Right Relationship Satisfies Our Need for Companionship

I confess, at an early age I was interested in girls.  In elementary school I was interested in girls like Sue Risdon, she was cute and good at 4-square, tetherball, and kickball.  In Jr High it was Britt Siebels, she was cute and one of the best female athletes in school.  My childhood “girlfriend” days ended in Jr High when I went to a school dance and realized that boyfriends and girlfriends actually danced together.  This was too much pressure for me and so I abandoned “girlfriends”.  My interest in girls didn’t end, I still had girls I was interested in, girls had my attention, I looked forward to having a girlfriend and being married throughout high school and college.  Why such an ingrained interest in girls?  Why, for all of us, such an innate interest in the opposite sex?

READ: Genesis 2:18-23

A WOMAN is God’s provision for a MAN’S loneliness!  Light was good (Gen. 1:4).  Earth and sea were good (Gen. 1:10).  Vegetation and plants were good (Gen. 1:12).  The sun and moon were good (Gen. 1:18).  Fish and birds were good (Gen. 1:21).  Beasts, livestock, and things that creep on the ground were good (Gen. 1:25).  Everything God created was very good (Gen. 1:31).  The pattern of goodness is broken in Genesis 2:18 when it says man being alone is “NOT GOOD”.  ALONE = state of being without COMPANIONSHIP.  Our individual loneliness is what sparks our interest in relationship.  It is our inherent loneliness that causes our interest in a guy or in a girl.  Nobody teaches us, “this is a girl and you should be interested in one.”  We are made alone, causing a magnetism toward the opposite gender.  What is God’s solution for man’s loneliness?

GOD PROVIDES for our loneliness (Gen. 2:18) – Because God is relational, He knew that without a companion, man would experience loneliness and that loneliness was not good, so HE provided the perfect companion saying, “I will make him a helper”!  Man did not go find a companion for himself, God “made” and “brought (a female companion) to the man”.  Dating Tip #1:  Don’t obsess over trying to ATTRACT a companion (with appearance, charm, etc), but rather put your energy into becoming the PERSON God wants you to be and finding the PURPOSE He has for your life.  It’s easy to begin dating wrongly or prematurely desperate to attract a companion.  Instead trust, that at just the right time, God will provide just the right companion for your life.

God created man in need of HELP and woman to be a HELPER (Gen. 2:18) – A woman is man’s missing rib.  Guys, our attraction is a search for our missing “rib”.  Girls, your attraction is a search for the one who’s “rib” you possess.  Here’s a secret to finding someone even better than a “soulmate”, a “ribmate” . . . Dating Tip #2: Look for a companion who will HELP you become the person God wants you to be and fulfill the purpose He has for your lives TOGETHER.  Guys, being God’s person and fulfilling His purpose for your life by yourself is a lonely task.  Look for someone who can help you be the person God called you to be and to fulfill the purpose God has for your life.  Ladies, look for a man who you sense is the person God wants him to be and is living out a purpose in life that you want to help be a part of.  Marital companionship is not about our happiness, it’s about reflecting the image of God through relationship together (Eph. 5:22-33)!

God makes the perfect FIT to satisfy our loneliness (Gen. 2:18) – Puzzle pieces are all individually different and unique.  We can try to force puzzle pieces together that were not intended to go together or we can do the work of finding piece’s that, when they come together, fit perfectly.  Dating Tip #3: Don’t pursue a companion that matches your PREFERENCES, pursue a companion who COMPLEMENTS you.  The word “fit” in Hebrew means “opposite” or “counterpart”.  Male and female companions who complement one another are ones that when they are brought together complete and perfect one another.  When God brings a marriage companion to us we can trust that they will be a perfect “fit” for us (just like puzzle pieces made for one another)!

CONCLUSION
God created humanity as individual males and females with an inherent interest in the opposite gender and marital companionship.  By pursuing this relationship according to God’s design, we can experience right relationship with the opposite gender within marital companionship we are all so interested in finding!  Are you trying to satisfy your own loneliness or are you trusting God to satisfy your loneliness with companionship?