Children who have such a "shepherd" in their homes to oversee, provide for, direct, and protect the life of the home will benefit profoundly. By embracing our call to home-making, we are ensuring that these life centers are thriving and well.
The strong and secure future we help to build for our children is laid by the hundreds of small deeds we do every day as we serve faithfully in our homes. Yet the great value of our service will be felt for generations to come and throughout eternity.
Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.
Tea Time Tuesday
Sarah and her precious little Elanor. (What does Elanor have to do with Lord of the Rings? Listen to today’s podcast!) Isn’t baby Elanor beautiful? And so is her mama, inside and out.
As my podcast releases today, I will most probably be flying over the Atlantic Ocean toward my home in Colorado. I have had such a magnificent 5 weeks in Oxford with great meals, sweet fellowship, magnificently beautiful walks, and precious time with my precious grands.
Today, I ended my time in Oxford with my wonderful daughter, Sarah, chatting about life, a momentous birthday and values and relationships we cherish. I hope you enjoy today’s podcast and our fun time together.
Praying for you all, my friends, and hoping you know God’s generous love and companionship with you. We shall have a meeting of our membership friends in California at Wild + Free. Also, some fun plans for members in the Colorado Area. Stay tuned. Ihope some of you can join me at the Writer’s conference at Glen Eyrie.
Finally, so excited to be one of the speakers The Wellness Collective Event in the fall. Lots of great speaking events and fun plans for Life with Sally members.
Hope to meet many of you at these events!
Children come to believe more easily in the constant strong and present commitment of God in every circumstance, no matter what, when they have a family who is there for them, parents they can come to with any trial or trouble on their heart.
The unity of the family table, the commitment to change plans in order to celebrate special days with one another, the decision to speak blessing — all these create a rhythm in which our children get a sense of God's commitment to them because they have tasted of our own active, constant, committed love in our home and at our table.
Read more about this in The Lifegiving Table.
So if I, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.
John 13: 14
I love remembering the last supper, Jesus is my ponder for how to live my life. He made food, feeding crowds, washing feet, lifting prostitutes off the dusty ground, holding squirmy babies close, giving His life, as a servant king. I realized His life was my example of how to serve my children, friends, neighbors.
Servant leadership starts with a choice to serve Christ by giving my time & energy to my children, husband, friends, neighbors, not when I feel like it but when they need me. I sacrifice my own needs, desires for the purpose of giving them what they need. I model for them the depths of Christ's love.
Choosing servanthood means sitting quietly on a child's bed, listening to sorrows & loneliness, encouraging with gentleness of spirit, administering love— when I would rather have time to myself. It means being exhausted from caring for three children under six, yet still getting up at midnight to soothe pain of an ear infection, without complaining about how tired I am. It means planning an outing—a picnic lunch, a drive to the mountains, a favorite audio book when we moved to a new area and my children felt friendless, even though I had a million other things to do or would just love time by myself. I became the friend my children couldn't find in others. I gave my time freely. It means taking time listening to a friend pour out her heart, taking flowers, writing a note.
Choosing to be a servant leader means willingly giving up myself, my expectations, my time to others, & the task of mothering, It means that, by faith, I have already made a decision to make myself available in the routine tasks, myriad interruptions of daily life and needs of others because I believe it is God's will for me to serve Him this way as he served when He lived on earth.. Making this choice ahead of time means I will expect problems & needs to arise, and be ready to deal with them in peace instead of impatience, resentment. I give up expectations.
Ministry to others rarely happens at convenient times, but it changes lives forever.
A joyous Easter to you, friends.
As I walk honestly before God, with my children watching, they will learn how to have a real relationship with him as well. As they see me apologize to them and pray in front of them to ask for God's forgiveness in my own life, my children will learn that God is a God of grace who forgives me and guides me. My worshiping him in gratitude for a beautiful sunset or a rainbow gives them a pattern for their own spontaneous worship.
As my children see me in the deep waters of life, being tested to my core and still holding on to my Lord and choosing to believe the best, this observation will prepare them for their own trials, which will surely come. They will know that he will guide and forgive them as they lead an imperfect but devoted life before a loving Father who has always met their mother's needs.
Read more about this in The Mission of Motherhood.
Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.
What could be better than a teatime with my sweet daughter, Joy, that she planned as a surprise to treat me. Talking together is our favorite hobby together. Pathways, loving words were a theme we shared. Paths, made of infinite steps, determine our destination.
"You remind me of superman! Brave, strong always wanting to help others."
"You are exactly the child I would have picked if I had a choice of all the children in the world."
"Yes, I think you will be a wonderful writer. You are a crafter of ideas."
"I love spending time with you. You delight my heart."
Words have so much power in our lives.
Not long ago, one of my sweet children surprised me with an email that brought thankful tears to my eyes:
"Dear Mama,
"God is doing amazing things in my life, opening doors I never imagined possible. But when I was thinking about my dreams coming true, I thought of you. Throughout the years, you told me you believed in my impossible dreams. You listened, affirmed, encouraged, supported. I don't know if I would be where I am today, if you had not constantly invested in my life through your words of love. Thank you, mama, for being my forever cheerleader."
I believed that words invested forward into what my children could become to shape their sense of self. I prayed God would give me eyes to see hidden gifts, the potential of what lay within their hearts, to invest.
Words give hope, communicate ideas, inspire movements to fight for freedom, sharpen our minds to know how to think well, inspire heroism, give leadership to those longing for direction. These words are alive and shape life.
Jesus was the Word, the message sent from God’s heart of love. Calling him that shows such the significance of words to God.
God is a message maker, a lover who wants us to know His words of love. He is a Father who wants to give us words of wisdom so that we should understand how to live life well; the great teacher who would fill our minds with truth that we could live free from the world’s false messages through our whole lives. God is a communicator, longs for our fellowship.
Your children long for your sweet words today. What can you tell your children that will fill their souls today?
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?
The heart of a mentor is to act in relationship for the benefit, development, and well-being of his student. A worthy mentor seeks to maximize the human potential of the one being influenced. Taking seriously the stewardship of their trust as we guide them should be an underlying motivation of our heart as we commit to influencing them.
Read more about this in Awaking Wonder.
Over and over in Scripture, we are reminded that these children of ours are made in the image of God, and their souls will last for eternity. As a mother, you are the first shaper of a soul that will last forever. Mothers were designed by God to be the champions for their children’s souls. God did not entrust children to the church, to neighbors, to groups, or to schools, but to parents.
Our love, our will to give life and celebration, to portray grace and goodness—these will be the factors that shape our children into adults who will love God and His kingdom, and who will change the world.
May God encourage you to be a finisher of your mom walk, a faithful soul in your long journey of motherhood with Him. May your heart be strong in love and faith toward your children, always seeking to see God’s hand and work in their lives. May your heart be strengthened to endure, in marriage and parenting, through storms and troubles. May you determine to walk your path of motherhood, the one God has placed you on, with His eternal purpose, assurance, trust, and heart.
Read more about this in Your Mom Walk With God.
Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” -C.S. LEWIS
Tea Time Tuesday: Thoughts from my past, from Austria.
“Oh, Lord! Please provide! I really need you to provide!” I found myself desperately uttering this prayer in my mind before my eyes had even opened. It was one of those times in life when I couldn’t see past tomorrow. I had four grown children with adult worries, a dear overworked husband, and a diminishing bank account. At that moment, my prayer was for the needs of one of my children’s university tuition. Over and over again I had seen God work, but at that point, after a year that felt like a boxing match, I found the eyes of my heart couldn’t see around the bend in the road.
I believe all come to the moment where we can’t see around the next corner. In fact, in my life, there have been too many such times to count. It is at those crossroads that our claim to “have faith” begins to mean something for the real, practical, present world we live in.
When I was a young believer, I pictured faith as something like the enthusiastic hand-raising worshippers I saw at youth conferences. As I grew, I saw that faith more often looks like the quiet trust and sincere outpouring of a heart before God. It is most visible at moments of crisis, death, hurt, need, new beginnings.
It comes at the moment when we are faced with a choice to fully trust God or the world, to give in to despair, or trust in God to take us beyond what we can imagine and see.
I'd rather be a risk taker, live by faith, believe that He is here present than to let fear of what might happen (or fear of failure, or fear of what people might think) squeeze the life and childlikeness of my believing and hoping out of me, to cause me to do nothing at all.
I do not want to be the one who hid what I had in the ground and find a frown on His face because I was afraid to do anything. I can always ask for forgiveness if I am wrong, admit that I am falible, but how few years I have on this earth to say, “I believe though I cannot see. I trust though I don't understand. I am your girl. I will bring your light into dark places. I know you are with me. I know that though I am weak, you are always with me, you will redeem.” I would rather be a risk taker…
More on today’s podcast: recipes, composers, books, and history.
Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.
"Queenie, just look," my 6 year old granddaughter exclaimed as she climbed a gigantic old log. "There are 3 kinds of lichen on this log." And then she jumped off to explore a field of flowers.
Oxford is, for me, a haven of many ideals. In the past couple of weeks, I have walked miles and miles with my sweet, young grands (ages 6, 4, 2 1/2 and a 4 month old baby and her mama — my daughter, Sarah), fished in ponds with pretend willow poles, stomped in muddy puddles, celebrated outdoor picnics, forged our way through rain and wind and watched their precious minds and bodies growing in front of my eyes.
As a pioneer in the home education movement, everything Clay and I did was an ideal that had not been tested. We proposed and applied the philosophy of reading the best books, fiction and non-fiction in every possible subject. Our focus on regular great discussions and discourse practiced at our dinner table every evening for years developed mental muscle and great vocabulary and a rigorous capacity to write and communicate well as well as develop convictions, a broad foundation of thinking skills. Add to that an organic focus on the beauty, love and reality of Christ morning, noon, and night in natural and consistent conversation, and our philosophy of life was born.
But another one of the areas we focussed on over years was an outdoor life. Walking and hiking miles at a time together, daily outdoor play acting out the stories we read, the science and nature we studied and collected, the glory of design and creation in sunsets and puppy dogs was building a strong body. Strong bodies support strong minds.
Today I talked with a wonderful friend, Ginny Zurich, who has a wealth of research, knowledge and understanding of an outdoor life. She is a treasure, a delight and an inspiration. Join us as we discuss many areas of this flourishing view of life. So much and more you can find in her amazing book: Until the Streetlights Come On: How a Return to Play Brightens Our Present and Prepares Kids for an Uncertain Future.
