[Forrest]

Titus 2:1 But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:

2:2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.

2:3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

2:4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

2:5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

My wife and I, under God’s leading, chose to home educate our children. (I’m glad we did.) By God’s grace all of our children love the Lord and serve Him. They have honored us in spite of our parental shortcomings. One of the big issues in some home education groups is that the “female” should be a “keeper at home” which has various applications among our friends.

Some believe it means no work, no school, or no activity outside the home. Individuals who follow this belief consider a young “unmarried” or “married” woman who works, attends college, or participates in ministry or certain activities outside the home is rebellious and not “submitting” to their God given authority. Keeper at home means keeper at home.

On the other hand, some of our friends allow their daughters to work, attend college, and participate in ministry or certain activities outside the home. (There is of course, counsel and instruction regarding safety issues and the importance of using discretion.) To them, “keepers at home” does not mean staying at home 24/7, sewing, doing craft work, and baking a loaf of bread every other day.

Personally, I'm grateful that my wife has always been able to stay at home, be the primary teacher of our children, and has loved and honored me now for 26 years. I fully realize that this is a very personal choice for each family and we have a Christian obligation to avoid being someone’s Holy Spirit. I am a big advocate of letting God direct people by His Spirit through the written word. And I’ve learned through the years to stop being so judgmental of those who don’t do things the way I do them. By God's goodness, we also learned the importance of letting our children become adults without the constant micro management of what they could and could not do.

I would appreciate your participation on this thread regarding your understanding of the Biblical teaching “keepers at home” and the things you’ve learned raising daughters. I realize this thread, like any, could become carnal, divisive, or mean spirited. Please avoid that. People are different and unless it’s a key doctrinal issue, we should allow each other to have a varying opinion without it turning into a fight.

I would like to expand my understanding of the words “keepers at home” (verse 5) by getting your feedback.

[greenbear]

Brother Forrest,

This passage comes to mind. It seems she runs her own "home based" business. I don't think she has to stay within the confines of her husband's property. She makes a decision to buy land for her family. She sells what she produces. She has a "charitable" ministry to the poor which she administers.

Proverbs 31:16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

Proverbs 31:18 She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.

Proverbs 31:20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.

[Forrest]

Originally Posted by greenbear

Brother Forrest,

This passage comes to mind. It seems she runs her own "home based" business. I don't think she has to stay within the confines of her husband's property. She makes a decision to buy land for her family. She sells what she produces. She has a "charitable" ministry to the poor which she administers.

Proverbs 31:16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

Proverbs 31:18 She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.

Proverbs 31:20 She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.

Greetings, sister. In regards to the words "keepers at home", I was discussing those verses in Proverbs 31 with my wife just last night. I would also add this verse:

Proverbs 31:24 She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.

[greenbear]

I missed that one , brother Forrest.

I realized that I essentially wrote a resume for the virtuous woman. That's kind of ironic. There must be a little "feminist" left in me yet.

Considering that I'm approaching my 400th post in 8 short weeks, I believe I will take heed of this verse:

Proverbs 31:27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.

and try to bring my daily average of posts down to a more respectable number. That could take a while.

You are a blessing, brother.

Jen

[Amanda S.]

While I get my thoughts together on this I'd like to share the part of the Scripture that has always been glaring to me -

"...that the word of God be not blasphemed."

So whatever our position I feel we should be careful that we be very thoughtful and prayerful when making this decision as it seems you are.

Hopefully tonight I can offer my 2 cents

[Amanda S.]

Keeper at home means keeper at home.

Well, what does "keeper at home" mean exactly? I've heard different people define what this means.

Oxford defines "keeper" as - 1 a person who manages or looks after something or someone. 3 an object which protects or secures another.

If one is defining "keeper" as a "stayer" then any time she leaves the home she is blaspheming God's Word.

If you are defining "keeper" as a caretaker as the dictionary defines and the KJV Bible appears to define "keeper" then this would allow one to do other things outside the home as long as they "looketh well to the ways of her household".

Consider these verses with the word keeper:

1Sa 17:20 And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to the trench, as the host was going forth to the fight, and shouted for the battle.

1Sa 17:22 And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage, and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren.

Ge 4:2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

I would find it hard to believe that these people never did anything but keep their post.

With the invention of the phone, tv, internet it is very easy to be a stayer at home but not a keeper at home. One can certainly be a "stayer at home" and be a pretty sorry caretaker.

Having said that though, the more a woman has commited to outside the home the less she is able to be a teacher, to love her husband, and to love her children.

I'd also like to throw this thought in...

24 She maketh fine linen, and selleth it;and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.

While she does seem to have a home based business, it also appears that the majority of the outside the home work of peddling her wares is delegated to a merchant.

[KingSolomon1611]

Keeper at home to me means I make my wife do everything in the home like cook, clean, wash the dishes, wash the clothes, wash the cars,kids and the neighbors' kids if the come across our lawn, obey me, read my Bible to me calling me lord as Sarah did unto Abraham and many other such like things....

HA HA HA I'm checking to see if there are any feminazis around here. I know that is way more than enough to cause one to have a heart attack.

Now that I got that joking little rant out of the way I'll just say that I'm in agreement with the comments posted above by the spiritual sisters above who seem to be tempted to usurp authority over the men here in this forum... LOL!!! Just joking again. No really though they did a good job explaining my position. My wife is a wonderful wife and a wonderful keeper of the home. She loves my babies and I love her so much for that. She and I tag team on reading the Bible to our smarter than me 5 year old daughter who can ask questions so deep that I often feel like I went to public school k-12. Wait a minute...I did that.

My wife is pregnant with our 3rd baby and we really were blind sided by this one. We have talked about maybe her finishing up her nursing degree she started a few years ago so that we could try to pay off our house in a few years rather than paying on it for around 20-25 more years. This 3rd one threw the brakes on that idea for a little while. My conviction for my wife has been before we had children I didn't mind her working. We both thought it would be best if she was a stay at home mother for the children once they came.

Before we were married she worked at a "Christian" day care. I would often come to visit her on my lunch breaks, start riots with the kids, wrestling matches and nearly got stoned to death by the other workers if I came to visit around nap time. Something that I saw that hurt me and made an impression on me was when I saw the mothers (sometimes the dads) dropping off the children. Some of the kids' hearts were broken when the mothers tried to leave. I observed that this annoyed some of the workers when the children "whined" for their mommies.

I thought that these little children are only expressing what is so natural and sincere from their little hearts and that is that they loved their mothers and didn't want to part from them. I thought how horrible it was for some mom to pay around $110 a week for a child care program who pays employees minimum wage (at the time $5.15) so the mother could go and make maybe $250-$500 per week. Children grow so fast. The time they have is so short. A parent will never get that time back. Why pay somebody to pay someone minimum wage to spend some of the most precious years of their children's life so they can go try to keep up with the Joneses, Smiths or whoever.

We are about to start home schooling with our daughter this year. We thought that this would be a big challenge since we also have a boy who just turned one in April and is a little demanding at times. Well God blessed us with this other one on the way and now we know he will have to help us home school. If there was an affordable Christian school we wouldn't mind send our girl there but our finances aren't the greatest at this present time.

My wife doesn't have the option of going out and getting employed at this time because she is too busy being a keeper of our home. I hope I didn't rant too long. You'll have to excuse me because I am posting under the influence of drowsiness seeing that it is nearly 2:00 am in my neck of the woods.

[greenbear]

King,
First paragraph, hardly a speedbump. Third paragraph, slight palpitation.
Truth, brother, on all of it. Even the humbling question: Am I smarter than my five years old??

[Amanda S.]

Keeper at home to me means I make my wife do every thing in the home like cook, clean, wash the dishes, wash the clothes, wash the cars,kids and the neighbors' kids if the come across our lawn, obey me, read my Bible to me calling me lord as Sarah did unto Abraham and many other such like things....

Dear King Solomon, (ok sorry...but typing that out I just had to laugh...I just had to add the Dear...It's kind of like writing a Dear Abby letter!?

If only all our husbands were like you...

Great post

[Forrest]

Originally Posted by KingSolomon1611

Keeper at home to me means I make my wife do everything in the home like cook, clean, wash the dishes, wash the clothes, wash the cars,kids and the neighbors' kids if the come across our lawn, obey me, read my Bible to me calling me lord as Sarah did unto Abraham and many other such like things.... HA HA HA

I know you are joking, but I am serious when I tell you that certain individuals I know actually practice, proclaim, and promote this distorted view. And they use "keepers at home" to support this theology. That's why I'm interested in others understanding of the scripture in Titus.