an English word that really says it well. And so this is coming from that conversation. As he explained the various descriptions of the word to me, this word weaker, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a much richer and deeper meaning. It not only means weaker in the sense of the literal word, He said this term could be used to describe the most fragile and valuable art, the most delicate and costly bone china, porcelain vases, and crystal, the most valuable and exquisite jewelry. He went on to say the term is used to describe a dainty, delicious, luxurious, ethereal, subtle, but extremely rare and dear gift. And then he talks about the value of, for example, a few items. One is a 1957 Porsche. I'm not sure why he chose that, but he says, we wouldn't call that weak. That's a really fast car of the Porsche brand. He also talks about the Mona Lisa, which is a painting that is worth, if I have it correct, I think it's about $660 million. And he says how that we wouldn't call those things weak. And then he says, Peter is saying that God has built for and given to each husband a priceless and delicate treasure, his wife, for him to value, esteem, and care for. If you're married, God has given you a spouse that he intended and created for you, a woman of indescribable, inconceivable, inestimable, and incredible value. And men, the owner of the art gallery, our Heavenly Father, holds us responsible for our wives' care. He holds us responsible for caring for and deeply caring about them. Now, contrast that with what we talked about in men's class this morning, the fact that we, as men, have a tendency to become angry and sometimes bitter against our wives. If we can keep in focus that this is the picture of what God intended for our view of our life, it will change everything. It will help us with that frustration and anger at times. And many times that comes simply because of the fact that they think so different than we do, we simply don't understand it. By the way, they are not wrong, they're different. And they're different because you needed that difference in your life. And I'll talk a lot about that here coming up. Time Magazine, I forget what year this was, on the cover of Time Magazine, it said, why are men and women so different? It was the headline on the front. And there was an article in there that talked about that. And they were trying to understand Well, I think they were revealing their own ignorance. The wise people that operate the magazine were revealing their ignorance. And Stu Weber in the book that I've talked about a number of times, A Tender Warrior, he says, we have finally proven in the halls of science what we already knew in the hallways of kindergarten. Every mother has already known that boys and girls, men and women are simply naturally, profoundly, unquestionably, thoroughly different. And that difference is not bad, it's good. It's a good difference. All this is kind of the introduction. I'm trying to help all of us understand why the way women are created is a good thing, even though it's so different than how you think that we should think. Stu Weber also says, women use conversation to expand and understand relationships. Does that sound right? When you talk, you connect all the dots that are flying around in your brains. We as men don't have all those connections, so we don't quite get it. We think on a little bit simpler level. But women, by talking, it connects all the dots of everything and they understand. So he says, I'm gonna read it again. Women use conversation to expand and understand relationships. Men use talk to convey solutions, thereby ending conversations. And we all know it's a common joke that many times our wives come to us with a problem and often they just want you to listen. We as men are not good at that. That's something we have to learn with a lot of intentionality. We have to tell ourselves time and again, zip it up, be quiet. And maybe you can ask her, are you looking for an answer or do you just want me to listen? The fact is though, that women are good at sensing problems, and if a solution is needed, men are good at finding the solution. That is how God has made us. He goes on to say, what may seem like chit-chat to a man is lifeblood to a woman. Men, please accept that fact. I'm sure many of you have. Took me a long time. It took me many years to truly accept that my wife needs to talk just because she needs to talk. Maybe no apparent reason. And she was made that way by God. So I'm gonna talk this morning about three purposes for women. And you may come up with a few different ones, but this is what I came up with. Purpose number one is to be a helper to man. And this is married or unmarried, you were made to be helper to man. It says in Genesis 2.18, the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be by himself, I will make one like himself as a help to him. It's not the King James. I believe it's the ESV, possibly. And I believe that the story here of God creating man and then later creating women is often misunderstood. Now, I don't want to give you the impression that I think I have it all figured out, but I have studied this a lot of times. because of teaching on this subject, and the more I study it, the more excited I become. Genesis 1 and 2 are extremely foundational to understanding the rest of the story of mankind. And this particular part of it, to understand we as humans and how we should relate to each other. And I think there's some things here that are often very misunderstood. So let's think about the context of Genesis 1 and 2. The Bible opens up with a wedding. and the Bible closes with the wedding. The church becoming married to Jesus Christ. And between those two weddings, there's just a long story of a battle between good and evil. And you can see it through every page of the Bible. An epic battle. where it's God and his kingdom against the devil and his kingdom battling it out. And unfortunately, we as humans are the battleground. We're caught in that. With Satan, the archenemy of God, and Adam, God's created man, being on the earth at the same time, there was bound to be a battle. And marriage, and, There's a number of thoughts here over this, in the next section here that I have, that are not original with me at all, that I have found by reading and studying. But, and this is one of those, marriage is the warring mechanism that God has used to fight this battle. We as husband and wife, and this is one of the things that has kind of become clearer to me recently, but especially the last few years, but even more in recent months, is we as husband and wife are ideally suited to do this battle together. We need each other to do the battle. Now, not that we can't live life without a spouse, that's not what I'm saying, but marriage was created as one of the warring mechanisms that God uses to fight this battle for his kingdom. And the closer that we are in our marriages, the more we're suited for that battle. The more effective we'll be, we'll be much, much more effective. And you have sad stories in the Bible like the one of Isaac and Rebekah, a dysfunctional family where they had twin sons and the dad favored Isaac and Rebekah favored Jacob. I'm sorry, favored Esau. and Becca favored Jacob, and we have this battle going on in the home. Instead of Isaac and Rebecca being a team fighting the battle, they were fighting each other through their children. That's about as dysfunctional as it gets, and very, very unfair to do that to our children. So thinking here of what happened in Genesis 1, and there's, Some things here that are fairly new thoughts to me, and I like it, has helped me to understand even more, I think, what God was up to in this creation. In Genesis 1 and verse 2, it says this earth that God was creating was without form and void. It says, darkness was upon the face of the deep. Before God put everything in order, there was something here, but it was kind of a chaotic situation. It was dark, it had no form, and it was void, the Bible says. And the first thing God did is he said, let there be light. There was illumination. And then, next, he separated that light from the darkness. Separation. And then he made the rest of the things on the earth, the plants, the animals, and finally man, for habitation. There was illumination, separation, and then habitation. And, In some reading I did recently, it was pointed out to me that this same pattern repeated itself with man and the woman. In Genesis chapter two and verse 18, it says, it is not good that the man should be alone. And so God plus Adam equals not good. God plus Adam plus Eve equaled good. That's what God's saying here. And think about it here. It says, after God said it is not good that the man should be alone, what is the next thing that happened? God. Yeah, he brought the animals to Adam to give them a name. And as he finished up the naming process, there was some, there was a light bulb moment for Adam. What was that? Yeah, all the animals had a partner. Wow, there was a male dog, the female dog, and down the road, the cats and the lions, the elephants, they all had a male and female. But he said, well, there's not one for me. It says here, I would love to see that happening. It would be such a delight to be able to see that story play out and see how it really happened. But it says here, that Adam gave names to all the cattle, to the fowl, to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found and help meat for him. So it seems like there was illumination. Oh. I don't have anybody and so God set about to change this and it says in verse 21 the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh. Instead thereof in the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man. Why would God, now someone told me this, and then recently I came across this idea again. Calvary Bible School was sitting with one of the teachers and he was talking about how that God created Adam with Eve inside of him. I haven't previously thought, I quite thought about it that way. It just says he took a rib out, so we don't think of it that way, but he said he believes that God created Adam with Eve already inside of him. So if God did that, if he created Adam with Eve inside of him, why did he then separate them and then bring them back together? And this is the thought that God separated what once was so that they could become one by choice. And so there could be a relationship. There was relationship brought. When Eve was still inside of Adam, if that is correct, there wasn't relationship with Adam and Eve. But when God separated her, from him and brought her to him, they had relationship. And so again, it was habitation, illumination and separation and habitation. And God plus Adam is how many? Two, right? God plus Adam plus Eve is a Trinity, it's three, like God. the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And so when God, a man and a woman are one, they fully reflect God. I love that. And it is one of the reasons that the devil has declared an all out war on every marriage, not only out there, but in this room. He is absolutely bent on destroying your marriage. And it's why you just can't quite ever put to rest those differences and those conflicts, right? Occasionally there's couples that say, we never fight. I'm sorry, I don't know what that's like, and that's okay. Conflict actually helps us to learn to know each other better. So I'm grateful for some conflict in our marriage because it's been a help to us. But at any rate, generally speaking, most of us would agree that we can resolve one conflict, and yet somehow, sometimes, something kind of just bubbles to the surface. Out of nowhere, it happens to us sometimes where out of nowhere, Suddenly there's something that kind of causes a bit of tension. We're like, where did that even come from? Well, it's our selfishness. First of all, we talked about that in our class. It's also the fact that the devil absolutely wants to rip us apart because he hates everything that God is. He hates everything about God. He hates all of his creation. He knows that ultimately God is gonna win and he is gonna send him away forever. And in the meantime, he's gonna do everything he can to destroy God and everything that brings him glory. And there is nothing that brings more glory than marriage and the church. Oneness, oneness among God's people in any form always brings God's glory, brings God glory. In Genesis 2.15, it says this, the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Do you know what the word keep means? At least one of the meanings in this context. It means to guard. And that again, I think suggests the fact that as Adam and Eve were in this garden, God was preparing them for a battle. There was going to be a battle because God knew the devil was gonna come and try to wreck this thing as much as he could. And then going back to verse 18 again, this word help, in the King James, it says, help me. And from what I can find, it's only one word in the Hebrew. It's the word ezer or ezer. I'm not sure they're correct pronunciation. I like to say ezer, E-Z-E-R. And that word means help, one who helps. nothing real outstanding about that, unless you consider the fact that exact same word is used 21 times in the Old Testament. It's only twice for the woman, three times it's when other nations assisted Israel in the battles. And 16 of those times on the word Azar is used, it means God being a helper to Israel. So if we can take that and make that what it seems like it means, it means the woman is your help in a similar way to what God is, obviously in a different way. We're not putting them in the same level as God, but is using the same word to describe the woman as your helper, as it is God as your helper. I hope you understand your value. So Eve in the Garden of Eden was Adam's helper and partner in this battle to protect the garden. She was not made a helper in the sense of being a slave or made to wait on him as if he were a king where it's all about him. Again, as it was brought out in our class this morning, I really appreciate some of the comments there. When you take the scripture of the Sunday school lesson together with Ephesians 5, the burden is on the man to be the servant, not the woman. And it goes both ways. Submitting one to another, to God, together. So in reality, your marriage and your family were created to do battle. and fighting together in the battle for God will draw you together like nothing else ever will. It is an amazing experience doing battle together. And that is one of the weekends, weekend like this. Well, a weekend like this is something that my wife and I find a lot of fulfillment in being together. She's not preaching, but she's been talking to you all over here. I've been learning to know your church through my wife, really quickly. Just valuable, her relationship with the ladies, and it brings it together in a way that I can learn to know your church in a way I never would otherwise. And my ministry at a time like this is greatly enhanced when she's present. Sometimes it can't be that way, I understand. Some of you have gone away from meetings, that's not always the case. We make a lot of effort to have her come, she enjoys it, but one of the big reasons is that, is this, the fact that we do battle better together. So when God created Eve, can you imagine him saying, I'm gonna make something that Adam absolutely loves. She is gonna be his perfect companion. Man is stimulated by sight, so I'm gonna make her beautiful. She is gonna be a creature that fits him perfectly. And I cannot even fully imagine the delight Adam had when he woke up and God brought Eve down the aisle, so to speak, and presented her to Adam. You remember the day you got married, your deep excitement. This was a perfect context. It was the first woman and there was nothing wrong at all. No guilt, no shame, nothing. Can you imagine? He must've been just thrilled. That's a very poor word even to describe it, I think. I have to read something that talks about this. Ever been alone? I mean really alone. For a long time, there is nothing worse than aloneness. It is sheer terror. That's why a solitary confinement borders on the cruel and unusual and why it is so effective in breaking down a POW. The Lord had said it all. It is not good for man to be alone. And Adam knew it too, after he named the animals. So the Lord finished the sentence with a great promise. I will make a helper suitable for him. And he did. The creator didn't just snap his fingers and come up with something. In the words of scripture, he fashioned her. He sculpted her. He paid attention to the lines. He worked at it. He created a work of art, mentally. emotionally, physically, and spiritually. She was a helpmate suitable. Ladies, take no offense here. Helpmate is no inferior title. It describes no lesser being. As we often say at the conferences where Linda and I serve on the speaker team, it is not helper in the way we might say plumber's helper. The term says more about the one needing help than it does about the one helping. And we do need a lot of help, men. Let's just admit it. It implies the man is incomplete. He needs help. The God of the universe loves to describe himself in similar terms. He is our help in times of trouble. Helper is a majestic term and the woman is a helper suitable or corresponding to the man. That's another way of saying she is no duplicate, not the same, not a clone. A woman is not a man with redesigned plumbing. There is no redundancy here. She is woman, glorious, beautiful, creative, and different. Adam did not need a buddy, a fishing partner, or another guy to race elephants with. Man needed woman. She is the rest of the story. I love that. I really love that. We especially need help with relationships. Because we as men, we're good just kind of doing things together and chatting about something. while we do it. Oh, we like, we enjoy some deep conversations for sure, but the women, well, that's a different story. They like to discuss all the details. So for you as ladies, here's a few things that, two things that you can do that will specifically help your husbands. Number one, clearly communicating To your husband, your desires, your fears, and your concerns. And I know for a fact that sometimes we don't want to hear them. But you need to talk to your husband about those things because he doesn't see the things you see. He's crippled, he's handicapped without you sharing those things with him. And I have to say, men, you must create a context where she's free to do that. Many women are afraid to share the deepest things of their heart with their husband. A number of women have told my wife that over the last number of years. Many women are afraid to share their deepest thoughts, but you as a couple are one, or you're supposed to be. You're supposed to share everything honestly with each other. You must join forces in the battle of life because as I said, without the full input of both, there's a bit of a limp. There's something we're missing. And for me, my testimony is that in our marriage, there used to be much more of a limp. We enjoyed each other, most of the time, like probably most of you do, but there was times, there was enough conflict, not fully resolved, though I didn't know it, that we weren't just one. And when I finally began to listen, to listen, then she started talking. And I found out there was some things I had been missing. And this especially relates to you relating to your children. We as men, God has given us the calling to set order in our home, to keep order, to bring discipline and all those things. That is what we're called to do. But sometimes we get too harsh. And our wives will help us with that if we listen. It's one of the very specific areas where my wife helped me. And oftentimes when they, if they dare challenge us at all, when we are in the wrong, we're offended, we feel belittled, we feel disrespected because we're proud. The second thing you can do as women is lift him up by giving him affirmation. And I talked about this the other night. You as single ladies can do this for the man in your life. You can do it for your dads. By the way, in the back of my Bible, there's some notes from one of my daughters. They're gonna be there as long as I don't lose them. Because she did that. My wife does that for me, but my daughters also do that for me in a powerful way. When I read, I would not be able to read these notes to you without crying because of the way that it lifts. And one of the things she said in one of them one time, she said, dad, don't become tired in the work you're doing, it's worth it. Those are the kinds of things you can do for your husband, you can do it for your brothers, you can do it for your fathers, you can do it even in the youth group relationships, cross gender, if it's done appropriately. It can be absolutely powerful. Proverbs 31, 11 to 12, this is in the ESV, the heart of her husband. safely or her husband trusts in her and he will have no lack of gain she does him good and not harm all the days of her life and the following verse has gone to describe the many ways that a godly woman contributes to the household so many ways but i think Well, I shouldn't value one over the other, but I think one of the biggest things is what I just read, where she simply, he can trust her. As long as she, when she spends the money, he doesn't have fear that it's just gonna, she's gonna drain the account. And she is there to do him good. She is there to support him. She's there to push him up and forward. She can trust him. But she keeps the family well-clothed. Aren't you glad, men, that you don't have to do all the clothing shopping for the children and try to figure out all the sizes they need? Oh, it would boggle my mind. And maybe a few of you do that. I've done that with our older sons already some, but generally speaking, she keeps those details in place, and I'm so thankful, so thankful for that. Women were created with what is necessary to complement the man in every way that he is deficient. We as men have blind spots, we really do. And again, as I said before, mainly as it relates to relationships. Did I make it clear yet that you need your wives? Did I make it clear that you have a valuable purpose? I hope so. All right, we need to move on here. Purpose number two, to be the bearer and nurturer of children. Just a few thoughts on this. Genesis 3.20, the man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. And God has given women the very unique and amazing opportunity to be the bearer of life in our homes. Not an easy job, bearing children, giving birth to children. But what a unique privilege God has given you to do that. It really is incredible. And again, as I said the other evening, women are gifted with all the tools it takes to nurture those little tiny babies from day one of birth until they're older. And we as dads have more and more input into their lives as they're a few years old and so forth. We notice this inherent gift of compassion and caring for children, even in the story of Pharaoh's daughter, where Moses was placed in that water, and Pharaoh's daughter came by to wash, and it says, when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it, and when she had opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the babe wept, and she had compassion on him. This was a Hebrew child. But Pharaoh's daughter couldn't help herself. Oh, she said, here's a little baby crying. He needs help. I think that's beautiful. The natural compassion she had for that baby. Even if it was a Hebrew child who by law should have been drowned in the river. And then we have the story of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1 and 2. her deep desire for children, her longing. And in her case, not only for a child, but she wanted a son so that she could give him to the ministry for God. Amazing story again of a mother's longing to bear children and to contribute to God's kingdom in that way. And again, do I have to say, Probably not, but I will anyway. There is absolutely nothing that you can do that has as much value as raising your children. It's okay, I know women have some jobs in our culture these days. Women don't normally have careers, but sometimes we contribute. My wife, over the years, always had some kind of a little thing at home she did that contributed. She just enjoyed that, different things, baking and sewing quilts and things like that. But her primary calling was to our eight children. and she did it well. Purpose number three, to be a keeper of the home. In Titus 2 verses three through five are several very familiar verses. the aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh godliness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands. to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. And you as older women are especially gifted with the opportunity and may I say the wisdom to teach younger ladies how to love their husbands, how to love their children. And the Bible says you are to do that. Don't hesitate when you have the opportunity. I told one of the older men, oh, I forget who I was talking to at the time, yesterday here at the breakfast, that I enjoy hearing from older men, especially that are a generation older than me, and I know they have a lot of wisdom, but see, they're so wise, they've learned to keep their mouth shut. And so we miss out on so much of their wisdom. Now, part of that is not good. He said, yeah, we learn to keep our mouth shut because we get burned every once in a while when we say the wrong thing, but we need to hear the wisdom of the older. Without it, we as young ones, younger ones, are missing a lot. There's a lot of things we can avoid. No matter how hard men may try, They cannot be a nurturer to young children like the women can. And I mentioned this the other evening as well. No matter how hard they try, they just aren't quite as good at keeping the house. Now we can cook, we can maybe even do some baking and we can wash dishes. I dry the dishes for my wife some in this season of life. That's fine and that's good. But they are especially gifted with keeping the house. God has given them that gift. And the Bible says that is their calling to be keepers in the home. And when they do that, then we can do our calling better. These days there's kind of a movement or a lot of thought about, you know, that men need to be kind of equal contributors in the household. Maybe in the culture, the world in which many people live, it's necessary because the husband and wife are both gone all day long. So maybe they're forced to do some of that. But let's not get caught up in this thing that we have to try to be the same as the women. We were made to be different. And so let's accept that. Let's embrace that. The man should be, generally speaking, the primary provider of income in the home and Again, there's exceptions even in the Mennonite world these days. I know of men. I know several men that would not have to work Because their wife makes a lot more money than they do But I'd like to read you something And this is based on Research and stories and whatnot in this book his brain her brain They talk about this this thing of that area for our husbands providing for us and protecting Us is built into their DNA if we try to usurp or maximize what our husband this is speaking to you as women now if we try to usurp or maximize what our husband is built and designed to do we put our marriage in peril And this is Barb, the wife of this couple writing here. And then he says, Barb is right. Our marriages are in peril if we ignore God's design in this area. Consider the following documented outcomes when provisions and security are out of balance in marriage. These are facts, statistics. Women divorce men who are not ambitious and do not work steadily at good jobs. A husband rarely feels good when his wife supports him financially. Couples with ambitious wives or those who have increasing incomes are more likely to divorce. Young, highly educated, and occupationally successful fathers in dual career marriages are less satisfied with their work, their marriages, and personal lives than similar men who are the sole provider. When both spouses work, couples report it is easier in the marriage when the wife's career is less successful than the husband's. Most women hold this view because number one, they believe their husband's work is more important to his sense of self, and that is true. Number two, they need their husband to be successful. Couples will go to great lengths to conceal a high earning wife's income to protect the husband's status as primary provider. These are statistics. There's reasons why God has said what he has in his word. A godly, Modest woman is stunningly beautiful in a way that the woman of the world can never be. God bless you ladies, as you're willing to fill that role. I am going to read quickly, yeah, this is the closing. 31 attributes of a woman. I'll try to make it quick. This is not from me, I'm not sure where I found this. She handles herself gracefully. She loves and embraces children. She speaks with wisdom. She has discretion. She is able to be fully trusted by her husband. She desires to be her husband's most faithful companion and closest confidant. She joyfully embraces being a woman and abhors feminism. She can manage her home well. She is diligent to accomplish anything entrusted to her care. She is firm in her convictions and desires to teach younger women the virtues of godly womanhood through her example and instruction. She desires for and encourages men to be leaders in their families, churches, and society. She desires to build up and strengthen her home. She desires to raise and train the next president, not be the next president. She believes children are a blessing from God, not a burden. She has a humble spirit. She looks up to, follows, and respects her husband as the leader of the home. She has a quiet spirit and influences others through godly conduct. She desires to be a mother of nations, not a leader of nations. She has a heart to open her home to hospitality and service to others. She cares for the saints. She is capable and skilled to clothe her family and decorate her home. She desires to model the examples of holy women in scripture. She has skills to prepare meals for her family and bless others through hospitality. She's able to teach her children with practical life instruction. She desires to please her husband and do him good all his life. She's able to manage a business from her home. She can be trusted with wise discretion and spending. She cares for the poor and needy. She clothes herself in modesty and good works and does not desire to attract or distract men's eyes. She has a kind and helpful attitude. And she is prudent, intelligent, productive, skillful, wise, and has understanding. This is not a list to try to completely snow you under with ideals. But I believe this is what you as women are. Let's kneel for prayer. Thank you, God, this morning for the wisdom of your word. and the blessing of being able to read it and study it and understand it at least to some degree so that we can see the beauty of all that you created. And by your help, we can experience that beauty in our relationships. And I just thank you for what you have created in women, what they bring to our world and our lives, our homes, our marriages, to our children, to our communities. Thank you for the powerful influence that they are in so many ways. Thank you, God, for the many godly women in this room. Help them to be humble, to be submissive, to be gentle, and yet at the same time to fully appreciate the value you have given them and for what they bring in our homes. In Jesus' name, amen.