A Season of Simplicity & a New Podcast

A Season of Simplicity & A New Podcast

After the constant demands of writing books, blogs, podcasts and speaking all over the world, I find myself so very grateful for all that I have seen the Lord do. And to have partnered with Him by faith and see Him work is nothing short of miraculous.

But now, I find myself reevaluating once again. What is most important? What is sustainable for my life? How can I make sure to have time for real people, to be at peace and rest, to be present even amidst the swirl of a busy life? Living life with a plan, on purpose, is what it means to build on the rock—a house that will not fall, that will last through all the storms, a house that gives stability and comfort. That is what I want my story to show every day.

In light of my pondering, I am so very thankful my friend, Emily Ley, my dear friend, has written a book that helps me think through the essential, the things to keep and the things that drain. Look at these chapter titles alone. They have helped me begin to simplify my plan ahead. (I will be sharing more of that I the weeks ahead.) But I thought if it helped me, it might also be of great encouragement to you. Just look at how relevant these are to those of us who live a busy life!

I had the privilege of talking with Emily last week to discuss why we all need to constantly take a step back, to plan what really matters, to invest in the real—in real love, real conversations, real food, real rest, real faith.

I hope you will be greatly inspired by our conversation, but even more, I hope her book will be of great help to you as you seek to live sustainably, peacefully, joyfully.

And we will both be with many of you in Atlanta on Wednesday at Barnes and Noble at a celebration of both of our books. So sorry but the event is sold out, but we can’t wait to see many of you there.

Emily designs beautiful, simple planners that seem to go along with my own personality. You can find all things Emily Ley at Emilyley.com

When Less Becomes More: Making Space for Slow, Simple, and Good

By Emily Ley

Buy on Amazon

Only You Can Be You: What Makes You Different Makes You Great

By Sally Clarkson, Nathan Clarkson

Buy on Amazon

FOR MORE

• Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.

• Leave an iTunes Review These are so important as they help our podcast reach more women with messages of encouragement.

• Follow on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news and updates.

• Share with others. My prayer is that this podcast brings encouragement to women and families, and I would be honored for you to tell others about it.

• Join my friends and me in membership at Life with Sally, a place for me to share more teaching from the Bible and messages on education, motherhood, discipleship, and more!

Best of Sally: Bringing Order and Cultivating Home Life (and a Podcast!)

“Frodo was now safe in the Last Homely House east of the Sea. That house was, as Bilbo had long ago reported, ‘a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep, or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear and sadness.”

~The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

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As a lover of great literature, the setting of Rivendell in Lord of the Rings captivated the attention of all the girls in our family. Picturing our home as a place that remembers all the great life from eras gone by and that captures its beauty has been one of our goals, giving us hours and hours of collecting and crafting and nurturing over the years.

A library that holds the great books of children's literature and classics and great thinkers, biographies and writers is a must. And now, due to Clay's kindness to move his office to the basement, I have our library as a tea room of sorts. With comfy chairs, a tea set, art and paintings from my background all over the walls, with candle light and music--it is a lovely getaway where I can share heart-to-heart with all in my wake.

A well-stocked kitchen with all sorts of home-made recipes crafted over years of testing, with all the holiday food; food for those who are ill; birthday fare; winter-cold-night soups and breads and all sorts of healthy variety in between …

Fireplaces where stories are told and ideas discussed and children are cuddled …

Bedrooms with comfy chairs and piles of books in baskets to encourage reading and quiet times and of course candles galore .l..

Piano, guitars, drums, flute, dulcimer--all collected over the years--some more used than others, but all for practicing producing music of all sorts …

Games and book baskets and art books and cd's and Pandora and dvd's from all imaginings to instruct, inspire, soothe, comfort and to stoke the imagination …

Clusters of chairs, grouped together to encourage great and close conversations--rockers on the front porch; setees and big chairs on the back deck; gatherings of chairs in 2's all over the house to make a close meeting and discipleship time for all who are there …

And of course a bookshelf in every room, with each child collecting his own library.

A suitable place for traditions celebrated and momentous occasions retold and the Bible read, over and over and over again--to remember Him and stories of faith and heroes and courage and holiness.

This is what I have had in my heart to shape--a home that breathes life and truth and love into all who would enter--

To make sure my home, for my family and friends, is indeed the last homely house and that all that has been excellent and worthwhile over the ages is celebrated in its walls--

because everyone needs a place to belong and a home where welcome is always fresh with all who cross the doorway.

Books Referenced in this Podcast:

The Lifegiving Home: Creating a Place of Belonging and Becoming

By Sally Clarkson, Sarah Clarkson

Buy on Amazon

The Lifegiving Table: Nurturing Faith through Feasting, One Meal at a Time

By Sally Clarkson

Buy on Amazon

FOR MORE

• Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.

• Leave an iTunes Review These are so important as they help our podcast reach more women with messages of encouragement.

• Follow on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news and updates.

• Share with others. My prayer is that this podcast brings encouragement to women and families, and I would be honored for you to tell others about it.

• Join my friends and me in membership at Life with Sally, a place for me to share more teaching from the Bible and messages on education, motherhood, discipleship, and more!

How Are You Cultivating Your Life, Mama?

Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.

Proverbs 4:23

Many years of my life I thought, “When this is over, then I can get more control of life.” But the time never came when life was slow and balanced. Somewhere along the way, I began to realize that I had limited strength, limited emotional cash, limited brain space. When you are spent, the warning lights will come on!

I have seen many women, over the years, burn out and become either a victim of their own lives by feeling a failure or become cynical and lose their ideals. In a culture where very little supports the role of mother, where we are often taxed 24/7 for years on end, we often do not even know that this is not how God created our lives to be.

When a woman can glance down at her heart and see doubt, fear, bitterness, anger, or self-doubt, it is time for heart surgery. No one can make us be responsible for the well being of our hearts—we have to do that as an act of our will. Wisdom teaches us that there is a time to give out and a time to restore. But in this frenetic culture, we have to learn to close off the noice and activity, to design rest, peace, restoration, so that we can finish the race of our lives well.

When you are taxed by your children, your friends, or your husband, what flows out from the depths of your heart? What you are pouring in will surely spill out in your words, your eyes, your attitudes, your actions. Filling our souls with beauty, goodness, humility, faith, and the love of Christ must be intentional so His life will be what spills over onto others when we are “squeezed.”

Jesus said it is not the outside—our performance for others or attempts to do righteous works—that determines what a man or woman is like. It is possible to fool others because of our behavior, but it is never possible to fool God. He sees what we are like on the inside.

If God’s will is good and acceptable and perfect and we find ourselves expressing an over abundance of stress related attitudes, we must be doing more or giving more of ourselves to things than God wanted us to—Is your life reflecting the “goodness, acceptability and perfectness” of God’s will? It is so good to take inventory and see what is taxing us too much, what we are doing to refresh, what we need to put in place to restore.

There are those seasons when this is not possible, But we can only live stressed out temporarily and not as a way of life for years or there will be serious consequences.

Planning Restoration

The starting point for spreading inspiration and faith is cultivating our own hearts. If a mama is taking time for reading Scripture, pondering the heart of Christ, worshiping Him, and following His ways, her children will draw the love and sweetness of Christ from her every day.

If a mama is engaging her mind in great books, learning new ideas, and stretching her own intellect, her children will also benefit.

If a mama is developing her character and taking small steps to become more self- disciplined, more of a servant leader, more patient, and more generous with lifegiving words because of her obedience to Christ, her children’s souls will be watered by the strength of her obedience.

If a mama is taking time to rest, to celebrate Sabbath rests on a regular basis, to make time for friends that fill up, then she will find more emotional strength to give to her family.

Don’t worry primarily about having the right rules, the best formula, the right books. Be concerned, instead, for your soul—what are you planting there? What are you watering in the depths of your soul?

This weekend would be a great time to take some time off and to plan for cultivating your own soul.

Best of Sally: Training Our Children in Character (and a Podcast!)

"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence. But we rather have those because we have acted rightly.We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

Aristotle

Play Episode on iTunes & Stitcher

This week, I will be banging on my computer, (I have 4 keys that are already worn off!) and writing a legacy book about my thoughts on education. Pray for me please! I wish I had 1000 pages to write all of my thoughts, but trying to get the best thoughts consolidated as well as possible.

I hope you will enjoy today’s podcast, another in the Best of Sally series, all about training our children to be virtuous. A number of women have asked me to speak about the area of training children, so hope it will be of encouragement to you. Of course, same principles apply to us grown up children. Enjoy!

Training a child to have character, diligence, honesty, perseverance, generosity, kindness, etc. is a long process. We think there should be a formula that “gets it done” quickly. Yet, it is the repetition over and over again, practicing, correcting, growing stronger, that creates a person of integrity and virtue.

Merely having a piano in a home and having a child bang on the instrument will not nurture a child into becoming a classical pianist. To become excellent in playing, the child must be instructed over a period of many years, hours must be given to practice and learning music.  Playing and playing and playing again is the course of action that produces skill and excellence.

Proverbs tells us that "a skillful man will go before kings." Regarding character, wisdom and soul strength, a child must also be instructed, have many years to practice and apply the teaching before an excellent character and life skills are developed.

Contemporary Culture Mitigates Against Excellent Character

Because our culture is so given to crudity and a devaluation of human beings, with secular media determining the values of children, many adults and children reflect shallow character and lack of wisdom and discretion.  Couple this with  a lack of intentional training on the part of adults, with moral compromise at every turn, and many children are at a disadvantage in their lives because they have never developed a strong moral character, or seen a strong moral character in the life of the adults around them.

A child who is not trained and taught to exercise strength in righteousness, truth, work ethic, relationships and integrity, will often be at a disadvantage his whole life, because instead of his character serving him, his lack of training and ignorance will detract from his ability to live an excellent life.

I believe that many moms struggle with motherhood and the burden of raising children because they have never been stretched or trained in character and are morally weak, complaining and undisciplined. An undisciplined soul reacts to pressure with complaining, anger and frustration. Often, a lack of strong character and a developed work ethic is at the bottom of depression in young women. I know that I was never trained for such hard work, and so struggled to meet the ideals I held in my heart because I had never been trained to be strong in character--I was spoiled in many ways and so had to learn character along with my children--and it was more difficult as an adult who had become lazy and self-centered--and I didn't even know it! I had been quite indulged and was unaware of my own lack of character--I wanted to blame my struggles on everything else except myself!

We are living in a culture where compromise is an accepted norm in marriage, in movies and television, in work, manners, leadership, responsibility. Also, addictions and lack of discipline of every sort are the norm and acceptable, so that lack of character is not even affirmed or valued. Addiction to food, substances, social media, pornography, television, gaming, gambling, and every sort of pleasure that eats up the beauty and possibility of life is tolerated. In surveys, it is often found that believers are just as apt to divorce, become addicted to pornography, and to live an immoral lifestyle.

I find that so many parents are mostly anxious that their children cease to have "bad" behavior. They just want a formula for disciplining their children that will make them easier to deal with on a daily basis, so that they as parents can have an easier life. Yet, as I observe many families, children, and moms in all of our travels and teaching, I find that there are fewer and fewer children who have an internal sense of composure, self-control, wisdom, and manners, because they are not receiving this kind of instruction at home. Their moms, even the stay at home ones, are busy with their own agenda and pastimes.

If we are created in God's image, shouldn't we, as believers, be the most excellent in our behavior, character and influence? Doesn't scripture teach us to lay down our lives for the sake of others--in this case, our children? Doesn't anything worthy always require great sacrifice, vision and hard work?

Books Referenced in this Podcast:

FOR MORE

• Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.

• Leave an iTunes Review These are so important as they help our podcast reach more women with messages of encouragement.

• Follow on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news and updates.

• Share with others. My prayer is that this podcast brings encouragement to women and families, and I would be honored for you to tell others about it.

• Join my friends and me in membership at Life with Sally, a place for me to share more teaching from the Bible and messages on education, motherhood, discipleship, and more!

Best of Sally: Feasting and Living in Grace (and a Podcast!) For

Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat.

~Mark 6:31

Play Episode on iTunes & Stitcher

For many years, our family has secretly held that somewhere long ago, we were related to Hobbits. Eating together, no matter how simple or complex, is the break in our days that has given us relief and rest from the stresses of life and opened great friendship and community. Even Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, made space in His life for rest when things got hectic. He knew what He and His disciples needed in order for His ministry to continue.

I love that this verse says they “didn’t even have time to eat.” Haven’t you felt like this? Doesn’t this capture the feeling we have all had in times of extreme busyness? In the midst of life—discipleship, family, work, and ministry—there will be times where it will be difficult even to fit a meal into the schedule. In these times, Jesus, through the example of His own life, calls us not to give in to chaos, but to think sustainability—to create a space of rest and to tend to our needs and the needs of our family. When we do that, we are modeling for our children how to live well and take care of ourselves as well as others.

As humans, we are essentially needy; we have needs that, if ignored, will lead to severe consequences. If we do not eat, we will eventually starve. If we do not drink, we will eventually die of thirst. If we do not sleep, we will become psychotic and eventually die as well. And long before these eventualities come about, we will become depleted and unable to attend to our responsibilities. It is impossible for us to tackle the day and life before us if our basic needs are not attended to.

Our basic needs are not only physical, of course. We have souls as well as bodies, and so we also have soul needs—for friendship, beauty, peace, and communion with God. Just as we must plan meals and snacks to feed physical bodies, we must plan ways to feed souls, including our own.

We hope you’ll enjoy this podcast about the importance and joy of feasting, and how it complements a home focused on living in grace!

Books Referenced in this Podcast:

The Lifegiving Table: Nurturing Faith through Feasting, One Meal at a Time

By Sally Clarkson

Buy on Amazon

Mom Heart Moments: Daily Devotions for Lifegiving Motherhood

By Sally Clarkson

Buy on Amazon

FOR MORE

• Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.

• Leave an iTunes Review These are so important as they help our podcast reach more women with messages of encouragement.

• Follow on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news and updates.

• Share with others. My prayer is that this podcast brings encouragement to women and families, and I would be honored for you to tell others about it.

• Join my friends and me in membership at Life with Sally, a place for me to share more teaching from the Bible and messages on education, motherhood, discipleship, and more!

A Mama's Life Has Varying Seasons

I think that fall may be my favorite season (or spring!). I love the colors, the sunny, crisp days, the opportunity to begin drawing in and making homemade soups and breads and reading a great book and creating more beauty and life-giving friendship and fun with more people inside the walls of our home. (I also love autumn art!)

Even as there are seasons with variety and scope in our lives, so there are so many seasons to a mother's life. One day she loves her children and thinks they are the greatest gift God has given. Another day, she isn't sure she even likes them, but she is obedient and has to put one foot in front of the other just to keep going.

Recently, a young mom I know confessed that she sometimes has a hard time "feeling close" to her young children and being available to them emotionally because she is tired. Most women feel this fairly often. I know that as the tasks of motherhood need to be pursued every day with intention, or they will overcome the home, so life can feel tedious. There were many times throughout the years that I did not feel like giving or even feel close to my children. But, I would just put one foot in front of the other and seek to be loving and gracious and patient, even though I did not feel like it, and eventually, my joyful feelings would return.

It seemed to me, that I would read stories of families that seemed to be all together--studying Greek and Hebrew by age 5, perfectly neat house, home-cooked meals and all in order, with children who had perfect attitudes.

That was not my reality. Mine was a whirlwind of seasons--some were fresh seasons where I loved my children and they seemed to be growing and I enjoyed them and others were winter seasons of darkness and struggle and seemingly no real life or  growth in our home. But I learned that all homes have seasons and it is the faithfulness through all of the seasons that determines the outcomes.

But this I have learned. The love of God, His commitment to hold and sustain me never varies. He is my ship in the storms, my light in the beautiful times.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:2-3

Whatever season you are in, His love will never cease. He sees you, He loves you, you can rest in Him because He will be faithful, every day.

Mom Heart Moments: Daily Devotions for Lifegiving Motherhood

By Sally Clarkson

Buy on Amazon

Best of Sally: Loving and Fearing God is Most Important (and a Podcast!)

"I have come to believe that the success or failure of any woman who hopes to build her children into a godly legacy depends to a great degree on whether or not she is spending time in the presence of the Lord and filling her mind with His word." -Sally Clarkson, The Mom Walk

Play Episode on iTunes & Stitcher

Desiring to secure the hearts of our children with a love for God, often we try to teach them what is right, correct their attitudes, and often become frustrated with their immaturity, and so in our exhaustion, point out faults to our immature children.

We strive to be women of godly ideals, but tend to fall short and overwhelm ourselves with the mundane, ordinary day "have-tos."

Yet, we cannot show our children the excellencies of God's character if we have not invested time in His presence. We become like the ones we spend time with! --And so if we never make time to cultivate a deep love, a fresh worship, a spontaneous conversation with our dear Father, then we will not be living from His Spirit's truth, wisdom, and grace.

Spending time in God's word is essential to our restoration as mothers. Without God's word, what voices are filling our minds, hearts, and souls?

In the midst of busy, hectic schedules, it can be extremely difficult to make time for His word. We must be intentional and prioritize this necessary peace. Today, I am going to share three ideas with you on how we can not only pencil in and squeeze in our time with God, but full benefit from His amazing word.

1. Get an accountability partner.

Some of us need that extra push and reminder so that we don't forget to spend time in His word. Talk to your best girlfriend about holding each other accountable for your time in scripture. Call each other, or email, weekly to check in and remind each other of the importance of God's word. Commit to a 6 month period of time to be prayer partners or to study a book of the Bible or a devotional together.

2. Bible reading plans.

With so many things going on in various directions, sometimes we don't even know where to start once we open our bibles. Bible reading plans provide schedule, routine, order, and continuity to our time in scripture. Read through one Psalm a day and circle or note each verse that speaks of His character. Or underline wisdom or truth or a promise of principle. Or Read John and do the same thing. Keep a journal close by and each day write one thing you have learned. If you have time, pray through what you have learned. These books are good places to start.

3. Scripture Challenge!

Try memorizing a scripture each week. If His lovingkindness is before you every day, then you will walk in His ways and find His blessing!

Choose one of the scriptures below and personalize it for yourself:

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." -Psalm 119:105

"For Your loving kindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth." -Psalm 26:3

Serving a holy God, living for his glory is our goal.

If this is not built into the warp and woof of your life, then when it comes to adulthood and worshipping and reverencing God, there will be no pattern, no practiced understanding of what it means to love and obey our Lord with wholehearted devotion.

We can learn the words of this family way, but we also need to live the reality of our devotion and respect in order for the words to have meaning. Humility is at the heart of honoring others or God as much more important than yourself.

How have you instilled reverence and devotion to our Holy God in your lives? 

How have you regarded sacred traditions or relationships as common and lost value for being reverent?

How have you seen things that have intrinsic eternal value degraded in the culture of your world?

Name several ways you can establish a practice of valuing the sacred in your own life.

Would others say that you brought a sense of honor to the atmosphere of your friendship because of the ways you showed honor, consideration and manners of others in your life?

I hope these thoughts will encourage you—and also that you’ll enjoy my podcast today, which also includes a bit from our Proverbs study at Life with Sally!

Printables:

Books Referenced in this Podcast:

More Resources:

FOR MORE

• Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.

• Leave an iTunes Review These are so important as they help our podcast reach more women with messages of encouragement.

• Follow on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news and updates.

• Share with others. My prayer is that this podcast brings encouragement to women and families, and I would be honored for you to tell others about it.

• Join my friends and me in membership at Life with Sally, a place for me to share more teaching from the Bible and messages on education, motherhood, discipleship, and more!

Best of Sally: Raising Boys to Be Good Men (and a Podcast!)

"The only thing necessary thing for the triumph of evil is for good women (men)  to do nothing."

Edmund Burke

Play Episode on iTunes & Stitcher

We have all probably heard the quote above many times, but still, it is so true. Passivity is a form of rebellion. It is a choice we make when we say, “I won’t follow my ideals. I will not help. I can’t give. I won’t serve. I refuse to get my hands dirty or to live sacrificially.”

Either we are engaged in the battle or we are quitters. There are times for rest, for regrouping, for restoring or renewing a vision. But to choose to be passive about serving God or standing up for what is right is to reject being responsible.

Obviously I cannot speak to every situation in one small blog. But we observe in our culture that there are very few “Stand Out” heroes for our boys to follow. Yet, I think deep in the heart of most every little boy is a hero waiting to be let out.

A few weeks ago, I was flying back home from Chicago and I was riding a train from the concourse to the terminal. A older woman stepped on the train just in front of me. Immediately a little boy about 9 years old jumped up from his seat and said, “Would you like to sit here? I don’t mind.” Immediately a small host of men riding together cheered spontaneously. “Woohoo! Way to go! What a great guy!” They proceeded to pat the little one on his back. I think the little boy will never forget the cheering he received for being thoughtful as a “man”.

We have the ability to call our own little boys (and girls) to their best selves. We need only look inside their hearts to see the courage, nobility, kindness, generosity that wants to be expressed through their lives.

Today, Nathan and I talk about what it looks like to be a good man and how to shape your boys’ hearts so that they will grow in their self-image to wanting to be a good man in their generation—a good man who is willing to be a part of bringing God’s goodness and light and morality back into a culture that longs to be led and taught.

Books Referenced in this Podcast:

FOR MORE

• Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.

• Leave an iTunes Review These are so important as they help our podcast reach more women with messages of encouragement.

• Follow on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news and updates.

• Share with others. My prayer is that this podcast brings encouragement to women and families, and I would be honored for you to tell others about it.

• Join my friends and me in membership at Life with Sally, a place for me to share more teaching from the Bible and messages on education, motherhood, discipleship, and more!

He Called to Me, "Come Follow ..."

"Take my will and make it thine, It shall be no longer mine, Take my heart, it is thine own, it shall be thy royal throne, It shall be thy royal throne."

Exhausted and drained were the perfect words defining how I felt as I stumbled in out of the pelting rain, several years ago.

After two hours of driving Kentucky’s back highways and a weekend of speaking a total of ten hours to a sweet group of moms in a Tennessee lake house, I was spent. It wasn't just the weekend, or meeting with more surgeons, or finding an oral surgeon for Joy or working on a movie project with Nathan or finding Sarah with a 103 temp and needing advice about a ruptured ear drum or hearing that a sweet friend had borrowed her car and had an accident and totaled the car and trying to figure out how to proceed (!!!)— it was the cumulative weariness that just comes with some seasons of life. I think there are parts of me that are bone tired and soul weary from many years of being in the battle.

My heart, though, was swimming in hope and excitement and child-like anticipation,  because my borrowed car was headed to the wonderful home of my forever sister-friend, Gwen, where I knew that God lived.

After gratefully crawling into a warm bed there and sleeping for nine hours, (unheard of for me), the next morning I woke and found Gwen, candle lit, Bible in hand, cup of coffee steaming, in her quiet time chair. "Curl up in my bed, and I will pour you a cup of tea and we will be friends," she whispered, as she gently wrapped her blankets around my shoulders and puffed up the pillows in the bed where I had gratefully obeyed.

And so a beautiful little candlelit tray came to rest in the room, and life and beauty took place. I have many friends and thousands of sweet women in my life, but few who, when I am with them, will always have the palpable life of Jesus glowing, living, stirring in their midst. I always know I will find it here in Earlington, Kentucky, with sweet Gwennie.

After, journeying over bits of life, events, people, illnesses, deaths and heart sharing, we came to the most important subject.

"Why are we so blessed? What shaped our lives so that we have been able to live purposeful lives, we have seen dramatic answers to prayer, we have watched the life of God's spirit swirling amongst the events of our lives our whole lives. Why, in spite of the battles, do we see God's favor?"

And she showed me a poem she had written in her Bible many years ago,

"I heard Him call, "Come follow."

That was all.

My gold grew dim, my soul went after Him.

Who would not follow IF they heard Him call."

That was it. The secret. At an early age, we were both challenged to follow Him, to listen for His voice, to be His bondservant, to let Him show us the path, to live by faith, to believe in the power of prayer, to invest in His kingdom, to put aside the voices, the peer pressure of the world to conform, simply to follow Him.

Both of us have had to reject the voices of "Job's friends" in our lives, and the world's voices, and all of those voices who seemed to have "God's will in mind for us," and we could see, looking back, that holding fast to His voice, His way, His direction, as our pearl of great price, was the secret. Always, He is at the center. Always, His paths are the right paths.

And so, both of us, bow our hearts before Him, together, thanking Him for the miracle of the lives He has allowed us to live.

She has seen the death of all of her siblings, grandparents, many cousins, and all other support systems dwindling, with her precious mama still loving and smiling for many more years before going on to heaven.

As Clay and I followed His voice, He led us to leave overseas missions, to move back to America, to raise four wholehearted children, and to write about parenting, mothering, and discipling the next generation; to make radical decisions that most of our Christian friends and family did not understand.

After 25 years of serving the Lord in Austria and Eastern Europe, He directed Gwen to live a quiet life in a tiny town caring for her elderly mom, day after day, for many years. But both of us live in the comfort of knowing He has guided, He has been faithful, and His ways have indeed been the pathway of blessing. And in reviewing His history of faithfulness, our hearts are refreshed in the company of each other.

And so we ponder … I wonder how God might direct us to serve Him, to follow Him, to hear His voice in the next 30 years? May we both be attentive, may we both hear, and expect His presence, and may we both obey and simply follow Him.

"Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise, Thou my inheritance, now and always; Thou and thou only first in my heart, High king of heaven, my treasure thou art."