Lutheran Woman's Quarterly
Winter 2023 "Equipping Women"
Editor's Note
God equips each of us with a varying amount/proportion of talents and gifts. We all know it. We all see it in our own lives and the lives of those around us. Some, like me, might like to paint a beautiful picture, but when drawing stick people is the top level of our drawing capability, one should not expect a Rembrandt or Picasso-like work of art from our hands.
From childhood on, there are some who know what they want to do, where they are gifted, and that God has equipped them. They are blessed with those things so they can use these talents to benefit and exhort others. Everything in the lives of such children of God points to the equipped path they are to take.
And then you have people like me. For a long time I’ve thought that God likes to have fun with equipping me — a delighted fun — not poking fun. I had four sisters — no brothers — so He gave me three sons to raise. I have a degree (from a state university) to teach secondary History and English — so He put me in a Lutheran grade school, teaching computer classes and music. I wanted to be a missionary abroad when I was a child, but I had no training — so God said do this: write, edit, and share my Gospel message with women in the church. My list of fun things God has done with and for my life is much longer, but you get the picture.
Whether you are being equipped by professionals in a field of study or experience or God is saying, “Don’t worry about having all the know-how. I will equip you,” know that it is God who equips us. His equipping is intentional — on and with purpose — planned by Him for us — His one design intended for you and another design intended for me. What we need are open ears and hearts to His calling and open eyes to see how He is equipping us, perhaps to do something we’ve never done or thought of doing before.
All we have to do is say, “Yes” when He calls and equips us — wherever and whenever He has need of us — and we will see His hands at work.
Sheila Lutz, Editor-in-Chief
FEATURES
1 | Training Days
8 | Equipped to be a Woman of Grace
30 | About the 2024 LWML Prayer Service
IN EVERY ISSUE
| Editor’s Note
14 | Grants at Work: Gospel Outreach to Women and Children in Mongolia or read it online here
15 | 2023–2025 Mission Grants
28 | Shop LWML
29 | President’s Page — Called and Equipped
BIBLE STUDIES
available to download and print
18 | Equipped — Bible Study
| Equipped — Leader Guide
20 | Where Is Your Treasure? — Leader Guide
22 | Five Stones for Service — Leader Guide
23 | Cinco Piedras de Servicio — Bible Study
| Cinco Piedras de Servicio — Leader Guide
Future Quarterly Themes
Share your story with us at editor@lwml.org
Growing in Christ's Love
SUMMER 2024 (Submit by 1/1/24)
How do you see others grow up in Christ? What is your personal experience of growing in Christ?
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love (Eph. 4:15–16).
The Lord is Near
FALL 2024 (Submit by 4/1/24)
How do you draw near to the Lord during times of mental anguish? When (or how) have you helped someone through a period of mental brokenness?
When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:17–18).
