As a single adult woman I have made the choice to be a stay-at-home daughter. I live with my family and flowing out of that I have chosen to submit to my parents; and more specifically my father’s authority. I have chosen to do this until the day I am given in marriage to my future husband, when I will willingly begin to submit to him.
Today I’ve just been considering what a wonderful gift I have in submitting to my father’s leadership and authority. So many wonderful things have come out of this arrangement and I feel truly blessed.
Today I’d like to take a moments to share with you just a few of the many benefits of submitting to your father’s authority while you remain a single woman.
1.} Protection
Between creepy guys wanting your number, the subtle lies of our culture and our own deceptive emotions it’s a dangerous world out there girls!
One of the greatest benefits I’ve enjoyed as a stay-at-home daughter is the loving protection that my father has faithfully given me. He takes his job seriously when it comes to protecting me physically as well as my heart and purity. He’s older, wiser and because he’s a man he isn’t as easily swayed by passing emotions. My daddy can see through the lies the world (or certain young men) try to feed me much better than I can and he always steps up to protect me.
2.} Provision
My father takes the financial responsibility in our home upon himself and by God’s grace he provides for our needs. I’ve been very grateful that as I have remained under his authority he has also continued to take the financial burden off of me. I know this is a sacrifice on his part but it has allowed me to minister and have more time to hone the homemaking skills that I will need in the future.
My father has also taken the brunt of the pressure of choosing my future husband off of my shoulders. He has actively looked to help provide a future mate for me.
3.} Leadership
Feminist try to tell us that it’s “freedom” to make ALL of our own decisions. I don’t call that freedom I call that PRESSURE. To me that’s a big responsibility I just don’t want.
As an adult, my parents do allow me to make a lot of my own choices; but I still trust and submit to my father’s leadership in such a way that I don’t have the weight of ALL of those big decisions on my shoulders. My father is a wise, experienced leader created for that job, I’m not. Submitting to his godly leadership practically and spiritually is a big blessing.
4.} Preparation
No one can ever be completely ready for marriage but good preparation is important. Living at home and under my father’s authority and observing my mother has allowed me to learn and practice, in a small way, the submission I desire to have towards my future husband. Studying my parent’s strong marriage has also helped me understand better what I need in a husband one day.
5.} Relationship
Being a stay-at-home daughter helps me have a good, close relationship with my entire family, including my father. Living in the same home as my father allows me to regularly see and learn what things are important to him. I would have missed out on so many opportunities to get to know my father if I did not choose to live under his loving authority!
Those were just a few reasons why being a stay-at-home daughter, submitted to my father’s authority is so attractive to me. I hope this post was an encouragement to you and maybe even brought up a few things to consider in regards to your years as a single woman.
Note: I understand that not every woman in my stage of life has the luxury of submitting to a godly, caring father. This post in not meant to push you into a cookie-cutter mold that your were not meant to be in but rather to encourage those who do have godly fathers to strongly consider embracing their authority. For those who, for whatever reason, cannot remain under their father’s leadership but wish to experience some of the wisdom and protection I mentioned in this post please don’t be discouraged! There are other good, God honoring options! If you are interested in hearing more about this, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email at stayathomedaughter@hotmail.com
What are some of the benefits you’ve found while being a stay-at-home daughter under your father’s protection and authority? If an adult daughter wishes to have protection and guidance but is unable to receive it from her parents what other suggestions do you have for her?
I’m linked up to: 
This is an excellent post! This is my intention for our two daughters when they become adults. I felt like I was “thrown to the wolves” and I deeply desire my husband to show the same characteristics as your dad.
Blessings,
Jamie
I love this post. My parents are divorced and my father lives in a different country. I only know him as a violent drug addict, this is why I have no contact with him. When it comes to men I am pretty much without orientation and before I became a Christian, I have nearly ruined myself with my bad boyfriend choices. God protected me however and I came out of these relationships without too many blemishes (at least no physical ones).
I am now 37 years old and still single. But I do have this secret wish for family and children. By reading your post and your mentioning that you will basically look for a husband with similar qualities like your dad, I realized, that the man I admire most is my pastor. He is a wonderfully godly and humble man and he has qualities I have never seen lived out by any man before. This definitely gives me orientation if I should ever be in the position to chose a spouse. I think women need to look first and foremost for a man who loves God and the bible and lives his life accordingly. If the person loves the world and does not live a seperate life than he is unfit for marriage.
Concerning submission: As a woman with absent parents I have decided to tie myself to the church as examplified by Jesus Himself in Matthew 12:
“While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
The people who do the will of God are my true family and the ones I want to submit to. I will make the church the center of my life right after God. I will look for opportunities to serve and to excercise submission here.
I love the way you are looking to godly role models in your church, such as your pastor, when thinking about a future husband. That is awesome!
What a wonderful example you are of someone using their singleness well by serving and submitting within your local church body.
Thank you for your helpful comment!
Absolutely loved this article! I would love to share it on facebook, but I didn’t see the option to do that. My cousins were both “stay at home daughters” and eventually married wonderful men. I would love to be able to share your column with all of my facebook friends!
Amy, if you copy this link you can paste it into a Facebook post and it should share alright for you! Thank you so much!
http://stayathomedaughter.com/2012/06/14/5-reasons-to-submit-to-your-dad/
Thank you so much for this post, Ashley. My sisters and I (there are five girls in all)have all chosen to be stay-at-home daughters and live under our father’s care and protection until (Lord willing) the day when someone special comes calling. And reading your story is just another encouragement to my sisters and I. This past year I have really taken 1 Corinthians 7:34 to heart ” There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.”
So thank you, Ashley. Please know that you have helped me to see more clearly the way I should act as a submissive daughter to my father and of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you for continuing to point to Him!