Help meet 2. Time and skill to nurture

In help meet 1, I established the fact that marriage  is God's idea and the spouse an help meet.

As I write this blog, I am overlooking my neighbours lawn. Well manicured, neat an absolute beauty! The adjacent fields are not as well groomed and desirable. It is not surprising though, given the time and skill invested to keep the lawn in this state. In the same way, it is easy to spot and appreciate the marriage that is well watered. All the houses on my street had the potential to radiate such beauty, they were designed to be! But how these turn out depend on the investment in time to cultivate and nurture the lawn . Ditto for our spouses.This blog is thus about time and skill investment in the help meet.

Time.
Time to discuss, to be there for each other, to reminisce, to laugh, to take a walk around the block, retire to bead early, read a book together...
Although it often seem that we have not got enough time in 24 hours to go through our list of to do. We must make time. How else can one nourish a relationship? How could one cultivate a lasting marriage fit for purpose without investing time together? If the field is starved of time to tend it, the weed would soon take over. The weed need no invitation.

Skill
There is the need to be skilful in the area of tending your help meet. In many professions there are allocated time for study leave, professional developments, online courses in addition to personal reflections in order to improve performance. I often wonder how we come to devote so much time to performance and increased productivity at work but not to our relationship.

These ideas are not new, consider this:
When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife.  Genesis 28:8.

this was a time of famine (Economic depression). Isaac and the wife had moved to a foreign land to sojourn. They probably were working extra hard, it must have been tasking to settle down. Some people in their stead would still be fighting over the decision to go to Egypt or Gerar.

They probably had a thousand and one reasons to be angry, fight or complain. But they were outside, Isaac laughing with Rebecca.!