Something from ... Luther re: the vocation of parents and good works

It seems we don't exalt the vocation of parents highly enough.  We are impressed with what people accomplish at their jobs, with what accolades they achieve, and with what they accumulate.  We invest a great deal of time, money, and effort in schooling to make the most of our careers.  All of this is fine to a point.  But the greatest impact a man or woman can make in this world is to get married, have children, and raise them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.  All other accomplishments, accolades, and accumulations will be lost as time goes by.  But children are the one gift God grants that you, by his grace, will see in eternity.

If you want your children in eternity with you, then you must bring them to Christ now, and regularly.  If you set the example that Christ and his Church are essential, they will likely remain faithful to that their whole life long.  If Christ and his Church are optional, they will likely find an option that is more entertaining.

Being a parent provides daily, abundant opportunities for good works.  Parents get to care for their children for their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being.  It also enables parents to get a glimpse of God's grace.  For, parents often feel that their service is a thankless task.  They serve for the good of their children and they do find joy in it because they love their children.  But parents also will remember when they were being raised and how little they thought of their parents labors on their behalf.  Now that these people are doing the same for their children, they finally appreciate the sacrificial love that goes into it, seldom with their children acknowledge or appreciating their labors.  God, of course, does this and more for us daily.

If your goal is to get a good job, you can probably attain that.  If you are seeking to do good works, God presents them to you in your own home.  And the benefits of those good works has an eternal impact as well.  The vocation of a parent is a high and holy calling, and it should be upheld as that. 

From Luther:  “Thus it is true, as men say, that parents could attain salvation by training their own children, even if they were to do nothing else.  If parents do this by rightly training them to God’s service, they will indeed have their hands full of good works.  For what are the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the alien if not the souls of your own children?  With these God makes a hospital of your own house.  He sets you over them as the hospital superintendent to wait on them, to give them the food and drink of good words and works.  [He sets you over them] that they may learn to trust God, to believe in him, to fear him, and to set their whole hope upon him; to honor his name and never curse or swear; to mortify themselves by praying, fasting, watching, working; to go to church, wait on the word of God, and observe the sabbath.  [He sets you over them] that they may learn to despise temporal things, to bear misfortune without complaint, and neither fear death nor love this life.” 

-- Treatise on Good Works, Luther's Works: American Edition, p 85

80 -- Again

Today, my father turns 80 years old.

There are too many things to thank my father for.  Now that I am a father myself, I realize that many of the things he did were done practically anonymously.  Much of what he did was done without any fanfare or crowing about it.  It was probably almost anonymous because it was done so consistently.  He went to work day after day to serve his neighbor (most of those work years as a trust officer), and to provide for his family.

I remember trips into what was then Security First National Bank.  He had a desk in a large room with probably 20 other employees.  The ceiling in that room was probably about 15 feet high.  I always thought it was really cool.  Eventually, he got his own office which, as I recall, was a glorified cubicle.  It might have been more private, but it was never as cool as that big room.

When the bank moved his job to Milwaukee but left him behind in Sheboygan, he tried his hand at jobs that he probably would rather not have held--insurance salesman, vacuum cleaner salesman, real estate salesman, and eventually employee at Sheboygan Paper Co.  But he did what he had to do to continue to be a provider.  Again, without fanfare (although his retirement came with some degree of jubilation).

I suppose the greatest service he provided over the years was Christian disciple--especially the discipline that meant we were going to be in church whenever there were church services.  Sunday mornings and Wednesdays in Advent and Lent were never optional.  It is just what we did.  And then he sent me to the Lutheran elementary school at Calvary, Sheboygan and later to Manitowoc Lutheran High School where we made the daily trip up and down I-43.  I don't know how nervous my parents got over us on the road every day, especially in winter.  But God was good.  The only damage I ever did to the car was in our drive way.  The other fender bender was when the car was parked and I was nowhere near it.  It is a relief when those things aren't your fault.

Anyway,  all those years of Christian discipline served my good both temporally and, by God's grace, eternally.  It even resulted in my continuing my Lutheran education through college and seminary so that I am a pastor today.

He also took us on really cool vacations.  We had a blast no matter where we went--whether to see the grandeur of the national parks in California or the legendary stories of "camping" on the gravel lot in Brush, Colorado where one could easily confuse the urinal with the sink.  The Germany trip was phenomenal, and I am glad that we finally got to go on it after years of dreaming about it.

Anyway, some stories are best re-told over ice cold beers in person.  I am hoping to do that again this summer, depending on what the schedule permits.  In the meantime, I will hoist one up for you later today.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Mom, my brother Paul, and Dad in Leipzig.

Dad and Mom in Heidelberg.

Mom & Dad with their children, Paul, me, and Kris, celebrating their 50th anniversary, summer 2014.

My parents with all their children and their spouses and grandchildren.

80

Eighty.  That is how old my mother is today.

You'd never guess it based on how she looks and gets around.  Okay, now I think she sleeps in until perhaps 6:30 AM instead of all those 5:30 AM mornings from my younger days.  (Was it that early?  Who knows?  She was the only one up.)

I could not possibly sum up all the things she has done for me and my family over the years--laundry, meals, driving me to and from practices and games, clean up around the house, tending the garden, eventually getting a job as secretary for the water utility, parents' groups, etc....  Rarely do I recall a time when she said that something was going to be inconvenient for her.  It would probably make her tired to recall everything.  No wonder she always fell asleep when we put in a movie for the whole family to watch.

I teach my catechism class that they will never truly appreciate how much their parents have done for them until they are doing it for their own children.  After 20+ years of being a parent myself, I think I am starting to get some idea on how much both my parents have done for us.  It was usually taken for granted.  It isn't anymore.

For what it is worth, I think I can say I truly appreciate what they have done for me for all of those years.

Happy Birthday, Mom.