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Our Freedom to Give
By Vanessa Rasanen People aren’t perfect. You’re shocked, I know. We screw up — sometimes in big ways. We get angry. We covet our neighbors’ livelihood. We struggle with lust. We choose to sleep in instead of cherishing God’s Word and Sacrament. We are sinners (Romans 3:23). Enter God’s Word. That awesome Word gives us the slap upside the head we need, teaches us how we ought to behave, and then soothes that stinging with the sweet balm that is salvation through Christ Crucified. It’s all we need from our Father in Heaven: Discipline. Correction. Forgiveness. The Word of God can sting, though. I mean, it delivers a swift kick…
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Have You Noticed the Change?
By Keri Wolfmueller A prayer request for the Scheer family. “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” 2 Corinthians 1:11 Dear Readers, We feel it has become time to share with you an important event happening in the life of this blog’s creator and Editor, Holly Scheer. Perhaps you have noticed a change around here. Maybe there hasn’t been the consistency you’ve come to expect. Maybe you’ve noticed there are fewer posts. Does it seem a bit disorganized? There is a reason. Holly has another vocation aside from the Editor…
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A Mother’s Confession
By Vanessa Rasanen This morning I failed. Despite every effort to tackle those few hours of solo-parenting with grace and love and patience, I was running around like a banshee. The kids — though dressed, fed, and happy — weren’t listening. They were outright ignoring me, disobeying, and breaking the fourth left and right. And I was flipping out. The playroom was a pit. The roast needed to get in the slow cooker. The dogs needed to be kenneled. One kid needed water. One needed help opening the sippy cup. Another needed a diaper change. And my coffee — my poor, sad, neglected coffee — was cold. I was running…
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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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Jesus, a Quiet place, and My Anxiety
By Heidi Goehmann Life was pretty good. I was in the kitchen fixing dinner. There was a pot of goodness boiling on one burner and a pan of goodness sautéing on another. My daughter was reciting her memory work to me. My two littlest children were playing with a racecar track on the dining room floor nearby, and my eldest son was holding on to my wrist to let me know he had something to say. It was all good…until someone turned on the music. The theme track of Star Wars barrels into the anxiety already bubbling up! I forgot to mention that it was 4:30pm. What I just described…
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Missing Your Church Home
By Holly Scheer I share something in common with many of you– the church I attend now is not the church I grew up in. Our society is increasingly mobile. We move for jobs, for college, when we get married. Sometimes we move so far away that going “home” is hard. And for those of us reared in the church this means that not only are we apart from childhood friends and family we are apart from the church of our youth. New churches come with new experiences. New meals at potlucks, new holiday traditions. New hymns the congregation prefers. I grew up with the liturgy. I can close my…
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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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Sexual Abuse and Marriage
I am a new “convert” to the LCMS because of my marriage. I was raised Baptist, in a very strict home. My parents seemed intent on keeping ALL things sexual in nature from our home. Not a mention of it, not in movies, music, nothing. I rebelled a ton as a teenager and wound up being sexually abused by a couple of men, one of whom was double my age, when I was only 15. My husband, likewise, had several one night stands during a short phase in college. We never realized how these things affected our marriage until recently. Neither of us feels any palpable jealousy or upset over…
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On Queens and Vocation
By Amanda Markel Today, September 9th, 2015, Queen Elizabeth II surpasses Queen Victoria’s record as the longest-reigning monarch in British history. Why should we, as Americans who have no queen, or as Lutherans, who do not answer to the head of the Church of England, pay attention to this, or care about it at all? Does it even matter to us? I think it matters a great deal. Why? Because the Queen, more than any other modern person I can think of, not only understands the concept of Christian vocation, but lives it out fully, every day of her life. To see where this understanding of vocation comes…
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Confessions of a Control Freak
By Amanda Markel I’m something of a control freak. If it can be planned, scheduled, or organized, I will attempt to do so. This was never more evident than this summer, when I was planning our first real family vacation. I tried to think of everything. Where would we stay? What activities would we do, and at what times? How could I maximize our all too brief time to see the most important things, do the most fun things, and make sure there was something special for each member of our family to experience? And then there were other concerns. How can we make this trip for the least amount…
