I saw a t-shirt yesterday at the store. It was a Father’s Day promotional bargain item and read, “Keep your hands off my tools and my daughter.”
It gave me mixed feelings immediately. While I admire the notion of respecting both a man’s tools and his daughter, the pairing of the two sat uneasily with me. I often loan out my tools, but I would never loan out my daughter. I often lose my tools, but I would never lose my daughter.
Secondly, the shirt struck me like those photos on Facebook of fathers holding shotguns between their daughter and their prom date like some kind of Rambo (and usually their trigger discipline is awful, and you can tell a lot about a man by how he holds a gun). And I learned a long time ago that dogs that bark rarely bite. When that young man is alone with your daughter to and from prom, he doesn’t care two cents about your photo-op prop and probably has nothing to worry about.
There was also a bit of me that felt offended, as though a man would get close enough to touch my daughter before I – or she – ended him. You don’t have to hover over your daughter with a shotgun when you give her morals and teach her to shoot her own gun.
But third, the term daughter caught my eye. Daughter. Daughter. Daughter. It was singular. I guess that’s normal for an age when families are content with a child or two. But immediately I thought about the faces of my daughters…plural. I have three. And a wife.
And then, I thought, “I am proud to be a keeper of women.”
Oh, might God bless the father with many daughters (as he blesses the barren and the single). What an honor it is to be the keeper of women!
I smiled as I thought of the phrase in that store…keeper of women. If for no other reason, I knew it would cause the feminists and beta-males to either retreat to their safe spaces or rage in indignation. Thankfully, neither feminists nor beta-males can fight worth a toot and the tantrums of both are mildly entertaining.
Yes, I am a keeper of women.
When God asked Cain in Genesis 4:9 where his brother was, Cain asked him, “What am I? Am I my brother’s keeper?”
The answer, of course, was “Yes, you are.”
You see, a father is not the keeper of women like Carole Baskins is a keeper of tigers. He is not a collector of women. He is not an exploiter of women. He is a keeper of women.
I am my women’s keeper. Are you? Will you aspire to be?
The feminazis and soy-drinkers will be offended, perhaps upset at the notion that women need to be “kept.” I can hear them say it’s a sexist notion. But is it?
Only valuable things are kept. Everything else is traded, bartered, or given away. Almost all of my possessions can be traded if the price is right. I spend money on things I want and give away some every week. I have bonded with certain pickups like some people do dogs, but have still sold them when the time was right. Even guns can be traded. In fact, all but a few objects I’m willing to part with.
But my women? Oh, no. They will not be parted with. They will not be sold. They will not be bartered. They will be kept until it is time for them to be kept by someone else.
Women are worthy of being kept, you see. Women are more worthy to be kept than anything besides salvation, which is thankfully kept secure by Jesus for us in Heaven (or else we would lose it).
I am a keeper of women because the Bible says that they are the weaker vessel (1 Peter 3:7). Let the heathen rage (Psalm 2:1), but that is what God’s Word says, and it’s true though every man is a liar (Romans 3:4). I would say “Might God help any man who tried to hurt one of my women” but the fact is He wouldn’t. Anyone trying to hurt my women would find themselves suffering under the wrath of God dispensed by his servant as though calling fire from heaven. My men (my two boys) might be left to defend themselves on occasion to teach them character and fisticuffs, but I will keep my women from so much as a scratch.
I am a keeper of women because the Bible says they are especially susceptible to ‘old wives tales’ and false teachers (2 Timothy 3:6). Paul warned the young pastor of this and admonished him to keep a careful eye. This means that philosophies, ideologies, doctrines, and teachings given to my women will be closely inspected and vetted by me as a sacred obligation. I am confident in their ability to discern error, but I am also confident it is my responsibility to doubly ensure it.
I am a keeper of women because the Bible says that fathers should be guarding their chastity and watching it closely (Deuteronomy 22:21). I am ultimately responsible for the hearts and purity of the women I keep. Mothers determine fashion choices, but fathers are to determine modesty choices. And they also are to determine the suitability of any potential spouses (Jeremiah 29:6). In my household, asking for my daughter’s hand in marriage is not a technicality; it is a prerequisite that might be answered with an emphatic – and respected – no.
I am a keeper of women because wives are more precious than jewels (Proverbs 31:10-31). I am a keeper of women because men are to give their lives for them (Ephesians 5:25). I am a keeper of women because they are God’s instruments to give life, give love, and give help (Genesis 2:18).
Look around at the world we live in. Look at the young women on the street, who are clearly not kept. They are not kept safe. They are not kept modest. They are not kept chaste.
Look at the wives in the market, who clearly are not kept. They are not kept lovingly. They are not kept closely. They are not kept godly.
The problem in this world is not women who are unruly, but men who are unmanly. They have had the masculinity beaten out of them by school systems that wouldn’t let them play roughly, that wouldn’t foster their manliness, who told them to be ashamed of their aggressiveness and to repress their competitive natures. Our culture has named every uniquely masculine part of their personality and character as wrong, oppressive, or “toxic.” In doing so our men have been effeminate, weak, submissive, ineffectual, un-protective, docile, and tame when they should be masculine, strong, leading, industrious, protective, aggressive, and independent.
Dads, this Father’s Day, I encourage you to be a keeper of women. Keep them closely. Keep them safe. Keep them warm. Keep them fed. Keep them protected. Keep them cared for. Keep them from dangerous men and rebellious women. Keep them loved.
Keep them.
