-
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…
You May Also Like
Forty for Lent
I Make Motherhood Look Awful
The Harm of Sharing Personal Testimony
-
A Parents’ Guide to beginning Catechesis- Part Two
By Mary Abrahamson A Parents’ Guide to beginning Catechesis or put more simply, How do I teach my small child about God? Part II First Memory Work In the first article I wrote for this series, I laid the Law on pretty thick. But we all need it. Myself included. The devil, the world, and our own flesh are all conspiring to pluck our little ones from the faith they were given in their Baptisms. We are commanded to baptize and also to teach. The Baptism part, as I mentioned last time, is less often forgotten in our Lutheran circles than is the daily and weekly teaching that will feed…
-
Domestic Violence and Marriage
By Sandra Ostapowich “Everyone around me thinks my husband is a really good guy. He’s active in church and everyone likes him. I don’t think anyone would believe me if I told them that he isn’t charming and nice at home, and that when he’s really angry at me he hits me. How can I honor my marriage and my husband when it’s so far from the picture painted in church? Where can I go for help when it seems like everyone would be on his side?” I believe you. And I understand the seemingly impossible position you’re in. There isn’t much information to go by in this brief note,…
-
My Old Friend, Anxiety
By Heidi Goehmann I have had a long history with anxiety. So much so that I tell people it’s like a backpack. I take it on and off, but it’s always at least sitting in the corner of the room, staring me down. I have tried for years to shake off the weight. Years ago a friend told me that “Do not be afraid…” is the most often given command in the Bible. So, I took it to heart and when anxiety would well up, I’d push it down, way down, telling myself over and over, “Do not be afraid, do not be afraid.” Sometimes I’d even take on a…
-
Transitions
By Paula Miller Life is full of transitions. We move from one season to another, sometimes gently, and sometimes forcefully ushered along with conditions over which we have no control. Transitions can be hard physically, emotionally and spiritually, in particular if you’ve been pushed into it by those forceful conditions. Listed as some of the most stressful events in life are moving, marrying, the death of a person close to you, and the birth of a child. We all will experience some or all of these things in our lives. Transitions have similar stages. First, there’s the preparation stage. Planning as we can for what is to changing makes it…
-
Dos and Don’ts of Navigating College as a Lutheran
By Bethany Kilcrease So, perhaps you’re a high school senior just packing bags and preparing to head off to college. Or, perhaps you’re a parent about to send off your child. Or, maybe you’re neither and just have some time to kill and happened to stumbled across this awesome website. In any case, I am about to offer you the first item on my off-the-top-of-my-head list of how to survive those tumultuous college years while remaining in the faith. I should note that all the following dos and don’ts are mine alone and don’t necessarily reflect the views of every contributor on this site. I should also note that I…
-
On Getting Along
By Holly Scheer I don’t like being disagreeable. Conflict makes me nervous. The idea of upsetting the people near and dear to me is, well, upsetting. There’s peace and then there’s false peace. Do you have friends or family that you get along with, but only because you’re silent on things that matter, like the faith? What can you do when it feels like relationships chug along at the cost of keeping the peace and avoiding contentious topics? First, decide where the relationship fits with your vocation. Is it given to you as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, Ect to engage this person on this subject? Next, pray about…
-
Living Water
By Amanda Markel I spent most of the Divine Service the Second Sunday after Pentecost sweating bullets, on the edge of the pew with worry. What was the cause of my distress? Well, you see, my three-year-old is as repeater. Anything she hears that she understands, is interested in, or finds funny, she repeats. Loudly. It’s something we’re working on, especially in church, but in the meantime, the Old Testament reading was about the fall into sin. And if you’re familiar with that reading from Genesis 3, you know that the word naked comes up more than once. My preschooler, like many children her age, thinks the word “naked,” as…
-
Interview With an Adult Convert
By Holly Scheer Vanessa Rasanen is a regular writer here at Sisters of Katie Luther and was kind enough to let me interview her about her experiences growing up as an athiest and coming to Lutheranism (and Christianity, in general) as an adult. Grab a cup of coffee and read along as Vanessa tells us about her experiences. How old were you when you became a Lutheran? 22 is when I became a christian. I didn’t really learn what Lutheranism was until I was 30 and became a member at our current LCMS church. What kind of religious life was in your family growing up? I vaguely remember…
-
Longing to Belong: A Sheep’s Tale
By Debra-Lynn Swearingen We were lost sheep for a season. There is nothing like church shopping to make you certain you are shepherd-less. Especially if you are susceptible to being a part of the growing sad, mad, church alumni. In some churches we were greeted heartily, some put us through a grueling Q&A session, and some we passed through without notice. We knew little of what we were looking for, and more of what we weren’t willing to endure. We were unsure of how right doctrine and social-fit unite, but we wanted both. We were longing to belong. We just didn’t know what that meant. This was not a new quest…
