Blog - Page 2 of 7 - LUTHERWOMAN

Celebrating the Reformation with our Families

Yay! It’s October! As we go down the aisles of the stores we are filled with Halloween decorations, pumpkin spiced everything, and costumes for every age. When the secular world thinks of October, many think of Halloween.

Yet, as Lutherans, we know that October leads us to a big holiday in the church year. The Reformation. Now, maybe you know what that is and maybe you’ve never heard of it. For those of us that didn’t know what that was until later in life, the Reformation is the day Martin Luther decided to nail the 95 Theses on the Catholic Church door. Fun fact: The word theses is a fancy way to say sentences. Martin Luther wrote 95 sentences confronting the Catholic Church on how they were selling indulgences to get people to Heaven.

Family in the Distance

Not long ago, I saw an article about a fellow ministry family getting ready to move across the ocean to begin a new chapter in their ministry. How funny that this would show up today of all days, as we are preparing for a trip home to see my dad’s family for a reunion. I grew up in a tight-knit family. We saw each other often, but it's been 15 years since I have seen most of them. Children have grown up, aunts and uncles have gone to their heavenly home and some are declining in health. Life in ministry is a two edged sword: very rewarding as well as very much a struggle.

Maybe these thoughts are in my head after the call I received on Father's day weekend, that my dad had fallen down the stairs and they were on their way to the hospital. Thank you, God, for only

Home Sweet Home

I’m a sucker for those cute signs one hangs in their house, like; Home Sweet Home or Home is where the heart is…but those signs, as cute as they are, are just one more thing.

In all seriousness, what does Home Sweet Home mean to you?
What do you define as home, where do you define as home?

These days those signs might be more accurately read.

Home is where all my stuff is.
Home is where I hole up after work.
Home is where I binge watch… and the like.

Muddling through the Messy Middle

My longest Messy Middle was a span of five years. When my son was about one year old, my husband and I began to hope and pray for another child. After two miscarriages in the span of six months, my body began to deteriorate. I collected a list of seemingly unconnected symptoms. Chronic fatigue. Brain fog. Muscle pain. Joint pain. Migraines. Blurred vision. Digestive distress. Painful Bloating. The list went on and on.

For three years, every three months on average, I was diagnosed with a new autoimmune disease or other condition. Hashimoto’s Disease. Celiac Disease. Ulcerative Colitis. C-Diff. Carbohydrate Malabsorption. Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). Histamine Intolerance. I had a growing

In the Darkness of the Valley of the Shadow of Death…there is Light

My husband’s alarm goes off and I pretend I didn’t hear it - convincing my body to ignore it and go back to sleep. The bed is warm and I know if I move the day will begin and I’m not ready to face it. And yet I know if I don’t get up I will be angry with myself for being ever behind on the never-ending list of things that must get done.

My body doesn’t move. It’s like my brain doesn’t know how to function and moving is one more decision too much for my brain to handle. Trapped by the bed and my own self, I lay there frozen in position. The longer I stay, the more stressed I feel, but the inertia needed to move the heavy mass on my shoulders and heart is too much.

Finally, once the level of stress is comparable to

When it Didn’t Go as Planned: How God Led Us Through Brokenness to Belonging

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge where I am today. Not too long ago, I wrote here about burning out after spending ten years in a high-profile firm. Little did I know then that God was about to uproot everything in my life—or what seemed like everything. People’s lives change; they move away, or they move on, and soon after writing that article, our lives began to shift dramatically.

My family struggled to find our place in our community and church, despite our efforts. We tried to integrate, to contribute, but it felt like we were not needed, or even wanted. My daughter faced challenges at school, and I found myself involved in some complicated and challenging situations within the church. Despite my sincere efforts to contribute and

Our 1-year Anniversary!!!

Today is LUTHERWOMAN's one-year anniversary! On September 5th, 2023, myself (Jill) and a team of 20 other women at the time, launched this website and ministry.

Today we have a team of 37 LCMS women working to further our mission of discipling women in the church.

What does that mean?

Jesus asked 12 men to follow Him and called them His disciples. After his 3-year ministry and their "training", He then asked them to go out into the world and MAKE DISCIPLES.

That means that we are all disciples, and we are to participate in God's plan to make disciples.

Why Can’t I Fix My Child?

It’s a dark crisp fall morning. The street lights are still on and there is hardly any traffic on the roads.

It is time to wake up my teenage daughter for school. My daughter is not a morning person much like her Dad and really struggles to get out of bed every day. However, her struggle to get out of bed is even harder as she wrestles with major depression and other mental health problems. I dread waking her up most mornings because the struggle is real. The struggle isn’t only on her but for me to encourage and motivate her to get ready for school. If you have any experience with depression or anxiety, getting out of bed can be really tough. It is challenging even as a parent to motivate myself in a loving way daily to get her out of bed.

Margin Matters

People often say to me "You must be so busy!" The truth is, I'm not busy. My life is very full, but it's intentionally not busy. In fact, my days, weeks, and months have a lot of margin — (and yours can, too.)

As we look around, it seems that living in a state of near-chaos has become the norm in our culture today. People map out their days down to the minutes. They shuffle their kids (and themselves) from place to place, filling the calendar boxes with a whole array of extracurriculars like they’re hoping for a “bingo”. A friend of mine often jokes that when she spends time with friends, the conversation quickly devolves into people giving her their “resume” — a detailed list of “all the things” they’re accomplishing. Busyness has become a societal badge of honor, and we’re all guilty

Praising God Through Pain

It was mid-December, and we were in the throes of Christmas preparations. Each year I make a list of each person I want to give gifts to, plan a budget, and write out some ideas. I was studying the list, feeling completely overwhelmed that we could hardly afford gifts for our children let alone anyone else on the list. The days were counting down quickly, and it felt so hopeless. Our family was in a difficult financial situation, and this was just one more thing added to that list. The anxiety was coming over me like waves as I imagined Christmas morning with nothing under the tree.

In the darkness of this moment, I felt the Holy Spirit ask me, “Can you praise Me right now?” I was dumbfounded and just sat there as I considered the question. My ultra-convicting, brutally honest answer was,