The Role Of Protector

This Whisper was originally published on February 23, 2016.
I am republishing it because a sweet picture of a little boy and his sister reminded me.
I use the precious picture with permission.
May there be more chivalrous protectors.

I had an early morning appointment and I needed to silence my cell phone.
As I was getting ready to leave, I put my purse and my coat in my lap.
I could feel my phone vibrating.
I wondered whether it was a call, a text, or a reminder.

Whatever it was, it would have to wait.
Something else needed my attention for a little longer.
I would check my phone when I could.
Since it only vibrated once, I knew that it was nothing urgent.

As soon as I was able to check my phone, I did.
It was simply a reminder for something that was happening the next day.
Even when my phone is on silent, I can sense the urgency when it is on vibrate.
If the calls are repeated, something needs to be dealt with.

I remember when I got my first cell phone.
It was a flip phone of course, since the smart phone had not been invented yet.
I thought it was wonderful that I was accessible to my husband and children.
It was simply for phone calls back then; texting was not a priority.

I remember getting used to my new phone.
I learned how to silence it, how to put it on vibrate, and eventually how to text.
That sounds absurd now, all these years later.
However, there really was a timeline: pre-cell phone days and post-cell phone days.

It was when my youngest son was in middle school that it happened.
I had to go to his back-to-school night.
My youngest son and my youngest daughter were home alone.
They had memorized my cell phone number, just in case.

I will have my phone on silent, I reminded them.
I knew they would be fine.
I knew that neighbors were close by if, for some reason, there was a problem.
I drove to the middle school with my son’s schedule in hand.

I went from his homeroom to each of his classes.
I listened to his teachers as they laid out the syllabus for the year.
I listened as parents asked questions that could not possibly be answered this early in the year.
I wrote down the various dates of importance as stressed by the teachers.

It was in his science class that it happened.
My new cellphone was on the lab table in front of me.
I put it there so I could see it light up to let me know a call was coming in.
The phone sat silent on the table, with a dark screen.

All of a sudden, a sound like a mooing cow permeated the science room.
I watched as my cell phone vibrated and danced across the lab table.
I knew I had the phone on silent.
I didn’t know that I had inadvertently put the phone on vibrate as well.

I reached across the lab table to catch my dancing phone.
Since it was new to me, I was not at expert at easily turning it off.
It caught me so off guard, the only thing I could think to do was leave the room.
The teacher made some remark about cell phone usage in class as I left.

By the time I reached the hallway, the phone had stopped.
The caller ID told me that it was a call from home.
I tried to call back but there was no answer.
Something was not right; I immediately headed to the parking lot for better reception.

As I got into my car, I called again and this time my son answered the phone.
Are you OK? I asked trying to imagine what made him call me.
We heard someone walking in the kitchen; we heard the floor creak.
I knew that no one else was home, so we left the house just to be safe.

Everything’s OK now because Mr. H helped us, he informed me.
Mr. H? Now my mind was racing as to why a neighbor had to be called.
I’m on my way home, I said, stay upstairs in the family room.
I will be right there, I said knowing I was less than fifteen minutes away.

When I got home, I heard the whole story.
They had been playing in the basement and heard footsteps in the kitchen.
The one floorboard that always creaks when we walk on it, had creaked.
My son took his sister and a plastic baseball bat and went outside.

A neighbor down the street saw them walking.
It was starting to get dark and he asked if they were OK.
My son told him why they were outside and Mr. H walked them back home.
He came inside and made sure that the house was safe.

They called me after hearing the footsteps but before they left the house with the baseball bat.
I called our neighbor to thank him for all that he had done.
He did great, my neighbor said.
He took the role of protecting his sister very seriously, he said sweetly.

We never found out what the sound was that they both heard in the kitchen.
All these years later, that is beside the point.
What I remember and hold close to my heart is my neighbor’s statement.
He took the role of protecting his sister very seriously.

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in faith, and in purity…Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely…Do not rebuke an older man harshly but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters with absolute purity.
(1 Timothy 4:12,15,16, and 5:1,2)

A vibrating phone reminded me of another time my phone vibrated and danced across the table.
It reminded me of a time when my son protected his little sister and it was noticed.
It impressed him enough that it was the one thing our neighbor remembered.
He took the role of protecting his sister very seriously.

In a culture where women are not treated honorably, it is noticed when a man is chivalrous.
In a culture where brash men think nothing of disrespecting women, gentleness is attractive.
For some reason, we accept the disrespect and turn our face away.
For some reason, we take it as if we have no choice.

Some men have forgotten about their role as protector.
Feminism has blurred the lines.
God’s Word makes those lines very clear.
Women are precious image bearers of our holy God.

For that reason alone, women are to be treated with respect.
It is never funny to be disrespectful to a woman.
It is never acceptable to demean her.
Every time I feel my phone vibrating or see a plastic baseball bat, I remember.