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Sparring with Marilla: Part One
By Mary Abrahamson If you are an Anne of Green Gables fan as am I, you will be familiar with Marilla Cuthbert. Marilla is practical. She has little time for imagination. She has no patience with vanity. Marilla is a strong pioneer sort of spinster woman who, together with her bachelor brother, Matthew, adopts dear Anne from the orphanage. They had asked for a boy to help Matthew with the farm. But instead, got red-headed lively Anne. Anne who has known nothing but poverty and hardship comes complete with imagination galore and dreams of elegance and love. I have much Marilla in me. And much of Anne. The character of…
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Adoption and the Church as Family
By Dalas Mueller Today is Gotcha Day for our sweet daughter, Hope. That is, the one year anniversary of my husband busting her out of her orphanage and making her our daughter forever. I didn’t expect to be celebrating today sitting across the room from my sweet girl as she lies in a hospital bed in the ICU, fighting off an infection and awaiting her third brain surgery since coming home. But… I wouldn’t trade her for the world! And I could not be more thankful that she is in our arms for comfort and love as she faces her earthly trials. Other than God Himself, there is one entity…
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Making the Connection Between Church and Home
By Amanda Markel In my experience, many Christians struggle with leaving church behind after they leave the Divine Service on Sunday morning, and don’t really think about it again until they go back the following week. So how do Christians, especially Christian parents, intentionally make church part of their home life all through the week, so that their children don’t don’t see church as a “Sundays-only” thing? First of all, you have to be intentional. You can’t just hope that church will come up during the week, that some random event will bring it to mind. You certainly don’t expect your children to learn to read or memorize math facts…
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Motherhood and Vocation
I’m not going to lie. Since I found out I was pregnant with my first child, I haven’t considered being anything other than a stay-at-home-mother. Except for one problem…I’m a liar. When my firstborn was only eight weeks old, I was taking him to work with me. At a church, no less. Yes, I was with him all day, every day, for which I am very grateful, but I was hardly a stay-at-home-mother back then. I was a working mother, serving God and the church to which He had called me, as well as serving my family. This was a short-term situation—my call to that church ended a few months…
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Children’s Book for Divine Service Review
By Bethany Kilcrease As my daughter’s first baptismal birthday was approaching earlier this month, I decided to find a gift by perusing the Concordia Publishing House website. The new book Whisper, Whisper: Learning about Church by Mary Moerbe caught my eye. My now nearly 13-month old daughter is a human dynamo. We like to say she is “enthusiastic about life.” Getting her to remain sort of silent and relatively still in the pew entails so much physical exertion that I generally break into a sweat and figure I can skip the gym later. Obviously I’m on the look out for age-appropriate books to introduce her to the Divine Service and…
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Narrator-mothers
By Emily Cook Sometimes, serving one’s neighbor means doing things out loud. I remember, before children, when I would make dinner in silence. I just did what had to be done, and I didn’t explain myself to anyone. Now, when I make dinner, I prattle on and on: “Move, honey, so mama can get the pot out. Look, I’m filling it up with water. We will wait for it to boil, then we’ll add the yummy pasta. Do you want to watch me cut the carrots? Maybe you can help me put them on the plate when I’m done. One, two, three, four carrots. Yum, carrots. Should we cut some…
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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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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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No Assembly Required
By Vanessa Rasanen I am an expert at crib assembly. Each new baby and each move has meant tearing down and reassembling that piece of furniture, to the point that I’ve now gotten so much practice in the process I can put it together by myself without injuring the toddlers who are “helping” me by being completely in the way. And it looks like I’ll be assembling some new baby furniture in the near future. This weekend brought my family the blessed news we are expecting another baby. This in turn brought a whole slew of emotions from joy and worry to anxiety and hope. This hope of a…
