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When I met Shaun for the first time, I was working for the KAIT news station and he was working at the Crowley’s Ridge Nature Center.
We did a live shot at the Nature Center for the morning show about boating education and safety and he showed off some of the animals. When we left, my photographer and I were talking about the morning, but I was mainly talking about the tall, handsome man with a zest for life and a beautiful smile.
It had been such a fun morning and it made getting up at 2:30 a.m. worth it for sure. I told Keith, my photographer, that when I married, I wanted it to be someone like Shaun. Someone that was fun, loved to talk and joke, easy to get along with and of course, looks don’t hurt… lol.
Years later, we struck up a conversation and our hearts didn’t stand a chance.
What we have is more than love.
It’s more than the tingly feeling or the flutter in my heart when he walks into the room.
It’s more than the laughter we share, our similarities in the things we love and the commitment to each other we honor.
I am his helpmate.
God designed me for a purpose.
Yes, apart from Shaun, I was independent. But with my husband, and God at the center, I am complete.
“The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him…’For Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.’ That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” (Genesis 1:18-25).
From the very bone of man, God created a suitable helper for man – a woman.
My husband likes to do things by himself because he’s done it that way for so long. So finally, one day, I had to say, ‘You have to let me help you, that’s what I’m here for. It will make things faster and easier with the two of us working together. I can do more than just cook and clean.’
So… when we work on the farm, I work too. He picks up rocks, I pick up rocks. He puts up a fence, I put up a fence. He delivers puppies, I deliver puppies. He plants trees, throws sod, shovels dirt… me too. Once he even exclaimed, “I should have let you help me a long time ago. This is way faster.”
We are a team because God designed it that way.
My words fall short to express my gratitude to the Lord for putting Shaun and I together. Just as God planned for Eve to be the perfect fit for Adam, God designed me for my Shaun – my love.
Today, let us recognize the gift we have in our spouse.
Women love your husbands. Serve them with gladness. Remind them of their amazing talents, hard work and show them respect.
Men, remind her today she is your one and only, love her as Christ loves the church, and let her help you.
And if you are not married, know this: God has a plan. I didn’t always have this love, this marriage, this team of us, it took a long time to get here. But it was God’s perfect timing.
Seek Christ as your first love.
Copyright © 2020 by Yalanda Merrell. No part of this article may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from Lifeword.org.