It's Not Good to be Alone!

I got married and started my family at a very young age. When I married my first wife I was 18 and she was only 16. We were married for 8 years and had 3 girls, who I love with all my heart. Our marriage failed for many reasons, but the main reason it failed is because God was not in the center of our relationship. I will be brutally honest with you! I chose my first wife for the same reason many men choose a bride. She was beautiful and I was consumed with fleshly desire for her. After the marriage failed, I spent the next 4 years of my life as a single father doing the best I could to raise 3 little girls. I had primary custody of the girls and their mother spent weekends and summers with them. I must say these were the most difficult years of my life. In Genesis God says it is not good for man to be alone!

Genesis 2:18 ESV Then the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.

In Genesis 2, God brought the creatures to Adam to see what he would call them. This act of naming was not just a matter of labeling, but a demonstration of Adam's dominion over creation and a way to show him the difference between himself and the animals. It also served as a test to see if Adam could find a suitable helper from among the creatures, ultimately leading to the creation of Eve. You really have to think deeply about this task to understand the real reason God asked Adam to name all of the animals of creation. God could have easily done this himself, with just his words he spoke them all in to existence, so why did God need Adam's help? The truth is God didn't need Adam's help. What I believe God was doing was teaching Adam a lesson. Naming a creature requires that Adam recognize that creature as God's creation and that the creature has a role to play in the world God created. As a result of getting to know the all of God's creatures it became clear that none of them were like Adam. None of them could be a suitable helper, which resulted in the creation of Eve, because it was not good for man to be alone.

Genesis 2: 20-23 ESV The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

It was not good for Adam to be alone and it wasn't good for me either. In May of 1997 I married Joyce Hendren. Joyce and I have always put God first in our relationship. I will be the first to tell you that she makes me a better man. I have a tendency to be a bit ornery. To some I may seem to be a difficult husband, but I love my wife more than I do myself. I love her with all my heart and just like the bible says I would give up my life up to protect her.

 Ephesians 5: 25-30 ESV Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.