The Covenant Household

Families are formed by covenants. That much is clear. But what is a covenant, exactly, and what does it mean for the way your family actually lives? God's covenants throughout Scripture are not merely contracts or legal arrangements between parties. They are bonds in which God takes responsibility for His people, and His people respond in faith. The same principle governs the covenant family. In The Covenant Household, Pastor Douglas Wilson draws out the practical implications of this biblical pattern for husbands, wives, parents, and children. The husband's role as head of the household isn't a position of privilege to be enjoyed, it's a weight to be carried. His wife's struggles are not hers alone; they belong to the family. His children's failures are not simply their failures. The covenant binds the household together, which means that blame-shifting and emotional distance are not options available to the man who takes his headship seriously. Wilson covers the full sweep of family life: marriage, childrearing, and cultural engagement. The family, he argues, is not a loose collection of individuals sharing a roof, it is a unit joined together by God, and every member should live as though that were actually true.