I was listening to a sermon about preparing your kids for marriage the other night when the pastor said something that caught my attention. He said fathers are to protect their daughters until the day they are given in marriage. Sending them off into the world alone to fend for themselves and try to find a suitable husband is not the picture God gives us in the Bible of how a daughter should find a mate. With boys, the same is true, only in a different sense. Boys may go into the world to live on their own and make their way but when it is time for them to find a wife, God expects us parents to help our boys--not just leave them to their every whim and expect that it will all work out okay! I found this intriguing and also refreshing because it is what I have felt in my spirit for a while but didn't know how to put it. He used the example of Abraham finding a wife for Isaac and the care he took in making sure it was done right. Isaac was 40! Perfectly capable by our culture's standards, of finding his own mate, and yet, his Father helped him and at the end of the story, it says Isaac loved her.
Love, after all, is a choice.
I know I am simplifying it--there is much more that goes into all this than just a concerned parent, but really-- how much heartache could be avoided if fathers took seriously their commitment to protecting their children by helping them with the most important decision they will ever make?data:post.body
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I was listening to a sermon about preparing your kids for marriage the other night when the pastor said something that caught my attention. He said fathers are to protect their daughters until the day they are given in marriage. Sending them off into the world alone to fend for themselves and try to find a suitable husband is not the picture God gives us in the Bible of how a daughter should find a mate. With boys, the same is true, only in a different sense. Boys may go into the world to live on their own and make their way but when it is time for them to find a wife, God expects us parents to help our boys--not just leave them to their every whim and expect that it will all work out okay! I found this intriguing and also refreshing because it is what I have felt in my spirit for a while but didn't know how to put it. He used the example of Abraham finding a wife for Isaac and the care he took in making sure it was done right. Isaac was 40! Perfectly capable by our culture's standards, of finding his own mate, and yet, his Father helped him and at the end of the story, it says Isaac loved her. 
