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Having Kids in a Broken and Scary World
By Vanessa Rasanen Parenting is an awesomely hard gig somedays. Amidst the laughs and fun we have our share of messes and frustrations, tears and fights. But above all it’s the worry that wears me the most thin. If I claimed to never fear or worry about what life will bring for our children, it’d be a total lie. Then the news hits. Another atrocity. More heartache somewhere for someone. And I struggle to block it all out so I don’t completely fall apart and fail to be a wife and mom. Inevitably the question comes up… “Why have kids at all when the world is so awful?” And shamefully I admit it…
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Depths
By Mary J. Moerbe My family went on an outing to an aquarium and we marveled at God’s creation. A part of creation, mind you, that human eyes rarely see. Even to this day, there are depths unexplored and discoveries to be made. The wonders we saw reminded me that in a very real sense God made creation for Himself. He may have delights in creation we are utterly unaware of: sights, sounds, and textures known only to Himself. Yet, they are not withheld from us. They only await discovery. In Scripture, there is depth to the sea and depth to the earth. A quick survey indicates that the faithful…
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Offering Forgiveness When You Would Rather Not
By Vanessa Rasanen This Spring was hard. Well, about 6 months of this year was hard. I’d like to say that was solely due to our losing three babies early into the pregnancies, but to be honest, peace for our lost little ones came somewhat quickly. Much quicker than I expected. Yes, even after the first loss. Instead, I traded grief and mourning for bitterness and frustration. Okay, frustration is a lie. I was pissed. Hurt, angry, enraged. Seething, might be a good word. Someone’s words regarding that first miscarriage had hit hard and cut deep just a day or two after we found out. The initial shock and disbelief soon…
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Loving Your Neighbor When You Don’t Like People
By Vanessa Rasanen People are idiots. There, I said it. There are the morons who couldn’t be bothered to actually read my writing before commenting……. you have the time to write a scathing comment accusing me of taking my children to dive bars where they aren’t allowed, but you couldn’t take the five minutes to read where I specifically say we don’t do that? Awesome. Then there are the people who take your position on one thing and twist it into meaning something completely psycho — because of course, my wanting a big family must mean I look down on people who don’t have children or don’t want a big family, too… obviously my desire…
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My Dirty Secret
By Allison Hull “Wow, the table looks really nice, Mom! Who’s coming over?” “I don’t want to clean my room! Are kids or just adults coming to the house?” My husband and I joke about these comments that have been made but in reality, I only do big cleaning projects when company is coming over. It’s my secret fear, that someone will see how we really live and judge us. Of course, it was super easy when we lived in an apartment with only a baby around. He even helped when he got older. I pondered why all these moms complained when it was a sweep, mop, dust done kind…
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Miss Mary’s Rules for Love and Marriage
By Mary Abrahamson Much has been written within (and without) our Confessional Lutheran circles on the topic of dating and finding a Christian spouse. So, let me cut to the chase. There is no Mr Right. That said, here are the words of wisdom on the topic that I try to implant into my daughters as they approach the age to begin thinking of marriage. Do you and your guy share the same life foundation (aka RELIGION!)? Yes, we can all point to wonderfully strong Lutheran couples who did not start out sharing the same Lutheran vision. But we can also point to couples who did not start out…
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Children of the Heavenly Father
By Holly Scheer 1 Children of the heavenly Father safely in his bosom gather; nestling bird nor star in heaven such a refuge e’er was given. 2 God his own shall tend and nourish; in his holy courts they flourish. From all evil powers he spares them; in his mighty arms he bears them. 3 Neither life nor death shall ever from the Lord his children sever; for to them his grace revealing, he turns sorrow into healing. 4 God has given, he has taken, but his children ne’er forsaken; his the loving purpose solely to preserve them pure and holy. This hymn is one that I sing often to…
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Thoughts on the Giving and Taking of Offense, and the Waxing Old of Bones
By Mary Abrahamson To most things in life there are two sides. So too with the issue of offense. Is it given or taken? (As a little disclaimer, I’m not talking here about Biblical giving of offense, as in causing another to sin or to stumble in his or her faith.) I’m writing here about the word offense as we use it today, in regular English. Most often when we say, “I’m offended,” we mean, “Someone made me mad or uncomfortable.” Mostly when we say, “I don’t want to cause offense,” we mean, “I don’t want anyone to be mad at me or uncomfortable because of what we say.” If…
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Renewing My Love for the Confessions
By Holly Scheer Every weekend here at the Sisters I post excepts from the Lutheran Confessions. I do this to try to encourage others to read the Confessions, as often as they are able. The site I source from is //bookofconcord.org/. If you’ve never taken the time to poke around it I highly suggest you do– it’s filled with good Lutheran resources on the Confessions, the Bible, church history, and Lutheranism in general. I’m a millenial. I’m comfortable and at home online. Having the Confessions at my fingertips, whereever I go, is really valuable. The ability to look up specific passages that I remember but want to quote accurately has really…
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Chicks Dig Theology
By Debra-Lynn Swearingen I am no scholar. I often joke that I am hard-of-learning. The older I get, the more discipline it takes to read and study. Being nostalgic and sappy, I always suspect that I am one step away from Mysticism. But God forbid I shall ever again view faith through sentiments, feelings, and personal revelations. I must ask, “What does this mean?” Fortunately Lutheran theologians throughout time have answered that. Therefore I study our faith and practice. I read, remember, forget, and read again. As much as I once professed “Deeds, not creeds”, my go-to descriptions of faith were “I just follow Jesus”, or “I just believe the Bible”. Creeds indeed, and they meant…
