Sometimes it feels like you are going it alone. Life can be hard. Mothering children is definitely hard. The authors of the devotions in this booklet know hard and they know Jesus. They have experienced the loneliness, the exhaustion and the fear about what the future will hold. They have felt isolated as they raised their children.
They wrote these words and picked out Scripture passages to help keep your eyes fixed on Jesus in the midst of the challenges of raising children. These authors are your Cloud of Witnesses (Heb. 12:1–2). You have others in your Cloud of Witnesses; go to church and meet them there.
The words in this booklet are written for you, anticipating the circumstances and emotions you might experience day in and day out. There are other very important words written for you. God gives you the Holy Scriptures, the very Word of God — the Bible — so that you can know His Son. We pray that reading these devotions increases your eagerness to be among the Church, receiving His Means of Grace, the Word of God and the Sacraments.
The holidays can be a time of sadness and loneliness, especially for those mourning the passing of a loved one. ...
Bold Confidence
When Lutherans are faced with death, they sing. Hymns that console us also remind us of our Baptism as we ...
Asking the Right Questions
When Christians face situations where they must make decisions about continued medical therapy for themselves or others, there are questions to discuss with family members, medical professionals, and their pastor. Our confidence lies not in our ability to make perfect decisions but in Jesus Christ, who holds us in His merciful hands.
Amazingly Complex
Health care’s amazing technology also creates impossibly complex situations. Three questions that Christians can and should ask themselves can help guide decisions as life draws to its end.
All Saints’ Day 101
All Saints’ Day is given to confess the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. In the meantime, the ...
A Funeral Planning Primer
Your funeral is ultimately about Jesus and His resurrection, and all the glory in your life belongs to Him. Making ...
To Be or Not to Be … A Clone
When or if cloning becomes available, Christians are reminded that procreation is God’s work given to the union of ...
On Human Cloning and Genetic Entropy
There are other moral approaches to ethics, but for Christians the direction of faithfulness in how we live is ...
First National Savings and Clone
As our world desperately grasps for control of human life, let us proclaim the blessed helplessness that comes by ...
A Review of Reproductive Technologies
Because reproductive ethics is a little known quantity for the average person the following is offered as a simple guide for discussion and consideration in personal decision making. Topics include assisting procreation, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, and surrogate motherhood.
The Child As a Gift of God
Commended by the 2019 LCMS convention, this paper examines the many subtle ways that American culture rejects life as a fundamental gift of God and instead sees “having a baby” as a human accomplishment.
When Gorillas Make Bigger News Than People
If we can’t agree that human beings have more value than animals, why should we agree that our society would protect our most vulnerable persons – the elderly and the unborn – from abuse and destruction? As Lutherans, we believe the image of God in man is what makes human beings uniquely precious at all stages of their lives.
