Family Vocation Book Chat - Chapters 1-2
Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. 1 Corinthians 7:17
Today we begin digging into the book Family Vocation: God’s Calling in Marriage, Parenting and Childhood by Gene Edward Veith Jr. and Mary J. Moerbe. We are focusing on chapters 1-2, which provide an overview of the doctrine of vocation and the role of the family within God’s created order.
The institution of the family is necessary to our very existence, basic to our culture, and critical to our happiness and well-being. (p. 15)
This opening line sets the stage for a discussion that will be relevant in the life of every believer. We are all members of a family, and throughout our lives, we will likely serve in different roles within the arena of the home. For an extra look at the doctrine of vocation, this essay by Gene Edward Veith is helpful. It is easy to find ourselves just doing our best to get through each day without ever stopping to think about the specific vocations we are called to serve in. Let’s pause for a moment to consider this, and please join in the discussion over in the chat to share your thoughts!
God is hidden in vocation, and Christ is hidden in our neighbors. Thus, we love and serve God precisely by loving and serving our neighbors. We live out our faith in concrete ways, face-to-face with the people God has provided for us in our daily lives. (p. 30)
A little housekeeping before we share what stood out to us individually in this section:
As we continue to work through this book, we will focus on the vocations within the arena of the household focusing on three categories: marriage, parenthood, and childhood. While our goal is to have an active discussion over in the chat, each of us will also share briefly what stands out to us in each section. For our next post, we will focus on Chapters 3-5. Thank you for bearing with us as we figure out the best way to organize these posts and facilitate these chats! If you have any suggestions, feel free to reach out to either Jamie or Branson!
What stood out to you in Chapters 1-2 of Family Vocation?
JAMIE: In today’s vocabulary, vocation is often used just to describe a job you may hold. But if we look back at the scriptural meaning of vocation we realize that our vocation encompasses so much more. Our vocation can be many different things at one time. I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a niece, a worker, etc. It is in these different vocations that I am living out my faith and love to the different people that God has put in my life. My family is where my most important vocational duties are. “The family is God’s ongoing creation of humanity, the foundation of culture, and the image of our relationship with God on earth.” This is why with the decline of the nuclear family the foundation of the culture crumbles.
We talk about having to serve God in the church and people think that “church work” is somehow holier than other work but it is not the number one place where we are told to serve. We serve our Savior by serving the family He has given us. Martin Luther even talks about how changing diapers is more holy work than the work of a monk in a monastery. Because the holy work comes from loving and serving our families. It is something that my husband tries to stress to people who feel the need to be at church doing church activities regularly, that we need to go home and love and serve our families. Making sure we are having dinner together, conversing and reading our Bibles together and just being a loving and supportive family is more important than another meeting at church. I am excited to dive into this book even more and see how I will be encouraged in my different vocations.
BRANSON: I definitely have been thinking a lot lately about the need for a greater focus on healthy families within our culture, so there was a lot of good stuff in these introductory chapters. If I had to pick just one thing, I would say that the section beginning on page 30 titled Sacrifice by the Priesthood of All Believers really stood out to me. That is a term I have often heard but have never entirely understood. When the authors broke it down and talked about how a priest is someone who offers sacrifices it made a lot more sense to me. It said on page 30 that “All Christians are not clergymen, but all are created to offer living sacrifices and so to be priests.” I have often found that when I view the more mundane tasks that I have to complete in any vocation as a worthy sacrifice it strengthens me for the work I am called to do. One more quote I really loved was on that same page: “Sometimes we suffer in our vocations, in our families, through no fault of our own. We bear crosses, sometimes horrible ones. But, again, Christ takes our crosses into his for our healing and to restore our hope.” It can be easy to be so focused on how broken things seem all around us that we become overwhelmed. This reminder of the sure hope we have in Christ is an important starting point.
YOUR TURN: What stood out most to you in the reading? What roles have you been called to fill in this season of life? Join the chat below!
Are you a fan of extra reading when you dig into a book like this? Here are some additional resources:
Five Questions with Gene Edward Veith
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