Day 74: Vocations
Read Colossians 3:18-20
St. Augustine was breastfed by God. That’s kind of what he recorded in his prayer journal to God: “I was welcomed by the consolations of human milk; but it was not my mother or my nurses who made any decision to fill their breasts, but You who through them gave me infant food, in accordance with Your ordinance and the riches which are distributed deep in the natural order.†(Confessions, Book I, Chapter 6)
God loves us through our mothers … and our fathers, too, in their peculiar way! As members of families, we each fulfill holy callings, roles whereby each of our needs are met. This happens first by parents to children. Children love and honor their parents. Siblings are also called to care for one another. These roles, like hugs, are reciprocal. We each serve one another as we share in household responsibilities. Most of all, we are called to live out the ramifications of God’s grace for one another: “Forgive each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive†(Colossians 3:13).
Forgiveness is the hardest and best way for families to survive as we each fail to serve one other. Remember Day 29 and the lesson on New Beginnings? When our children were smaller, they made confession, forgiveness, and hugs a practice. As they grew older, they began saying, “If I forgive them, they’ll just do it again.†Yes. We will fail each other repeatedly. Though we are right to practice healthy expectations of each other and healthy boundaries, we are also in a competition to see who can forgive each other more. Only grace will keep our households from fragmenting. Just like the milk God gave us to keep us alive, the grace He gives us sustains our homes.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—three in one, You embody love and family. Please let Your grace to me overflow from me to my family.
St. Augustine was breastfed by God. That’s kind of what he recorded in his prayer journal to God: “I was welcomed by the consolations of human milk; but it was not my mother or my nurses who made any decision to fill their breasts, but You who through them gave me infant food, in accordance with Your ordinance and the riches which are distributed deep in the natural order.†(Confessions, Book I, Chapter 6)
God loves us through our mothers … and our fathers, too, in their peculiar way! As members of families, we each fulfill holy callings, roles whereby each of our needs are met. This happens first by parents to children. Children love and honor their parents. Siblings are also called to care for one another. These roles, like hugs, are reciprocal. We each serve one another as we share in household responsibilities. Most of all, we are called to live out the ramifications of God’s grace for one another: “Forgive each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive†(Colossians 3:13).
Forgiveness is the hardest and best way for families to survive as we each fail to serve one other. Remember Day 29 and the lesson on New Beginnings? When our children were smaller, they made confession, forgiveness, and hugs a practice. As they grew older, they began saying, “If I forgive them, they’ll just do it again.†Yes. We will fail each other repeatedly. Though we are right to practice healthy expectations of each other and healthy boundaries, we are also in a competition to see who can forgive each other more. Only grace will keep our households from fragmenting. Just like the milk God gave us to keep us alive, the grace He gives us sustains our homes.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—three in one, You embody love and family. Please let Your grace to me overflow from me to my family.