A Lifegiving Home Webcast! & a new podcast!

The  Life Giving Home is a story that says "Welcome." It has been our heart and our prayer in helping Sally launch this book for others to realize the capacity and beauty and ministry in their homes, where the artistry of God is displayed through the personalities and gifts he has given to each one of you. We see home as outposts for God's Kingdom in the midst of the difficulties of this world, a place that is a sacred haven to your family and to all those who visit there, a light shining in the darkness, and a place that is thriving and full of life, where you find true belonging.

So many of you have written and expressed your own feelings of loneliness, of longing for friends or a mentor, and  that's one of the reasons that we decided that when Sally launched this book, we would have a grand party and invite all of you! Not just to celebrate the release of this new work from Sally and Sarah, but to give you an opportunity to gather together.

So, on Tuesday night, February 9th, we're celebrating together with a webcast from the Clarkson's home in Colorado! We want to encourage you to register for this free event and to ask your friends to join you, so that as Sally and Sarah share their story, you will be inspired to cultivate your own stories of beauty and home and share them with one another- building friendships with like minded women that can encourage you!

The Webcast will  also include a chat box where you can ask questions and talk with Sally directly, and have an opportunity to win some amazing prizes throughout the night, including the grand prize of an all expense paid trip for one person and a friend to fly to visit Sally at her home in Colorado this summer.

We not only want to encourage you to register and celebrate with us, we want to equip you as you love others with simple hospitality.

 So, When you register for the webcast, you will receive:

-A Digital Invitation to the webcast that you can share with friends on email or social media. (Shown here at the top of this blog post)

-A beautiful digital print featuring a quote from the book that you can frame in your home or display during your webcast party.

A beautiful 24 Family Ways  Art Print that lists all the 24 Family Ways!

-Printable Recipe cards featuring some of Sally's own recipes

Blank Printable Recipe cards to be able to exchange your own favorites with friends at the webcast.

-Inspiration for hosting a webcast party, or any gathering, with ideas for how to pray for your guests, prepare, simple ideas to for appetizers to serve and how to cultivate a great conversation that reaches the heart.

We do hope you will join us and that you will be encouraged and have a fun night with new or old friends! Don't forget to order your books now so that each member of your party has a copy to take home!

Sally and I had an opportunity to speak with one of our like minded friends, Kristen Welch, of We Are That Family recently and wanted to share our time with you in a new podcast. Kristen has written a beautiful and necessary book about how to raise our children to be servants and leaders, to find their identity in the Lord and how to develop a strong family culture. We hope you enjoy listening to our conversation with her!

Blessings to you today,

Kristen Kill

Seeing Those in Your Home with the Eyes of God

Tears streaming down his little face, ruddy red from crying, my little one stood  said, "I'm sorry, mama. I know you are sleepy, but I just couldn't get to sleep without one more kiss. My brain wouldn't let me go to sleep unless you kissed me and prayed with me one more time."

This nightly routine had gone on for years. Later I was to discover that the plague in my little boy's heart had a name, OCD. As a young child, he could not say why he could not stay in bed like his brother and sisters. But, as his mama, I prayed to God, "Let me see the inner workings of this child you have placed into  my hands. Show me how to guide this little one to you. Show me when to discipline, when to give grace. Give me understanding."

God showed me that his behavior was not an issue of his disobedience, his heart was sweet. It was an issue of his little brain that never turned off.

Each of my four were different. All had quirks and differing personalities that, many times, were a mystery. But, I knew that I was God's agent, His hands of love, His voice of encouragement, His ways of truth for those He had trusted into my hands.

"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

The Psalms told me that my children were a gift from God--as they were, with their color of eyes, their color and texture of hair, their various personalities, desires, loves--and weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Each of my little ones wanted to be known, loved as they were, and honored as a child made in the image of God who was designed to fulfill a purpose in this world, a part in His greater play in history. This they were created to find in our home.

But I knew that the place of my worship, my obedience, was to treat them as a gift, to serve them because God had trusted them into my hands, placed them in my home. Until a mama accepts the unique puzzle that she has been given, and submits to the limitations of that puzzle out of love for God, she will fight against the burden of raising children every day. There is an illusion that if we find the right formula, the most perfect instruction manual, that somehow we can control our children, our lives, the outcomes.

But God asks us to live by faith, to be obedient to His ways, and to trust Him with the outcome.

My children, those who come into the walls of my home, my family and friends, are divine appointments from God where I live to show His reality by generously pouring out my life because He generously poured out His life for me.

I am so honored today to be on the podcast of Jefferson and Alyssa Bethke's podcast where we talk together about Creating a Lifegiving Home. I love their hearts for God, their desire to encourage, and their passion to become the parents God wants them to be. A sweet time, indeed.

Go Here to find our discussion today. Anything and Everything with Jeff and Alyssa Bethke

This is the time to order my book, The Lifegiving Home, as we will be studying the book together in a book club in just a couple of weeks. Can't wait to jump in to the chapters with you. Stay tuned for more information about this soon.

Getting to the Heart of Hospitality and a New Podcast !

"Come in and sit for a while and let's be friends," were the best words I had heard in months. My sweet friend, also new to Austria, and our work in Eastern Europe, was the first person in 3 months to actually have me in her home for a meal. I had gone to language school, found my way around this new strange city, learned how to buy groceries with my very limited German, but I longed for a personal touch. Loneliness as I had never felt it, thrummed through the beats of my heart. I wished for someone to talk to who understood the "foreigness" of being in a country where few people fluently spoke my native language.

I even remember what she served me that night--meatloaf, cottage cheese and steamed broccoli. Not fancy, but it seemed so familiar and I remember it as one of the best meals of my life, because is was served with such kindness and love. She extended the hospitality of Jesus to me and it warmed me to my toes.

Hospitality comes from the same root word as hospital, hospice, and hotel. Behind the words is the idea that hospitality seeks to provide for, protect and care for the person who stays in your home. Hospitality is really committing to caring for the emotional, physical, spiritual needs of someone as long as they are in your home.

So often, we consider hospitality to be something that symbolizes perfect rooms with lovely decor, a well prepared meal in the order of a Martha Stewart evening.

Yet, the history of the word was much more about heart than it was about performance. The Heart of hospitality is captured in the last supper when Jesus lovingly prepared for his last evening with His beloved disciples. He prepared for these weary men he called his friends by choosing a quiet room, away from the noisy crowds. Food was carefully cooked and laid out to appease their manly appetites. Each man was served by having his dusty, dirty feet washed by the gentle hands of their master.

Candlelight flickered as the shadows of the setting sun creeped along the walls of the old room. The comfort of being well provided for set the stage for their hearts to be open to the final, lasting words He desired to speak to the hearts of the men who would carry the kingdom messages into a dark and demanding world.

Our home is the place where we offer the hospitality of Christ to our children, our spouses, our friends and to the needy who live with us inside our walls.

Cultivating a heart for hospitality begins with a mental grid of seeing those in your home as a divine appointment allowed by God to extend His generous and gentle love, His words of healing, His promise of hope.

Join Kristen Kill and me today as we share from our heart some of the messages you will find in my new book, The Lifegiving Home.

Be sure to order your copy of The Lifegiving Home and The Lifegiving Home Experience this week so you can join our Celebration Party and be inspired with great ideas for your home in 2016.

Register for the party and invite your friends!

Celebrating the weekend with a Great Italian Feast

"I reach hearts by cooking meals, by washing sheets and fluffing pillows, by reading a favorite book one more time even though I have it memorized."

Sally Clarkson, The Lifegiving Home

Oh, no! It's dinner time again and everyone will want to eat!"

But it is the rhythms, the regular meals, the daily traditions that make memories and spell love in the hearts of my family. Meals make memories.

Do you ever feel like it's hard one more night to figure out what everyone wants to eat?

I have had a pretty overwhelmingly busy week--launch, arranging details, hotel rooms, meals, meeting with Clay, writing my talks for the Mom Heart Conference, and just living life with my present family of four. And every night this week when dinner comes around, with several of us trying to lose the Christmas weight, I wonder what to make?

However, Friday night starts our weekend and we take off on the weekends and eat our favorite meals. We are pretty healthy 5 days a week, but weekends are for celebrating. In my home, having a stash of my favorite "go to" meals, helps me not to think--but just to to recipes I know by heart. Food makes memories, food draws hearts, food soothes weary bodies.

It will smell like a fine Italian restaurant in our home tonight, and it is all due to a beautiful recipe I have made for years.- Spaghetti Pie! ( It is Nathan's favorite, so I make it every time he comes home! A definite comfort food for everyone! And it is easier than Lasagna--but just as pleasing!

Since I am writing about home a lot lately, I thought I would give you a window into one of our favorite meals that brings comfort to all because it is so familiar and tasty.

This recipe begs to be doubled or even tripled! It is a quick and easy way to make a dinner that tastes like mom’s homemade lasagna, although it only takes a fraction of the time to assemble and cook! I love to make lunch - size spaghetti pies by using a muffin tin. This gives you 12 go-to after school snacks or a great addition to your salad at lunch! Cook, cool, wrap up in plastic and place them all in a gallon size ziplock bag and place in the refrigerator.

Ingredients: 2 tsp olive oil 1/2 cup onion - diced 8 oz baby portabella mushrooms - diced 1 pound ground beef (or 1/2 pound Italian sausage 1/2 pound ground beef) 1/2 tsp garlic salt (or 1 clove fresh minced garlic) 1 tsp dried oregano (or Italian seasoning) 1 tsp dried basil Salt and pepper to taste 6 - 8 oz. spaghetti noodles (depending on your pie dish) 2 Tbsp butter (optional) 3/4 cup parmesan cheese 2 eggs - well beaten 1 cup cottage cheese - blended 1 8 oz can of diced tomatoes 1 6 oz can of tomato paste OR 1 small can of tomato sauce 1 tsp sugar 1 - 2 cups fresh mozzarella cheese - grated *Optional: pinch of Italian seasoning to finish on top of mozzarella

 Directions: In your skillet, over medium high heat, saute onions in olive oil until translucent. Add the mushrooms and saute until cooked through. If using fresh garlic, add garlic and stir into the onion and mushroom mixture for 1 minute. Add ground beef to the skillet and stir until completely cooked. Add dried herbs, salt & pepper to taste. In a colander, carefully drain off any excess oil. Return the meat mixture to the skillet and return to a medium heat. Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar and garlic salt if not using fresh garlic. Turn off heat and set aside. You can also use immersion blender for sauce if your kids are not fond of a more rustic style sauce with diced tomatoes. This will make your sauce a smoother spaghetti meat sauce.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook spaghetti per instructions on package. Drain. Then stir in butter, parmesan, and eggs into the warm spaghetti. Pour spaghetti mixture into a 10 inch pie dish and press in to form a spaghetti crust. Spread the cottage cheese on top of the crust. Add meat sauce mixture. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes then remove from oven and top with shredded mozzarella cheese and return to oven to bake for 5 minutes longer to melt cheese.

Cultivating a delicious meal that "wows" your family doesn't have to be time consuming and filled with extreme difficulty. Turn your home into your favorite Italian restaurant tonight. Light candles, put down your favorite red tablecloth, and you can even grab the "Little Italy 1930 Radio" station from Pandora for free (it is so much fun and really creates the Italian ambiance)!

Enjoy Little Italy tonight!

Happy Weekend!

Creating A Home That Says Welcome!

Home: A Place of Welcome

By Sarah

I arrived home this past Christmas at the end of a rather grueling journey. The process of any flight from the UK to CO is quite an undertaking to begin with (bus, multiple airplanes/airports, then shuttle, all with huge and heavy suitcases in tow since I’m forever trying to shift a bit more of my library overseas), but this one had included stopovers in odd places, late flights, and a blizzard that stranded me at the Denver airport after arrival. On top of this was the sense of twilight zone disconnect from self and place that modern travel and jet lag produces in a weary mind. Wendell Berry has written of airports spaces of great anonymity - something that rings truer to me every time I travel alone, feeling myself unnamed and isolated in the great crowds and strange places. All this combined meant that by the time I stumbled through the foot of new snow up to the door of the Clarkson home, I had a frayed soul, exhausted body, and a mind that felt like a whirlwind out of which I looked out upon the world.

But as I stood upon the doorstep, I glanced to my left and saw something so eminently familiar I’d almost missed it: the old, chalkboard sign hung by my parent’s front door on which the name of every new guest is scratched. Welcome home Sarah. This time it was my name, and in the instant of spotting it, the storm in my mind began to subside. Out of the frantic, hurried, grey hours of the past days, I was pulled into the particularity of that place on earth, where people who knew my name and my story were waiting to greet me.

Then the door opened and arms were thrown round me - two pairs at once. I felt the soft familiarity of my mother’s touch and the tangle of my sister’s hair. I was drawn into a space prepared and lit especially for me. Having hugged each member of my family, I set down my bag and looked around the home waiting to greet me. Christmas lights tangled with the green of the tree, my grandmother’s Christmas dishes lay waiting on the set table, candles were lit, the old family favorite music played and I was drawn into the living room where a cup of tea (for oh, we love strong tea, we Clarksons) was waiting to warm my weary bones.

As news was exchanged and stories told, I settled into the place that had been prepared for me and marveled at the way that a home where one is loved and known, even in the first moments of welcome, can repair and restore the lonely exhaustion of the soul. To be known, remembered, desired, and to come to a place where those qualities of love have been enfleshed in food and candlelight and comfortable rooms is what it means to come home.

Home is the place where we are known, where love has prepared a room for us.

Home is the place where our stories our remembered, our griefs comforted.

Home is the place to which we can return from the wild storm of the outer world, to heal, to rest, to remember who we are and what it is we were meant to be.

But homes like that are only present by the grace of those who keep, prepare, and enrich them.

I knew, on that Christmas arrival day, that every candle had been lit, the rooms cleaned, the food made, by hands driven by love. I knew the amount of work it took to welcome me back, because I had done it many times before for other returning Clarksons. Often, in my teenage years, I questioned the amount of preparation we invested for each person who came to our home. Now, as the guest myself, I knew, in the moment of rich, prepared welcome, why we did it, and what it meant to those who returned.

The world is roamed by lonely, homeless people. We live in an age that isolates, a time that drives us to hurry and harried living. We live, often, in the fractured pain of broken relationships, of broken homes, with the feeling that we cannot return to a place of beauty or love. But home can always be built anew. All it takes is a single heart given in willingness to love, create, and keep. I have had to begin anew in every place I have moved as a single adult, but the creation of beauty, the formation of friendship, the lighting of a candle… its always possible. The home my parents have built, the family home to which I have the grace to return, began with that willingness to create a place of belonging in student housing, a tiny apartment, or one more new house as they moved yet again. It was built by years of love and grit, but it became a place of belonging because of the faithfulness that undergirded it.

I tasted that long-given love as I walked in the door at Christmas and was embraced by the sense of belonging, of welcome, of love. That is what home truly is. As you read, as you love, as you give in your own lives, may you too both find and keep the beauty of home.

GREAT NEWS!

Do you want the books now?

MY WONDERFUL PUBLISHERS HAVE SAID THAT IF YOU ORDER THE BOOKS, AND SEND YOUR RECEIPT TO momentum@tyndale.com, you can receive a pdf of the book ahead of time to read portions before the actual book ships. (All they ask if that you please do not share the pdf with others as it is copyrighted material and is for private use only.)

Be inspired today!

Routines That Give Children Security and Love

It is useless for you to work so hard
 from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat;
 for God gives rest to his loved ones. ~Psalm 127:2, New Living Translation

Keeping "Home" as a place of lifegiving, inspiration and love requires constant attention because it is the place of life 365 days of the year. There will never be a moment in the life or story of home when everything will be perfect, but constantly simplifying my home, ordering my place and days keeps me moving toward a place that gives life back to me and all who live in its walls.

In my new book, The Lifegiving Home, I have listed 5 areas where I have tried to make plans each year that will help bring some order and rhythm to the days we live together. Here are some questions I ponder each year for planning.

• What daily rhythms will help me accomplish what needs to be done and enhance our relationships? How can I include meaningful expectations of the work to be accomplished and the ways we will spend our time together? Morning, noon, and night bring their own demands and practices, and a good plan will take these into consideration. Planning daily rhythms—meals, devo- tions, cleanup, bedtime routines—should take into consideration the abili- ties and personalities of everyone who lives in the home.
• What chores need to be done each day? Who will do them, and how will I make sure they are done? Housework, cleaning, paying bills, yard work, shopping, hosting guests, setting the table, washing dishes—all of these must be done. Establishing routines for handling these things builds an expectation for my family or roommates that will bring a constant stream of order to our lives.
• Am I doing something now that doesn’t need to be done? How can I simplify my work to provide more time to do what I value most? I want to avoid “mile-wide and inch-deep” commitments and commit to a few activities that are central to my values.
• What daily and weekly rituals will bring pleasure and mark important areas in which I can invest my moments? Celebrating life on a regular basis keeps me happier and more energized in the midst of caring for my four children, my husband, and our family of friends. I have learned to provide life rituals that bring energy back to my heart, mind, and soul—Saturday night movie and pizza, Sunday afternoon tea times, going out for dinner as a family every Friday night.Many years ago, Clay, my very organized husband, gave me an acronym to work from. 'the categories below are just general areas but the most prominent. He said if I made a plan for managing the following areas, life would be more centered--and he was right:

Family--Personal relationships, rhythms and routines in our home that will keep us close, loving, moving ahead in a healthy way, is the place I have to start. What intentional routines do I need to establish in order to be sure our relationships, faith and love are growing.

Information--Planning for organizing, throwing out, filing important emails, receipts, addresses, etc. is a constant for me. I never catch up, but having a plan keeps me from feeling constantly overwhelmed.

Rest--planning to take care of our need for recreation, rest, a break from the demands of life every week, insures that we will not burn out and get totally out of order in our personal relationships and will promote  more long term health.

Stuff--clutter, clothes, kitchen stuff, seasonal stuff--taking time to simplify every few months keeps me from always being overwhelmed by all of our stuff. Having a plan for how to order it all the time gives me goals for decluttering every day.

Time-Learning to manage my commitments and demands up against my limitation for our time keeps me from getting our lives out of control. Margin is always required in each day because every day there are interruptions.

There is no one right way to live life in a home. No one size of routine or rules or order fits all…. But the more carefully we plan our days, the better our homes will provide us with freedom and enjoyment as well as purpose and accomplishment. … Familiar rhythms and routines give structure that provides leadership and personal care to all who live there. When children and guests know what to expect, they also know how to ask for their personal needs to be met and understand what part they play in the life of the home. ~ Sally Clarkson, The Lifegiving Home

Here are some questions for you to think through.  I pray they’ll help you develop your own rhythms and routines!

• What chores need to be done each day? Who will do them, and how will I ensure they’ve been done?

• What daily rhythms will help me accomplish what needs to be done and embrace our relationships?

• Am I doing something now that doesn’t really need to be done? How can I simplify my work to provide more time to do what I value most?

• What daily and weekly rituals will bring pleasure to my life and mark important areas in which I can invest my time?

These are just a very few thoughts contained in the chapter about ordering the new year in The Lifegiving Home. Hope they help you this month!

Owning the Spiritual Disciplines (Own Your Life Fridays)

The more we know Him, the more we will desire to know Him.

Brother Lawrence

“Well, I don’t know, it’s just, like...” These words had barely slipped out of Joy’s mouth before my eyebrows raised at her and we both started laughing. Ever since she had returned during breaks from her university in Southern California, the word “like” frequently visited itself upon her vocabulary. Joy had never been a “like” girl before, but after a few months in the land of surfboards and juice shops, that word, along with the slow rhythm of the Southern California accent, had begun to work itself into her way of speaking.

“I don’t mean to, Mom! It’s just the way I hear all of the voices around me speaking, and I can’t help but let it slip in to the way I speak and think.” I believe that Joy’s “like” predicament exhibits the power of the voices to which we listen.

We live in a culture that loves to quote movies, books, and song lyrics. I marvel as I watch my kids hold almost entire conversations in quotes from their favorite characters from television and literature. I have realized that as my children engage in certain forms of media, those forms begin to shape their vocabulary and way of thinking.

The same is true of friend groups. I am amused to see best friends who inadvertently dress and speak like each other, or friend groups who all order similar coffee concoctions. It is a part of human nature that we naturally begin to emulate who or what we spend time with and on, respectively. Proverbs says, “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm” (Proverbs 13:20). We are formed by the voices that we allow to speak into our lives.

Cultivating the Practices That Deepen Your Faith

This is why spiritual disciplines are important. Cultivating such practices in your life creates a space in which one can be formed by the voice of God. In reading Scripture, we allow God’s truth to speak to our heart. In prayer, we listen for the whisper of the Holy Spirit. In honoring the Sabbath and resting, we train our hearts to rest in the knowledge that God will always provide. Spiritual disciplines remove distractions from our practice of faith, allowing the voice of God in our spirit to shape our vocabulary and our attitudes.

Women often say to me, “I’m too busy to have a quiet time or pray” or “I have young children and don’t ever seem to have free time” or “I don’t want to be legalistic about it.” When I hear this, I often respond with a question: “What voices are you allowing to shape your view of the world instead of Scripture and the Holy Spirit?” We are all in the business of listening to voices, and allowing various channels to broadcast over the rest.

I often find that when I don’t think I have time to listen to God, it is because I am busy prioritizing other voices. This is something that happens to the best of us. For some that may be wasting time on social media, putting an overemphasis on perfect housekeeping, or getting caught in an endless cycle of busyness. Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong about social media, housekeeping, and a busy schedule. None of those things is necessarily bad, but nothing can replace the voice of God, and the value gained from time in His presence.

The spiritual disciplines are not about legalism, but about developing practices which tune your ear to the truth of Scripture, your will to the practice of faithfulness, and your heart to communion with God. My children are able to bring to mind the quotes of many of their favorite literary characters because of the time they have spent invested in reading. In the same way, as you invest time in Scripture, the Holy Spirit will begin to bring passages to your mind when you encounter difficult situations.

At the heart of any spiritual discipline is relationship with God. Genesis 3:8 says, “They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”

From the very beginning, God desired that we might share an intimate relationship with Him. His intention was that we would delight in our relationship with Him and reflect his image in us. Though the fall broke that relationship, Christ made a way for us to be once again in communion with God. God’s desire to be in relationship with us is the same as it was in Eden.

Spiritual disciplines do not take the place of that relationship, but rather, through the Holy Spirit, they give our impatient and sinful souls a way to engage with God. Because God delights in our relationship, He will always bless a heart that seeks to engage with Him.

 Buy a journal in which to write down all the things for which you are grateful or a list of your prayer requests. Be sure to write in it at least once a week. Then it will become a history of God's faithfulness in your life.

An excerpt from Own Your Life.

Own Your Life is just $3.99 on Kindle right now!

You're Invited to a Celebration!

I'm having a celebration for the LifeGiving Home with an online Launch Party and I'd love you to join me! You can find out more details here and sign up here.

Own Your Life on sale!

On sale for 3 days at $3.99.

Buy at your favorite store--kindle only.

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Just wanted to share this deal with you!

Enjoy!

Accepting Today, Just As It Is

As Kristen and I recorded the podcast last week, one of the things we discussed was the way all of us tend to think our lives would be better and we would be happy ... if only something in our lives were different.  Though it's a common belief, it's not a true one.  I wrote about it in Dancing With My Father:

After I became a committed Christian in college, I worked my way to righteousness: I attended church and Bible studies, tithed, and finally decided to go into Christian work. And I sort of expected, though perhaps subconsciously, that God would bless my obedience by giving me everything I desired in life: marriage, family, success in my work.

My first thought had been, I will be happy when I get married. I finally got married at twenty-eight. Since I equated happiness with achieving my ideals in my life,I was surprised when my marriage didn't soothe the restlessness in my spirit and fill the vacuum in my heart.

I thought a child might fulfill me. So I prayed, Lord, please bless me with a child.  I became pregnant at thirty-one. I gave birth to three babies in the next five years, which left me reeling! Instead of feeling fulfilled, I found myself overwhelmed with the responsibility of motherhood.

I was blessed with three children and married to my best friend. But my best friend worked seventy hours a week, leaving me to handle the house and parenting responsibilities mostly on my own. I felt alone. I had few friends because we moved every two years into new ministry situations.

I kept finding myself thinking, I will be happy when... And I filled in the blanks with a list of events I had built up in my mind, which I was certain would fulfill my life.

I will be happy when all of my babies are out of diapers.

I will be happy when we have friends and support systems.

I will be happy when my husband is home more.

I will be happy when we can change jobs.

I will be happy when we have a bigger salary.

The list marched subconsciously through my mind each day of my discontent. And with each passing day, my dissatisfaction and expectations grew. During this time, I was reading my Bible and serving God the best I knew how. I didn't realize that I mistakenly believed I needed these things to be happy because I was basing my expectations on worldly, temporal values.

Finally, I came to the end of myself. At some point in life, it dawned on me that this is the "broken place." Earth is the temporary place where Satan rules and where all people are sinful and subject to the disappointments of a fallen world, to the longings that come from being separated from God.

I can picture ideals and dream of the life for which I was created, but Jesus never promised I would experience ultimate fulfillment in this world.

I realized that if I didn't build my foundations on eternal realities, I would never be content. Nothing in this physical world would ever totally live up to my expectations. The Lord had to dissolve my self-will in a slow, humbling process of my reluctantly giving up my ideas about what I needed to be happy. I had to become willing to place myself on the altar of God's will. Trying to control my life and whip it into shape by means of my own effort only brought frustration and disillusionment. I realized that in a fallen world, happiness, perfection, and the fairy tale of a Cinderella life are always doomed to failure.

As we're beginning a new year, might I encourage you to accept the cup God has given you *today*?  And look for your happiness and joy and contentment in Him, regardless of your circumstances?

"Godliness with contentment is great gain" 1 Timothy 6:6.

Dancing With My Father is available here on Amazon.

A Party, A Celebration, An Invitation: The Lifegiving Home

Home is more than just a house—it’s a place where love, life, and treasured memories can grow all year long.

Sign up for the event by REGISTERING HERE!

Keep up-to-date with the party at the LAUNCH PAGE!

Join me in a party, a month from today! Invite your friends! We shall have a grand time.

I am so very excited to be announcing my official pre-launch to the release of my two books, The Lifegiving Home and the companion guide and Bible study, The Lifegiving Home experience.

As a mom of 4 adults, married for 34 years, I have learned that as Proverbs 14: 1 says, a wise woman builds not just her home, but her family’s story. And a truly life-giving home is one that brims over with love, welcome, and stories worth telling. Over the years, one of my goals for my home has been to  weave the love of God into every room of my  home and then into the lives of the people that live there.

Home should be an outpost in this dark world that brings light, beauty, refreshment, inspiration, traditions, feasts, that fill the heart, soul and minds of those who live there. Then from this sanctuary of all that is good, people can go back into the world to bring the love, life and beauty of God that has filled up their souls.

What a privilege it has been for me to join my oldest daughter, Sarah, to create a book that retells the story of our own home. Even more, our desire was also to re-ignite a vision in the minds and hearts of others to intentionally build such a home right where they live. We have sought to share secrets that will help you craft your home life into a beautiful heritage.

The Lifegiving Home book provides foundational ideas, inspiration and stories that will lead you to refresh your own vision for the profound importance of "Home." As we journeyed through the seasons of our lives, we wanted to provide a month by month story, ideas to implement, books to read, movies to watch and traditions to celebrate.

The Lifegiving Home experience is a Bible study, planner and guide  to plan for each month and to provide  practical touchpoints to guide you in your own plans, ideas, and dreams for what you want your home to become. Containing sections for each month of the year, The Lifegiving Home Experience offers:

• Creative ideas, new stories, personal reflections, and advice that will help your family to celebrate and enjoy one another
• Thought-provoking Bible studies and reflection questions to help you plan and establish the home that is right for you
• Clarkson family favorite recommendations for books, movies, holiday traditions, special events, and more
• A place to write your own thoughts and plans as you go through the guide

We have planned something very special to celebrate these books and more ideas with our friends all over the world.

On February 9, we will host a live webcast party!

Our idea is to ask you to invite your friends to a casual party in your home where we will spend the evening talking about home, how to build traditions, how to create an environment of love as well as lots of personal stories from my own life about the story of our own home.

Through the evening, we will be giving away fun prizes, provide some recipe cards, and ending with the final grand prize of:

*Two airplane tickets for one woman and the friend of her choice to Monument, Colorado

*A visit with Sally in her home and free entrance to a weekend leadership intensive where the winners will have personal mentoring and spiritual inspiration with an elite small group of women. You will have homemade meals in her home, tea times, a lovely brunch at the famous Broadmoor Hotel, and lots of other special moments

*A free hotel for 3 nights during the personal and inspiring retreat weekend

We would ask you to sign up below to register for this free conference, as the winners will be chosen from the entries into this party. You can sign up yourself if you are the host of the party in your neighborhood, but be sure to also sign up all who will attend so each one can be entered for the prizes that will be given away that weekend.

What to expect from joining the party?

*That evening, we will have prizes and giveaways

* We will have emails for all who register with support and prayer for their night of hosting, as well as printable recipe cards and  frameableart to give their guests.

*If you preorder books for all who attend, or have them bring their books, we will be posting photos of you and your friends with the book, as well as take some of the prize giveaways from answers to content in the books.ce

Our hope, prayers and wishes are that women all over the world will be strengthened and inspired to cultivate their homes into places where life, beauty, love and truth become the foundations and atmospheres of their homes.

Register for the party HERE!