Anything of true beauty casts away darkness.

"The more I study the character of God, the more I see that God is not a kill-joy grump. Rather, in some ways, he is wild, whimsical, transcendent, and like a playful dancer, weaving steps and songs into the pattern of our days. As the author of humor, delight, tastes, sounds, feelings, touch, and affection, he tucks beauty along our pathway to show us more of his artistry." 

"God's personality is to be a provider of beauty as the very expression of his nature." from Dancing With My Father

This afternoon, I am sitting in my little blue, Queen Anne chair with my legs propped up, looking at these tall, elegant flowers in front of me on a table ablaze with flickering candles. Celtic Vision, a favorite violin album is bringing me great comfort, as my mind sings along with  the familiar tunes.  

Since I was a little girl, I have delighted in purple iris. I won a blue ribbon at a garden show, (my only show!) when I was a little girl, with a cut iris from our garden lovingly placed in a vase. Perhaps all the children won blue ribbons, I don't know. But from that time I have loved them--they are elegant, vibrant, touching deep places in my heart that celebrates beauty.

I find I am in need of drinking this tonic into my weary heart and soul. Getting back to my center is what I long for---as I well know that I cannot long give out without replenishing or I will become dry. There is not and has never been a lot of time for quiet in my life, but I have to make it happen--I have to be the one who carves out time, gets away, ponders and rests and dreams--so that I can finish well. 

It happens to be one of the topics I have spoken on repeatedly the past few conferences--but it also always true for me. There is no one else who will see that I get what I need to continue conducting the symphony of the Clarkson's lives, so I must take care to keep myself in tune with the life I have been given.

And so, as I find myself a little worn at the edges, I am seeking to figure out just how the Lord wants me to plan my time in the next week before our last conference in Raleigh--amidst our busy life--so that I can be and remain refreshed at the core of my life--for me it will mean seeing that I get enough sleep--leaving some things undone as I can get to them when I get home; simplifying life and meals; staying away from the emails and internet more--even if I am letting a million emails and letters fall by the wayside--but keeping my family, me and the Lord first. It is essential to a enduring long distance run--to shed what is unnecessary and to run intentionally and with diligence and simplicity. 

Everyone have a grace-filled and refreshing weekend. Take time to rest! Blessings.............

The Danger of Guilt......

We all have fragile points. One of mine is that I struggle, especially when I am tired and worn, with a feeling of guilt. "I should be more mature by this time. I can't believe I did this or that again." And then I let the cloud of feelings determine how I feel that God feels about me. It is one of the areas of joy that I am learning about over the last few years--that of remaining in God's great love and celebrating His forgiveness and provision for me every day, every moment--living there and not allowing Satan to diminish His gift of redemption in my life. 

 I read a great article this morning that I thought spoke to this issue very well. My friend Lynn subscribed me to this as something that comes into my in box every day--you might enjoy this, too. 

Find this great article 

Off to a day of my Tuesday morning Bible study, and my monthly Tuesday night monthly group in my home--what a group of welcome friends to come home to in order to get back into normal life. I love being home. The suitcases will have to wait for a few days. I have lift to live today.

Lots to share, lots to ponder, lots to learn.....Breakfast musings

  Sarah and Joy--my two partners in adventure--we make up the "Girl's club" and make memories together all over the world.

Dallas is such a unique conference for us as a family. We started out here. We have friends who have been coming for 14 years. In many ways it is like being back home with family. We take time for perspective. But I really love to glean what my young, idealistic children see with their own honest eyes. I learn from their freshness. Joel already back in Boston, Clay on the road in the car traveling his 13 hours to home, 

Sitting with my two precious,  girls and best friends this morning over a leisurely breakfast here at the Dallas hotel, gave us time to ponder all that had happened in the last few days. These are our breakfast musings....

 "How did you girls like the Dallas conference? What are your thoughts?"

"They (the women here in Dallas) are so loving and giving and generous and encouraging. There are those who give of their words and time and money and gifts so generously to us at this conference that it makes us think that all of the years of work is worthwhile--though we wanted to give--we were given so much. These kind, thoughtful women make us want to invest our lives for the kingdom, and to keep going."

"Watching our friends work just at hard as us---with no money or reward--gives us accountability to want to be faithful because they are." (the principle of accountability and positive peer pressure.)  

Thoughts on outward appearance or inside hearts.....

"We should always look at people's hearts--there are people who dress a lot differently than us and people who have a very different background or theological underpinning--but in the end, some of them have hearts that are exactly like ours."

This from a conversation about how we have traveled all over the world and worked with Baptist Romanians, atheist Chinese, Moslem families from the middle east, Catholic Polish nationals, Charismatic Hungarians, Lutheran Germans, Reformed Dutch in Europe and New Zealand, Patriarchal Texans and Australians, and all sorts of backgrounds here in America...... 

God is not American or limited to culture or religious preference....

 Seeing my girls realize that God is not American and not just like anyone else they know--He is wild, bigger than us or our little world--but that His word and truth transcend all centuries, all cultures and all of us can be so personal as to feel He understands each of us where we are right now. His Spirit works where the heart is turned to him, focussed on faith, living by the truth of His word, seeking to be obedient....

How living and traveling internationally and nationally had influenced our own choice of clothing, values, food tastes and such--but that our hearts most identified with those whose hearts were passionate or hungry for the eternal, the real spiritual meaning in life, about the kingdom and our Lord Jesus, and loved reading and discussing the word and depending on prayer and giving the grace and redemption of God. Whether poor and uneducated or wealthy and sophisticated--the ones they felt closest to were those who were alive to Christ.

 They loved all of the stories about children and family.

"Some of these great moms are amazing--giving, loving, serving, obviously over their heads with work and pressure--yet still full of the life of Christ. Some just need rest and love and life-giving words--and a break--maybe just a night of sleep. 

or then to the eternal issues.....from a too short visit with my mom in Canton yesterday...

 

How fun my mom still is, even though quite fragile--and how much closer she is to going to heaven.

How when my dad asked her to marry him, when she was a system's engineer with IBM, and he said if they got married, he would ask her to stay home to raise her children and to attend to their needs. And how maybe her decision influenced me many years later to make the decision to start a ministry to moms because of her own giving up of her life. 

 

How important it is to take time to make one more memory. 

 

(Sarah snuck this picture of me and mom because she thought I would like it as a memory.)

And how important it is to feel that soft, precious cheek against mine one more time, to pray God's blessings over her one more time, just in case... 

And how, she is a sermon to us of the brevity of life--how to be faithful in the years we have left. 

This is what we were talking about this morning at the breakfast table--I learn so much from my girls.

Grace and peace and perspective to you today.

Dallas--the place where God inspired us all....

Amazing tea this morning with leaders from many different parts of the US came. Seems the Holy Spirit is shaping women to become a part of an army of Godly women reaching moms, homes and families all over the world.  We are going to see history changed as we take His light powerfully spreading through us and as we raise godly children and as we faithfully seek to love our husbands. So exciting to see how He is uniquely working in the lives of women who are passionate, alive and generous of spirit-----onward into the fray......

I am blessed!

Why should children play and pretend?

Thousands of Legos, dress up clothes from good will, an old tape recorder to tape our own radio dramas, swords and capes, a back yard with kick the can, hide and seek, king of the mountain; a play kitchen with real pots and pans from mom's kitchen and food to experiment with and real cooking with mom; garden tools, boards to build on outside, blankets to build indoor tents over card tables; building blocks; colored pencils, paints, butcher paper by the yard, play dough, hiking, cups of tea with stories, scavenger hunts galore, pretend----many more were the play times of our children.  They were not allowed to do "media" in the daylight--except for a half hour and or if they were sick or if it was an exception--they knew not to ask. Why, because I had read article after article that  said how important play and discovery and creating was to the growth and process of children's intelligence and brains. 

Building a "real" culture of life in your home may require planning, but it also probably means that lots of kids will be at your house--because you may be one of the only places that still encourages creativity and play and wild running and letting children have free play and fun. Parks were great when we lived overseas in small apartments--and hiking trails and a walk every day. 

God provided in natural life and nature and home, all that our children needed to develop intelligence and vocabulary and healthy minds and bodies. We just need to be protectors and promoters of these great ways God built for children to be happy and healthy.

Enjoy this article

Pray for us as we celebrate the concepts of joy and celebrating life with hundreds of women in Dallas this weekend.

Please pray for my children as they are always taxed during this season--they also become targets. I so appreciate all the encouraging emails and notes and will some day get to answer all of them. But they mean a whole lot to me! Blessings of His grace today.

What does your soul reveal about you?

"That which we elect to surround ourselves with becomes the museum of our soul and the archive of our experience." Thomas Jefferson A few weeks ago, after a couple of trips and some wearying legs on an airplane, I had the privilege of attending a tea that one of my friends was holding in her home. The tables for 30 people around her living area in a modest home had been set with care. Flowers, candles, centerpieces with small art pieces placed here and there. 

The fare was simple but elegant--fresh fruit--grapes, tangerines, strawberries served on a crystal dish with 3 kinds of cheese and multi-grain crackers. A scone and jam course. Finger sandwiches--cucumber, egg salad, ham and onion cream cheese and finally chocolates with petit fours. 

Classical music wafted through the air as all the women present (including me and my two daughters) talked quietly--it was as if the atmosphere drew out an elegance and refined manners from all of us because we were tasting of beauty.

Between each course, our hostess showed us different Pre-Raphaelite prints from England, beautiful prints of feminine women, knights, heroes and saints who were depicted by artists in the early 1900's who wanted to bring back the elegance and beauty into art. Alfred Lord Tennyson's life was told in between the prints as the foundation of many of the pictures being painted to reflect his poetry--in memoriam, being one of the best. The love story of his life, his struggle to prove himself, and his faithful love throughout his lifetime.

Our souls were elevated to higher thoughts. Our femininity was cultivated and refined and we were called upon to become more intellectually adept as we pondered how a movement of idealists had in influence on their culture because of their commitment to exalt marriage, and Biblical design of men and women reflecting excellence and beauty in character.

I could see Joy sitting straighter, listening to inspiration, desiring to become more ideal. And all because a woman, who is herself always learning and studying, wanted to pass on civility and beauty to her friends. I know it was a great amount of work, but her labor exalted our souls.

And so it is, we cannot pass on civility, beauty, intelligence, excellence of mind and heart, if we do not ourselves make these virtues a goal of our lives. Whatever we pursue and cultivate will determine what we are also able to pass on to all who we encounter. As stewards of our souls, we must seek to cultivate a garden of beauty--it must be a regular habit, a discipline, to expose ourselves to great minds, the best musicians, fine artists, great theologians, wonderful biographies--so that our souls will indeed reflect a museum of His great character and nobility--that of our great king.

On to Dallas this morning and excited to pass on that which has been recently invested in my own soul.

My heavenly dream......

I am not given to dreams--and have only had 3 that I know of in my life, that I believe were from God Himself. So what I am about to share is a very rare occurrence, and I share it in hopes that it may be of some encouragement to you, though I feel vulnerable in the sharing of it.  After I had been sleeping for several hours, I seemed to awaken into a dream. Somehow I knew God was right behind me at my shoulder, looking on at the same scene that my eyes beheld. 

When I opened my eyes, in the dream, with God standing so near, right behind me and at my shoulder.  I was looking at two sides of a street that lay directly in front of me. On one side,  I could see an infant lying on a concrete foundation, a portico, at the top of about 8 wide concrete  stairs that looked like it was the entrance to a judicial or government building. 

The little baby was clothed only in  diaper, on top of a blanket that had come off of it's little body, laying flat and disheveled and dirty underneath it....Flailing its little arms, clenching fists and drawing its little legs in and out in utter frustration, while screaming and crying helplessly and hopelessly in utter fear and anguish and abandonment. 

Arrows were shooting and whizzing through the air above and around the little baby and at the little infant's vulnerable frame.

On the other side of the street, I saw a gang of wild young men, that appeared to be  clothed in black, with leather jackets and  all dark colors, gothic in appearance, weird make-up, terrifying faces filled with hate, anger, passion--  laughing, yelling, cheering, screaming. Somehow, I knew from God that it was Satan with a cluster of his demons all exulting and celebrating in the passion of the moment. 

They were  drawing tight their bows, while aiming their arrows across the street at the helpless baby. Each arrow was marked with a single, clear word--selfishness, self-absorption, sexual immorality; moral impurity, peer pressure, violence, pornography, lies, deception, temptation, divorce, rape, drugs, prostitution, fornication, hate, evil---

I could clearly see each arrow with its message being aimed at the baby's heart and head. 

Overcome with desperation and visceral repulsion, I desperately asked the Lord, "Why isn't anyone there to protect the baby? Where is it's mother? Someone needs to do something!"

He answered, "No one has taught the mothers what they are supposed to do. They are all doing other things. They don't even know. They have believed lies that have been told to them, while there was no one there to tell the truth. There are no people standing in front to protect the babies and to teach the mothers about their role."

What shall I do, Lord? 

You need to have older mothers stand in a line,  in front of the babies, and teach the young mothers what is true, so that they will know to protect those I consider precious, those I have given to them as gifts. They do not know about the battle or the arrows. You need to teach them.

And then my dream was over. It was about 14 years ago. I knew I had a mandate. Clay and I  knew God had a call on our lives. We had to do what He had told us to do. 

At a very turbulent time in our lives, when people were challenging our motives, ideals and convictions, Clay and I prayed and from this and God's call on our heart, we started writing parenting books, books on motherhood and hosting our first mother's conference. It was a drive, we knew it was God's heart for us to train mothers.

And so a dear friend recently reminded me of how my dream touched her heart many years ago. She told me to keep telling others about it and to keep the vision fresh.Stay devoted. Stay the course. Hold up the call. 

And  so, as we get older, Clay and I think, "What more can we do in our life-time, the few years we have left until we see Him face to face,  to train, instruct, encourage and help get God's message out to the mothers, so that they will understand their God-ordained role, to protect their little children from Satan's designs, to show them to reality of God, and to live in His power and grace to accomplish what he has called them to do-to build a godly generation in their homes? 

And so, our plans and dreams and message keep forming in the early morning hours when we talk and pray and write and organize together, and then Clay goes faithfully each day to the office to administrate all that God has placed on our heart.......

Watch out for a new plan that is forming in our hearts! Coming soon............

Dancing with my Father... new book giveaway!

Thanks for the wonderful letters of encouragement about this book and about how encouraged you were to hear these messages at the Mom's conferences. You are a blessing to me!My publisher sent  a team to my home recently to talk to me about my new book! I am still learning so much about daily living in joy.  Another very sweet friend of mine reviewed this on her blog (you will love her blog!) and she is giving a Dancing With My Father away! Be sure to enter! Click here to enter!

Two great conferences coming up! Be sure to make it!

Dallas  and Raleigh

Can't wait to see you there!

Make time for civility and beauty and let grief have its work

I have been in a battle of sorts lately and almost always am this time of year. My dear husband tells me every year about this time I say, "I want to quit doing this. I cannot speak or write anymore. I feel consumed." 

I have told my children that when you stand in front of people, in any ideal or in any way, or if you stand against cultural values, you become a target. And so, in small ways, I have been a target because of my own ideals. Jesus gently told us of this, so that we would not be surprised. In this world, you will have tribulation, but take courage.......take courage....I have overcome.

I hope that I mature a little more every year, and will learn to handle these seasons of weariness with more and more grace and unconditional love, but still I am vulnerable, and always, always need God's grace and presence and comfort. 

People may wonder why I emphasize beauty, and my candles, music and tea times as though all I ever do is have tea parties--it is because in the fray of my very busy, demanding life, where so many draw from my soul morning, noon and night, I have to make a space to be refreshed, to ponder Him, to ponder life and to get heavenly perspective--His love, forgiveness, comfort, protection--so that I will still be able to keep walking the road He has had me travel. 

I am a weak, fragile person, and find that only in Him have I found the strength to go on and dance year after year--He becomes my song and my delight, but only as I am in His presence in the midst of the storms. As Jesus rested in a storm, so He is becoming my only true rest in the midst of the gales. 

I realize again, that when I suffer and am humbled, God always broadens my soul. He gives me love and compassion for those women I have the privilege of ministering to each year. 

If I have felt deep sadness,  loneliness, or discouragement or vulnerability, then, I imagine, so have they--and God allows me to minister out of a heart that has been hungry and broken, but has found my answer in Him and His gentle, strong arms, that have so faithfully held me and guided me all of these years. 

How very grateful I have become for this secret life in Him that we share together--where He has heard my hearts deepest cries, my dreams, my disappointed expectations, my hopes and prayers--and yet He has loved me and dealt with me as a Father, who has compassion and grace for me, his daughter, who is learning every day, to rest in His arms and to delight in the small pleasures He brings to my days. 

A sweet friend lost her sister four years ago, and read this poem at her funeral. I have found it to be so true in my own life--May you come to find deep, precious, refined wisdom, understanding, and compassion in your own heart through those struggles and difficulties that indeed bring eternal gold in the very depths of your soul. And may His beauty fill your longings today.

Defeat may serve as well as victory To shake the soul and let glory out When the great oak is straining in the wind The limbs drink in new beauty, and the trunk Sends down a deeper root on the windward side Only the soul that knows the mighty grief Can know the mighty rapture, Sorrows come To stretch out spaces in the heart for joy

Still in the midst of my every day, even in the weary moments, are real pictures of HIs delightful gifts of life to celebrate. And then, after the pondering, comes the energy to live fully in the moment of this day, and to choose to rejoice.

One of my reasons for celebrating life today--

A must read article for moms of school age children........

I love to read articles by experts that say what I have been saying for years. Makes me happy I jumped out on this ledge so long ago. And it was so much fun.  link here for more