Author: Katie Schuermann

I believe the Holy Scriptures to be the inerrant Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit and fulfilled in Christ Jesus, our risen Lord and Savior. Therefore, I have faith that children are exactly what God tells us they are in His Word: a heritage to receive from Him. Children are not a prize for me to earn, a commodity for me to demand, nor an idol for me to worship. They are a gift which my Heavenly Father only has the privilege to bestow and to withhold. If God makes me a mother, then I can receive His good gift of a child with all joy and confidence in His love for me. If God does not make me a mother, then I can still know with all joy and confidence that God loves me completely in His perfect gift of the Child Jesus whose sacrifice on the cross atoned for my sin and reconciled me to my Heavenly Father. I am God’s own child, purchased and won by the blood of Jesus, and God promises in His Word that He will work all things - even my barrenness - for my eternal good. For this reason, I can in faith confess that my barrenness is a blessing.

The Righteous Shall Live By Faith

“We don’t see justice, but we know that it is coming.”

That is what Pastor McGuire said to us yesterday in our Wednesday morning Bible class. We have been studying the minor prophets, and yesterday was our turn to read Habakkuk. “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?  Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?” Habakkuk complains to the Lord for himself and for the people of Israel who, conquered years before by the Assyrians, are suffering under the hand of their oppressors.

The Lord’s response? “I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation.”

What?! I can just imagine Habakkuk’s self-righteous feelings of injustice at the Lord’s answer to his prayer for deliverance. Really, Lord? That’s your answer? You are going to send the Babylonians to conquer the Assyrians? No doubt, Habakkuk’s idea of true justice would have been for the Lord to raise up the Israelites to conquer their oppressors themselves, not to replace the violent Assyrians with an even more dreaded and fearsome nation.

Habakkuk complains a second time to the Lord. “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” Preach it, Brother! I confess, I have often felt similar feelings of injustice when unwed mothers and promiscuous teens get pregnant time and time again while my husband and I have still not been able to conceive in our marriage of nine years.

And, then, in one fell swoop, the Lord knocks all of us off our self-justice-seeking soapboxes with His answer to Habakkuk: “The righteous shall live by faith.”

When we read these words in class yesterday morning, I had a hard time fighting back the tears. Those words punched me and hugged me all at the same time. “The righteous (that’s me, a baptized child of God, beloved daughter made right by Christ) shall live by faith.” My response to life – to the injustices, the crosses, the unwed mothers, the failed pregnancies – is faith in God’s justice for me, not in what I think is best. Like Habakkuk and all of Israel suffering under the hand of the Assyrians, I hear the Lord’s words and know that I am to trust in God’s plan, even if it includes some Babylonians.

For, God is trustworthy. We know how it works out for the Israelites. God sends a Messiah, Jesus Christ His own Son, to suffer and die on the cross to save all of us from that greatest of oppressors, Sin. I know, in Christ, that God loves me and deals with me graciously. I get to trust in and be comforted by God’s promises, knowing that He works all things, even an empty womb, for my eternal good. Faith is God’s precious gift to me, and I get to live by it.

Your Pastor, Your Shepherd

Question Submitted: Is there a point at which women visiting this site will be directed back to their pastors?

Run, don’t walk!  Run to your church, now! God has good gifts to give you in His Word and in His Supper, and He means for you to receive those good gifts from your pastor.

“In this life, God has called and ordained men to be pastors to stand before us in the stead of Christ. Please, go to your shepherd and let him take care of you.  Confess to him your thoughts, your sufferings, your burdens, and your sins.  Let him minister to you, speak God’s Word to you, absolve you, and pray for you.  He is there to help shoulder your burdens, and he wants to do just that.

In the inevitable circumstance that your pastor disappoints you, please forgive him. Pray for him.  Be patient with him.  Listen to him.  Speak to him in kindness and love.  He is, after all, another man for whom Christ died, and he will learn from you what it is like to be a barren woman.” (He Remembers the Barren, Lutheran Legacy, 2011)

If this site ever ceases to be a giant arrow pointing you straight to your congregation and pastor, then abandon it at once.  In the meantime, please pray for the hosts of this site that they might fulfill their vocations to love, serve, pray for, and share in the burden of their sisters in Christ who live life under the cross of barrenness.

Thank You, Church

I received all kinds of gifts yesterday:

  • a card from my mother,
  • multiple texts and emails from my sisters and friends to remind me that I am important in the lives of their children,
  • precious concern from a goddaughter that I might not have enough love and attention left for her if I ever have any children of my own,
  • hugs and kisses from church members,
  • and tulips, a bike ride around White Rock Lake, a trip to Central Market, a game of Trivial Pursuit, and sushi from my husband.

One gift in particular, though – a Facebook message from a brother in Christ living in Virginia – brought me a comfort and peace that surpassed all understanding: “In our prayer of the church today, we included those women who are barren and cannot have children. I whispered your name during that petition.”

Those words still move me this morning.  On Mother’s Day of all days, that secular holiday which perpetually tempts me to live the life of a hermit, someone remembered and prayed for me, Katie Schuermann, mother of none.  More than that, the whole, entire Church remembered and prayed for me.  I am not forgotten. The Church knows my cross and bears it with me before the altar of our Lord Jesus. What a gift!

Thank you, Ed.  Thank you, Church.