The First Tale of This Mom, Wife, and Pastor

Why in the world are you reading this?

You will not find answers to any questions about how to remove a stain, cook the perfect pork chop, preach a high-level conversion sermon, or prepare your home for your husband. The tales you will find here are not those kind of tales, I assure you. 

In fact, these might be the opposite kinds of tales. The tales you will find here reject stainless homes and perfection of any kind. Through the years, I’ve come to find peace in my own imperfection. Instead of yearning to be a better mom and wife, I am simply the mom and wife I am. 

I am also an imperfect pastor in a Christian denomination called the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Like my home, I will not tell you my church is perfect, although I still love it. The church, like me, is a work in progress utterly dependent upon Jesus’ mercy. 

I follow Jesus, bake chocolate chip cookies, and preach hope. 

My husband is a middle school principal and some of the students in that school are also confirmation students at the church I serve. Of course, we never swap stories about these lovely and always cooperative children of God. And by never, I mean only when we cannot help it because the material is just so good. For nearly 20 years, Marcus and I have made a way through the wilderness of marriage and found comfort in our church community and in friends and family who have loved us no matter what. 

We have been parents for nearly 15 years. In other words, I have been humbled privately and also publicly for a decade and a half. The only thing easy about parenting is admitting how freaking hard it is. Every. Single. Day. 

And I love baking (and devouring) chocolate chip cookies like my mama still makes them: crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Whenever the cookie jar is empty, it’s time to fill it up. Because one thing my kids should be able to depend on is cookies. It is perhaps my only perfect offering. 

I hope these tales inspire you to embrace your own life, let go of perfection and find at least a little joy in each day God gives.