For several years an article has circulated on the Internet entitled among other things, “Slave Labor.” It was actually an extract from a 1954 Home Economics textbook for high school girls. The article presented the housewife’s list of duties as preparing the home, dinner, and children so that the arrival of her husband is a singular event. It ends with, “Try to make your home a place of peace and order where your husband can relax”. In short, she was to treat him as a king arriving home to his castle.

Those women who would consider such a suggestion as indeed an invitation to “slave labor” or, as a leading feminist called it, “a pleasant concentration camp” would not welcome Debi Pearl’s book, Created to Be His Help Meet. Indeed, the author herself admits to being tempted to skirt not-so-politically-correct issues that would cause her to lose sales. Her husband responded, “If God thought it was important enough to inspire it as part of His Word to us, then you should include it.”

Herein is the first and great quality of this book. It is based on Scripture without fear of what others may thing, or of being called ‘old fashioned’. Debi studied the entire Bible, looking for what God taught about the role of women. It is based on the principle of design, that God made women, especially married women, with a special, vital role in the world. That role is to be a helpmeet to her husband. If she tries to take on his role, she will not only damage their marriage and home, but will be frustrated for missing God’s design for her as well.

Debi states, “It took four years, thousands of hours, many tears, revisions and distractions, but I finally finished my book. I had no idea God had so much to say to us ladies until I began going through God’s Word verse by verse, writing the different sections of Created to Be His Help Meet.”

The book is based on this idea: “Quit trying to make your husband into the man you think he should be and, instead, allow God to make you into the woman He designed you to be. The result will often be, surprisingly, that God will use you to change him. If you do indeed treat him like a king, he may treat you like the queen. But this is not your purpose."

Every such book can sound theoretical and there are plenty of stories to illustrate how a person’s situation is an exception to the rule. Debi Pearl does not skirt these problems but answers tough questions coming from difficult marriage situations. She also deals with intimate subjects in a discrete but clear manner.

The book is currently in its 8th printing in less than 4 years. Though some churches have banned it (!), the letters to the Pearls’ No Greater Joy Ministry telling of marriages that have been transformed as a result of reading and applying this book, speak volumes about its genuineness as a tool for women to see themselves as God designed them, not as inferior or superior, but as unique.