October 3; Men: How To Decide What Woman To Marry?
MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:
365 Daily Bible Verse &
One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful

Chapter Ten: Deciding 3 October

The woman [Rebekah] was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever slept with her.

She went down to the spring, filled her jar and came up again.

The servant [of Abraham, the father of Isaac] hurried to meet her and said,

“Please give me a little water from your jar.”

“Drink, my lord,” she said, and quickly lowered the jar to her hands

and gave him a drink. After she had given him a drink, she said,

“I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have had enough to drink.”

So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water, and drew enough for all his camels. Without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful.

Genesis 24:16-21

Check Mate

Jack & Charmaine

Few decisions last a lifetime. Deciding on a mate: that one woman– is one of those life-changing decisions.

The “who” to marry for men follows the “if” to marry. We males can take our sweet time about this life-altering event. Our biological clocks do not have alarms to wake us to the Biblical admonition found in Genesis 2:18, The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Your Business Professor waited and searched a long, long time. I might have been overly selective. Maybe. Or maybe I was a jerk waiting upon the Lord. Or just a jerk.

This is where The Creator says about us jerks, It is not good for man to be alone, except for this one. This creep has to grow up first. Then I’ll hook him up with his helper.

This took a long time. But it did have an advantage: After my slothful delay I married my Trophy Wife, first. Others would tell me that this is cheaper too.

“Marriage is a duel to the death which no man of honour should decline,” G. K. Chesterton, Christian apologist.

Men, it seems, all grow up. Some before marriage; others after. Usually. We need some maturity and judgment to make the call on whom to court.

Secular marriage manuals often have a long punch list. They read like a human resource binder with an exhaustive and exhausting outline of Knowledge Skills Abilities (KSAs).

Scripture gives some concise advice on ‘who’ she is and ‘what’ she does.

1. Church Tribe.
2. Church Accountability

Who is her Tribe? She should share a common Faith Tradition in a Church Tribe (Marketer Seth Godin would like this). Charmaine and I were once in ‘negotiations’ for an arranged marriage into a good Catholic family. The father declined citing that we were still protesting Protestants. We will look now into the Calvinist churchgoers. (Or maybe not. Good in-laws are well worth a Mass. Apologies to King Henry IV.)

Genesis gives additional guidance with another two-step selection process in Accountability. We can observe where she goes to church and how she behaves. The helpmeet should be virtuous and industrious.

Honor Books defines virtue as “moral goodness.” It is the,

Composite of all traits or qualities that are deemed good, right, and fitting for all persons in a particular culture. (God’s Treasury of Virtues, Honor Books, 1995, Introduction.)

Marry a virtuous, good girl. Virtue is nice; it is the opposite of vice. And remember: The Blood of Christ covers all sins and sinners and makes us new.

Does the woman work? Charles Kingsley writes in A Treasury of Contentment,

Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day which must be done, whether you like it or not.

Being forced to work, and forced to do your best will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know. (God’s Treasury of Virtues, Editor 1995)

Rebekah is our, well, model for goodness and work.  She is virtuous and industrious.  Gentlemen, when you find her, marry her.

As the irreverent wag said, the devil makes work for idle glands.

The woman [Rebekah] was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever slept with her… So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water, and drew enough for all his camels. Genesis 24:16 and 20

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