How Can A Mother Find Favor With God? Happy Christmas!

The Annunciation, by Henry Ossawa Tanner

"Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you." Luke 1:28

Oh, how I wish these words expressed how God felt about me! Would God see me as the kind of woman He would choose now to mother Jesus, the most high God? By what means did she find favor, in the hidden moments of her life?

Mary lived in a tiny, obscure village amidst a humdrum life. Wheat was ground, bread was pounded out on wooden tables, crumbs were swept from the floor, children lovingly tended, with mother and father presiding over the home, the Shema was listened to every day over shared family meals, the Sabbath was kept. She lived in invisibility, in the moments of an ordinary, obscure life, as far as anyone knew. And yet, in the living of her life quietly and faithfully, God noticed her. He saw her, and she found favor and pleased His heart.

God always sees, even when no one else is noticing.

Imagine being greeted by an angel in the midst of a normal day, when no one else knew: "Hail, favored one!”

And then the angel said, "Mary, do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God."

Really? She did not have a college degree or a ministry position or title and had never published a book or even spoken in the synagogue--and yet, in the midst of her quiet life, she found favor with God.

There are clues as to why... Being the mother of Jesus would require a tenacious, steady, engaged faith. As his mother, her life would be  in danger. Jesus would be  pursued by a crazy king, and at every point, people would cast doubt on her irregular, fantastical story.

 Satan would have wanted to prevent Jesus becoming Savior, and Mary would be his protector--a shelter from danger, a nurturer of his soul, a provider of truth, a teacher and trainer, a strength in storms--all of this she would be asked to be for God, the baby, entrusted into her hands, as his mother; a divinely appointed role.

She would have to move, put up with peer pressure, believe in the miraculous, and live for ahwile amidst the despised Egyptians. Her life would be filled with stress, pressure, rejection, fear, loneliness, and questions.

And yet, God had called her favored, He had seen her heart, noticed her response to circumstances throughout her life, and tested her willingness to obey, and she had been found faithful, and so she was favored.

Her response, ready on her lips, had been practiced in her heart.

"“Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38

God looked for one who would serve Him, willingly, readily, at the moment of His impossible request, one who would respond in utter submission.

I am your bondslave--a commitment he had seen in her prayers, through out her life as she engaged her heart in scripture, He had seen her practice of worship by choosing, through all the years of her training, her response of believing and her heart consecration to serve Him, to obey throughout the seemingly unnoticed moments of her life.

Is that my response to this life He has given to me--be it done according to your will for I am your bond-servant? Even if it means sacrifice of the plans I hold dear? Even if it means being misunderstood? Rejected? Chased? Inconvenienced? Even if it requires me to have courage against fears that will assail my life?

We are left  another clue. Elizabeth, her older cousin, who had also lived above reproach and obeyed God, upon seeing Mary, responded,

"And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.”

Mary believed God.

She had a ready heart to believe Him, trust Him with all that it would require of her, to await the miraculous, to live through long years of waiting and quiet and mundanity, as she awaited to see this little baby become the expected Messiah, the fulfillment of His role as Savior.

She believed there would be a fulfillment.

 She had practiced believing in Him her whole life and this, I think, was in part what would qualify her to be the mother of the son of God. She was ready, willing to immediately respond to Him in belief--even to the impossible--even in the obscure place of dust, dishes, and duty.

And so God shined His light on my soul this early morning as I pondered Mary in His presence--am I ready to believe, to obey wherever He takes me, to await the fulfillment of His word and to choose to believe in His future fulfillment of faithfulness in my own life and in my own prayers--even if the ultimate fulfillment will take years and years, as it took Mary?

Today as I sit in the sparkle of our Christmas home, I hope that He will find me, in the integrity of my heart,  obeying, responding, and bowing my knee to His will as a bondservant whose heart is ready to follow, obey, accept limitations of a world at battle for righteousness, and yet ready, in His strength, to believe.

May He prepare your heart today to worship in the quietness of your life, right where you are. May He bless you with His peace and grace. May you be filled with all the fullness of God.

Merry, Merry Christmas!

I Need Friendship, Inspiration and Community. Do You? Christmas Giveaway! & Podcast

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“I need a place to refresh and refuel. Maybe a weekend at a hotel. Chocolate. Clean sheets. Women with my ideals. A nice meal. A friend!”

As I look back through the years, I realize that what I needed as a young mama and wife is what I still need—friends and community. In this very strange time of unusual isolation and separation from our normal commitments, activities and communities, we have all felt hollow in our hearts. A longing for someone to understand, someone to celebrate life with.

Fast forward through the years, and we created conferences, retreats, leadership weekends for women to lead small groups, blog posts, podcasts and wrote over 25 books and devotional workbooks to help. Finally, a three years ago, we started a membership that is a community that holds all of the things we have been writing and speaking about over all the years.

As an older mother now of four grown children and two grandchildren, I'm investing my time here to give back to moms like you the wisdom and truth I've learned in my long mom walk with God. I'm here, with friends, to give you help and hope. We have gathered discipleship messages, Bible studies, videos of our favorite recipes, book reviews, Awaking Wonder unit studies, art, classical musician studies, printables and so much more. It would take months to access all of the resources available there. We receive letters from precious ones all over the world who have loved this community.

Clay and I wanted talked and prayed about how we might at least be a blessing in providing a little more opportunity for this for others like us. Several years ago, we developed a community around a monthly membership where we could encourage women who shared our ideals, not even dreaming that some day we would be unable to host any more conferences where women could gather together as we had done for 25 years.

Soooooo, we are giving away 30 one year scholarships to our membership to celebrate the spirit of Christmas giving, Life With Sally. Our desire is to make this available to those of you who have had an especially challenging year or those who cannot afford to pay for the membership, or in some way have had an unusual hardship that would make this gift a blessing to you. Perhaps you are:

*A single mother

*A Military wife of a deployed husband

*Have lost a family member this year or had severe illness of some kind in your family

*Have lost income or job and have financial difficulty as a result

*Other challenging difficulties

If you want to be considered as a recipient of the scholarship, please an email to:

scholarship@wholeheart.org

Wo remember: You will be entered in the scholarship provision by emailing us at scholarship@wholeheart.org.. We will take entries until midnight on Christmas Eve, mountain time. Then we will process the entries, use a random means of choosing 30 people from the entries to receive a scholarship membership for 12 months. We will have the final winners picked by Monday, December 28 and contact you if you have received a scholarship. If you know of a friend who is in need of a boost or would benefit from this giveaway, be sure to tell her to enter.

I hope you have a wonderful season of advent, and a warm and cherished time with your loved ones on Christmas Day. I know many of you will be alone or in different circumstances this year. I pray you will find God’s grace, love and compassion wherever this special day finds you. I wish you love.

For those of you desiring to have encouragement and and fellowship within our community of women, and are able to pay for a subscription, consider joining with us in our monthly membership. We would so enjoy having you in our community. LifewithSally.com

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.

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• 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!

It's a Martha Season, Yet I am Choosing a Mary Day

I have not yet wrapped all of the packages.

As a matter of fact, I have not bought presents for everyone that I meant to buy, and still have a list of projects and purchases and preparations longer than I would like.

There has always been this desire inside to make Christmas so special. I think to myself, "I want to be sure the kids feel loved. I haven't gotten everything done that I meant to do."

Of course, this year things are much different than they normally are, as we are used to gathering all together in our Colorado home. As much before in 2020, this isn’t going to happen for us this year, and Nathan and Keelia won’t be able to join us here in Oxford, either. We are learning to adjust day by day to all the disappointed expectations, to look for the positives when things don’t go as we like.

So I am planning with open hands for whoever is able to be together here--as always, I want to sit and listen to all their stories and hold all the moments of new memories we will make.

But, I am choosing today to stop the frenzy. Somehow trying to center and give focussed love and a listening ear to my loved ones seems more important than getting all the externals right. Most of mine are faring well-ish, but we are all lost not knowing what is ahead, just like you. So listening to their frustration and feelings is even more important than figuring out how to get a host of gifts when stores are closing down or are not open to begin with.

I want to sit for a while and love my Jesus., because that is the only place I will find peace and rest in this whirling, long season. To remember how grateful I am to know Him and to understand His presence, God with us, God with me, Immanuel, every day and especially today.

I will look into Clay’s eyes and see what I might do to lighten his load.

My four children are all filled with heart needs. I hope I can find a way today to express how much love them and care for all the pressures and stresses and insecurities and issues that are on their hearts. I will make time to call those far away, and pray I will find a way to give the present of my presence to the ones who are right here with me.

In short, I am dedicating this day to what I think will matter, above the things that are crying and vying for my attention.

Please let me be faithful to all that matters, and not a slave to the things that will create more stress.

I give this day to you, Jesus.

It's All About Your Heart & Podcast

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“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God does not see as man sees, since man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”I Sam 16: 7

Last weekend, our family was gathering outside, of course. I had poured a pot of tea, bought Christmas buns and gathered us together outside near our little bench. Folding chairs from inside our home gave everyone in our family a place to sit.

My darling little almost three year old granddaughter saw me coming with the tray and she ran toward me.

“I want to sit with you, Queenie. I want to sit in your lap.”

And she immediately crawled into the familiar space she belonged from so many times before and settled into my arms and began to chatter to me of all that was on her little heart.

I did not want her to be perfect or to work for my love. I wanted her to do exactly what she did—to want to be with me, to prefer me, to trust me. And so it is with God.

He wants our heart filled with love and desire and trust. So it was, I believe with Mary. Why was she favored? Because in the secret place of her life, I believe she loved God and it pleased Him.

"Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you." Luke 1:28

Throughout the ages, artists have tried to illustrate the mysterious moment when the angel of God came to Mary and announced God's favor with her. But I think even more than seeing what the scene looked like, I would love to know this: what kind of woman, living in the unseen moments of her everyday life, would find favor with God?

Oh, how I wish the words the angel said expressed how God felt about me!  Would God see me as the kind of woman He would choose now to mother the most high God? By what means did she find favor, in the hidden moments of her life?

Mary lived in a tiny, obscure village amidst a humdrum life. Wheat was ground, bread was pounded out on wooden tables, crumbs were swept from the floor, children lovingly tended, mother and father presided over the home, the Shema was listened to every day over shared family meals, the Sabbath was kept. Mary lived in invisibility in the moments of an ordinary, obscure life, as far as anyone around her knew. And yet, in the quiet, faithful living of her life,  God noticed her. God saw her, and she found favor and pleased His heart.

God always sees even when no one else is noticing.

Imagine being greeted by an angel, in the midst of a normal day, when no one else knew,--"Hail favored one."

What would he find you doing? Believing? Saying? Studying?

And then, "Mary, do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God."

Really? She did not have a college degree or a ministry position or title and had never published a book or even spoken in the synagogue--and yet, in the midst of her quiet life, she had found favor with God. 

We don't know every detail of Mary's life, and the Bible doesn't tell us exactly why He chose her. But there are clues. Being the mother of Jesus would require a tenacious, steady, engaged faith. As his mother, her own life would be in danger. Jesus would be pursued by a crazy king, and at every point, people would cast doubt on her irregular, fantastical story.

Like Mary, God is looking for our heart-love for Him, not our perfection. In the midst of invisibility and times when no one sees or knows what is going on in our lives, the stresses from challenging children, the loneliness of a struggling marriage, the cleaning up of one more mess amidst the crumbs of our life. Yet, God wants to companion us through these places and show us His love.

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 Merry Little Christmas With Joy! (My daughter!)

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A Window View to My World of Christmas in my delightful home in Oxford. A tiny tree was the first Christmas gift to grace our home, followed by a star, candles. But the amazing thing is that my landlord adorned our flower boxes with brand new plants to reflect the purple royalty of Christ the king. How fun!

Most of us are entering into the Christmas season. We are trying to figure out how to take care of the needs of our loved ones, keep feeding the masses throughout the month, maintain our responsibilities and stay sane and above water.. Yet, there is a part of me, through the years, that has learned to “give in to the Christmas Season.” I don’t mean the commercialism or being too busy and over committed. But learning to enjoy the gifts given, however simple, the simple celebrations of home, the lights and the mystery of imagination that can be so much a part of the joy of life.

As a sparkly-eyed little girl idealist and dreamer, I remember Christmas as a time of lights, twinkles, smells, color and delight. Christmas touches on parts of our lives that point to the ways God wants us to find delight and joy throughout eternity. Most nights in December, I would sit under our tree and look at the lighted loveliness and dream about life, and what I might someday become. Romantic thoughts of every kind floated through my head. Lilian is just old enough to dive into this world all on her own. She spends hours looking at the lights, the ornaments, and like I did, dreaming of all the stories we have read to her.

There is another delight that I still enjoy so much. One of the gifts my mother gave to me through this sacred season was a love for hospitality--sharing this life, love, friendship, beauty with those in community. Even yesterday, we took folding chairs, a couple of small tables a large tray filled with mugs, cinnamon buns and had a party outside our front door on the road by the bench. We weren’t allowed inside but we did have so much fun outside.

Sometimes the imagination for us to ponder that Jesus is preparing a feast for us, that He cast the stars into place where the angels sang, to understand His glory comes from experiencing this kind of sparkle, beauty, light, celebration in our real lives.

God as a light to brighten our lives becomes real when a child sits under a sparkling Christmas tree and hears, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. - 2 Corinthians 4:6

“Taste and see that the Lord is good,” is much more easily imagined in a home where hot cinnamon rolls are consumed with great joy together as they emerge from the warm oven.

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” - (Luke 2:14) is more easily believed in a home where the sparkles of beauty show the possibilities of a heavenly sky and the generosity of love gently given through a warm touch or sweet words are given when peaceful relationships are shared.

The hospitality of God, His desire to give food to the hungry thousands who had come to see Him, to provide manna for his traveling millions across the desert, the banquet at the end of the world can be imagined when hospitality is a grace of every day life.

Today, Joy and I wanted to share some of our own Merry Christmas ideas with you. We talk of our favorite albums and ways we are seeking to be faithful at cultivating the joy we need to move in the direction of.

Hope you enjoy this podcast and bear with our giggles. It was good for us to laugh.

May God bring some laughter your way this season. We send our love and prayers for encouragement in your life.

This Christmas, I pray you’ll find ways to spread Christmas cheer first to your own home—and then maybe invite someone in to enjoy it with you!

Peace be with you 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!

Every Mama Gets Weary In December! Especially this one.

Dear Sally, HELP!!!!!!!! Love, A Mom

Dear Sweet Friend,

I have felt a need for help so very often, myself, so I offer you my best advice. First of all, breathe in peace as much as possible! Always plan to take a little time for yourself until you can get perspective. Even if it is being surrounded by littles or bigs. Put on music that pleases your own sensibilities. (I am so grateful for my Spotify) I have had to learn that no one else in the world will be responsible for my over-all well being. Everyone just thinks mamas are endless in their capacities to keep going. I have a husband and children who need me, and as I have said before, they are going to want to continue eating every day and to wear relatively clean clothes, with the expectation that I will be the one to make both those things possible! However, there are times I run out of soul-fuel and have to stop it all to refuel my tank. Then there are friends, ministry, responsibilities…….!

I am responsible for my rest, my quiet time, my healthy eating and at least some exercise, filling my cup so it will not be empty when others take from me, and I am also the manager of my chill time. Laughing and lightening up really brings health to the bones. “A joyful heart is good medicine” has been proved by medical research! And we all know that is not our first response when we get out of bed in the mornings and realize it is still Covid season and we are still restricted.

There are many tasks calling my name around the house, but I have become the queen of turning my head away and trying to stick to my most important priorities. I have found there will be just as many things screaming for my attention tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

But today, I know that my body and mind need a little rest, and my emotions become frayed and I become grumpy if I don't create a little break. No one else is going to tell me when I have reached my limit. But if I do not monitor myself, my children and husband and I will come to regret it when I blow up!

Though still learning, I am always simplifying and evaluating things in my life to determine if they are worth the effort necessary. I do think making things beautiful and special during the holidays is worth the effort, as it builds the taste and values and work ethic and ministry skills of my children--but all in its season, and only so much.

Not everything we have always done before has to be done this year. Fast food with candles lit is just fine. But it may not be worth it to answer one more phone call or one more email--as this will certainly steal from my children and husband who need me today.

Each of us has a different puzzle and personality, and we must accept our limitations within our own story and be comfortable being ourselves. There is great freedom in deciding to enjoy who I am, as I am not going to essentially change any time soon! I see so many moms seeking to live up to other's expectations and ideals and then burning out in the process. I have high work times,  and then times when I just can't get anything done--and somehow the world does not crash when I take time to just live and enjoy, and avoid the "I have to do everything or I will be a failure" syndrome.

It is why I have my cup of tea every day--a way of saying, "I will take time for a moment of pleasure and peace, because it centers me, and I have decided I will last a lot longer in this very long distance race of life, if I build anchors of serendipity into my schedule."

If you and I don't eventually make peace with our own life circumstances, then we are in danger of cultivating a heart of bitterness, inadequacy, guilt or whining, or having some sort of breakdown. But if we become the conductors of our own life symphonies and live within our own melodies of life, we will last longer and more gracefully with the God of peace, who leads us.

Spend time in God's word and let Him love you and love Him back. He came for you--He came to comfort. Let His comfort be yours. You cannot find peace without the Prince of Peace.

Take time to regroup today--Go eat some chocolate, and don't feel guilty as you are eating it--that is a waste of good chocolate! Listen to some beautiful music, watch a heart-warming movie, take a nap, eat on paper plates! The rest of December is still coming and you will be the better for it! I'll be praying for you!

Love, Sally

Advent: Living in His Light With Malcolm Guite

"And the people who were walking in darkness have seen a great light."

I love the concept of advent. I always celebrated “Christmas” when I was growing up. But I had no concept of “Advent.” It has rounded out my understanding of the longing, waiting of the coming of our God to help us, to redeem us. Advent has reshaped my inner feelings with an outer celebration and acknowledgement of what happened when Christ entered the world as a little baby, the lamb of God. It prepares me every year to remember that we are not alone, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, God with us. Just the picture of a tiny infant, being celebrated by angels, a young mother and father caught up in the miracle of a new birth warms my heart to the depths. So much to celebrate in this timeless story. But during the busy month ahead, to take time to prepare our hearts for His coming is a life long habit of worship that will strengthen us the whole year. 

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Today on my podcast, I am reintroducing you to my friend, Malcolm Guite, a scholar in Cambridge, a Poet and very winsome and informative teacher. You will love hearing about why and how we celebrate Christ throughout the church year. This podcast has been a favorite in the past couple of years, and now it has become a tradition to play it again, to bring all of us from the dark world, this year a Covid-filled year, into the light of Christ’s reality.

Advent mirrors the quiet but soulful longing that grows deep inside where no one sees. We cry for the touch of our creator amidst the whirlwind of trying to make it through one more busy day. Painting a smile on our face, we stuff down the cries that remain silent to those around us, where we want someone to notice, to care, to save us. My dear friend, Holly Pakiam, shared some of there thoughts about advent, mingled with my own.

Christmas has become a secularized time in which many do not know that our Jesus came because he saw a world that was helpless to save themselves, that they are filled with the disbarring, soul-killing sin that darkens their hearts.

The trouble with the generalized ‘holiday season’ isn’t that it is a part of some calculated ‘war on Christmas’; it’s that it leaves us with no lexicon for longing. It gives us snow and songs, elves and sales, cookies and cards…but no vocabulary for grief, for sorrow, for the deep ache in our hearts.

 This is why we have come to appreciate Advent. Advent isn’t a spiritual, alternative name for ‘Christmas’; it is its own season, a season of preparation for Christmas. Advent is when the anticipated joy of Christ’s first arrival puts us touch with our anticipated joy at His return.

 Advent is a joy that helps us hope.

Advent is when we give voice to the ache and pain and longing in our hearts. Advent is also when we confess our own participation in the brokenness of the world. Advent, then, is not only about longing for Christ to come again and put everything back together; it’s about repenting and receiving grace so that we get to be put back together now.

But there’s one more piece. Advent is not only about longing for Christ to put the world back together, not only about repenting and letting Christ put us back together; it is also a chance to participate in bringing wholeness to others.

 As we enter the Advent season, could we as the people of God, be a part of the answer to the longing in people’s hearts?

Making time to invite your neighbors into your home for a warm drink or serving in the local Rescue Mission. Or maybe its through taking a moment to ‘see’ a colleague who’s going through a difficult time. It may seem difficult to carve out time to give to the things you desire in this season. We’ve had to cut out some of our regularly scheduled things to carve out space to focus on this season.

All around the world, we light the first purple candle in the Advent wreath as a symbol of Hope. Whether we sense God or feel a great void or doubt about his presence, we believe He is the hope of the world. The longing we have in our hearts for this world to be set right will come to pass. There are brief glimpses of Joy that remind us of this hope. Until then…we wait.

You can find all things Malcolm Guite on his blog. He is a musician, a writer, a teacher and a friend to many all over the world. I know you will love his writing and his books. Thanks, Malcolm, for being such a blessing to so many.

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!

Join us in a fun Event! Sensing God in Advent with Joel Clarkson

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Sometimes I feel just like a little girl who is sitting under the Christmas tree, excited in her little rushing heart about the presents she anticipates. But the anticipation for me is the arrival of one of my children. I get so excited when they are about to come home. So it was on Friday. Joel was driving with a friend over 8 hours through slushy snow and ice, and stopped in traffic. Yet, when the doorbell rang late in the afternoon, just after sun down, I had my gift right there, waiting at the door.

Funny how somewhere along the way, my children ceased to be so much my children and now are my dearest, trusted friend. They are the ones I want to talk to, ask advice from, celebrate life with. Joel has always been a special partner in life. His “always willing to help and give” heart, melt this mama.

As a composer, writer, photographer, musician, artist, I was surprised when Joel told me he wanted to publisher a book. Show me one of your chapters, I said, a little distracted. But when I read his words, the worlds he described set my heart on fire with delight and engagement I the beauty of his words. Nav Press saw life and possibility in his words and are suggested that they would be willing to do an event for us to share some of his book, some of our home advent traditions, music, food and our family.

I hope many of you will be able to join us next Tuesday, December 15th, for a live event. It will be night here but day time for you. All you have to do is register. There will be giveaways and lots of fun and it is free. And for those of you wanting the recipe for my Shepherd’s Meal Soup, you will receive a copy of the recipe and hear all about it.

Below is his book and ways you can be involved with us in the evening as well as helping get the book into the world. At a time when we are all exhausted and drained, many find themselves longing for a more personal, live walk with God. This book will fill your heart and inspire you as you see God though all the moments of your life.

About SENSING GOD

Sensing God is a discovery of Jesus in all of the sensory points embedded into each of us. It shows how the holiest acts in our daily lives are often the simplest: reveling in the beauty of nature; listening to our favorite music; eating a nourishing meal with family. These are potentially heartbeats of a living faith, and when we learn to recognize and respond to God's goodness in them, it draws us into redemptive participation with Him, the source of all beauty.

Joel Clarkson shares personal stories and paints vivid imagery so that we, too, can taste and see (and hear and touch and smell) that the Lord is good. In our exploration, we meet Jesus, who invites us to enjoy his presence and proclaim his visible, tangible, and touchable gospel. We physically experience the glory of our Creator and at the same time, we make that encounter a testimony to a broken world that is desperate for restoration. We are encouraged to get the good dirt of God's holy world under our nails.

Together, we will come into contact with the God who reaches out to us with His eternal truth through the goodness of beauty. Will you join the journey? Come and learn how to truly worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Preorder your copy today!

Sensing God: Experiencing the Divine in Nature, Food, Music, and Beauty

By Clarkson, Joel

Buy on Amazon

Join Joel’s webinar, SENSING GOD in ADVENT

Free to register! Live event, Tuesday, December 15th, 2020, 2pm Central

To signup for the webinar, click here.

Joel would be so honored if you would Join the Launch Team!

To signup, click here.

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.

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Advent & Christmas Traditions Especially for Little Ones

When I was a little girl, once in a while, my mama would read about some project in a magazine and then would try to make it for one of us. She did not sow, wasn’t handy with needles. Yet, I remember as a wee little girl, she hid in a little room at the back of our house for several nights. The end result was the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls in the photo above. They have sat below our Christmas tree for as long as I can remember. And I mainly remember, “My mama must have loved me because she worked so hard on these fun dolls.” Some how I thought they were the guardians of our tree.

As a little girl, I would turn all the living room lights out and just sit in front of the tree marveling at the sparkle and beauty. My mama played a favorite Christmas album over and over again. How many hours I wiled away, I do not know, but it gave me scope and time be dream and imagine about fairy tales of my own making just from being there.

Truly one of the most wonderful parts of Christmas is that everything is magnified through the eyes of our children. Coming up with ideas of things that would delight them and then continuing those traditions every year brings much joy to all, and it is so wondrous to me now to be able to watch Sarah celebrate with Lilian and Samuel in her own home!

A friend asked me to write about the traditions we practiced when our children were little. There are so many that I would have to write pages to adequately describe them all. We did different things at different stages. However, the goal of Christmas traditions is not to do the most elaborate and difficult things, but to help my children love Jesus, revere Him, enjoy His story, to transport the beauty of Christmas deeply into their hearts.

Jesus was the creator of delight, food, celebration. When our children associate delight in our lives with a parallel love we celebrate for God, it naturally transfers that they learn to love the God of delight, beauty and fun. I tried to make things so familiar when they were quite young,  that when they would hear the familiar carols as adults, it would flood them with deep memories cherished even from the rocking chair of their mother.

Of course, it is the whole year that will make our children fall in love with Jesus if He is daily cherished in our home. "Look at the twinkling stars that Jesus put into the sky for our pleasure. Isn't He wonderful?"

"I am so glad that Jesus made grapes. I love to eat them."

"Isn't it wonderful that Jesus created us to love music so we could sing and dance?"

... and all in the midst of the other rhythms of life, When the Christmas season was at hand, we would always say, "Now we get to have the best birthday celebration of all! God came to earth as a little baby to help us, love us, and save us. And we get to celebrate His birthday and love Him more by telling His story and singing to Him."

We need to look at little children as Jesus did--they have innocent hearts, they freely love, they adore great stories, surprises, fun, and giggles--they want to be generous and give of themselves without self-consciousness. And so we approach the season with their sweet minds in consideration.

So many people are afraid to have “too much fun” or to be serious, yet, I found that the more we celebrated His wonder, adventurous creativity, love, the more my children were able to listen to the more serious parts of theology. The fuller picture of Christ was born in their hearts through all that was good, true, beautiful, pleasant to their little hungry hearts.

I started out by singing the carols each night to my babies as I nursed them, so they learned them from infancy. At two and a half, one night as I was singing "Away in the manger" to Joy (very verbal and articulate at an early age), she looked up and me and said, "Mama, isn't it amazing that the cows blew Jesus and he didn't even get mad?"

I said, "What do you mean?" She said, "The cattle were blowing the baby awake, but little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes."   She had engaged her little mind, seriously thinking about cattle blowing Jesus awake!

As the children multiplied and became a little older, we would put all in pajamas and have advent with them each night, singing a carol together, in the light of the candles of our advent wreath and then reading our advent verse before they climbed into bed. It is easy for others to hear of our traditions and imagine that somehow we had total cooperation, but of course our children wiggled or argued -- "You sat next to mama last night! It's my turn!" or "He keeps tickling my toe with his feet."

But somehow, it was the rhythm of keeping going and celebrating it the same way year by year that made it precious to the children. The expectation was that when the dark of night came, we would all cuddle up on the couch and sing and eat little snacks and read fun Christmas tales and have one more piece added to the adventure of the story of King Jesus.

One of my friends gave me this lovely idea. We would buy at least one new Christmas book a year. Her lovely idea was to wrap all of your Christmas books in tissue paper and put them into a basket, and after scripture reading for advent each night (or whenever you do it), the children take turns picking out one book to unwrap like a present and get to read that one together before going to bed. This also makes each book a treasure. If you want to make it easier, you can have an older children wrap up the book each night after it's been read so that it will be ready for the next year and then you won't have 24 books to wrap all at once!

What traditions do you enjoy with your little ones? (Big ones, too?)

Cherishing An Attitude of Christmas Joy

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Every year we come to the busy season of Christmas and wonder how to make it memorable and special to our children. We all feel the pressure to give the "perfect" gifts to our beloved ones, friends and family, becoming stressed and pushed and feeling a need to live up to expectations surrounding me in this materialistic culture. 

Covid has changed so much of our year that we don’t even know where to begin. With lockdown, stores are closed, Christmas fairs are cancelled, Christmas concerts will have to wait for another year. Yet, as I look back over our years with my now adult children, they don’t speak of all of the “sparkle” or the amazing presents. Instead they say, "We belonged to one another in our home. We celebrated life. We ate a lot of Christmas cookies and had endless movies, cups of tea and hikes. What a precious life we had together with all the love we needed.”

Long after each year's gifts have been forgotten, if we give to our loved ones a joyful, loving heart, we will have given them a gift that will be with them their whole lives. They will come to us again and again for the "Life" they need to feel, hear and be comforted by during every season.

First, we must have a heart that says, "I receive you into my life as a gift from God.” When we see our children as a gift, we will treat them with honor and grace and find a way to encourage every day--to intentionally give words of life and encouragement to those who so need to hear love.

Words like:

“I appreciate you. You are a gift of God's love to me; you are faithful, funny, fun, creative” (or whatever is the key need of the person God has strategically placed in your life!)

"I believe in you and know God is going to use you in a special way."

"I have made so many mistakes in my life, but God has forgiven me and given me grace. He has already forgiven you and wants you to know His love."

A joyful heart is one that plans surprises--lighting candles, putting on beautiful Christmas music, serving a cup of tea, hot chocolate or coffee even in the midst of a busy day, maybe even with a little treat--and says, "Let's make a memory together right now--you are special to me.”

It might lead you to bring a single rose to a friend or leave a love note on a pillow or in an email to a weary husband;  a call to a struggling friend; someone you appreciate; or a gift card to a far off child.

Perhaps your joyful heart might cause you to take time to play a game, giggle at stories, lie in bed with a toddler or teen late at night even when we are tempted to be weary and just want to go to sleep. We must still make a habit of stretching ourselves, to extend ourselves as purveyors of His joy and grace as He shows up and gives us strength.

A joyful heart says, “Where can I leave a spirit of Christ's fragrance today? Where can I dance the dance of life in the midst of darkness?”

May we cultivate joyful hearts this Christmas!