Life is just messy! Do you ever feel conflict within and without?

“Where there's hope, there's life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.” Anne Frank

"In this world, you have tribulation, but take courage." Jesus

"Mama, I hope the world will always be a happy place 'cause it makes me feel sad when people cry."

I still remember the serious face of my sweet girl when she said this.

How I wish I could give all of my children a world where people were fair, life was easy, and no one If there is one thing I do not like,  it is conflict. Because I am a strong feeler on Myers-Briggs, I want everyone to be happy. I want everyone to have harmony and to get along. I long for harmony in my life.

This world where we live is a battleground. . The ground is cursed and produces thorns and thistles when we work, and really it means, everything tends towards disorder, (second law of thermo-dynamics).

So it is in the spiritual-emotional realm, as well. Relationships are a challenge, as all the people I have ever met are sinners and fragile and make mistakes.

Children are born self-centered and self-absorbed, and so training them to become unselfish, and to have a servant heart, will cost us years of our lives. we have to go against their very nature, to help them to become mature.

And then there is my sinful self--we won't talk about how many regrets I have for all the ways I have been petty or selfish over the years.

Marriages feel the ravages of this battle, because of brokenness, baggage and scars that all of us bear,  sometimes come into the union at its beginning, or develops along the way.

Seems there is conflict everywhere--in my family, with my children's friends, in church, with my friends and co-workers, in marriage. You name it--it is just lurking somewhere around the corner.

And if there is anything that makes me want to quit ministry, it is conflict or misunderstanding.

At 62, I feel like a seasoned pioneer on this challenging journey of life. I have lived through tragedies, illnesses, losses, church splits, deep disappointment with those who called themselves believers and then lived hypocritical behavior with no conscience.

At times, I have felt like David, and asked God why the righteous suffer and the unrighteous prosper?

Perhaps we all feel the darkness and fallenness of this world deeply in our lives and circumstances.

Yet, it is the times of conflict, difficulty, stress, in which He has worked most in my soul. It is in falling or being accused unjustly, that I knew more about the need to give people the grace I would have wanted.

It is in being unjustly accused, that I became more humble and needy of Him and learned to depend on His love.

It is in struggling through the conflict that has evolved over years in our family circle, that I learned to have compassion on other women who have struggled with their own backgrounds. It is in bearing with my children and serving them, that God has taught me how deeply He loves me that He would bear with me and love me and serve me, in spite of myself, because I am His child.

And so, I am learning and have learned, that it is at these very points of stress, where our character is  formed. It is also where our character is revealed.

As Joy put up on twitter today,

"Women (People) are like tea bags. You never know how strong they are until you put them in hot water." - E. Roosevelt

When a person is in conflict and their soul is tested, what comes out is what they are in their hearts.

I have had to look into my own heart lately to see what I am made of. And so, Jesus has become my contemplation more and more as I become older.

"While being reviled, he did not revile in return, but kept trusting Himself to God, who judges righteously." I Peter 2:23

The older I become, the more I fall in love with Jesus. He could have screamed and yelled and become frustrated and accused, so many, many times. He has every right to be frustrated with me, with you, with my enemies--I say I want to follow Him and then I do something petty.

And yet, He offers love, over and over again--"Father, I desire that they know the love I have known from the very beginning."

He is gentle, He is patient, He loves abundantly and generously, even though none of us deserves it.

Even though conflict makes me want to avoid life, God calls me to run through it.

And so, running away is not an option. It is challenge and difficulty where unconditional love is most miraculous. Bringing love and gentleness and courage into darkness heals, relieves, brings light and points others to Him.

And so, running away is not an option.

If I want Him to make my soul into the likeness of Jesus, I must strive, work, seek to attain His gentle ways, His sacrificial love, His peace-making heart.

God is the carving  His reflection and likeness onto my soul. And so, more and more, I humbly seek Him, pray to Him, ask Him to help me be filled with His spirit, so that I may not offend Him, but may, out of great gratitude become, every year, more and more of a great lover.

So, today, if you really love Him,

you may not run away,

I may not run away!

Nobility of His Holy Spirit will spur us on to love, peacemaking, and graciousness, even when we do not feel like giving love back.

Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down His life for a friend.

Cultivating Wonder in the Heart of A Child & Mama

One of my favorite memories from childhood regards a day of unexpected adventure. We had come to the end of a busy Christmas. School was just back in swing. And our day off was supposed to be spent cleaning up the remainders of the holiday mess. I must have been about twelve, old enough to know how much cleaning had to be done and dread it, old enough to feel a sort of dull-eyed boredom with the ordinary around me. I missed the color of Christmas. I dreaded the blank, grey days of school and work and January sanity ahead.

Imagine, then, my surprise, when my mom, after a glance at the doleful faces my siblings and I lifted, gave a long sigh.  “All right. Change of plans. Let’s go exploring,” she said. I think we stood there for a moment, startled. But she shooed us off to gather hiking shoes and backpacks with sketch books while she packed a picnic. It was a strangely mild day, and within a few minutes, we had piled in the car and were off on an adventure. We listened to music and sang at the top of our lungs as my mom drove up into the mountains. We ate a picnic by a stream. We dared the freezing water and gathered a bunch of river-smooth stones. When we got home, we lit a fire, made hot cocoa, and piled on the couches to read aloud. I remember curling in next to my mom, feeling such contentment with the world, with our home, and such a sense of hope and interest in the coming days, something renewed from my boredom of the morning.

I’ve thought often of my mom’s impromptu adventure with us that day, because it is something I have learned to repeat in my own adult life. I have realized that when weeks of intense, demanding work or busyness go by without rest or space, my mind becomes exhausted, my capacity for joy lessens, and with it my sense of gratitude for the life I have been given.

There is an art to the cultivation of wonder. There is a rhythm that must be struck if you are going to keep your spirit fully alive to the music that life, when artfully lived, may be. The music wells up amidst moments carefully claimed, moments wrestled free of distraction from all that must be done and bought and given. But wonder, hush, those signposts of a heart welling up with the holy, come rarely amidst the frenzy of modern life.  We live, most of us, at a hectic pace. We live at the pace of Internet and freeways, we move at the pace of other people’s countless needs, at the speed necessary to provide - money, food, care - for ourselves and others. In the unresting, unrelenting forward motion of adult life, nourishment of the soul seems more about getting a meal on time than a moment of transcendence.

But one of the things I always return to if I take the time to think about it in the opening of the year, is the fundamental need to live in wonder. To choose a state of mind not hectic, not constantly harried, but one steeped in a chosen simplicity, something almost childlike in its innocent awareness of the beauty present and possible in the ordinary, particularly in the spaces of home.

When I become aware of a dull, bitter spirit in myself, I take a day away…at home. I ‘go adventuring’ within the realm of my own walls, setting my home to order and taking the time to savor the ordinary wonders of life again. I get a stack of books and take some time to read. I cook a good meal. I spend some time just listening - to music, in prayer, or even just in silence. I take a walk. I light a candle. And every one of these simple actions helps me to return to a place where my attention isn’t scattered and strained, but focused. On the one beauty, the one person, the one grace before me. And suddenly, the world doesn’t seem as grey and hectic. Rather, in the confines of my ordinary life, in the space of my home, hope grows afresh and possibility rises in my heart because wonder has returned to my eyes.

A rich day at home with good books, good food, quiet, rest - small, ordinary gifts these. To some, they may even seem frivolous. But I am convinced, no, more like convicted, that to claim a few still spaces in which beauty is found and silence kept, is to open the door to God. The discipline, yes, I think you can call it that, of beauty, is an antidote to distraction. It battles the frenzy of our modern self-importance that keeps God, and the humility he desires in us, away.

Child-heartedness, innocence, simplicity, these are conditions of holiness, that fundamental health to which the soul must ever aspire. Wonder doesn’t mean a separation from care and sin, it means a chosen state of faith. A willed decision toward purity of heart. A state in which expectation is the operative consciousness, in which hope is native to each decision, in which thanks, sometimes simply by way of revelry in what is to be found amidst the ordinary, is the ground of discovery, education, and creativity. It is, I think, a state of grace, that fundamental orientation of self required by belief in a Father God. For to him, we are all, eternally, children. The world is his ceaseless gift, and the wonder with which we meet it in the very core spaces of self and home becomes our thanks… and our joy as well.

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Whew! Launch week is over and our second of 4 conferences has come to an end. What an amazing time with women from all over the US. Now, I am resting up in warm California with a friend before heading into 2 more conferences. Sure loved being with you all. So fun for Sarah sharing a memory from our home today, a part of our story. So happy so many of you are loving the Lifegiving Home.

You can find it HERE.

The LifeGiving Home {Chapters 1 & 2}

Welcome to the LifeGiving Home Book Club!!! I am so excited to journey with you through this amazing book. Just a quick intro: My name is Christin Slade, and Sally and I met several years ago at the Allume Conference.

It has been such a gift to read and implement her gospel-centered message inside my home and my hope is to encourage you continue to as well. As we read and study The LifeGiving Home in community, we want to offer up encouragement and ideas for one another to put into practice within our own homes.

Within this next week we are reading through (or have read through) chapters 1 and 2.

A LifeGiving Legacy {Chapter 1}

In this chapter, Sally invites us to dream up what we want our home to be for those living within it's walls. If we could take a few moments to imagine what we want out of our homes, for ourselves, and our families, we can begin to paint a picture of a home which leaves behind a life-giving legacy.

Maybe dreaming it up is the easy part...but how can we implement that dream to make it a reality? That's what this book is going to help us do. But for now, let's dream.

Let's dream of mornings that have a rhythm. Afternoons full of adventure. Evenings spent close to family in conversation or lost in a great book together.

With today's fast-paced, technology saturated culture, creating a home which pours life into others is more challenging than ever before. But it's not impossible.

Sally says at the end of the chapter,

"Building well is a long process. None of us will ever be perfectly wise or mature or loving. Creating a lifegiving home, then, is a long process taken one step, one season at a time. In the process, I've found, the home itself becomes wiser and more valuable."

Please don't attempt to do everything listed in this book (or the LifeGiving Experience book). The idea isn't to burn anyone out, but to offer a buffet of variety and even spark your own ideas by sharing their own experiences. One or two ideas per month are plenty! Start small.

Made for Home {Chapter 2}

We long to be deeply known and, in the knowing, held. -Sarah Clarkson

Sarah paints such a beautiful picture in this chapter about the potential our homes have and how they can draw people in, family and friends alike--and even strangers. Our homes can be a tangible place for the gospel to come alive.

I used to believe that our homes and "making" our homes was not "spiritual", but I have learned so much about how pouring into our spaces and those who dwell within it is very much spiritual! To love is spiritual and by serving others through nurture and hospitality, we bring the embodiment of Jesus into our homes and into the lives of those we serve.

Sarah states so beautifully,

"His Kingdom comes in the way we celebrate, the shelter we make of our homes, the joy we put into what we cook and eat and create, our willingness to welcome strangers into our midst." 

I'll be honest and tell you, cooking is not my favorite thing to do. I used to love it, but I've allowed it to become more of a burden to me than allowing it to be a blessing to my family. But there is something about food that brings people together...especially if you offer a little variety for multiple different palettes.

Admittedly, I love hearing, "Mommy, this is the best dinner ever!" from my children. But equally as much, I dislike hearing complaints about a food someone doesn't like or want. And with seven children, it happens almost every night.

These are some of the humps we need to overcome or roll with in order to keep our home in a state of giving life rather than breeding discontent. That's all part of building a lifegiving home.

We can make our home a place of restoration and a safe place to always return to. A place to look forward to, even after times of wanting to be away. It's always nice to come again.

Have you been held back, like I was, from making your home a lifegiving place? What can you let go of today in order to begin breathing that life into your home?

Next week we will be discussing chapters 3 & 4. I can't wait!! See you then!

Christin Slade

Home: Refuge and Comfort for Dark Times

It's been an exciting and busy week and now I'm off to California to spend a wonderful weekend with more of you at our next MomHeart conference!  Excited to be with you, and I'm so glad to have Sarah sharing here with us today, about the power of home in dark times.

On a rain-darkened morning in Oxford last November, I woke to news of the Paris shootings. I remember sitting in my bed unmoving, sensing the chill, stark hardness of the world. A few days later, news reached me of a shooting in my hometown in Colorado. In the intervening days, friends and family alike received hard news or dealt with broken relationships or just struggled with a sense of despair themselves. At the end of the week, on a Friday afternoon, I sat in my room with such a sense of sadness, I barely wanted to turn on my light as the day drew down to the evening (it doesn’t help that dusk falls at 4pm in England). I was far from family, grieving the darkness of the world, and in that moment, unsure of how to answer it.

But as I sat in the shadow, one of my roommates crept in and curled up next to me on the sofa. We sat for a few moments in silence as she kindly rubbed my sore shoulders. But then, ‘I think we need a good, homey girl’s night’ she declared, ‘’cause its been a hard week’. Her words prodded me out of my dim, tangled thoughts. “Good food, candles, talk, and chocolate,” she added, as if listing the ingredients to remedy sickness of soul. I couldn’t help but smile at the way her eyes were alight even in that gloom. I nodded, and without a word, we stood and tromped down to the kitchen to gather all the necessary accoutrement of a successful, delicious, and soul-girding girl’s night.

We live in a tiny little cottage blessed with an excellent kitchen (but no sitting room). Over our first few months together, we’d cobbled together a few chairs, a rug, and a tiny table to make a sitting room in the bay window of our kitchen. We’d each contributed a few lovely finds from charity shops - posters, teapots, a sturdy wooden tray, a bright ceramic trivet - so that our student house had come slowly to feel like home, a place we three, all students, all working, could return to for shelter at the end of exhausting days. That night, though, we experienced our little cottage, crafted by friendship and love, as a place where the light of hope could be kindled right in the face of a dark and frightening outer world.

By the time our other flat mate walked in the door, we’d roasted chicken, made salad, and curled up again on my sofa to watch a movie. We lit every candle we could find, we cooked with music in the background, and rummaged through our cupboards to combine our chocolate stores. In the hours that followed, we did indeed watch that girl’s movie, but we also talked. We each spoke openly about the fears that plagued us in these difficult days, about the loneliness we felt at living far from family. And we prayed - all three of us on my little sofa in our creaky old cottage with our mismatched dishes on the antique table.

I looked around me in the quiet minute after, and knew such a sense of peace in that moment - in the circle of the candlelight, with the remnants of our feast, and two friends with courageous hearts standing beside me. I began, in that moment, to feel that I could hope once more.

That evening is a picture to me of the hope that home can offer when those who dwell in it choose to draw back into it as a refuge and shelter, filling its rooms with light, life, and love. That we live in a dark, hard world is something you only have to glance at the news headlines to see, or simply remember your own grief to know. Discouragement, doubt, and fear stalk us every day. When war looms on the horizon or tragedies occur, our sense of frailty and fear can double. What answer can we give to such destruction? How can we possibly combat the vast grief of the world in our own, small lives?

By making a feast. By drawing together with friends to laugh. By lighting a candle. No, truly. These tiny acts of homemaking and fellowship are the kindled stars that come alight in the darkness and defy the night. Our answer to the great death and ugliness rampaging through the world can be a series of continually redemptive, bold choices to live in such a way that we proclaim the worth of each person we encounter, the beauty of the world we have been given. In this way, we embody a reality opposite to the hopelessness the darkness would have us believe is the only reality.

And home is the realm in which we make redemption known. Home is the kingdom in which we have the daily choice and power to make our tiny domain one of light or darkness. In the rooms (however few or tiny) we call home, peace can, for a little while, come to earth as we partner with Christ to fill the spaces between our walls with his burgeoning, redemptive life. It’s often an act of defiance, one we make in spite of discouragement and grief. But it’s also an act of redemption - taking the broken stuff of the world, and with Christ’s help, forming it into a shelter for love. A shelter called home.

To find Sarah and Sally's newest books from your favorite bookseller, click here!

Woohoo! An amazing Launch Webcast Party! Thank you for Coming!

Almost 3000 households gathered around to join me in my Webcast to celebrate the end of my launch week for The Lifegiving Home: Creating a place of belonging and becoming.  What an amazing week with friends from all over the world joining me in spreading the word and gathering excitement about my newest book, which is literally a lifetime in the making--the story of my own lifegiving home, 17 moves, 4 kids now grown to adulthood and so much to tell.

I wanted to share the webcast with so many of you who were not able to make it. I am off to California early Wednesday morning to arrange our California Mom Heart Conference.

A million thanks to all of you who attended and made it a great evening. Blessings and blessings of grace to you this week.

Love to all.

Sally

You can also find me today at Ann Voskamp's blog:

Don't miss the sunsets, don't miss the wonder in your children's eyes.

“No moment is useless, no day void, when shaped by the creative power of love.”

guest post by Sally Clarkson

As I glanced out the kitchen window, the shadows that were overtaking the mountain told me that the sun was just about to set.

Clay, my husband, had proposed a rare and much-needed dinner date for just the two of us.

Lots of issues in our life needed our focused attention—ministry conferences, book deadlines, taxes, a possible move, new staff for our ministry, a health problem with one of our children, a relationship problem at church—plus, we just needed some time together alone to be friends.

It was ten minutes before six, the time Clay had told me to be ready. I was still in the kitchen washing dishes, trying to get the kitchen clean before we left.

Eleven-year-old Nathan, my bubbling, energetic extrovert, kept running into the kitchen demanding that I come immediately to look at something.

“Mama, I have something to show you! It will take just a few minutes, but you have to come now.”

“Not now,” I almost told him. “I promise I’ll spend some time with you when I get home, but I have to finish the dishes now before Daddy takes me out to dinner. This way you kids won’t have to clean anything up!”

I almost said that, but I didn’t. After a brief mental battle, I put the greasy pan back in the sudsy water and dried my hands.

“Nathan, where are you?” I called. “I’m ready to see your surprise.”

“I didn’t think you were ever going to come,” he moaned as he appeared from the den. “I hope we’re not too late.”

For the rest of the story, go to A Holy Experience. So very honored by the generous words of my sweet friend, Ann Voskamp.

Here's the books and music that we were all buzzing about! :)

You were all so much fun and such a gift. Happy Wednesday.

Find them HERE

Creating the Art of Life in Your Home And Woohoo! The Webcast Tonight!

A few years ago, we were  visiting a family and everything in the home--I should say, estate, was perfect. A garden without weeds, a home in perfect order, a meal with no mess as all pots and pans had been washed and all put away. Yet, something about the environment seemed sterile and stiff to Clay and me and to our children. We did feel that the children were quite stiff and formal, and seemed  afraid to move out of the context of "reserved politeness."  The atmosphere seemed sterile, and there was something uncomfortable to all of us--like a mysterious air of performance and judgment. The mom repeated three times, "I am so exhausted, all the time."

A strange atmosphere of stress and strain permeated the air we breathed, even in the midst of perfect order,  and we talked about it as we left in the car because it was all so right and yet felt so wrong--the atmosphere of strain almost palpable. In some ways it felt like a cardboard, colorless home.

There seemed to be form without art or life.

I am not condemning order, how I love it! Or high ideals! I am guilty of high ideals.

But if the ideals of our home consist of performance and not heart, all will be lost.

And that is what it felt like to all of us while we were there. And frankly, we all felt a subtle pressure to perform and not say the wrong thing! All the eyes of those around us seemed to dare us to step out of line and feel the consequences.

Our God, the artist who created our world with color, pleasure, surprises, variety, did not give us a home on this earth that was sterile and void of form. As the source of all pleasure and beauty, God would have us imitate the life he gave us to enjoy as we construct the atmosphere of our own homes.

As we rule over the moments in our home, God's pleasure would support our creation of joy in the atmosphere. He would say, "Woohoo! You sat with your child and watched me paint a sunset! You were patient with that spilled milk and fuss one more time--you listened to that weepy teen and didn't even  correct him, even though you were exhausted! You are my precious one and I love  that you are doing your best. I love you. I am with you, I am proud of you for keeping going!"

A home is a place of life filled by a mother whose life is contagious because of her sparkle in the midst of messes, her laughter in the midst of duty, her song pervading the whole place--the music, feasts, art, joy of life--flowing out of a heart that has found this joy in her God.

Tonight, we will celebrate my new book, The Lifegiving Home and discuss traditions and ways to cultivate a place of welcome, a place of comfort and inspiration. 

 We had such a great time with our launch week that we're going to continue with the party today *and* of course, tonight--have you registered for the big official Online Launch Party? If not, don't miss the fun!  Go to this link, or click the button on the sidebar to register to attend--and join the list to win some of the wonderful giveaways we've been saving just for the celebration! Launch Party Registration!

(Registration for the webcast will end at3:00 MSTime)

Today's giveaways are ...

#1. One Art Print from Red Letter Words!

The winner can choose any 11x14 or 12x12 print she likes from RedLetterWords! (U.S. shipping only)

#2. Body goodies from Beauty Counter!

Stephanie Peter is offering these Beauty Counter products just for you! A wonderfully hydrating body lotion and peppermint lip conditioner will help you get through February's drying cold.  Find more natural body goodies at her Beauty Counter site.

#3. Crystal Sutherland painting!

This is an original acrylic painting on 5x7 canvas boards and then mounted to white-washed displays 8x10 in size. Mounted to a whitewashed plaque that can either hang on the wall or be placed in a decorative stand. Crystal says, "I depicted a pair of angels in my pieces because they represent protection, comfort, and guidance God gives us as His children, and I thought a representation of a mother and child would be perfect for the focus of Sally's book!" Find more from Crystal here!

#4. Book of Inspiration for Girlfriends, and Raising Kingdom Kids from Tyndale Publishers!

Enter today by leaving a comment.  Let us know what you're most looking forward to in reading The Lifegiving Home! Then use the entry form below to enter. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Buy your copy of The Lifegiving Home and The Lifegiving Home Experience at your favorite bookseller!

And don't forget to join us tomorrow night for the big Launch Party! We will have fantastic giveaways including a weekend at Sally's!  Register here: Online Launch Party Invitation!

Shouldn't We Value Children as Much as God Does?

Cherishing the Eternal and Infinite Value of Children

As the only girl with two older brothers, and having rarely babysat, I just did not have any experience with little children, let alone babies. at 31, I almost knew nothing about being a mother. But when my sweet little seven and a half pound, blue-eyed little girl came out of my womb, I was literally entranced.

Surprising to me was how much I fell in love with her, deeply, profoundly. I had planned my systems that I read about in all the books,  about how to manage her and control her schedule.  But when she was mine, all rules and systems went out the window, and I doted on my sweet little baby. I wanted to give her the best of loving care, to talk with her, to smile at her smiles, to enjoy her little baby hand pats on my chest when I would rock her to sleep and nurse her. I carried her in a pouch everywhere I went. Talking to her and smiling through out the day at every moment was natural. Cherishing her miraculous little smiles, giggles, gurgles, I was captivated. (Of course learning to be a good mama was a longterm process and was filled with the normal stress, but I was surprised by the pleasure I had from having my sweet little one.)

No one prepared me for the love I would feel.

Cultural messages surrounded me.

"Don't allow your children to rule your life."

"You have a little boy and a girl, don't have any more. They will take too much time."

"You have a stewardship of ministry and your children will keep you from the important work you could do."

Somehow, the multitude of messages confused me but didn't settle well in my heart. I searched for wisdom.

I began to reason, I should see what God has to say about children in the Bible and take my cues from Him.

What value did God place on children?

Searching the Bible, I began to realize that God had many opinions about babies, children.

The first blessing out of God's mouth after creating the whole universe, and then creating a living, thinking, creative human being in his image, was, "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth," (Genesis 1:28)

God's blessing from the beginning was on parents having children in the first chapter of the Bible.

Psalm 127: 3-5 taught me that: "Children are a gift of the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward.  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth.  How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them." 

God considered that giving children to us was a gift. The Psalm said that a man was blessed who had many children. (a child was not evaluated by how much they cost, or how much time they demanded. God said in his value system, children were a gift and a reward.

Then I turned to the New Testament...

Jesus communicated his value of children over and over again. When the disciples thought the children were bothering Jesus, Luke tells us:

And they were bringing even their babies to Him so that He would touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they began rebuking them. But Jesus called for them, saying, "Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."

In the midst of a flurry of adults who wanted the attention of Jesus, he stopped everything, to hold the children in his lap, tousled their wispy hair, he smiled deep into their bright eyes. When describing what adults should be like, he did not use standards of perfection or performance. Instead, he said adults were to become like children: innocent, trusting, generous in love, in short,  to become like children in order to truly understand what it meant to receive His kingdom.

Finally, in some of the most harsh language recorded in the gospels, Jesus warned against anyone harming children, neglecting them, not protecting them so as to cause them to stumble and lose their faith. His words haunted me, "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea."Mark 9:42

In other words, it would be better for a person to be violently bound and thrown to drown a terrible death than for him to faee the wrath stored up for the ones who caused these precious ones to stumble. Stern words indeed.

And so I began to think Biblically about children and it changed my heart and my behavior. In a culture that often views a child by the expense in time and money he will cost in his lifetime, how important it was for me to intentionally recognize the infinite value of a tiny human being, created with the very imprint and image of God.

Within the home of any mama might be a future supreme court justice, a physician who heals cancer, a great missionary who leads the lost to Christ. When we see children as the future foundation of the character of the next generation of adults, we will take the raising of them seriously to plant righteousness forward.

I began to understand that to become a mother, who shepherds her child, gives great worth to my own life as I took stewardship over my children's lives. I understood as I grew through my journey of motherhood, that God had trusted a human being into my hands whose life would have implications for eternity.

Taking responsibility for my children caused me to have to become more excellent in every area of life.

My children would learn to trust in the truth of God's love by experiencing it through my affection, my words of life, my commitment to serve, my offering of unconditional love through all the days in my home

My children would learn the character, integrity and holiness of God by my modeling His reality through my own godly character, my faith, my growing in excellence because of His presence in my life.

My children would learn of the ways and truth of God because of my intentionality of cherishing His word every day, teaching them the precepts, the stories, the righteousness of God.

In short, God entrusted parents with the sacred charge of shaping a child's view of God and their understanding of righteousness by breathing in the oxygen of His reality in home, the laboratory of life, day by day, in season and out, forming his very faith and character through all the days of home life.

During these years, God seemed to whisper to me in my quiet times, Give foundations of strength and inspiration to these precious ones, but give them wings as well. Prepare them to take risks, to live by faith, so that they can take the messages and cherished values they learned at home and share them with a hurting world. And so our home became a launching pad, a place of blessing, as we sent our beloved children on their way—hopefully strong, whole, and secure in the ideals, faith, and values that truly matter.

They were taking His light out into the darkness. But our home remained the lighthouse they could return to for rest and restoration in between the adventures that took them into the world.

From The Lifegiving Home 

Buy my new book now HERE, at most of your favorite bookstores.

Be sure to listen to my new podcsast about the Eternal Value of Children to the Heart of God with Kristen today.

Remember to sign up today, the last day to enter to win a trip for two to visit me, HERE. Even if you are by yourself, you can join this live webcast in your home. For those who register, we will be giving a beautiful printable poster of the 24 Family Ways, announcing the winners of the trip to my house, two of my favorite recipes, a printable poster from my book and a number of wonderful prizes, including a handmade cherry cutting board especially for the Lifegiving home, 5 cd's of music for the Lifegiving home, a large gift version family study Bible and so much more. Hope you can join me and my friends for an evening of sharing about traditions, favorite resources, stories and more. (After you register for free, you will receive an email with instructions for Tuesday evening.)

Cheer for your Weekend from The Lifegiving Home

What if there was an army of light bearers spread all over the world at outposts where people could come to feel the touch of God, understand the truth of God, experience the beauty of God, witness the joy of God in the place called Home where the reality of God was celebrated every day?

Sally

The goodwill of mothers is like the goodwill of God.

Sarah

…home is the place where love makes us welcome, a shelter from which we will not be expelled.

Food is the universal language that eases hearts to open, tying secure knots of intimacy while satisfying bodily hunger, weaving tiny threads of kindred needs into friendship, camaraderie, and truth.

Sally

Home is a huge treasure chest filled with the riches of love, feasts, inspiration, great stories, sacrificial love, and all that a heart needs to grow strong and good.

Sally

May your home be filled with peace and rest this weekend. Wishing you grace. Thanks to all of you who have been so exceedingly gracious and encouraging about our newest book. You have indeed brought a smile to our hearts and fill us with joy.

Enjoy more inspiration from The Lifegiving Home and The Lifegiving Home Experience. You may find it an any of your favorite bookstores.

I hope you can join me at a web party on Tuesday night. Invite your friends to your home and celebrate friendship, inspiration and sweet fellowship about building a lifegiving home.

Gifts, recipes, printable posters, The 24 Family Ways poster, lovely offerings and a grand prize will be given away during the evening. Send this e-invitation to your friends and join in the fun. Register HERE

Choosing Joy to fill your Home to become Lifegiving &More Giveaways!

"The joy-filled life is not found by diminishing my God-given responsibilities as a woman, wife, and mother, nor can I find joy merely by refusing to face the hard realities of life in a fallen world. There is a tension that God is asking me to acknowledge and accept ~ the tension between ideals and realities. True joy is found by living somewhere between the ideal life and daily realities. That is where Jesus meets me, where His Holy Spirit empowers, and where I learn how to live the Christian life with supernatural joy. To celebrate life is simply a choice."Sally Clarkson The Lifegiving Home Book

When my adult children come back home to visit me, the excitement and anticipation ignites me to tidy the house, set out lovely flowers, light candles, and leave them chocolates and goodies, prepare their favorite meals. I do this so that they can feel welcome, experience my love for them, and feel the peace and joy that comes with home. However, can you imagine how I would feel if I went to all of that effort to make things beautiful and love them extravagantly, only to watch them walk in, sit on their phones and computers all day, have bad attitudes, and tell me that they're just "too busy" or "too stressed" to enjoy it? How must our loving God feel when we don't choose to celebrate this life He has given us to subdue or prepared for us to enjoy?God is available, prepares for us each day, wants to shower us with His love, grace, compassion, wisdom, but often we are too busy or self-centered to notice Him and to "be" with Him.

Often times, our own expectations of how we thought life would be, get in the way of us being able to grab onto the joy and abundant life that God has for each of us. Finding peace and joy does not mean giving up on our ideals, but in seeking the balance, the ebb and flow, that is life. 

Joy won't always feel as second nature as taking a breath, but with every breath, how can you choose joy?

 It is a conscious, daily effort that can transform your life if you allow it to. Joy is a choice to see Him in the midst of daily moments, to call upon His spirit's presence and strength at each turn, each curve in the road. Joy comes from being assured we are not alone in the dark places and that He is light and will shine His light in each place.

You are the conductor of joy inside the walls of your home.

But joy is a choice of faith, of submission when we say, "I will choose to believe in your goodness. I will lead all who are in my home to a pathway of being thankful and finding God's fingerprints in the moments of my life so that I can be joyful."

Decide to lead yours into a pathway of joy today. The more you practice having a grateful, joyful heart, the more the atmosphere of your home will breathe the life of God.

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Friday has finally arrived--whew, what a busy, wonderful week!  And what fun we've had, giving gifts to our friends here!  More today--and we hope you've registered for all the fun we have planned for Tuesday night of next week, with even more giveaways including the grand prize--a weekend at Sally's! Find out more and register here:  Online Launch Party Registration

Thursday's prize winners are ...

Fruit of the Spirit Embroidery Kit--Laurel M!

Precious Hymn Notecards--Wanda O!

Fruit of the Spirit Teacups Painting--Elizabeth!

First Hands-On-Bible and Devotional Reading Journal--Shannon B!

Winners have been emailed.  Congratulations!

AND NOW FOR TODAY'S GIVEAWAYS!!!

#1. Rejoice Evermore Print from Breezy Brookshire!

This chalk lettering art print is a cheerful reminder of thanksgiving and prayer, featuring 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.

If you want to purchase one of these lovely prints, find Breezy here!

#2. 2 copies of Think Through the Bible kids devotionals!

Impact a new generation for God!

"Think Thru the Bible" offers:

- a concise explanation of how the most familiar stories in the Bible fit in with God's Big Picture

- illustrations and simple summaries for easy memory

- an easy to read time-line

- a fun song to remember the main sections of the Bible

Teach children God's history with man and help them catch His hope for using them in His plan! Find it here on Amazon.

#3. Three One Sentence books from Tyndale!

These sweet books are just right for beginning readers--a simple way to learn more about Bible heroes, animals from the Bible, and great Bible stories. Find more from Tyndale at your favorite bookseller!

#4. HOME sign from It's a Beautiful Life!

This 8"x24" wooden sign was created just for Sally--and you!  Find more designs by Kirstyn Wright and the girls at Beautiful Life by visiting their brand-new blog and shoppe here: It's a Beautiful Life.

Today, enter by visiting Sally's Facebook page! Or leave a comment here--We'd love to hear from you. Then come enter with the Rafflecopter entry form below. Contest ends Friday at 8pm. a Rafflecopter giveaway Be sure to order your own copy of The Lifegiving Home--or one for a friend!-- at your favorite bookseller--we have them all here!

Making Your Home a Safe Refuge from Storms of Life &Lifegiving Home Launch Week

Launch week is a test to the normal "live at home a quiet life" Clarksons. As a family that God has chosen to put, at times, in front of the public eye, we have experienced ups and downs of the demands this puts on our lives But learning to create a haven of sacred life and protection, a place to retreat and regroup safely from the eyes of the world, is important to all of us at times. We all have disappointments, failures, stresses. How important it is to find a way to pull back and restore with the grace and love straight from God's heart. Today I share a story from our book. How do you provide a safe refuge in your home so at times, your family can all escape from the pressures of life?

Furrowed eyebrows above large dark eyes was the signal to me as a mom that something was not right with one of my children. Like my other precious ones, she had faced the challenge of growing up more or less in public and was feeling exposed and fragile, inadequate to live into such a pressured role. It was not the life we chose, it was the life we were given. We must each figure out how to manage the unique puzzles of our family stories and our home life.

God has blessed our family with the opportunity to interact with so many people from so different walks of life and to touch others with our ministry, but I had learned very quickly that this was not always easy for my children. And this particular child had begun to grow into a challenging point of adolescence and especially needed attention and affirmation from me.

“Mama, do you ever feel like a hypocrite when your life is so . . . visible? Doesn't it get hard to keep on writing and speaking about your ideals when your failures are right out there for people to see? Do you ever feel disqualified?”

She went on: “I really need to get away from the voices and eyes of the world right now. Can’t we hole up in the house for a few days and just be ourselves, with all our warts and weirdnesses?” (We ended up doing just that.)

Truth be told, I could totally relate to what my sweet daughter was saying. I feel like quitting ministry about ten times a week! I am just a normal Christian woman wanting to love Jesus and live according to His example, and God simply called me into a more public place than I would ever have chosen.

How well I know what my child was discovering—the vulnerability that comes from being a leader, from publically standing firm on an ideal. You put your neck out and stand for principles, and yet you are still only human and make mistakes along the way. Not everyone understands, and there is plenty of criticism to face in the journey. Add to that our breakneck, high-pressure, high-consumption contemporary culture and it’s easy to reach a place where all of us feel depleted, needing a place of safety and refuge, desperately thirsty for emotional, physical, and spiritual water to refresh us.

The way I have been able to bear all this (most of the time) is to make our fallibility a part of our message. I’ve always been upfront about the reality that I and my family aren’t perfect or always strong. We fall down and mess up like any other family. But even when we’ve blown it, struggled with the dark side of life, or wallowed in our own sin and selfishness, God has been faithful to us.

The heart of my message is that God still redeems every moment, every mistake, and every failure.

It is a risk to stand for something, to seek after the holy ways of God, to keep going when you are weary to the bone, to love when you feel hurt and rejected, especially by those who call themselves "Christians." Every one of us will be called in some capacity to live into a call and will face this struggle in some way.

That’s why all of us need a place to escape from time to time. We need a home—but not just any home. Home needs to be a haven of safety, acceptance, and unconditional love, a place where we can rest and find refuge from all the devastating and depleting parts of life. When the storms and difficulties come, home should be the first line of defense against despair. This is why we must guard our homes as if they were our very lifelines. Because they are!

Today I challenge you:

How will you make your home a place of refuge? How will you provide a place of unconditional love where secrets can be shared and carried as a holy trust? How will you provide quiet and rest, recreation and inspiration for those within your walls? How will you keep the messages of a frenzied culture at bay so that the truth heard in your home will be that which instructs, comforts, gives insight, and shows love to those who hunger for peace and restoration?

How will you plan your home? Go forth and prepare.

From The Lifegiving Home

Thanks to everyone who has shared our books with your friends. It means so much to Sarah and me. We pray it will encourage women all over the world!

It's a party here at SallyClarkson.com, all week as we celebrate the launch of my newest books, The Lifegiving Home and The Lifegiving Home Experience! Written as a collaboration between myself and my children Sarah and Joel, these books are a magnum opus of sorts of the home we've created as a family.  We're so glad to welcome you in!  You can buy a copy from your favorite bookseller here!

All week we're drawing names and picking winners, who are the beneficiaries of our wonderful friends who are joining in Launch week with us!  Yesterday's winners are ...

For Crystal Sutherland's painting, Bethany N!

For the two children's devotionals, Nicole L and Lisa W!

For the Princess sticker sets, Sue Tan and Krista T!

and for the two great books from Tyndale, Heather B!

Congratulations, and watch for an email with more information! We have even more giveaways for you today (all week!)  Here they are!

#1.  Fruit of the Spirit Embroidery Kit from Clementine Patterns--be sure to visit their lovely shop!

Featuring the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23, this delightful embroidery sampler features hand lettering in various stitches and colors, with an added touch of whimsical doodles.

#2.  Precious Hymn Notecards from Mercy is New!

These lovely hymn cards can be used in multiple ways! You can use as postcards to send an encouraging note in the mail. You could also use them as a lovely addition to your home decor. Hang on twine with clothes pins, frame, or give as a gift! You could also add a few to a gift to give it a special and unique touch!

#3. Art by Chastity Giles!

Chastity is offering this darling painting of Fruits of the Spirit teacups- watercolor, inktense, and ink on watercolor paper- 12"x9"!

#4. First Hands-On Bible and Devotional Reading Journal from Tyndale Publishers!

My wonderful publisher, Tyndale, is going to send these books to one winner!  The First Hands-On-Bible is perfect for preschoolers, and I pray this Devotional will help you continue or begin your own practice of quiet time.

Today, please enter by tweeting about Sally's new book!  Or visit Sally's Facebook page and comment on one of the posts; we keep you up to date on what's happening 'round here. Enter by using the box below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Remember to sign up for the party for an opportunity to receive fun recipes, printable posters and a chance to win a trip for you and friend to Sally's home this summer.