Preparing to Be a Help Meet

De: Debi Pearl

Narrado por: Kristen Leonard

Being a good help meet starts long before marriage. It is a mindset, a learned habit, a way of life established as a young unmarried girl, or at least that's the way it should be. Nearly every wife will confess that the first year or two of married life was...how shall I say...a frustrating learning experience. Most girls spend plenty of time planning for their wedding, but make no preparation for the weeks and years to follow. Many wives are provoked to bitterness during the first year and never get over it. All this could so easily be avoided with simple instruction.

It was with good reason God said let the aged women teach the younger. Trial and error is not the best teacher when it comes to marriage. It is much less painful to learn beforehand what God has to say about your role as a help meet to that special man God will bring into your life. It is the older women who have experienced the joys of a good marriage whom God has appointed to pass along his instructions. That is what has been done in this new book Preparing to Be a Help Meet.

Preparing to Be a Help Meet contains six sweet love stories written by wives sharing their experiences about how God taught them to be the help meets they are today. Three of the stories are from wives that have been married more than 40 years. Three stories are by new brides who, before marriage, were trained to be the help meet God intended. All the love stories are beautiful and will show you how wonderful it is to walk together in God's light. In addition to the six personal testimonies, this book is full of short stories from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. The book consists of funny tales, ideas of how to gain a good man's attention, and even a tragic testimony. All teach important lessons! You will meet Grabbers and Hidden Flowers and discover how to avoid being either. The chapter on Antsy Babes will remind you why patience is so important. You will be warned as you hear other stories.

©2010 Michael Pearl, Debi Pearl (P)2011 No Greater Joy Ministries

Helpful

Although at some points I got very sad as I wondered where these people lived whose dads pulled out lists of questions and the guys called the dads and asked for permission. I mean I knew I heard of it but I never lived around that or experienced that kind of protection. What a gift to the girls who had that. I know God can restore all things and some things in life are just out of our control

Would recommend, but change a few things...

I like this book a lot. It adds to the original. In fact, I'd have married women read much of it, alongside the original.
That being said, I'd change two things:
1. The way the narrator quotes the Bible. Her tone changes. She can sound, I don't know...patronizing(?).
2. The attitude toward waiting until marriage. It is not biblical to see someone as born "pure." The Bible says we are born into sin and go through a process of purification with Christ. Calling a girl a "candy bar that had been licked" is not helpful to anyone, nor does it reflect the redeeming grace we see in the Bible. I know this attitude and that of the "Cinderella" story might sound good to tell 13-year-olds, but most people will make mistakes and need to not see themselves or their future spouses as licked candy bars. And, the moment you make a mistake, you're going to hate "Cinderella" and her "I did everything perfectly" attitude.
If I were to have young girls read this book, I'd probably have them skip that chapter, altogether.
Other than that, I would highly recommend!

An amazing book

For someone who has longed to be married from a very young age I can say that this book has helped me see singleness as a time of preparation. I am excited to be single for a while longer because I now have things I want to learn and goals I want to reach before marriage. It reminded me to wait on the Lord and to be content in every circumstance. 100/10 recommend to everyone.

Truth

Every girl needs to hear this. I would definitely say it's a must have.

Edifying!

Convicting and encouraging in many different ways that encompass all of life. The stories make the book very easy to get through as well as the engaging way Debi Pearl writes. I would enjoy going through this with other Christian women.
-Olivia