What the World Needs Are More Helpmeets

Women like my Mamaw are few and far between in 2025

So many shy from the term “helpmeet” in this day and age. It implies servitude, an outdated notion that leaves a bad taste in the mouth of those who grew up being told to crave the spotlight. You are special. You have talents. You are unique. God has great plans for you! We tell our children these things and they overshadow “helpmeet.” Being a helper is small and inconsequential. It’s too low to stoop towards. Don’t be a helper, be a doer, we tell our children.

But oh, to help. To soothe. To offer comfort in a moment of grief, to come alongside in busyness, or in joy. To be the extra set of hands in a crisis, or to be the person sought in celebration. That’s not a low calling— it is, rather, the highest.

My Mamaw understood this. She understood it, and she lived it out in contentment because she didn’t feel life was passing her by or that she was missing out. Mamaw was doing what she was designed to do, what the Lord Himself had called good. One of the phrases I remember her saying most often was, “I’d be pleased to.” She applied it to all sorts of things: fixing the hem of someone’s pants, delivering a meal to a sick shut-in, taking in a load of laundry for a working mother struggling to keep up, meeting a child at the bus stop after school and bringing them into her kitchen for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich until their momma made it home. She was the definition of a helpmeet— she met people where their need was, and she helped.

I learned so much from the days I spent by her side. In fact, as I look back, I continue to glean wisdom from her life. There were words that set me on my course, to be sure. She shared her knowledge as she worked, a constant stream of things I now wish I could play back to jog my memory, give me comfort, and understand in the context of my own life experiences. But mostly, it was just being near her that gave me an education in how to live your life in such a way that you conform to the pattern God uses to build His Kingdom through the women He has called by His Name.

As I’ve written about Mamaw these past weeks, I’ve received numerous messages and comments from woman— young women— bemoaning the fact that they are out there in the trenches, new wives, new mothers… and they’re on their own. Oh, sure, they have the internet. They have IG and FB and more pages and forums than you could ever tap. But they don’t have anyone in their kitchen, watching them knead bread and helping them gauge when they’re done. They don’t have anyone in their living room sitting with a cup of coffee, leaning in and giving them context and sharing experience about bedroom issues. They don’t have anyone— and they fell that lack.

Even as the world tells us that a woman who chooses to spend her days in service not for a paycheck, but for others has little to no value, there are so many crying out for the knowledge they long to gain. Even as nests empty and older women surrender their posts, giving themselves over to the lie that now they can contribute, now they can do something useful, there are so many looking around for someone to mentor them.

The answer here is simple: women need to see the value of a home calling as being at least equal to any other “job” they might hold. They need to be told that there is no shame in not being in the spotlight; rather, it is those who labor for the least accolades who can expect to be told “Well done, good and faithful servant.” How can a new couch, a summer getaway, or a bigger house compare to that?

I am proud to be a helpmeet. If you are, too, what steps are you taking to make sure the understanding of this high and holy calling echoes forward? Not just in your own home… your community at large? How are you passing on knowledge and experience? How are you encouraging those behind you on the journey? Like my Mamaw, those of us who believe that we have been entrusted with much should be pleased to bless those around us, and encourage others to take up the same yoke. This is how we ensure a legacy of Biblical womanhood for future generations to inherit.

In Christ,

Heather