Read the Large Catechism with me.
Ten-minute studies on short readings from the Large Catechism.
Let's do this.
Click on the link below and read the short assigned reading. Then, if you have time, check out what I have to say about it. If not, no problem. Just soak up the goodness of the LC.
The Fourth Commandment Part 2: Click here and read 114 - 124.
The basics:
- If youth wish to serve God with their works, they must first do what father and mother have commanded. Through this commandment, we can be certain of our obedience to God when we are obedient to our parents.
- Obedience to the father and mother is a great work toward God, as long as the will of the father and mother is not contrary to the three previous commandments.
- Luther gives us examples of people trying to do good works for God and forgetting this as the greatest good work. He says their good works hold no place over that of a child who obeys his parents.
- The world does not see the holiness in obedience to father and mother. "But this is the plight and miserable blindness of the world that no one believes these things; to such an extent the devil has deceived us with false holiness and the glamour of our own works." Paragraph 120
- Luther goes on a bit of a rant as to the state of disarray in the family, and the disobedience of children and the ignorance of parents. "As a rule, the parents, too, are themselves stupid and ignorant; one fool trains [teaches] another, and as they have lived, so live their children after them."
My thoughts today:
It is impossible to recognize the amount of responsibility God gives to parents. I am one, and I have no idea. In this reading, I was given a little more of a glimpse as to the enormity of it all. My children are commanded to honor and obey my husband and me, as long as our will is aligned with the first three commandments. Ummm...who is responsible for teaching those three commandments, again?
Oh. Yeah...that's my husband and me. We are in charge of teaching those first three commandments. So, should we fail in correctly teaching the will we should be aligned with, our children will have no basis for recognizing when to obey.
If we fail to teach the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy, then our children will have no idea they are sinning against anything.
"Letting my children decide for themselves," is no answer, parents. That answer is just shirking off your own responsibility. Your children are commanded to obey you. You are commanded to raise your children in the fear and reverence of the Lord. It is a command given for our good - all commands are. We remember from our earlier readings - God commands these to us so we are directed toward Him, the source of all good, and away from all evil.
I, in myself, am not worthy of my children's obedience. I have failed them too many times, but thanks be to God, there is forgiveness. In His Word, through His Word, by His command, and in my vocation as mother, I am worthy of obedience. If you are a parent, you are as well, my friends.
