Giving Children A Life of Faith & Podcast

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord,

Maker of Heaven and Earth.

Psalm 121: 1-2

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My morning ushered in much longed for sunshine into my windows as I opened my eyes Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago. I had just enough time to go out for an early morning walk before attending church. As I got out of my car, I was faced by this clear and stunning view of Pike’s peak. Without a second’s passing, my mind played, “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains, …., my help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.”

One of the few verses I memorized in my home when I was a child was still speaking to me in my mid-sixties. I am quite sure my mama wanted me to know that God would always help me. And I am pretty sure her mama taught her that verse.

How blessed are those of us who have the foundation of God’s faithfulness stored in our hearts. How different we face circumstances that are difficult because we have the peace of God ruling in our hearts because we know, by His word, and by faith, that He is our rock, that He is trustworthy.

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

One of the most profoundly important gifts we can give to our children is a life of faith, a life of believing God in the small moments of life, the large challenges, a life given to believing in His reality. Without faith, we cannot please God. No works, performance, giving will cover over a lack of faith and faith living.

What might God accomplish in your lifetime if you were to trust Him fully to live through you to bring His light to the world?

Who are the people He has placed in your life to love? Teach? Serve? Inspire? Encourage?

You have a part in God's grand story to live and to tell.

Today, and every day, if you know and love Jesus, He has given you the opportunity to bring His Kingdom to bear on your world. Today is a day in which you can serve Him with your whole heart by giving your all to each moment of the day.

My life has been a grand journey of watching Him work supernaturally through a very normal, average woman. I am the little boy who was given my own portion of fish and loaves, but in His hands, my portion became enough to be used by Him.

Today in 10 Gifts of Heart, I have written about what it means to give your children this gift of faith that will protect them when tempted, lead them to have strength when challenged by trials, give them compassion and love to share with others who long for His love and light. We are the message are children are hearing by the ways we live and act and love through all the moments of our lives. I pray the podcast today, when I speak of why giving faith is so important, will encourage you.

Books Referenced in this Podcast:

10 Gifts of Heart: What Your Child Needs to Take to Heart Before Leaving Home

By Clarkson, Sally

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!

Harbingers of Happiness: The Ways of Lifegiving Practices & Podcast With Joy Clarkson

Joy and I had fun searching out the far corners of Downton Abby (Highclare Castle) last year.

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We have had so much fun FaceTiming the past week and giving one another a friend break every day. We did a podcast together because we have so much fun.

“One of the of the marks of a godly woman is that she takes responsibility for her soul's need for joy and delight.”

Sally

Sally & Joy had fun talking bout what they have been doing to create a haven of beauty & delight.

In 66 years and through many seasons, I have traveled through countless seasons of challenges and difficulties. But long ago, I realized that I needed to be responsible to create my own “place” of comfort, beauty, pleasure and enjoyment so that I could make it through longer and with my heart and soul still strong.

Joy is one of my favorite people in the world. Today, we took time to record many of the rhythms, food, practices that we have both been practicing in our home to make it through these challenging days. I hope you will love it as much as Joy and I enjoyed being together across the miles in a FaceTime recording.

You can find all things Joy @Joyclarkson.com and you would be so entertained and inspired to connect with her on Instagram @joynessthebrave

Happy Tuesday! We are thinking about you all and praying for you!

10 Gifts-What Your Child Needs To Know Before Leaving Home

Our own precious children whose hearts we sought to train. We are so very grateful for them and the relationship we share as adults. (Sarah, Thomas, Lily and Samuel were in the UK, away from us when this phot was taken.)

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You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men;

2 Corinthians 3:2

In the busyness of our activity-oriented world, it is tempting for us to measure the value of lives by accomplishment or position. Yet, in this time of the covid virus, we are all re-evaluating our priorities. As I look back on the years with my precious children, I found myself seeking to understand how important it was to lay heart foundations, an imagination for living for God, an understanding of truth before I worried about the academic accomplishment of my children.

God will not ask us what grades our children received in school or how they scored on tests, but he will look for hearts that love Him, seek Him, obey Him. Leaving a legacy of love, righteousness and faith requires a plan to focus on what really matters for eternity. Perhaps we can take this pause on our normal lives to reflect once again on what really matters for the long term.

Our children become our letter to the world and reflect what they breathed in through the moments and years lived in our homes. This sort of vision that we hope to pass on happens naturally and organically within the context of our own stories as we shape their values, love, lives. Yet, this is a work of heart that requires years of training, correcting, serving, instructing, praying, living daily by faith. Yet, God, through His spirit partners with us to create this “life” inside the hearts of us and our children that shapes them, and us in the process, to become whole hearted.

The next weeks, I will be writing and speaking about the 10 Gifts of Wisdom Book that Clay and I authored together as our children emerged from our home.

The following are 3 simple training goals we had for our own children.

1.Giving our children and ourselves a foundation of a self-image of one who wants to be godly, holy, set apart for God's purposes is the beginning. Such a grid for life says, "I am ready to pursue holiness every day, all the time, to please you, God, and to do what is right.," is the heart attitude we hope our children will adopt. It is a vision for life. I want my life to count for eternity and so today I will seek to serve God in my heart, my attitudes, my work, my relationships--in every way.

2.Learning and instructing what Godly wisdom is, is essential to being able to follow the vision--teaching the true principles of character help us to pursue integrity. (24 Family ways is good for this.) Learning the meaning of virtue and virtues of moral excellence: diligence, faithfulness, generosity, loyalty, righteousness, etc. When the meaning of a virtue is digested in cognitive understanding,  and in cultivating an education for values, then instruction can follow on how to live out virtue through our actions.

3. Practicing "doing" and "being" godly character traits, making godly habits a familiar part of every day, and correcting each action to move in the direction of faithfulness is the practical place of training and building godly character. We discuss all three in the podcast. Hope you enjoy it.

Books Referenced in this Podcast:

10 Gifts of Heart: What Your Child Needs to Take to Heart Before Leaving Home

By Clarkson, Sally

Feet In The Present, Eyes Toward Eternity & podcast

“When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy …

Job 38:7

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Perspective is something I have had to learn about the last many years of my life. In the workaday world, busyness can take over and often I have the illusion that I can control my life. The Corona Virus has taken all of us by surprise and has shaken up our expectations of life. Finances are at stake for many of us, illness, disappointment, confusion.

But, I have learned that my God is stable, secure, and loving and He is always in control—even when we do not understand or feel secure.

Some years ago, our family was sharing delectable hamburgers and sizzling steaks outside on the mountain deck of close friends. They had borrowed a high-powered telescope from a relative to give all of our children an opportunity to celebrate the night sky on a clear summer's night. Having never had this experience, I had no idea how deeply beguiled my own soul would become from viewing the intricate artistry of God amongst the constellations, cast out infinitely amongst the heavens above.

After every child had taken his turn at the amazing telescope and gasped and danced in delight, my children all said, "Mom, you have to see this--this is your star! It is bright blue!" Blue is my favorite color.

As I peered into the scope, it took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the picture inside the scope, and then, suddenly, I was confronted by an astonishingly bright blue dancing star, seeming to sparkle and turning in beauty and celebration of life. I was mesmerized, as I had heard all of my life of "twinkling" stars, but had never seen something so clearly beautiful with my own eyes. The telescope had revealed to me what had always been there but which I had never been able to perceive with my own limited powers.

I was deeply changed that night, unexpectedly. Confronted once again with the transcendence, the "bigness" of God, the divine beauty and power beyond my understanding, a realization dawned on me: I can only see circumstances and the steps of my journey from a very limited perspective. Yet, God, my heavenly Father, who is vastly more infinite and wise than my small mind can comprehend, is above all moments and all days. He holds the stars in the heavens, He keeps the world spinning, He is our transcendent, almighty, everlasting, loving God. And when we learn to open the eyes of our hearts to see Him as King over all, we find peace, rest and we can be quiet as we reflect on His ways.

Sometimes, though, my first response has been, “How can you do this to me, God? Don’t you see we might go under financially? or This is such a difficult time. Where are you?”

Often, as a "toddler" I can shake my fist and say, "God, don't you care that I am going under? Or that you are making my life or marriage or children's lives more difficult than I can imagine?"

Yet, God is not threatened by my tantrums or my fears or my questioning Him, as He has lived through the fist-shaking and heartrending prayers of so many generations of children before me. And because He is a good Father, He does not give in to our demands, knowing His will is far better for us and that He truly is able to work all things together for the good, for those of us who are called to His purposes and who are willing to wait upon Him to work His ways through us.

Usually, serving God requires endless waiting on His timing and His ways. And yet, if we could remember the lesson of the star which later learned was named Capella, there are things going on that are truer than the present issues and circumstances that we perceive. God is suiting our soul, building our character, stretching our spiritual and mental and emotional muscles to become holy, to truly be able to reflect Christ back through us to a world so desperately in need of light. If we obediently trust Him and wait for Him and rest in the knowledge that He is good, even though we live in a fallen place, we will live to see His goodness and His blessing abundantly in His time. He redeems all, He restores all, He is the resurrection power.

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world." If we are living for satisfaction and glory in this world, we will not find ultimate satisfaction. I wish I had not fought against God so many times in the years of my family's journey. God allowed so much, but He was also there to walk with me through all the harsh realities of life and in the midst of it, He forged faith and depth and character in the lives of my children that they would otherwise not have had.

When we pray, "God, make my children holy," we must understand it means their road and ours will be challenging and stretching, as all of our faith muscles will have to be stretched in order for us to become strong. I see that in spite of the ways my mother-heart would have over-protected my children, God was having His way and building my children into strong adults. His ways trumped my ways because He heard my prayer to make them strong.

I love this quote by David Adam, from the Edge of Glory:

"He forever goes before us to prepare a place for us. He is on the road we tread. Wherever life is leading us, He has gone before. Perhaps we have no clue about what lies ahead; we know who is ahead of us, so the future is not quite unknown."

In this time of anxiety and the unknown, rest in the fact that God is still God, and you are still not. He holds eternity, and He will be with us no matter what. I pray you rest in His grace, today.

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 Million Ways to Bring Life, Fun, Beauty While You're Home & Podcast

“Any day spent with you is my favorite day, So today is my new favorite day.” Piglet to Pooh

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What a world we find ourselves in with foundations being shaken, expectations disappointed and insecurity creating chaos. As anchors of stability in our homes, we have this opportunity to create beauty, loving rhythms, personal moments, adventure, fun and life to the days so that our family will remember these days with fondness. Today can become the new favorite day for your children and you!

But all of us need ideas of how to make this happen. On my podcast today, my friends and I came up with countless ideas of the ways we have created and nurtured life-giving memories with our own. I hope our ideas will inspire you.

Joy, my daughter, wrote some thoughts about what it really looks like to be brave in a quiet way during these times. I hope it will encourage you.

Joy: When I was young, I always had a sort of guilty craving to live through something disastrous to prove my mettle, to show how brave I could be. Now I know bravery requires hardship, and only the foolish desire it. But here we are.

And this is an odd one, isn't it? Our "enemy" isn't a dictator or a malevolent regime, it's a virus. And it's not targeting our military, it's targeting our most vulnerable, our old and our ill... it doesn't fight fair. And it's not just a pandemic of illness, but of disappointment. Cancelled graduations, weddings, honeymoons.

All in all, when I used to imagine being brave, I didn't imagine it would be like this, did you? But here we are. We needn't celebrate this, or moralize it, but this we can say: this is a chance, to pull ourselves together, to act responsibly, to love our neighbors, and to not be afraid.

Strangest of all, it seems the bravest thing is to make a nest and sit in it. It's underwhelming, really, but it's needful. So I fill my nest with small graces: a new candle, a few rosebuds, warm light streaming through the window... little things can bring so much pleasure. I keep watch on how I could help my neighbors (grocery runs for elderly friends), I pray for my family across the ocean, I cook more than usual, I try think of other things. It's a strange kind of bravery, but I hope it would make my younger self proud.

Follow Joy @joynessthebrave

And Joel shared some thoughts from Wendell Berry:

• “When despair for the world grows in me⁣
  and I wake in the night at the least sound⁣
  in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,⁣
  I go and lie down where the wood drake⁣
  rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.⁣
  I come into the peace of wild things⁣
  who do not tax their lives with forethought⁣
  of grief. I come into the presence of still water.⁣
  And I feel above me the day-blind stars⁣
  waiting with their light. For a time⁣
  I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”⁣
  - Wendell Berry, “The Peace of Wild Things”⁣

I love Berry’s directive to the world-weary pilgrim, to enter into the peace of wild things. I have always simply taken it as granted that no matter what the world might bring, I would always have nature at my beck and call, to comfort and succour me. Never did it occur to me that I might be faced with being cut off from that source of life, hidden away, shrouded for a time as-yet-untold.

And yet, I know from my experience with beauty in creation that its life is not merely in the encounter itself, but in the way we remember that beauty, and the way it recalls us and holds us when we return to it. As the world is retreating into itself and we may not have easy access to the world beyond for some time, I feel the urgency of that loss.

I want to use this space as a way to recall the beauty that continues to press onward just beyond my reach, and keep it fresh in my mind, so that I will know it and love it anew when I am able to experience it fully once more. I’ve grown a bit lax here, but I want to redouble my efforts to keep hope alive through the living memory of the promise hidden in the beautiful world that awaits our return on the other side of this. Follow Joel as he shares beautiful photography on instagram Stay, safe, well, and strong friends, and stay tuned... @joel.i.clarkson

Books & Games 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!

Good Food, Good Friends, Good Times to Change the World & Podcast

Taking time away with my executive ministry team in Asheville, (at the Biltmore).

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Intentionality in friendship create a foundation on which to build close, vibrant, life-giving friendships. My wonderful friends have served at conferences, in our membership community, leading Bible studies for many years, promoted book launches. These amazing women are “all in” and work harder and in more commitment than I could ever have asked for.

But what I found is that all of my sweet partners in ministry had their own integrity before I ever met them. All wanted to be a part of serving God, loving Him, and then extending His light and love to their community, to their family, to their friends. I call them steadfast.

When you have the opportunity to be a part of such a rare community, you find that you know you always have someone who will pray for you, love you, inspire you to your best self and who plays well.

This past weekend, after months of planning, we met in Asheville, and stayed in the beloved Wright Inn (the place I wrote about in The Lifegiving Home) and worked, played, ate, and then did it all over again.

We wanted to share with all of you what we filled our hearts and minds this weekend and to give some history and encouragement about how such deep friendships are developed over time. Actually, we talked about lots of important things on the podcast and I hope you will find life and encouragement from our time together that might be a light in the midst of a crazy week.

We pray that your family will stay well, have grace amidst this awful virus and find beauty in the moments you spend together during the time we are all sequestered away.

We dearly love and pray for all who are In the community of the influence of my ministry and hope that what we have planned together for the next year will deeply encourage all of you. Praying for you today.

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!

Do Not Fear, For I Am With You & Podcast

Christ-church Meadow, Oxford, my place of peace, as I off load anxious thoughts for Him to carry.

Do not fear, for I am with you! Do not anxiously look about you,  For I am your God! I will strengthen you, I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.  

Isaiah 41: 10

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Fear, weariness, concern, cynicism, frustration seems to define the mood and emotions of many today. We hear of war and violence, corona virus, financial crisis, devastating storms and tornadoes, moral collapse amongst youth, a loss of faith for many young adults, and we are tempted to tremble in our boots, or to be filled with despair.

Yet, scripture speaks to us over and over again about God’s desire to protect us, to be present with us, to respond to our prayers, to crush the wicked. Over 80 times in scripture we read, “Fear Not!” and the verse above is one of my favorite “fear not” verses that I learned when I was a very young believer.

Ponder it:

Fear not because He is with us—companioning us, walking beside us, with His eye on us

Do not anxiously look about you—don’t put your eyes on the circumstances of life that threaten us, remember, He is our God.

I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

God wants us to live in peace because He cares for us, is with us, will guide us, will hold us in His hands.

Many years ago, we had lunch with some of our very dearest friends and they related to us a story. A sweet young couple had decided to kayak from Maine down to Florida. They planned their trip, got sponsors to support them, and blogged and wrote about their trip. With all of the seasons and storms, it took them a year to finish their trip. 

Storms of great magnitude arose amidst their journey, and would send the waves crashing all around them. Often the rain would pelt continuously on their weary bodies and soak them to the bone. Discouragement would overwhelm them and they would think, "Why did we undertake this? We will never finish. It is too difficult. No one can do it!"

One time, however, in the midst of one such storm, they made a pact with each other.

"We will never make a decision to quit when we are in the midst of a rain storm." 

A simple, but profound commitment. I decided that this was a statement worth following. 

So many dear friends are surrounded by storms in their lives right now--economic, illness, weariness, loneliness, no support systems or anyone to help; difficult marriages, prodigal children, fear of the future, despair because of the times we are in, ......... The list goes on and on. 

I have been through so many storms in my own life when I felt I could not go on---trials and tribulations living as a young single woman in Communist Countries with oppression and atrocities abounding. Three out of 4 children asthmatics with constant illness and emergency room situations; 17 moves and loneliness; 4 children to homeschool and very few or no support systems over the years and years of exhaustion; stress in finances, ministry, marriage, "giants" within our family that caused great difficulty and despair, about which I may never write, because I believe in honor and loyalty in family relationships.

Often, I would think, "I cannot go on. My circumstances will turn out for the worst. There is no hope. Where has God gone."

And yet, somehow, God would always lead me to take one more step, to seek to be faithful one day at a time. And the days mounted and mattered.

And yet, it is in the midst of the storms of life, that our faith is most precious. It is in these times when we can say to Satan, "You would have me fear, but I choose to believe in the goodness of God and in His provision."

I love the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar had commanded them to bow down to the serve his idols and to worship them. The three godly men refused to bow down to his gods. The king then said that he would throw them into the fiery furnace and there would be no one to deliver them. 

This is the threat of Satan, "There will be no one to deliver you." 

Yet, their response is what I desire to be the response of my own heart,

"Our God whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire, ..., but even if He does not, let it be known to you, Oh king, that we are not going to serve your gods." Daniel 3 gives the story.

Of course the result is that the great king found out who was really God and made a proclamation to the whole land of God's greatness and never ending kingdom.

We are told very clearly in scripture that difficult times will come. We know from the warnings of scripture that at the end of the times, earthquakes will increase--and so they have. We know that many Christians will be persecuted all over the world. Great economic troubles, shaking our foundations as we know them, have been predicted  and are coming true before our eyes. That as Paul has told us, immorality and wickedness and godlessness will be rampant. We know from Revelation that, Satan, knowing his time is short, is pouring out great wrath. (Revelation 12:13)

This, then, could from God's eyes of history, be one of the finest hours for Christians to stay true, to be faithful until the end, to endure hardship, to rejoice in His reality, to live by faith, "assurance of things hoped for, convictions of things not seen."

When I was working in Communist countries many years ago, where there were constant persecutions and imprisonments, I was so surprised to see the fervor of so many Christians in their worship of God and their delight in His reality, their praise of Him in music was heavenly. I asked an old woman about it and she said to me, "You Americans have had so much heaven on earth, that you have not known what it is to long for and hope for the heavenly Kingdom of God, where righteousness will rule, where our real longings will be satisfied, and we will see our precious Lord face to face." 

And so, when our hearts are surrounded with fear and discouragement in the storms of life, let us look to the face of Jesus, our king, our savior and our Lord. He is with us. He will not abandon us. He will carry us through. Today is the best time, to believe, to hold fast, to worship by faith and to rest in His strength.

He is coming. We don not know when, but  if He has seen fit to "born" us into these times, then these times are the best place where we have the opportunity to live our story of faith, which will be a testimony for eternity, that He is our trustworthy God.

You Are A Picture of Holiness To Your Children & Podcast

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One windy day, I was on a walk with Lilian, my sweet almost two year old toddling companion. As we were crossing a church yard near her home, on the way to buy a few groceries, I said, “Why don’t we go into this church for a few minutes and see what it is like inside.

I had read that the church was established in the late 1085 and I knew it would be a sight to behold.

As we held hands and walked into the sanctuary, little Lily, very confidently and purposefully toddler-marched up to the altar, knelt and held her little hands toward the cross hanging by the vibrant, glowing stain glass that had captured the imagination of believers for hundreds of years.

In a flash, I realized that her mama and daddy had held her many times in their arms, had gone up to the altar for communion and prayer and blessing, and had whispered of God’s deep love for her. They pointed to the cross and the window and said, “Because we love Him, we worship and bow our knee before him each week.”

From the many times this sacred act had been performed in her young life, Lilian knew that she had a place at the altar of her beloved Christ. She knew, already, even though she could not fully understand, that it was right to lift our hands to Him. And so she led me to the front, without. thought, and did what was her habit.

Young children are watching, imitating, learning from us every moment of their early life. The attitude we have when we change diapers, the way we talk to our friends, neighbors, husbands, becomes their models for how to speak to others, whether or not we value other human beings.

You are the picture of holiness where your child will learn to be Holy—set apart for God’s purposes.

What you practice every day is the message your little ones are inhaling into the recesses of their hearts and minds. The ways you pray, worship God become for them a pattern of stability, security, grace and peace.

“This is what our family does. We worship together. We pray together. We love to be quiet and still in the peaceful beauty of church. I am a part of the life we practice together here.”

It is in the secret places of your life, the way you live when you may think no one is noticing where the shaping of values, worship, reverence are being learned.

It is the times when you are alone in your bedroom, that holiness is determined. You have to be the one who decides priorities, commitments, faith, your choices, your actions.

And in the quiet moments of your life, God is with you in that place and God is writing faith on the heart of those watching you have faith. When we choose to seek Him every day and arrange our lives so that we can hear from Him and read His word, He sees and blesses—and our children also see and store it up in their hearts.. No one else really knows our personal integrity, but God who sees in secret, and our children who are with us all the time, will see. When we seek to turn the moments of our lives towards Him, we are not by ourselves, the Holy Spirit is present, taking the sacrifice of our fragile lives and making it into a beautiful story of faith in the hearts, minds and lives of those who are watching us every day..

It is a lifetime of taking one holy step at a time, day by day, moment by moment, choice by choice, that gives one a "set apart" life. It is the secret life, not the public life, that creates this eternal service of worship. Yet, after years of such holy choosing, the spirit of Christ reflects more and more so that all who come to the soul of one so committed will be fed  and such a soul will naturally produce what it has been sowing and it will ultimately give and pour out Him.

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!

Why Embrace Biblical Motherhood? & Podcast

Mothering generations together, for His glory and to bring HIs light, His truth into the faith legacy of the next generation.

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As I look into the soft blue eyes of my precious Sarah, as she is softly singing to baby Samuel and kissing his cheek, I am deeply touched by the beauty I never knew I would see or the deep joy I would experience. I couldn’t have known when I was a young mama the miracle of watching each of my children as adults fulfilling their destinies and callings in such deep and meaningful ways. When they were tiny babies, my eyes could not see that far or understand the mystery and grace ahead for me.

I never knew how much I would love being a mother. Now that my children are adults, I realize that they are truly, (next to Clay) the best companions, loving friends, inspiring mentors I have. It is a privilege to serve them, be their confidante, pray for them, spend time together, because they have given so generously to me.

Sarah and I have just spent 3 weeks together as she mothered her own precious newborn, Samuel, and delightful and very engaged, Lilian! And I got to come along to love and support her. We were talking about how people always say that some women have “Daddy” issues because of not having a good father. But what about “mother” issues.

A mother is created to be a support, a thoughtful friend, a best companion, a spiritual mentor, one who celebrates, encourages, and loves unconditionally through all the seasons. We all need a very present mama and it is a loss when we lose such a mother or have never had one. Motherhood is part of the glue that holds civility, grace and the world together.

Motherhood was designed by God to be a role of honor, sacred, to help keep His purposes alive in the world. We must remember that to be a mother who serves God is not simply a choice but a mandate.

Why do I embrace the call of motherhood? Why do I think it is a worthy call to love, serve and embrace our children?

When we become Christians, we commit our lives to the Lord and say, "I will serve you. I will love you. I will do anything for you!"

And so, God says, "Children are a blessing, the fruit of the womb is a reward."

And so we treat this bundle of children as a blessing and receive them as a reward from his hand, by faith and worship of HIm.

His best and perfect will is for us to cherish, protect and nurture what He has called a gift.

In Genesis 1, when He blessed Adam and Eve, He called out to that blessing, "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth."

Before the fall, when the world was perfect, God’s blessings and holy mandate was to “Be fruitful and multiply.”—to have children was an organic, loving, natural design imagined by God at the beginning of creation.

To worship Him well means we are to embrace as good and as a blessing what he called good and blessed.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 reminds us,  “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

If we are mothers yet we resist the call of motherhood, the call to spiritually shape the foundations, heart and faith of our children, then we resist God, as He designed it to be eternally significant and meaningful. We cannot say we will love and serve God and then refuse to see our children as a ministry from Him.

All babies come into the world fragile, in need of comfort, love, food, protection, and learning life from the hands of the mom and dad who gave them life. Since God created them so, we have the opportunity to imprint their brains with impressions of what love is like when we caress them and embrace them and sing to them, so their little brains will believe, when they understand words, that God truly is a loving Creator. When we provide rest and comfort and verbal stimulation by talking to them, we are preparing their little brains with pathways of intelligence so that they can understand words and eventually truth and so on.

If God made babies this way, then it is God's will for us to embrace our opportunity to effect eternity by loving, cherishing, serving the ones God gave to us as gifts, whose lives will have implications for all of eternity. Our children, then, are not an interruption, but God's best plan for us to come to understand His own servant leadership, to see that He has placed in our hands the opportunity to be a part of shaping a mind, soul and body.

And so we embrace motherhood with our whole heart because it is an abundantly beautiful way we get to worship and serve Him, but accepting these little, fragile, innocent, waiting for our open arms, babes.. We cannot say we love and serve Him and then reject that gift that He has placed into our hands.

When mothers love well and hold up spiritual ideals as a foundation for life, it is a defense against the draw and appeal of a secular godless culture. Every act of generosity and kindness is laying one more brick to build a house of faith for each child, each person living in the context of your lifegiving acts of kindness. It is not the big or monetarily expensive investments of our lives that build godly children, but the daily, small acts of giving and serving that sinks into their hearts.

“As it is, after eighteen years, (now 36 years) of learning the truth of living sacrificially, I have found that embracing God’s call to motherhood once and for all has brought me great peace. Instead of seeing fusses and messes as irritations in my day, for instance, I am more likely to see them as opportunities to train my children to be peacemakers and to learn to be responsible for their own messes. Instead of resenting the interruptions in my schedule, I am more likely to accept them as divine appointments. More and more, I have learned to see my children through the eyes of God and to accept the stages of growth through which he has designed them to grow.” Sally Clarkson, from Mission of Motherhood

So, I am praying for God to give sweet mothers a love for their children and a heart for their calling. Grace and peace in the midst of your sweet ones today.

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Feeling Hidden or Lost Today?

"Where can I go from thy spirit or where can I flee from thy presence? Even the darkness is not dark to thee and the night is as bright as the day."

~Psalm 139

Precious is the moment when a child confidently proclaims, "I'll bet you can't find me!" from behind a curtain, under a bed, or beyond a half-closed door, while his feet or body are conspicuously sticking out. We pretend, for the sake of the child's innocent heart, that we cannot see him and say, "Where could Johnny be? I can't find him anywhere!?"

Snickers and giggles abound as we look high and low while we are perfectly aware we are so very near to the beloved child.

God, too, allows us to play at life, to seek to grow and explore and exercise our limited human authority to bring about our goals and purposes in life and expound on our own prowess.

As I look back on the heartbreaks, the times of real panic attacks, fear, discouragement, I had only one way forward—to trust Him, to give my burdens into His hands, to seek to take one more step in the direction of what I found to be true in scripture. So many times, I felt hidden, I felt unseen and wondered if my daily investment in my children and home even mattered.

Yet, I was taught early in my walk with Christ, to choose to believe in His faithfulness and to walk by faith and to pray to Him. I look back now and see that He was indeed taking me on the path that led to truth, fruitfulness, blessing. His word guided me. His faithfulness came through in ways I couldn’t see at the time.

You see, even though my way felt dark, the Psalm tells us that even darkness is not dark to him. Psalm 139 tells us that there is no place where we can go that He is not still present with us.

As our divine parent, He must at times allow us to cry and be sad when we do not understand His greater ways, even as we must say no to our own children and allow them childhood momentary sadness when it would be harmful, dangerous or unwise to give in to their own desires. It hurts to feel lost and feel sad in this, As we mature and season, we understand more and more that this is the broken place, where He knows we will never be fulfilled or complete. Yet, He patiently leads, guides, and attends to us as we slowly mature and gain perspective. But God is never lost, and we are never lost to him. He always sees us wherever we think we are hiding or in the dark.

*****************************

Eyes wide, giving me a weakly-attempted smile, my dear friend attempted to greet me with a cheerful heart. We hadn’t seen one another for a long time, and we knew our time together was a treasure.

Embracing her, I whispered, "You are so very dear to me and to our precious Lord. He loves you more than you will ever know. He sees you, He is with you, and He will hold and guide you."

Tears filled her eyes, bursting over her dark, black lashes as she whispered, "I feel so lost. I can't find my old self anymore. I don't know how to come back to the light."

"You feel lost,” I said, “but God is not lost, and He has not lost you. Just wait and be still, and in time the light will come gently pouring back into your heart," I whispered with as much love as I gather to pour into her darkness.

God's ways are always best and bringhealth, joy, beauty, and real life. He shares our grief and frustrations, and grieves along with us.  However, as a loving Father, He must interfere with our expectations of being able to find true joy and happiness in this world if we could only control it enough.  But I have had to learn that I am a toddler with so little perspective I sometimes think I am hidden, or perhaps sometimes in fear of being lost. I can pretend and play and at times, pour out tears of sorrow at the difficulties and barriers He allows in my life.

We are all immature, short-sighted and limited, being held fast by this earth, and so God has to pry our hands free from their strong grips on this world, to force us to look more astutely towards eternity, where we will live forever and ever in His true light.

We may feel lost. He is never lost or has lost control over us.

"I am with you always, even unto the end of the earth,” Matthew 28:20.

Until we close our eyes here and awaken into His lovely presence.