Michael Pearl - Created To Need A Help Meet: A Marriage Guide for Men

When I first decided to write Created to NEED a Help Meet, I asked my happy wife what one thing I had done correctly and should pass along to other husbands. Her answer was immediate and straight to the point: You let me be your help meet. You pulled me alongside you in everything you did. You stretched me. Participation made me grow as a personmade my life rich and rewarding and caused me to be a better mama.

You say, What is your qualification to teach us to be good husbands?

Ive made one of the happiest, most cheerful, thankful, joyful ladies on this earth who thinks Im the grandest thing in all the world. That gives me the confidence to believe I have something to offer.

But my most enlightening marriage material comes from the many letters and emails I have received from husbands and wives over the past 17 years. The daily stream of correspondence reveals common patterns that either lead to ruin or that heal and grow a marriage into something heavenly. It can almost be viewed as a science: the laws of sowing and reaping are extremely reliable. A marriage grows till it soars or it deteriorates till its damned. In your correspondence, you have shown me a thousand times that a marriage can be saved and blossom into something beautiful.

In addition, I have been a student of the words of God for the past fifty-four years, spending hours searching out every subject, and the husband and wife relationship has always been of particular interest to me. Through my experience and that of others I have found that God is the best marriage counselor on earth, and beyond it as well. After all, he who imagined and conceived of marriage, with all its complexities, will best know how to make the most of it.

The theme of this book is unique, having never been the subject of any book preceding it. Sir, even though you think you are quite autonomous and complete in yourself, you were created to need a help meet. Marriage is Gods laboratory for the perfecting of the human race. It is a recapitulation of the entire human experience, distilling the conflict and triumph of the ages down to a very personal, individualized experiencea test of all that makes us human. In marriage each of us has the opportunity to grow and develop into something much higher and nobler than the self-seeking ends native to one person alone.

Marriage is both the mount of temptationwhere we have the opportunity to feed our self-centered naturesand the pinnacle of a paradise restored, where we become heirs together of the grace of life and develop the nature of a savior and a priest. Marriage is heavens boot camp, the terminal of our future destiny, the place where we grow small and inward or become large with mercy and sacrifice.

In contrast to my introduction, this book is not philosophical. It is so practical you will squirm with embarrassment and hope your wife doesnt read that line.

The Three Kinds of Men

The two halves of this book are so different, they could have been written as two separate books. In the first half we examine all the ways in which we men need a help meet. In the second half we look at the three kinds of men, as presented in my wifes book, Created to Be His Help Meet. But my approach is much more masculine and in your face. You will discover that by nature you come to marriage, as well as life, with certain strengths and weaknesses. You will come to know yourself, and you will learn to temper your natural excesses and strengthen your natural weaknesses. Most of all, you will learn the part your wife plays in this maturing process. You will learn how to make her your most suitable helper.