Embracing Your Children With Unconditional Love

Parenting is challenging, mysterious, and exhausting at times. Often, I would wonder, Am I failing my children? I knew, even as a young mom, that multiple of my children were “different” kids, outside the box of normal behavior and development.

I eventually realized that I would need to embrace the mystery of my children and to learn to love them in their complexity. Instead of trying to fix them, over time, I learned to read their moods and be patient with them.

There are no perfect children or perfect parents. There is only the invitation to embrace a life of walking with open hands and a willingness to grow a bit more every day, in spite of setbacks. That is where we encounter God’s grace at work in the most complicated moments of our lives, taking our complexities and weaving them into something beautiful.

Read more about this in Uniquely You.

Making Followers Of Jesus

Before He departed to be with the Father, Jesus gave us one command: "Make disciples!" (Matthew 28:19). We're charged with making followers of Jesus.

The moments you share with your children will pour the beauty of God's design and purpose into their hearts. It was profoundly important for my children, especially as they began their journey into adulthood to recognize the part we each have to play in God's story. This was something I longed for my children to understand — that they are a treasure in His eyes, they are the art of His creative hand, and they have a purpose to live out.

Simply put, this is the influence and importance of our role as mothers.

Read more about this in Teatime Discipleship For Mothers And Daughters

The Scope Of A Mother's Vision

How significant is the scope of her vision. When she understands the depth of her calling, generations will have their faith ignited, and those who seek truth will find it within the walls of her home.

She becomes the voice of God to the one who longs for wisdom and understanding; the comfort of His hand to the one who requires relief; the kindness of God to the one who longs to be seen; and the celebration of God to the one who seeks joy.

Read more about this in Own Your Life.

Motherhood Is Not Easy, But It Is Worthy

There have been times in my life as a mother when I didn't feel like I could bear one more day of messes, fusses, and all the needs that threatened to engulf me. There would be times when I was dealing with a habit or a sin or an attitude of one of my children, and I would feel like a total failure. I would be overcome by my feelings of inadequacy, failure, fear of the future and what it holds for my children.

My only choice in these times when I reached the bottom of my heart was to do again what I had practiced so many times — to keep trusting the Master and Lord of my life. And as I poured out my heart — my fears, my inadequacies, my weariness, my concerns about my children — I found solace for my soul and strength for my heart. The Lord would encourage me to trust him, to wait on him and give him time to work, to hold on to his promises, to not compromise my convictions, and most important, to persist in my love and my prayers for the little ones he entrusted to my care.

Read more about this in The Mission of Motherhood.

Tea Time Tuesday: Be Kind to Yourself Today

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Over the past couple of weeks, I have blown bubbles, covered our driveway with chalk drawings, hiked in the mountains, provided sticker books and markers for drawing, read adventures out loud, cooked a thousand meals and cleaned up, made countless cups of tea (for the grands it is 1/3 decaf tea with 2/3 milk), held, cuddled, and more. My precious Sarah, Thomas, and family visited us from Oxford. I remembered this pace from having my own 4.

This morning, I was extra tired after these busy but cherished times, amidst precious ones and deadlines. I wiggled into my soft, warm, squishy duvet even a bit more this early morning, I was mentally surveying my heart-feelings. They were very slow, tired, a little fretful. As I lay there feeling like I needed to make some big decisions that had come into my life, I pondered unanswered questions about the future, about my children’s health, lives, and future, and the state of our crazy world and country, I could feel the anxiety of life creep upon me. And I was so tired.

But God whispered, “Be gentle to yourself today. Don’t make this day the one where you get everything done, figure life out, take care of everyone else in the world. Be still, rest in your heart, just breathe in peace.” Truly, it was the message that came to my heart from Him.

For many years, I lived as Martha, rushing around, busying myself, planning more than I could possibly accomplish, then getting grumpy with the kids when life didn’t go as planned. I could see how fruitless and wasteful this attitude was, but something pushed me, perhaps guilt, to work harder, push more, get more done.

An important long journey in my life has been to rid myself of guilt for not living up to my ideals, for stumbling, and instead moving in the direction more toward God’s unconditional love, grace for me and His gentleness, His grace gives strength for my every day when I choose to rest in Him.

Join me today on my podcast, At Home with Sally, where I share from my book Well Lived about a time when I blew it with my children and felt so guilty for spewing.

Be sure to grab one of my books below as a perfect mother’s day gift for you or your friend.

We Are Part Of His Story

Our lives and our families become memorials in and of themselves, something for further generations to follow after. As the Clarkson family, the way we invest our lives, the way we choose to spend them for the purposes of eternity, will be a marker for many who come after us.

Just think of the incredible beauty of God’s handiwork—hundreds of families and countless people, spanning the entirety of history, who have lived their lives as memorials of God’s redemption of the world.

We Clarksons are part of that story. Your family is part of that story too. The choices we make in faith are determining the shape of our legacies.

Read more about this in The Lifegiving Home.

Winning Your Children's Hearts

As I have grown through the past few decades years of motherhood, I've come to appreciate the importance of the many thousands of routine moments in a mother's life, for it is in these moments that real greatness tends to be taught and caught.

If I have integrity and patience in the small moments of life that are so important to my children, and if I approach them with a servant's heart, then I have a far better chance of influencing them in the larger and more critical issues of life.

When we choose to graciously overlook our children's messes and accidents, we are teaching them to be patient and forgiving with the mistakes of others. When we react sensitively and thoughtfully to them, we are helping to instill these qualities in their lives. And as they observe us searching Scripture, spending time with the Lord, and making faith-based decisions, they learn these things as well. Modeling loving service to our children gives them something to emulate in their own lives.

Read more about this in The Mission Of Motherhood.

Tea Time Tuesday: Cherishing Every Moment

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Tea Time Tuesday

“It is a happy talent to know how to play.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

This week, I have had the privilege of hosting the most important people in the world. Dancing, feasting, making memories are more important than any other task.

I remembered another time:

The memory of camping on our deck under an endless expanse of twinkling stars, aspen leaves shivering and whispering in the mountain breeze, staring into the vast canopy of space, squinting to see a fleeting shooting star, is still as vivid to me now as it was when our family experienced it so many years ago. In the midst of overwhelming, nonstop craziness of our family life, those nights of sleeping out under the stars were transformative. The simple act of going outside, enjoying nature, changed the entire tone of our life together.

In the bustle of a busy household, especially when people are overworked and tired, tempers tend to flare, unkind words are spoken. It happens to everyone, and it certainly happened to us — often.

In my urge to get things done, I would turn into a drill sergeant. The rest of the family, depending on their personalities, would rebel or turn sullen, or simply disappear.

At such times, what we all needed was a vacation — time to rest, play, and escape the machine of busyness for a time. A vacation wasn’t always feasible, but we found that camping at home could be just the ticket to ease our stress, cool our irritations.

The night would invariably begin with pizza and root beer floats for the kids. We would take our meal outside, enjoy it in the cool, refreshing mountain air. Once done with dinner, the kids would take to our expansive yard, running wildly around playing flashlight tag as dusk descended. I would watch from the second-story deck with Clay, gazing out toward Colorado Springs. Our house at the time sat on a long ridge nestled up against the foothills of the Rockies, more than a thousand feet higher than most of the population in the city.

I looked out and could see the whole metropolis spanning before me, infinite lights sparkling below. After a few minutes, I could feel myself relaxing, my spirit growing quieter.

More on today’s new podcast episode.

Learn From Jesus

We will often be tempted to act in a manner that is harsh, impatient, unloving, judgmental of others, quick to lash out when we feel attacked.

Yet the only way to overcome these temptations and end life with a wise, peacemaking, loving, gentle heart is to invest in our spiritual lives every day by spending time with the Source of all goodness and lovingkindness, the Lord Jesus Himself.

Jesus said, “Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.” (Matthew 11:29) This seems to be my pondering of the year. Learn from Him.

Read more about this in Mom Heart Moments.

Living Out The Definition Of Grace & Love

As mothers, I believe, we are called to take the lesson of grace to heart. Like Jesus, we are to draw our own children to a life apart from the rest of the crowd.

Yet we must always remember that our children, like Peter, will never be perfect. Each of them needs for us, like Jesus, to extend to him or her the gift of constant love, grace, and forgiveness. And we can only do this by relying continually on the grace of our own relationship with the Lord.

When we do this, we will live out the definition of grace and love in such a way that our message will be written on their hearts. They will understand that the God who calls them to a great task will stay with them as they strive to complete it. They will know he gives them the strength and encouragement they need—and the grace to pick themselves up when they fall. And they will know all this in part because of the hands-on grace they have experienced at home.

Read more about this in The Mission of Motherhood.