Waiting Isn't Easy ...

Time is a commodity that composes all of the days of our lives. It is either felt as a gift or as a curse. Waiting for Covid to be over so that we can get “back to life” is something we are all familiar with during this season. There is he waiting ‘till the baby sleeps all night. The waiting to get out of the hospital. The waiting for news of a new job, acceptance to a school, being chosen for the opportunity that will change our lives. But what about in the meantime? Is there a way to see the moments in such a way that we can live the moments as a gift. “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice….”

The clock called “Big Ben” in London near Westminster Abbey has been getting a facelift for many years now, but has faithfully chimed the passing of moments for many decades. And so my church down the street from where I live in Oxford reminds me every quarter of an hour that time is passing. Passing. Passing. Passing. Time chases us every day.

Sometimes we watch the clock or calendar because we’re anxious for a vacation or the end of a season, the completion of a project or the beginning of another. I am a “quick” person and like to get things done. I am are often in a hurry, and yet, I have slowly realized… God is not! He doesn’t lose sight of the main thing … and he doesn’t become impatient in waiting, as we do.

"The Bible is our direct source for perceiving God's attributes, noticing how He dealt with people in the past, and learning what is important to Him. Our whole Christian life isn't primarily about being good or doing the right thing or accomplishing all that is on our list.. Our lives are to be about a personal relationship--a love cultivated between Creator and creature, Father and child.

By spending time in His Word, we come to know His heart. God longs for relationship with us and honors those who love Him and search for Him. Reading Scripture in such a way as to know Him better and look for clues as to how He interacts with human beings has given me a better understanding of how to please Him. I have learned how He deals with others so that I can better understand His work in my own life.

For instance, as I read and ponder the stories of the Bible--the lives of Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Joseph, and David, I see that they all had to wait for many years to see their promise from God fulfilled. It gives me a pattern for being mature. Apparently some things take a long time. I can see that God's timing and ways in the lives of those He has used are different than the ways of this world. In this world, I want immediate gratification--Answer my prayer now! Yet I see that those who were godly had to wait in faith for years, trusting that they would see the faithful hand of God in His time." ~from The Mom Walk

Ahhhh ... waiting. It is common to God's people, in all times. "There is nothing new under the sun," as Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us.

Will I rest in His timing? Knowing that the clock really belongs to my Father, and He can see what time it is, though all I see is the moving of gears? Will I trust that He knows all and that when the time has fully arrived, He will surely cause the song to ring out, heralding the change I'm eagerly awaiting? How shall I make this time, this waiting, a place of love, beauty, goodness, productivity?

Spending time in His word reminds me that He will be faithful, though I wait long.

Are you waiting, too, today?

Your Mom Walk with God: Staying Faithful on the Path of Motherhood

By Clarkson, Sally

Cultivating Deep Friendships Through Teatime Discipleship

Great ideas were shaped over tea in Oxford by many through centuries.

Table Discipleship Principle:

Deep friendships and connected relationships happen best when intentional encouragement is planned and given on a regular basis.

We all long for kindred spirits — those with whom we could spend hours dreaming, laughing, and sharing our heart’s troubles. But many people I know struggle to find those kindred spirits. Living our busy lives, we hope that lifelong friendships will fall into our lap, or come knocking at our front door. But over many years of struggling with loneliness myself, I’ve found that the best way to cultivate a true, deep-rooted friendship is to commit to seeking them out, intentionally going out of our way to invite a new friend over for a cup of tea and a deep discussion.

Butterflies flittered in my stomach as I peered anxiously out the window of the red-and-white Austrian tram, which was slowing to a stop. I could just see the façade of a grand, ornate white-marble building behind the elaborate park of its tree-lined entrance.

Quickly I looked out to the other side of the street and spotted another imposing structure with a sign in front that read Volksoper. That was the clue I was looking for, the landmark my friend had described when she told me where to meet her.

I pushed the button to exit and was caught in the crowds of boot- wearing, wool-coated, and scarved people pushing their way in and out of the door. Frigid weather outside caused our breath to swirl in steamy curls as each of us rushed to our own destination.

Crossing the street with cars whizzing by and trams going in two directions on the unfamiliar street triggered a rush of adrenaline. But then, right in front of me as I made it safely across the street, I saw my destination—Café Landtmann, one of the oldest coffee houses in Vienna.

I entered and glanced around, getting my bearings, and was confronted by a waiter dressed formally in black, who spoke to me in German. Not knowing what he had said, I shook my head and put my hands up in total incomprehension. He then spoke loudly, too loudly for my comfort, and pointed to a coatroom. Quickly I understood that I was not allowed to take my coat into the café area. I walked over and handed my heavy navy-blue coat and scarf to a small woman who hung it up and gave me a number in return.

Everything I was doing was completely foreign to me. I had no prior expectations about how to do life in formal Vienna in the late 1970s. But I just kept muddling through and looked around until I found the entrance door to the room where people regularly met for afternoon coffee.

It was a magnificent space. Green and brown velveteen cushioned seats, dark wood ceiling beams and inlays, and a formal crystal chandelier gracing the center of the room gave the café a grand old-world elegant atmosphere. I was drawn in to the warmth of friends talking, leaning forward, sipping drinks in intimate groups. But I couldn’t help feeling a little out of place until I saw my friend Gwen waving at me from a small window table toward the back that looked out at the magnificent building I had seen from the tram.

We greeted each other, and finally I was able to breathe out my last bit of anxiety. Now I was with a companion who could speak my language and who delighted in my company. Her arms of friendship embraced me, giving warmth and energy back to my depleted soul.

“I have ordered you my favorite coffee, a mélange, and a warm treat they serve only on the cold days of winter. It will warm our insides,” Gwen announced with a delightful, pleased-with-herself smile.

We sat and sipped and chatted and giggled for three hours, almost without stop. The treat had been Milchrahmstrudel, a sort of sweet cottage cheese–filled pastry smothered in warm vanilla sauce, and it had indeed warmed me—but not as much as being with Gwen did. One of the deepest friendships of my life had been nurtured over a cup of something hot and some honest conversation.

Cafés are sprinkled all through the city of Vienna, and each is filled to overflowing every day as friends stop amidst the busyness of their days to share some moments of rest and to sip a steaming cup of tea or coffee together. I found this custom irresistible and adopted it for myself. And when we returned to the States, I looked for new ways to make it part of my life. Because I’ve always been a bit of an Anglophile, I eventually added the English tradition of afternoon tea to create my own personal approach.

Over time, my teatime habit became a foundational discipling tool for me. Taking time in the middle of a busy day to focus on a real live person and share our hearts over tea or coffee became a way of connecting with other women, with neighbors, and especially with my children—and even with my swirling, hurried self.

Eventually, I developed the practice of hosting people in my home for tea. To say, “You are welcome at my table. I have prepared for you. I would like to know you” was a way of inviting people into my life in a personal way. Teatime discipleship became a habit of stopping, looking someone in the eye, and making a space that says, “I care about you.” It was also an unthreatening way to begin getting to know them, asking them questions, and gaining access to their hearts. And it was an unparalleled way to build and nurture friendships.

This month on my membership, I have a video of me explaining how I make a perfect cup of tea. I hope you will enjoy it. To join my membership, go to LifewithSally.com It is a wonderful community of likeminded women who gather for inspiration, encouragement, ideas and fellowship.

Girls' Club: Cultivating Lasting Friendship in a Lonely World

By Clarkson, Sally, Clarkson, Joy, Clarkson, Sarah

Buy on Amazon

24 Family Ways: Loving God By Loving Others

"We love and obey our Lord, Jesus Christ, with wholehearted devotion."

Memory verse: "And He said to them, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment." Matt. 22:37-38

Play Episode on iTunes & Stitcher

With just one glance at the state of our world today, it’s clear that we’ve forgotten how to love — instead, we offer each other judgement, blame, and harsh words. It might sound simple, but the vast majority of our issues today stem from a lack of understanding of the importance of love, grace, and honor—giving worth that is due to God and those made in His image.

Preparing to become mature at loving God or preparing my children to become adults who knew how to love started with teaching them God’s most important commandment: to love Him with all their hearts, souls, and minds.

Rainbow light shone through a multi-colored stain glass window which looked like it was a passage to heaven. Our normally wiggly, chattery clan became silent as they walked into the lovely chapel and heard the quiet music wafting up to the very rafters where the light was shining through. Oddly enough, the beauty, formality and music hushed them and they sat mostly reverently through the hour-long service.

"Mama, you felt like you had to be quiet 'cause everything was so special, pretty, and respectful," piped one of my little ones, when asked what they thought of the new church we visited.

This was the first time our family had ever attended such a formal service together, and it was enlightening to see what the effect the sacred place of exquisite design and beauty had on the attitudes of my children.

Almost every time I read a story about someone who saw the glory of God, the effect of His blinding splendor was that they bowed down in fear, in reverence, hiding their eyes from the glory of God. The starting point for any real training must be a reverence, respect, and proper awe of God, Himself.

The first "way" of Our 24 Family Ways is about learning to see the sacred, and to honor things that are holy. If we do not learn to understand that some things are special and set aside as a picture of great and intrinsic worth, designed to show the eminence and infinity of God's glory in our own homes and lives, we will never learn to honor God.

Honor of God begins with an honor of what is holy in our lives. All people are made in God's image, so they are sacred and have great worth in eternity. Marriage, the commitment of two people to enter into a union and pledge before God of faithfulness is sacred and holy.

Many things that used to be considered sacred--human life, the elderly, churches and burial grounds, people in position of authority and accomplishment, parents, marriage, teachers, public figures--all of these are often torn apart, ridiculed, and devalued in contemporary culture. When every vestige of truth can be ridiculed, cynicism runs so rampant that no one can believe in innocence, modesty, or sincerity anymore.

At this time in history, where very little is considered sacred or holy, we must seek diligently to create not just knowledge of what the word holy means, but to place tangible practices in our lives where we and our children come to learn that some things are sacred and set apart and deserve our reverence and worship.

Honor starts with the respectful ways we treat others in our home--the way we speak to our children with respect, the way we give our attention to and interact with our husbands, the way we treat strangers or others who come across our paths.

When we learn to give value to others by serving them, we will be much more likely honor God--and honoring God is the first commandment. Loving God and honoring Him with our whole hearts is the starting place for appropriate worship, which says He is worthy of our praise and service our whole life long. Honor is a heart attitude.

Most of our churches are places where there is casual dress, talking and chattering, informal behavior, so much so that the behavior and jokes told and manners of most people could not be differentiated from the behavior they would display at a restaurant or in any other casual place.

We make fun of our Presidents and leaders and feel no guilt or twinge of conscience for voicing every sort of opinion on Facebook as though we have a right to be the judge of everyone and everything, with no consequence or thought of our own imperfections. In doing so tear down the value and even the core meaning of ruling over ourselves with restraint, decorum, a sense of our own dignity. We criticize our pastors and leaders. In the name of "freedom," we excuse any kind of our own behavior and speech, with no sense of propriety or restraint. 

If there is nothing sacred in our lives, then how do we hope to pass on a sense of awe, Godly fear and respect to our children? To honour someone is not to say they are perfect or even worthy of our respect and admiration, but because we worship God, He is worthy of our practice of respect as we leave judgement of others and consequences to Him. Jesus, while being reviled, did not revile in return, but trusted Himself to God.

How have you instilled reverence, honoring and devotion to God in your children? 

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

What did God mean when He advised, “Judge not, lest you be judged?

We owe God our worthy worship and respect and honour by practicing honouring the human beings made in His likeness.

Name several ways you can establish a practice of valuing the sacred in your own life, valuing other human beings, showing honor for the worth of others.

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What You Look For Determines What You Find!

When life is extra busy and demands for your time stack up like firewood against an expected long winter ...

When pressures from without and within build greater than you think you can bear ...

When it seems there's just not enough you to meet every need ...

What's your response? Do you retreat? Lash out? Do less, in a wild effort to retain some sort of energy for yourself?

Perhaps that's not the best way. All of those are my natural reactions, too. But something Sarah said one day gave me pause.

"One day, during some heavy, depleting financial issues in our family's life, I decided to get up before everyone else. I made homemade pecan-apple pancakes, lit candles, put on soothing instrumental music, and had a lovely table set when the kids and Clay arose. We all enjoyed the breakfast surprise together. After we finished, Sarah was sitting next to me on the couch. She kissed my cheek and said, 'You know, Mom, when you act happy and bring joy to our life, I feel secure and that all is well. But when you are upset and down, I feel guilty, like we have done something wrong and it makes me feel like brooding. Thanks for making the effort. I feel happy this morning.'

I realized that one of the roles God wants me to play in my children's lives is a conductor of joy, happiness, and celebration. After all, God designed our need for these things into our very hearts. We were made to enjoy life and our Creator, and we were meant to choose to live in His beauty and provision.

This doesn't mean I won't have difficulties or times of depression. But I do have choices I can make as a mom that will determine the environment in my home. When I choose to notice, every day, the beauty of my children instead of the duties my children bring my way, I am worshiping God. When I choose to notice the gorgeous sunsets and the spring flowers in the midst of busy days, I am teaching my children to dance, so to speak, through their days. When I choose to believe in the goodness of God and verbalize my love for Him, and make an effort to provide delightful food, thoughtful cards, and moments of fun, I am showing my children a God they will be willing to serve-- a God who delights in filling their deep desires for intimacy, happiness, purpose, and beauty."~ from Your Mom Walk With God, below

 So often, we find what we’re looking for—whether things to be frightened of, excuses, or on the brighter side, hope and loveliness. The Lord understands our weariness! And He is also able to give us the grace to deal with the stresses and personality conflicts and disappointments and burdens of life. He gives us puppies to laugh over and spicy foods to enjoy and beautiful music to delight our ears even in the midst of crazy days. Today, what loveliness can you find to share with your family, to show them the wooing grace of the Father?

Your Mom Walk with God: Staying Faithful on the Path of Motherhood

By Clarkson, Sally

Trusting God When Your World is Falling Apart With Ruth Schwenk & Podcast

 Trusting God When It Feels Like Your World is Falling Apart

Anyone who is seasoned in their faith has become used to trials, difficulties and hard times. Yet, it is how they responded to their stress and challenges that makes them worthy to follow. It is not something I wanted to experience or get used to, yet, it is part of life in a fallen world. The world is storming against light, beauty and goodness. We battle against such storms to bring light, love, beauty and goodness forward to invade every second of our days. I know you will enjoy my podcast today with Ruth Schwenk, a dear friend. She has penned some of her thoughts for us today:

Ruth:

We almost always enter chaos suddenly. It’s a phone call. A text message. A routine check-up. That knock on the door. And suddenly we are in angry and relentless water. 

Suffering is never convenient, is it? Trials are never timely. That has been our story and I am sure it has been yours, in different ways. As a young mom of four children, the very last thing I envisioned was that we would face the dreaded C word – cancer. I hate even saying it. But that is what happened. Almost three years ago my husband, Patrick, was diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer. 

Suddenly, we were in a storm. Disoriented. 

How can this be happening? Why us? Why now? How will we get through this? 

Even now, I feel like I am telling someone else’s story. We didn't want this to be our story (who does?!), but it was and it still is. And yet we feel that with suffering comes great responsibility. We know that the hurt God allows is the hurt God can use. Painful, yes, but never without purpose. 

While we have found ourselves in a boat, in the middle of a lake, we also have found we are not alone. The Lord of chaos is with us and for us. He really is close to the brokenhearted. If anyone can understand our suffering, it is Jesus, because He suffered for us.  

And so the good news is that our storms don’t have to sink us. Especially if we learn the lesson that faithfulness in the storm starts with faithfulness before the storm. It’s the daily and weekly and yearly choices to be with Jesus. It’s the mundane and hidden moments before the kids get up, of being alone with God. Listening to His voice. Longing for His presence. It’s the humility and faith to stay on our knees. It’s the rhythm of opening the scriptures, even when we don’t feel like it. Especially when we don’t feel like it. And it’s the weekly decisions to gather as God’s people in local bodies for the Word and worship and bread and wine. 

That’s the stuff of heaven, that has the power, to change us slowly and surely, here on earth. It’s not magic. It is a miracle of sorts. But not the kind we think of. It’s rather ordinary. Which is maybe why we doubt it and resist it at times. But it is the most important work we can engage in. Because it is in these disciplines and decisions that God is meeting us and changing us and preparing us for what we can’t yet see.

It seems that is in part what Jesus is doing in Mark 4, when we meet Him teaching the learners, His disciples, “by the lake.” He was feeding them. Nourishing them. Teaching. Preparing. They needed dry ground. And of course, they needed the storm, the water, for all that seed to grow. But first, the seed. 

Don’t we need the same? We need time on the shore. Dry ground. It is spending time with Him today that prepares us for what we will face tomorrow. 

And then when the storm comes there is purpose there too. One of the greatest ways God does His work in us is through trials. He doesn't just want to get us from one side of the lake to the other. He uses the "middle".  We know these “middle places,” out in the water are often the hardest places. But don’t forget that what God has been before the storm, He will be in the middle of the storm. You can rest in His peace because you know He will provide for you. Because He has before!

And so if I could encourage anywhere right now, it would be to seek the Lord. Make time for Him and with Him. Open your heart to His Word and turn your ear to His Voice. 

I don’t know what you are going through right now, what you have faced in the past or what you will experience in the future but today I want you to know that even if Jesus doesn’t stop the chaos around you, He can still the chaos in you. 

In my new book co-authored with my husband Patrick, In a Boat in the Middle of a Lake, we share our personal stories of loss and tragedy, along with strong Bible teaching and the experiences of nearly twenty years in pastoral ministry, to help you:

* understand why the depth of your hurt enables you to experience deep hope;

• learn to conquer fear to experience the freedom God has for you; and

• discover how God uses chaos, and not just the classroom, to shape and work through you.

• It’s through the hurt that we come to fully know the hope that is ours in Christ. You can grab your copy today anywhere books are sold.

With you,

Ruth Schwenk

Ruth Schwenk is my dear friend, and is the founder of a popular blog, TheBetterMom.com, and co-founder with her husband Patrick of FortheFamily.org, and a new podcast, Rootlike Faith and the co-author of the new book In a Boat in the Middle of the Lake.

In a Boat in the Middle of a Lake: Trusting the God Who Meets Us in Our Storm Buy on Amazon

Awaking Wonder: Opening Your Child's Heart to the Beauty of Learning

By Clarkson, Sally

Buy on Amazon

Faithful: The Secret of a Blessed Life

Faithful: Loyal, Constant, Steadfast

Trust in the Lord and do good, Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

Psalm 37: 3

Sitting in the shade of our front porch, gently rocking as we shared a sweet moment, out of the blue, one of my adult children commented, “Thanks for being faithful through all these years. It has been a gift to us in more ways than you will ever know. Not only your example, but you spared us from scars that so many of our peers have born in their lives. I know it took many choices to keep going, to be faithful to your ideals. Just wanted you to know it mattered.”

I was so surprised but so deeply grateful. Faithfulness matters, it is the hard work of the soul. It is a fruit of the spirit. It is rare in our time. As I look back over my life, I realize that so much of my blessing right now was due to the fact that somewhere along the way, I learned the value of keeping going, putting one foot in front to the other, remaining faithful through all of the dark passages.

Faithful in marriage, even when it was hard.

Faithful to my ideals as a mama, even when I didn’t feel like I was making progress.

Faithful to my God even when it felt like He was hiding.

Faithful to my children when they failed or showed their frailty and humanity.

Faithful to keep going forward, one step at a time, even when I felt I was failing.

The world gives us permission to quit, to give up, to drop our ideals. God encourages us to be faithful, to commit to being steadfast, to stay loyal.

So many eras I didn't think I would live through----crying babies with colic; ear infections and nocturnal asthma; hysterical fits and fusses and tantrums for never ending years, one day at a time, with a mysterious child with adhd, ocd and odd; marriage struggles between me, a totally romantic, relational woman married to a totally rational, organized man who had to work way too many hours to keep this family afloat; messes,  rejections from family for our ideals; 19 moves; loneliness, too little help or support systems; financial crisis; illnesses and hospitalizations and testings never ending; church splits; irrational people; and on and on.

Today, as I look back, I am still here, but God has changed me through it all. I am more patient with everyone, because I see how much I needed patience and still need compassion. I appreciate my faithful husband who has stuck with me through it all and has continued to dream of how we can change the world and write new books and keep this ministry afloat, (amidst him doing 4 loads of laundry last weekend, while I grocery shopped, bought birthday presents--again, and wedding presents for family).

The failures and mistakes I made gave me humility--a gift that allows one to be more appreciative of God's forgiveness, love and grace. Humility prepares one to minister to others with compassion and sympathy. Few leaders are wise without a dose of failure and having to submit to God's discipline. Children have a way of humbling mamas.

I see that I appreciate the Lord more, I am less attached to this world,  because after many disappointments, I have finally realized in my heart as well as my head, that this world is temporary, the broken place and heaven gives an anchor in the midst of taking our love for this world out of our hands.

I don't really care as much what other people's opinion of me is, because I know that I cannot please others and than my audience is the Lord. Only He can make me feel ok and centered with so much potential for failure in the eyes of someone who is looking and wanting to tell me their opinion.

I greatly enjoy my adult children as my best friends. After all of these years, our tastes were developed on the same food, movies, books, travel, spiritual experiences--Clay and I built our own kindred spirits and we all love being together.  (Maybe through all the struggles, my efforts at keeping going, training them, reading to them and telling them passionately about the Lord was really accomplishing eternal results in their hearts--but I didn't always feel like it mattered at the time when they were fussing over things like, "He touched my toe! or His piece of brownie was bigger than mine--and all of these very important issues.)  I am pretty relaxed with Joy  as a year old in college, because I know the Lord will faithfully guide her, teach her, speak to her and protect her--because I have seen Him be faithful three times before now.

I often didn't think I could make it through another day, depressed, exhausted, overwhelmed. Feelings were often dark. But I had no choice but to keep putting one foot in front of the other. God knew I could make it. God breathed life into my children's souls. God taught Clay and me more about unconditional love and grace. As a good Father, the Lord was training and disciplining me, as His own child. Stretching me and building into my life, by using my own children as a soul-shaping tool. He is so good and so faithful. My family and my life became the road to my ultimate joy and freedom from the things I thought would fulfill to the things that truly fulfill. He used them to surgically remove some of the rough edges, expose the immaturity, remold my values and thoughts.

I still have my ups and downs, sometimes sadness and dark thoughts that a fallen world brings, and don't know how my children's stories will sort out, but I am more familiar with the process and the Trainer.

So, this week, though still filled with more and different kind of issues, as I face a whole new and different kind of season, as I enter into my 14 days of self-isolation in my 20th move, in a new home, in another country. But I have seen that God has companioned me wherever I have gone and I know He will be with me, once again. Through His spirit, and His help, I will seek to be faithful one more day, to follow hard after His ideals, because I know He has a new chapter for me to live for His glory.

Thank you, my sweet Lord, for your wise ways, for keeping us going, for filling our souls with that which matters. Thank you that you helped me to keep going and going and waiting and waiting. How grateful I am that it is all in your good and capable hands. The sweet memories, the hope that comforts, the work that satisfies, all the things I did not know or understand when we first started. Keep me faithful and hopeful as I continue on this path of your making.

Ever Feel ... Worn Out? Finding a Path Forward

Some call it burn out. Some call it age. Some just think it is inevitable with too much activity and boredom.

There have been many seasons in my life where I've felt it. Creeping tiredness that seems to seep into my very bones.. Weariness as I hear another story of a wife betrayed, a child left to his own devices and gone astray, a pastor abandoning his flock, another fire, a riot, someone ravaged by cancer or disease.. Discouragement over a long to-do list that looks just like the one I almost finished yesterday.

I can find my self-talk sounding a tad like Eeyore. Busy day with people everywhere?

"Everybody crowds around so in this Forest. There’s no Space. I never saw a more spreading lot of animals in my life, and in all the wrong places.”

And then when things quiet down and I'm left alone?

One can't complain. I have my friends. Somebody spoke to me only yesterday. And was it last week or the week before that Rabbit bumped into me and said 'Bother!' The Social Round. Always something going on."

~Eyore!

And then I realize perhaps I've drifted a bit. When the pressures of life are great and negatives loom large they sometimes take up more room in my vision than they should. A re-adjustment is in order. I must get back to my first love.

"When I first fell in love with the Lord, I was so much happier. I was willing to read my Bible for hours, hungering for understanding and truth, discussing into the wee hours of night with my college friends the wonderful truths I had never heard before. Praying fervently and eagerly awaiting miracles was the call of my heart. Enthusiastically I would foray into the lives of strangers, eager to tell them about His redemption and grace. Fellowship with other believers was sweet and intimate. My whole life was genuinely wrapped up in God, not in a religious ritual but in an excited, passionate, graceful, purposeful way.

That was the place I had left, the place from where I had fallen. Since then, mundane duty had propelled me forward through the many corridors of my life. Yes, I'd enjoyed occasional waves of excitement and a heart choosing to love him. It is the commitment of my heart. But more often I'd been just putting one foot in front of the other. I wished for the reality of God to be true, but sometimes I had difficulty believing it or grasping Him. I was living in obedience and cultivating faithful character, but often I would feel no emotion. I would drag through some of the days and give the party lines that people had come to expect from me, but I definitely was not dancing and celebrating. Now I realized I wanted so much more than a spiritual theology or a philosophy; I wanted a real, living, intimate relationship with the One I originally had learned to cherish the most.

When entering the corridors of heaven, finally meeting Jesus face to face, I do not want to arrive gasping, out of breath, desperate, barely making it over the finish line. Instead I want to enter resiliently with a hopeful, loving heart. If joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment are what God desires for me, then God created me with those capacities so that He could fill them. God disdains dry, mundane obedience as much as I do! He wants true, pure-of-heart, devoted love--to be shared in a personal, vibrant relationship. The very One who created the wild, lively winds, the intense beauty of storms, waterfalls, sunsets, and music of nature is the One who wants me to love and enjoy Him amidst the dance of my life." ~from Dancing with My Father

Over decades, I have learned that to find a path forward, I must cut things out that only drain and put things in that restore. Time alone is at a premium for me—seems someone always wants more of me. But to give more, I have to pull away and fill my soul more. And so, I find ways to tuck this in—more important than straightening, getting all of the detail work done, I can do that later. But the tending of my heart, mind and soul must happen regularly. Make a plan. What do you long for? What fills and inspires you? What gives you rest? If possible find a way to put these things into your life a little bit at a time, all seasons, and you will find the peace and beauty to live from a more restful place. It is what I am doing soon—and I can’t wait.

And that's what He wants for your life, too! Let's return to our first love and dance, shall we?

Dancing with My Heavenly Father: Choosing Joy in a Less-Than-Perfect World

By Clarkson, Sally

Awaking Wonder: Resist Conforming to the World's Pattern & Jamie Martin

Walking, Talking, with my wonderful in the Colorado Mountains.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2 NIV

Walking is a metaphor all the way through scripture that suggests companionship that influences another. We are admonished not to walk in the counsel of the wicked, but to walk with the wise. Maybe this is where I got the idea of walking on a daily basis. It is a Clarkson habit for most of us. But, to pour the influence of truth requires us to build a world view that gives stability to those who walk with us. We converse and have a grid that says, “This is wisdom, walk in it.”

Foolishness abounds in the world today. Paul hit the nail on the head for admonishing us to resist conforming to the ways of the world. Often, our thoughts and the voices in our heads speak messages to us that we don't even realize are messages straight from the world’s values.

Yet, we are to conform to Jesus, His ways, His values, His actions, His words. Jesus was my ponder. The more I sought to understand his words, the more I changed from within. Jesus said, “The student will be like his teacher.” Hopefully, as I sought Him and sought to please Him, I became more like Him, little by little. And in that becoming, my children could watch me, hear his words, look at His beautiful world, and become more like Him through my life.

What an auspicious thought, that children are inclined toward becoming like those responsible for them. Traditionally, they are learning values by the ways they are taught to fit in, to conform through schedule, peer pressure, and teacher expectations. A mentoring model would move them beyond these expectations of cultural norms. We become the guides in their lives to embody integrity, humane behavior, virtue. Children imitate what they understand, see, and experience every day. How we live is how they will perceive life and act in their own lives.

Every moment, every day, children are ingesting what they see and hear as truth, rightly or wrongly. Parents can pass on what is important to them by valuing what the model for their children. Learning takes place by what is caught and by what is taught, a dual process. Both instruction and modeling are necessary to shape the values of children.

The first years of a child’s life are for building foundations of deep, unspoken virtues and the shaping of principles and standards of behavior that will establish a groundwork for what they learn to depend on as truth for the rest of their life.

What Are You Modeling and Teaching by the Way You Live?

If, as Jesus says, the student will become like his teacher, then to become a good teacher, we must examine our own lives. What have I stored inside my heart, mind, and soul? Does my character reflect the integrity I hope my child will imitate? Am I exhibiting the attitudes that I want my child to exhibit? Do I love those around me unconditionally so that my child can understand the love of God?

As I look back over the years, I understand better that when I took responsibility for the shaping of my children’s lives, it caused me to grow more into the person I wanted to be. The accountability of knowing I was being studied by my own children helped me to strain toward moral excellence, mature love, modeling what I hoped my children would copy.

One of the most important, key pieces of the learning model Clay and I embraced was the idea that we, as parent-teachers, were the most important element within that model. To teach well, then, we had to focus on our own souls—becoming more like Jesus, so we could become better teachers. Read more about it in my newest book, Awaking Wonder!

Today, I had the privilege of talking with my friend, Jamie C. Martin about the subject of education and Awaking wonder. I know you will love her heart.

Awaking Wonder: Opening Your Child's Heart to the Beauty of Learning

By Clarkson, Sally

The Awaking Wonder Experience: A Guided Companion

By Clarkson, Sally, Clarkson, Clay

Refresh, Relax, Restore: Life is a Marathon & podcast

Play Episode on iTunes & Stitcher

Sometimes a girl just has to take care of herself. Sometimes, a girl just needs a break from the mundane responsibilities of life. Sugar cookies have been a guilty pleasure of mine since I was a little girl. (Maybe it was the Christmas cookies with all that frosting.

But I ate these wonderful cookies and didn’t feel a bit of guilt.

No matter how hard we try, none of us is able to control all of the circumstances and moments of our lives.

And we are all human beings—fragile—and limited. We need to take time to refresh, relax and restore. From time to time, when my four were much younger, and I had pushed them to their limits during the day without a nap, too much activity, beyond their bedtime, too much sugar, and sometimes with lots of over-stimulation, bedtime would be impossible. Out of utter fatigue, they would wail and cry, throw little fits and not give into sleep until their bodies finally capitulated to utter exhaustion. Their reaction was equal to the level of exhaustion and abuse their bodies had taken.

I realized that there was nothing to do except let them cry and fuss until they finally fell deep into sleep. They didn't need to be disciplined--they needed to be loved and rested. Only when they caught up on their rest and their metabolism went back to a normal blood sugar level over a couple of days, were they less agitated.

Mamas do the same thing, at times. When living without enough sleep, and eating too much junk food, with work and taking care of others--who are often immature, irritating and draining, wrapping presents, cooking, life takes them to utter exhaustion, they are prone to fits expressed in different ways.

We cry, too--but in a more adult way. By being grumpy, irrationally angry, irritated or tearful at the smallest circumstances, our bodies rebel at exhaustion and show us that we have abused them.

Our hearts will not have peace until our bodies have had rest.

You matter, you are worth it, You need to take care of yourself.

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Servant Leadership and Labor Day ... in the Real Sense of the Word!

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Jesus,knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself.

Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded." ~John 13:1-5

Baking homemade bread over many years is a gift I give to my family. So often, we desire to make a big impact, a gallant sacrifice that will be noticed. Yet, most moments that change a heart, open the eyes of the heart, give grace come in unnoticed, quiet gifts of sacrifice and serving.

Though Labor Day is a holiday and a break from work for many, plenty of mamas around the United States spend the Labor Day “holiday” much like any other--cooking meals, cleaning up messes, wiping faces, washing laundry. Sometimes it seems a holiday only guarantees there will be more work when the party is over! And yet what a gift it is, every time we are given the opportunity to have a few extra hours to gather with friends and relax with family. As my children are off to their own adult lives once again after some summer time at home with us, I know more than ever how precious those hours are.

In order for anyone to enjoy life at all, someone has to do some work!

How could we enjoy a fun picnic if no one packed it? And lets' not imagine the way our children's bedrooms would look were all the moms to cease their labor!

Daily, my ponder is Jesus. He shows me over and over again as we read of the way He interacted with His disciples that these little things ... these unending, sometimes tiresome tasks moms face day after day ... can become holy actions as we offer them to Him. Every time we serve our children, we invest in them, building bridges from our hearts to theirs, helping their souls understand the love and grace of God.

"Jesus spent His last night on earth with His disciples in service to them. How powerful their memories of that night must have been--the King of the whole universe touching and rubbing their dusty feet and gently drying them with a towel. Their Lord and Master breaking the loaf of bread and serving each of them for the celebrated feast of the Passover.

Jesus' example of servant leadership sets Him apart from so many historical religious leaders. He was not a God who lorded it over His followers and demanded they follow Him or coerced their obedience through authoritarianism and fear. Instead, He called them to the excellence of holiness and yet lovingly served them in order to win their hearts and show them the means of reaching others' hearts as well.

As I look to the hearts of my own children, even as adults, and seek to teach them about the grace of God, I realize my love and service to them must come before any of my great words, my teaching and training. My time--staying up late at night for conversations, watching movies and discussing them, my attention, my "soft-tickling", laying in bed with my sweet ones, listening to their hearts when I would rather be in bed--even when I am tired or have other "important" things on my mind--is what builds our relationship and prepares them to listen to what I have to say. Only then, once the wells of their need are filled with the grace of being loved, will my words to them about God's grace finally make sense."                               ~ from The Ministry of Motherhood

I want my children to understand God's goodness and love. And while demonstrating patience and service to them isn't always easy, it is always my privilege. It was the walking on dusty pathways, one step at a time, in which the conversations and friendship transformed the lives of Jesus’ friends..forever. May we see each step as holy.

Even on a holiday!

How about you? What kind of weekend did you have?

The Ministry of Motherhood: Following Christ's Example in Reaching the Hearts of Our Children

By Clarkson, Sally