For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job, which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Barack Obama, Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 2009, http://www.america.gov/st/usg-english/2009/January/20090120130302abretnuh0.2991602.html.

The family is definitely a divine institution. But rather than viewing the family as a “kingdom” parallel to the church and the state, Luther saw the family as an organizational unit between the church and the state. This does not mean the family is an institution inferior to the state. Quite the opposite. The family is the basic unit of society. Political power does not flow downward from God to the emperor and downward further to the princes/electors and from them to the family. Rather, political power flows from God to the family, from the family to the princes, and from the princes to the emperor. In opposition to medieval Catholic theology, Luther taught that the state’s authority comes not from the church but rather from the home, for the commandment “Honor your father and your mother” is the basis for state authority as well as family authority.

John Eidsmoe, “A Look at Law through Lutheran Lenses,” in Here We Stand: A Confessional Christian Study of Worldviews, edited by Curtis A. Jahn (Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 2010), 79-125, at 86.

In the absolute sense, the purpose of marriage is, as everywhere, God's glory. Then, besides the good that husband and wife are to have from each other in the estate of marriage (Ge 2:18; Eph 5:25-29,31; Col 3:19), its purpose is the raising of the next generation in the discipline and admonition of the Lord (Eph 6:4; Col 3:21; Dt 6:7,20, Pr 19:18). The chief obligation of parents toward children consists in this, and children in turn owe parents obedience (Ex 20:12; Eph 6:1; Col 3:20).
The Christian home is a miniature of the church within the church (ecclesiola in ecclesia), whose priest is the head of the home. Therefore divine service must not be lacking (Dt 6:7; Ge 18:19; 2 Co 12:14). Obviously the scope of the household's divine service cannot include that which belongs in the realm of the preaching office (Predigamt). That consideration excludes the administration of the sacraments and preaching, insofar as it is public, i.e., addressed to persons other than the members of the household.

Adolf Hoenecke, Evangelical Lutheran Dogmatics, vol. 4, trans. Joel Fredrich, Paul Prange, and Bill Tackmier (Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1999), 229-30.

The Word of God is the strengthening and the nourishment for our faith-life in all the conflicts and troubles of this present existence. Therefore we will have our own personal devotional life where we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Word. Our household will have its family altar so that our children realize that Jesus and His cross are not just for Sunday. Here our family will gather around the Word to be nourished daily by the Savior so that we can face the difficulties of day-to-day living.

Gaylin R. Schmeling, Bread of Life from Heaven: The Theology of the Means of Grace, the Public Ministry, and Church Fellowship (Mankato, MN: Bethany Lutheran Theological Seminary, 2009), 32.