A Woman's Value Series

Two old guys were walking along the shoreline of a lake when a frog came hopping up to them.

Creaking with age, one of the old-timers slowly bent down and scooped up the frog in his hands. As he stood there gazing at the frog, fascinated by its ugliness, the frog croaked, “Hey, mister! I'm not really a frog. If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess who will do anything your heart desires.”

Startled, the old man slipped the frog into his pocket and headed on down the shoreline. For the longest time he and his friend trudged along in silence.

“Well?” his buddy finally blurted out. “You gonna kiss it?”

“Naw, I guess not,” the first codger replied. “At my age, I think I'll have more fun with a talking frog.” (Roby Mitchell, Christian Appeal; www.PreachingToday.com)

Sometimes, we men don’t fully appreciate the value of a woman, especially the one that we’re married to. So on this Mother’s Day, I want us to examine the true worth of a woman. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 2, Genesis 2, where we find out why God gave us women and the immense value He places on them.

Genesis 2:18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone.”

Up until now, God has declared every aspect of his creation “good.” Genesis 1:3 God saw that the light was good. Genesis 1:10 God saw that [the dry land] was good. Genesis 1:12 God made the plants and saw that it was good. Genesis 1:18 God made the sun, the moon and the stars and saw that it was good. Genesis 1:21 God made the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and saw that it was good. Genesis 1:31 God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

But here, God makes a man and He says, “It is NOT good.” Why? What is not good? It is not good that the man should be alone. And herein lies the first reason why God made a woman.

GOD MADE A WOMAN TO BE WITH HER MAN.

God made a woman to keep him company and to be his companion.

The fact is we men don’t do too well without such a companion. Researchers from the Universities of Utah and South Carolina recently collected data from 148 different studies, conducted over three decades, involving more than 300,000 people, and discovered that what God said here is literally true: “It is not good for man to be alone.” People who have no social life are 50 percent more likely to die early than those who are well connected. (“Being Lonely ‘Can Kill You’, research Shows,” Telegraph.co.uk, 9-14-10; www.PreachingToday.com)

In 1990, researchers at the University of California found that unmarried middle-aged men face twice the risk of dying within 10 years as their married counterparts. (Associated Press, 10-3-1990)

It is not good for man to be alone.

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell tells the strange story of Christopher Langan, a genius with a staggering IQ of 195. (For some perspective, Einstein's IQ was 150). During high school, Langan could ace any foreign language test by skimming the textbook 2-3 minutes before the exam. He got a perfect score on his SAT, even though at one point he fell asleep.

Even so, Langan never used his exceptional gifts and ended up working on a horse farm in rural Missouri. According to Gladwell, Langan never had a community to help him capitalize on his gifts.

Gladwell summarizes the story of Langan in one sentence: “[Langan] had to make his way alone, and no one – not rock stars, not professional athletes, not software billionaires, and not even geniuses – ever makes it alone.” (Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers, Little, Brown and Company, 2008, p. 115; www.PreachingToday.com)

It is not good for man to be alone, so God gave him a woman to be WITH him. God made a woman for relationship, for companionship, and that’s where the rub comes sometimes in male-female relationships, because according to Genesis 2:15, God made a man to work!

The man wants to work. The woman wants to talk; and sometimes, those two things don’t go together. So we need to learn to accommodate each other on these things. Women need to respect their husbands’ passion for work, and men need to respect their wives’ need for time together.

Ephesians 5:33 puts it this way: “However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” Husbands, love your wives – that’s the relationship part. Wives, respect your husbands, especially his work.

If every couple would follow this simple advice from God’s Word, then they would solve about 95% of their relationship issues. The problem is the wife feels unloved at times, so she disrespects her husband. She resents his time away at work and begins to harp at his faults. Then when the husband feels a lack of respect from his wife, he backs off and ignores her. He shuts down and doesn’t show her the love she needs. Well, that just causes her to withhold respect even more, which causes him to withhold still more love until the couple finds their relationship in a vicious, downward spiral from which many never recover.