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Singleness and Vocation and Comfort
By Keri Wolfmueller Dear Sisters, I have a question that I hope you can help me with. I know that marriage is a good gift from God, and so are children. But what does that mean for those of us who haven’t gotten married yet and might not? Hi Sister! Thanks for trusting us with your question, that’s a special place to be. First, know you will be in our prayers. We will pray that God will grant you His comfort, peace, joy, wisdom, and contentment with whatever your future may hold. I feel like everything I’m going to say you know. You are a student of the Scriptures. So,…
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To Compare or Not To Compare
By Vanessa Rasanen ”You cannot compare your children to each other.” I receive this admonishment at nearly every well-child visit. I hear it so often from our pediatrician that I now anticipate it as much as I do her sweet hellos to the kids. This latest appointment for our youngest’s 18-month check up was no exception. Yet it was. Immediately after reminding me not to compare my kiddos, she asked me if any of our older kids had similar body proportions (ie, bottom of the charts for height and weight but top of the chart for head size). I laughed. Inside, of course. I’m not completely rude. Most of the…
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The Sacred Work of Mothering in the Pew
By Shelley Hurt Mielke I was recently talking with a friend about the challenges of worshiping with small children. She was lamenting how hard it is to teach her children how to participate in the liturgy while juggling wiggly siblings and easily distracted littles. And with every fiber of my being, I got it. I have blogged here and here and here and probably scores of other places about how hard worshiping is with little ones. I can’t count how many times I came away from worship frustrated, exhausted, sad and even angry. Not exactly the emotions one would hope for after worship! While we always wanted a large family, I used to joke with my…
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Born Still Part Three
Post 3 By Genevieve Wagner Editors Note: Genevieve is a dear friend of mine for many years. She has graciously agreed to share her family’s recent full term stillbirth, and the hope and faith that her family has. After the birth, our family photographer was allowed to come back while I was getting stabilized – we wanted to make sure I was okay before calling the children back. Soon they came to the room with our friends who had been watching them as well as our pastor. They were surprised to find out the baby was a boy – that brought my son to tears. They were each offered the…
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Born Still Part Two
By Genevieve Wagner Editors Note: Genevieve is a dear friend of mine for many years. She has graciously agreed to share her family’s recent full term stillbirth, and the hope and faith that her family has. Our world had tipped. How was this possible? What are we going to tell our kids? What do we do next? How do you pack for this? Everything we were planning for – the unmedicated birth like 3 of the siblings, the peaceful home waterbirth like the 4 year old’s – it was all instantly switched for a very medical birth… and we wouldn’t be bringing a baby home. Now traveling in rush…
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A Lutheran Perspective on Stillbirth
By Genevieve Wagner Editors Note: Genevieve is a dear friend of mine for many years. She has graciously agreed to share her family’s recent full term stillbirth, and the hope and faith that her family has. After a trial run of labor the week before where the whole birth team had been called out to the house and hours of 3 minute apart contractions just… stopped… it was time for what would hopefully be my last prenatal appointment. Because I was so large and easily tired, my husband volunteered to drive me to my appointment, and I gratefully accepted. We don’t live near family and it was a last minute…
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Open Letter to My Non-Christian Family and Friends
Dear family and friends, I am sorry. I have failed you. Time and time again I have let you down. I have not cared for you as I should. I have been selfish, putting my own comfort ahead of your well-being. Even now, I’m choosing the easy route, typing this out rather than saying it directly to you. Please forgive me. I know it seems strange that I became a Christian, that I attend church every Sunday, that I teach our children God’s Word, that I believe in God’s creation of the earth in seven days thousands of years ago, rather than millions. I know it probably seems like I…
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Christmas Campaign– Adoption & Hope for Donnie
By Hannah Payton Heath Two years ago when my husband and I sat down to work out how we could start the process for international adoption my husband said, “We can’t do this for every child, one child, one adoption.” My husband knows me — oh so well. Silently, I nodded my head in agreement. I knew his reasons were well thought out, but tears choked back my words. Finally, when I could mumble through the ugly cry I said, “Okay. But it will be so hard. It will be so hard to walk away from all those children. It will be the worst day of my life.” Fast-forward to…
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Homesick
By Mary Abrahamson When I was young I pined for a home. A place to be from. Before I graduated high school my family and I had lived in five different houses. This was not a ton, but still quite a bit a change. New friends, new neighbors, new ways of organizing possessions. I remember telling my mom once that I was NEVER going to marry a pastor. “Pastors don’t have homes and I want a home. I want my kids to have a place to look back on as home, and have sentimental memories about. And I want them to know where everything is and who all…
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Growing Up: Remembering the Saints
By Emily Cook “What do you want to be when you grow up?” It is a common question that leads to an entertaining conversation around our dinner table. “I want to be a mommy and have ten babies when I grow up!” “I want to be a car fixer!” “I’m going to give spankings when I grow up.” While we may occasionally get a glimpse into what is important to each child as they answer this question, more often we just get a good laugh. Children really cannot comprehend life that far in the future. As we all know, kids tend to think that life is going to stay just…
