Monday, October 29, 2007
Ephesians 6:4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
EXAMPLES FROM THE REFORMATION: HANS AND MARGARET LUTHER
Were or are your parents strict? Many of us would say "yes." I hope that we appreciate what our parents do and have done for us. Still, I doubt that your parents were as strict as Hans and Margaret Luther. It is somewhat of an understatement to say that they were "strict disciplinarians."
Why? They wanted their children to grow to be honest, obedient, Christian people. Their actions showed their care for their children. On the evening of November 10, 1483, a boy was born to Hans and Margaret. The next morning, Hans took his infant son to be baptized in the nearby church of St. Peter. Since November 11th was a day in which St. Martin of Tours was remembered, Hans named his son Martin Luther.
Hans and Margaret also showed their love for Martin in their concern that he receive a Christian education. They sent him away to school in a different town at the age of 4 1/2 where he learned the 10 Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Confession of Sins.
So also today, Christian parents should be concerned about the Christian education of their children. We need not send them away for this, because it begins in our homes with daily devotions and prayers. Christian education continues in Sunday school and Confirmation Class, and also in regular worship. We want our children to know God's law and their sin. We also want them to know the gospel of Jesus Christ, that they are forgiven their sins against God's law in the blood of Jesus.
May God work mightily in us through His gracious word, so that we make Christian education a priority in our lives and in the lives of our children. Amen! Then will the promise of Scripture be of daily comfort to us when they move from our homes and are married and begin their own families: "Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).
Oh, blest the parents who give heed
Unto their children's foremost need
And weary not of care or cost!
May none to them and heav'n be lost!
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 625:3)
