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Comfort for Those Tending to the Lord’s Littlest Sheep, Part 3
By Keri Wolfmueller Tricks of the Trade and Quiet Activities for Young Children Thanks for joining the conversation about having children in church! Please see Part 1 and Part 2. I’m just as normal as you. However, I’m going to boldly assert a “Top Ten” list of helpful things to know and practice when you have little ones with you in church. This is not the Ten Commandments. This list holds no value regarding your salvation. You therefore are free. Every parent is unique and sets their own standards of what is acceptable for their child. Every child is unique. Some respond to discipline. Some respond to rewards. Some naturally aim…
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My Lutheran Story
By Amanda Markel Sometimes, I think I’m the most boring Lutheran ever, if only because I’m so very Lutheran, and have been since my baptism, when I was just a few weeks old. I was baptized, confirmed, and married at the same church…the very church at which my mother is still a member to this day, and the church at which my father served on many boards before his death. I started out at my Lutheran dayschool in the four-year-old class. I still have fond memories of that year (or maybe it was kindergarten…both years involved the same basement classroom, and the same loving, exuberant teacher). I then went on…
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Smalcald Articles– The Third Part
THE THIRD PART OF THE ARTICLES. Concerning the following articles we may [will be able to] treat with learned and reasonable men, or among ourselves. The Pope and his [the Papal] government do not care much about these. For with them conscience is nothing, but money, [glory] honors, power are [to them] everything. Part III, Article I. Of Sin 1] Here we must confess, as Paul says in Rom. 5:12, that sin originated [and entered the world] from one man Adam, by whose disobedience all men were made sinners, [and] subject to death and the devil. This is called original or capital sin. 2] The fruits of this sin are…
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Smalcald Articles, Part II, Article IV: Of the Papacy
That the Pope is not, according to divine law or according to the Word of God the head of all Christendom (for this [name] belongs to One only, whose name is Jesus Christ), but is only the bishop and pastor of the Church at Rome, and of those who voluntarily or through a human creature (that is, a political magistrate) have attached themselves to him, to be Christians, not under him as a lord, but with him as brethren [colleagues] and comrades, as the ancient councils and the age of St. Cyprian show. 2] But to-day none of the bishops dare to address the Pope as brother as was…
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Children and Hymns
By Amanda Markel Last week, my children attended a “Kantorei Kamp” at one of our sister congregations. It was a great experience for them. Even in just a week’s time, they learned a lot about music, had daily worship where they got to sing a wide variety of hymns, had an opportunity to share their time and talents when they sang at several different locations, and had some good, old-fashioned fun with their brothers and sisters in Christ. It was really wonderful…I wish every Lutheran child could have a similar experience! It did get me thinking, though. We spend a lot of time in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School…
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The Wedding
By Pam Thompson It was a destination beach wedding. Our extended family was enjoying ourselves after our sister’s beach wedding, and we observed several more nuptials as the day went on. This one, the last one of the day, was so very similar to all of the others. . . . But then something was different. Something was off. After the requisite photos had been taken, the bride and groom were not returning to the wedding party. They were stalling, a lot. We observers on the beach commented on how “very rude” the couple was being. As we witnessed staff person after staff person walking back and forth between the…
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The Loneliness As We Sit Together
By Vanessa Rasanen Last week I wrote about hope. This week so much of that hope is gone. Even when I’m able to spend 5, 10, 30 minutes focused on a project or helping one of my children get dressed or giving them a bath or rocking them to sleep, it doesn’t take long for this painful reality to come and smack me in the face again. Our baby’s dead. Not even alive long enough for his or her heart to start beating. Dead. Gone. And as if that knowledge wasn’t difficult enough as it is… there is the physical reminder, the discomfort, the pain, and the visible evidence of…
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How I Pray
By Holly Scheer My prayer life has changed as my life has changed. When I was younger, the main prayers I can remember saying were the ones at bedtimes and meal times. The bedtime prayer I grew up with is the one I have taught my own children, “Now I lay me down to rest/ Angels guard my little nest/ Like the wee birds in the trees/ Heavenly Father please care for me/ Amen.” We’ve also taught our children Luther’s Evening prayer and they pray that before going to sleep. The older I get, the more prayer has become intertwined to my daily life. We pray before we eat, we…
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Father’s Day for Christians
By Holly Scheer The history of Father’s Day is interesting. Until this year, I’d never really sat and looked up when and why it started. From what I’ve read, there was an isolated Father’s Day celebration in 1908, but the holiday really formed in 1910, started by a woman to honor her father who as a single parent raised six children. It was held on a Sunday, the date chosen by when the pastor could get his sermons written. You can read more about it here. Father’s Day can be tricky for the reasons outlined by the incredible Sister’s post we featured on Mother’s Day. “Growing up I dreaded…
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Smalcald Articles–Part II, Article III: Of Chapters and Cloisters
1] That chapters and cloisters [colleges of canons and communistic dwellings], which were formerly founded with the good intention [of our forefathers] to educate learned men and chaste [and modest] women, ought again to be turned to such use, in order that pastors, preachers, and other ministers of the churches may be had, and likewise other necessary persons [fitted] for [the political administration of] the secular government [or for the commonwealth] in cities and countries, and well-educated, maidens for mothers and housekeepers, etc. 2] If they will not serve this purpose, it is better that they be abandoned or razed, rather than [continued and], with their blasphemous services invented by…
