Family
The gift of family is one of the great treasures we receive from God. Accordingly, we are called to love and nurture the family we have. We serve and obey our parents, and we love our siblings. Those joined in marriage are called to live and die for each other and for their children, if they are blessed with them. Despite being so great a gift, family life isn’t always easy.
Below, you’ll find useful sources that span the needs of family life, from issues within the home to the joys and struggles of raising children.
Free Resources
Vocation: Fruit of the Liturgy
In Martin Luther’s teaching on the dual existence of the Christian, we observe a connection with the teaching of the two governments or two kingdoms. The Christian does not seek to escape or withdraw from the world as in monasticism, but rather he lives out his calling in the particular place where God has located him.
Masks of God
Luther puts it strongly: Vocations are “masks of God.” On the surface, we see an ordinary human face — our mother, the doctor, the teacher, the waitress, our pastor — but, beneath the appearances, God is ministering to us through them. God is hidden in human vocations.
Your Family Vocation
Every Christian — indeed, every human being — has been called by God into a family. Our very existence came about by our parents. Martin Luther said, “God has given this walk of life, fatherhood and motherhood, a special position of honor, higher than that of any other walk of life under it.”
God at Work
Every Christian has a particular calling from God. With the doctrine of vocation, ordinary relationships, the 9-to-5 routine, taking care of the kids, the work-a-day world — the way we spend most hours of the day — become charged with the presence of God.
Wages for Sin
Marriage benefits are starting to go to those who are “shacking up.” As marriage becomes unnecessary — not just for job benefits but for adopting children, inheriting property, and being socially acceptable — the whole nation will be “living in sin.”
Tossing the Last Taboo
Christians dare not opt out of the culture wars, especially while influential culture makers are trying to normalize sex with children. If Christians let the world go its merry way into the black hole of depravity, we will be putting their children in genuine danger.
Homosexuality in Christian Perspective
We dare not permit the church’s public teaching on the matter of homosexuality to be taken over and determined by a desire to “affirm” every person in whatever state he or she may be. That is not the gospel.
God and the Gay Lifestyle
Homosexual behavior, like any sin, can be forgiven. That’s quite a different thing, of course, than to say that such behavior is OK.
A Step Too Far, For Now
When the American Psychological Association’s journal of record published an article saying that sex between children and adults might be OK, not too many people noticed. But such is the furor that has since arisen at the prospect of America’s psychologists possibly normalizing pedophilia — as they already have homosexuality — that the organization is backtracking. Sort of.
Called to Our Work
We don’t choose our vocations; God chooses us for them. The Christian can understand the ordinary labors of life to be charged with meaning. Through our labor, no matter how humble, God is at work.
Called to Be Citizens
Christians are called to be citizens: to obey laws, pay their taxes, and honor and pray for their governing officials. Patriotic feelings and acts of civic-mindedness are fitting responses to the blessings God has given this country and the citizenship to which He has called us.
Called by the Gospel
All Christians have a calling in the church. We all have been called into faith, and we all are called to a local congregation, where we each have a part to play in the community of faith.