Cultivating A Vision for Home

The vision of home that began in me the day I had my first child grew clearer and more compelling as time went by. Because I knew what it was like to live in a foreign country as a young, lonely missionary without a familiar place to go when weary, I wanted to provide a space of rest and refreshment for those who felt that way too.

People from all over the world passed through our doorways and stayed in our beds and feasted at our table over the years. We cultivated our rooms into refuges for weary ones and places to celebrate births and weddings, to give solace to the sorrowing, to nurture those who were ill, and to offer love, friendship, and even counseling. Our home was a venue for feasts, Bible studies, concerts, holidays, birthdays, and intimate time with friends. In the process, our home began to have a story of its own.

Years passed, and our children grew through each season of life. At times, we pulled in together behind closed doors to deal with heartaches and disappointments — though we also celebrated joys and had lots of fun. At these times, home grew into a place of refuge, comfort, familiarity, safety, pleasure — a port to keep us safe through the storms.

During these years, God seemed to whisper to me in my quiet times: "Give foundations of strength and inspiration to these precious ones, but give them wings as well. Prepare them to take risks, to live by faith, so that they can take the messages and cherished values they learned at home and share them with a hurting world."

And so our home began a launching pad, a place of blessing, as we sent our beloved children on their way — hopefully strong, whole, and secure in the ideals, faith, and values that truly matter.

They were taking His light out into the darkness. But our home remained the lighthouse they could return to for restoration in between their adventures.

Read more about this in The Lifegiving Home.

Celebrating Autumn & Enjoying the Steadfast Love of God

Tea Time Tuesday

Autumn is my favorite season of the year. Who can resist the colors, the gentle breezes and the way the leaves rustle, the slight chill in the air that makes for invigorating hikes.

Look at this gigantic leaf I found! So fun.

This week I have eaten great food, (pear-feta salad), talked of silly books, (listen to the podcast), held and cuddled my precious new granddaughter, and walked miles and miles through fields and meadows. I hope you enjoy the podcast.

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Don’t waste a lot of time self-condemning!

Lately, I have come across so many women who live with the poison of guilt bubbling in their hearts for feeling inadequate in living up to their ideals. “I’m ruining my children.” “I get angry.” “I haven’t done the right things or enough in my home education.” “I don’t think I can make it in ______fill in the blank.

The imposter syndrome, thinking we are not as excellent as we pretend to be, is a danger for so many. It causes us to feel distant from God, assuming we have disappointed Him. Then follows a feeling of being separated from His love and approval.

We all have feelings like this. But I wish I had given them no attention. In spite of the fact that our home had ups and downs, was in a state of mess and then clean and then do it again. We had the antics of toddlers, a variety of differing and demanding personalities, were subject to my husband’s and my weaknesses or lack of training—and still somehow by God’s grace, He made our work of faith and faithfulness enough.

And every day, even when I felt unworthy, God loved me through every minute. He was for us. He was cheering on from heaven.

But God’s love is steadfast—forever strong, real, committed. Nothing can separate us from his love, nothing is stronger than his love.

Join me today on At Home With Sally and I hope you will be encouraged.

Motherhood Is Eternal Work

Our children will become treasures in heaven if they indeed learn to love God and serve him with their whole hearts. This is eternal work — to train the hearts, minds, and consciences in righteousness. This is the vital work of building a morally, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually strong generation of children who will be prepared to function responsibly for the rest of their lives.

But before we can do this work effectively, we have to come to a point of yielding our hearts to God's will. And if we have been blessed with children, we have to surrender ourselves wholeheartedly to our role of being a mother after God's design.

When we choose to sacrifice our own goals and desires to serve our children, we are furthering God's eternal work. We know that, through our labor and love, over time he will faithfully build our children into a righteous heritage. But for this to happen, we must willingly lay down our lives. To have sufficient energy for the task, we must make the choice to embrace motherhood wholeheartedly.

From The Mission of Motherhood.

Being A Conductor Of Joy

One of the roles God wants mothers to play in their children’s lives is to be a conductor of joy, happiness, and celebration. This doesn’t mean we won’t have difficulties or times of depression. But we do have choices we can make as mothers that will determine the environment in our homes.

When we choose to practice praise, joy, and love — when we cultivate celebration even as God did — we then find that we experience the love of God to a greater degree in our own lives. He is there, walking in the garden of our own lives, looking for us to see Him and to respond and walk with Him in His providing love.

But in order to see Him, we must turn our eyes and hearts to Him, and seek to listen to Him in our souls. When we do, we validate for our children and ourselves the reality of His joy.

So today, look for joy. Seek out beauty. Model to your children what it means to live in celebration of God’s marvelous life. Look for the miracles that go unnoticed each day. Rest in the pleasure of your Lord’s companionship and revel in His creation. The end result will be that you bring celebration to the very heart of your own loving Father.

From my book, Your Mom Walk With God.

Tea Time Tuesday: A New Human Being Has Come Into Our Midst

Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.

Tea Time Tuesday

Week by week, our family waited for the arrival of our precious baby to come. Yet, this mysterious journey of motherhood means that every time a baby is born, it is miraculous and unpredictable. Finally, on her due date, my newest grandchild decided to hint that she might be on her way.

Since our home was filled with packing boxes, bags of rubbish, all toys and legos gone, I took my precious ones to the parks for a relic in nature to pass the time. Finally, after hours of waiting for the “call” and wondering what was transpiring, I got a text, “Sarah is in transition.”

Waiting for what seemed to be the right amount of time, I whisked the three littles into a taxi and headed to my daughter’s home. Not long after we arrived and were pondering making dinner and taking off our coats, their wonderful father came into the kitchen and said, “I have a new sister to introduce you to!”

Running up the stairs in utter excitement, laughter, and awe, the three saw their baby sister for the first time, nestled in her mother’s gentle embrace. Oohs and ahhs in whisper tones formed in their precious mouths, a holy moment to enjoy.

Somehow we forgot to take photos that evening because of our excitement. The next day, as I was visiting my littles once again, and before I even took off my coat, I got to hold my precious little one and tell her that Queenie loves her and always will.

What a joy. It never gets old and is always a glorious miracle — a new human being, come into the world to live a story, to bring light and goodness from the wells of their own unique personalities. The infinite possibilities wrapped up in a tiny new bundle of life.

And so, my friends, today’s Tea Time Tuesday will be a short version of life with our little community of family here. Meanwhile, I am basking in the circle of love we share together. May you have a joy-filled week.

Valuing Your Role As A "Home Maker"

Home becomes dearer each day, each year as I store up the life I have shared with my close ones. The definition of "home" is: "The place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household."

While I suppose this very vague definition is true, home is so much more than a shelter where we simply eat, sleep, and gather. It is a place of refuge, a safe haven for our children that is welcoming and beautiful.

I truly believe that the home we cultivate as mothers is the restorative training ground for our children — a place where they can be discipled and filled with love and care prior to growing up and heading to battle.

God has entrusted you with an incredible responsibility as the "home maker." What will you fill your home with today?

Read more about this in The Lifegiving Home.

The Moments That Echo Into Eternity

All of us long for a companion to share in our hopes, burdens, and dreams. We were made for friendship. But I believe God especially crafted women with a deep desire to be known and deeply beloved in friendship as well as with a capacity to civilize life, to create beauty, and to give words of hope and faith. Doing this with our own families is one of the great treasures and joys we are given.

Teatime discipleship is a legacy I have left in the hearts, minds, and souls of my own daughters and sons, celebrating life together hundreds of times in this way. When asked why all four of my children believe deeply in God, all of them almost always say, “It was the great food, the feasting together through life, the encouragement given, the emphasis on beauty and conversation, the faith that was passed on through so many intentional times together.”

Take a break from the temporary troubles of today and invest in the moments that echo into eternity, my friends.

Piles of things that need to be packed and sorted surround me. Deadlines of all sorts are demanding my attention. People need my help. But daily, I take my walks with the littles or one of my own to see the beauty, to make one more memory, to forge a deeper friendship.

Yes, seasons of my life are changing, but holding on to the beauty of different moments every day, valuing relationships for a bit of time daily, is filling a catalogue of memories and grace and delight.

Tea Time Tuesday: Hospitality Through the Colors and Tastes of Fall

Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.

Tea Time Tuesday

​On a chill, damp afternoon years ago, I walked into my den, after folding baskets of clothes, and found my littles decorating a table with leaves, candles, and tea cups.

“Mama, we did this to surprise you!”

The legacy of serving, making beautiful, giving love and comfort was already alive in the hearts of my wee children. My legacy of building a life-giving home was not just for now, but to pass on a legacy to their children. Now, I have seen my 4 adult children "create home" as artists in their domains for their loved ones.

It is in giving rhythms of home that provide the right atmosphere for passing on essential heart attitudes​ and inspiration and warm relationships in life. I reach hearts by cooking meals, fluffing pillows, and reading a favorite book one more time even though I have it memorized. I do it when I clean ​and decorate a space to make it beautiful​, comfortable, and inviting. I do it when I choose to respond graciously to a question or write a note of encouragement. Both literally and metaphorically, in my home, I have the privilege of washing feet every day.

The practice of hospitality is not just for strangers. Serving and welcoming spouses and children, family and friends, is an art that will truly reach their souls and give them a reason to believe in the God of love and holiness, even as it created a perfect environment for Jesus' own disciples. When body and emotional needs are met, minds are filled with nobility and inspiration, then souls are predisposed to want to follow the God who is revered in all these rituals. It is not the indoctrination of theology that is forced down daily that crafts a soul who believes; it is the serving, loving and giving that surrounds the messages where souls are reached.

A truth told without love and grace is a truth that is rejected. Would Jesus' message have had the same impact without His feeding thousands, taking children into HIs arms, and washing the feet of His friends? It is in service that God incarnate is recognized. And service begins with serving those who are closest to us, making home the very best place to be.

Listen: At Home With Sally podcast, mercy in our failures.

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The Eternal Significance Of Building Your Home

Building our homes with intentionality and an eye for beauty is an act of eternal significance in the hearts, minds, and souls of our children. Home is the place that holds us with invisible strings of love within its walls.

It is the place where the delectable smells and tastes of “my favorite food” linger; where the comfort and beauty of “my room” and “my bed” can be enjoyed, where “my dreams” are inspired and begin to grow, where bedtime routines, prayers, and blessings give comfort, where the intimacy of deep relationships–unconditional love, grace, forgiveness, encouragement, unselfishness, laughter, and memories–is shared with people who have made us a priority in their lives. It's where appetites for favorite music, movies, books, games, art, and traditions are shaped from infancy on up.

From Mission of Motherhood.

Joy, Satisfaction, and Fulfillment Are What God Desires For Us

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.

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 us to love and enjoy Him amidst the dance of our lives.

Read more about this in Dancing with my Heavenly Father.