Sally Clarkson Quotes

In the absence of biblical conviction, people will go the way of culture.

Today when you nurture, love and meet the needs of your beloveds with beauty, it will make a difference in how they face their whole day.

I always wanted to be a hero--to sacrifice my life in a big way one time--and yet, God has required my sacrifice to be thousands of days, over many years, with one more kiss, one more story, one more meal.

It is natural to quarrel, to be selfish, to live a small-minded life. It is supernatural to love unconditionally, to serve others, to live a life of vision and faith.

If the precious, limited hours of my day are used bit by bit in scanning information, I will have less and less time for the attentive, slow, good work of creativity, conversation, and connection that real people and real homes require.

One of the marks of a godly woman is that she takes responsibility for her soul's need for joy and delight. A woman is a conductor, who leads the orchestra of her surroundings in the songs and music of her life. God is a God of creativity and dimension, and so He is pleased when we we co-create beauty in our own realm, through the power of His Spirit. It was a profound realization when I understood that I could become an artist with my very life.

All people need a place where their roots can grow deep and they always feel like they belong and have a loving refuge. And all people need a place that gives wings to their dreams, nurturing possibilities of who they might become.

Every day in each inch of space, each rhythm of time, each practice of love, we have the chance to join God in coming home, in living so that we make a home of this broken and beautiful world all over again. Love is enfleshed in the meals we make, the rooms we fill, the spaces in which we live and breathe and have our being.

God sees you. He made you, knows you, and loves you. You can trust Him. Part of our issue with not fully surrendering our lives to Jesus is because we don’t really know if we can trust Him.

God desires to work supernaturally through normal people who are willing to follow Him wholeheartedly and reflect His glory.

There is no single way to serve God, but the point is this: We each have only one life to live to tell a story about Him, about His ways, about His love. And if we are Christ followers, then God calls us to use our gifts, to exercise our faith, and to become salt and light right where we are.

I often must sacrifice my own needs and desires for the purpose of giving my children what they need and modeling for them the depths of Christ's love. "...make myself available in the routine tasks and myriad interruptions of daily life b/c I believe it is God's will for me to serve my family through them.

When someone once asked me just what it was that my parents did that made me believe in God, without even thinking I said, “I think it was French toast on Saturday mornings and coffee and Celtic music and discussions and candlelight in the evenings . . .” Because in those moments I tasted and saw the goodness of God in a way I couldn’t ignore.

Sometimes celebrating, enjoying, and laughing seem almost inappropriate in a world as broken as ours. We look around and see panic on the faces of everyone we see. Tragedies become ordinary. How, in good conscience, can we laugh and celebrate and eat pizza? I believe we must celebrate - because celebration is one of the most effective weapons we have against the darkness of our day. The real grief of the state of our world is the pervasive fear that settles in our hearts.

Keeping house—picking up those messes one more time—is a service of worship to God as we craft a place of beauty and comfort for all who enter our sanctuary of His very presence.

From the moment we take our first breaths, our days are numbered, so how we live matters. The decisions we make—the important ones and, yes, the mundane ones too—they all matter. Everyday decisions add up to form the life we live and the legacy we leave behind.

The most important gift you can give your child is to help them begin a walk of faith with the God of the universe. From the moment your children arrive in your home, you are teaching them how to see the world, what to consider important, what to seek, what to love. As a mother, you have the opportunity to form your home and family life in such a way that God’s reality comes alive to your children each day.

How we need more “homemakers” so that all who live in this transient, contemporary world might have a place to belong, to feel loved and valued, to serve and be served, to give and receive and celebrate all that is good. So

Our individual personalities are a gift of His design so that we might add color and variety to the world. And He can use our unique combination of circumstances—even the painful ones like mental illness—for our good and His glory.

When I look into her searching blue eyes, I am filled with wonder and an urgent sense of desire. I want to be a better woman, to walk this path of life well beside her, to point her towards God’s fingerprints and kindness, to live a full, abundant life so that she, too, can know that she is free to live into hers.

The sacrifice is wasted if the attitude of serving is self-concerned and complaining in nature. How we serve, in other words, is just as important as what we serve.

Although our culture seems to worship being busy, constant activity will slowly undermine our perspective on life and kill our souls.

Look for other women with whom you can connect as well. So many women are isolated—with no friends as neighbors, no family close by, no kindred spirits.

Jesus didn’t come just to save our souls; He came to redeem every part of our lives.

Home is to be a safe place, a refuge for all who enter, a protection from the harm and storms of the world. Yet often or even daily we open our doors -- usually via television or the internet -- to ideas and images that can damage our faith, abuse our hearts and minds, sear our psyches, and tear apart our peace. Home should be a place where, behind its doors, one should expect to find protection and safety from all the harms of life, including voices that do not speak truth or wisdom. Only the foolish would invite just anyone to enter the door of their home.

If you have time for television but not for personal time with the Father, then you don’t understand the value of your relationship with Him. If you spend hours on the Internet each week but rarely open your Bible, you are not committed to the honor of knowing and listening to Him.

Home is the place in which we picture, day after ordinary day, the fact that love will endure, that grief will be healed, that joy, one day, will last forever and the celebration will never end.

Always, my only hope and my only strength and my only way to cope has been an utter abandonment to God, knowing that if He doesn't work, if He doesn't move in the midst of us through His Holy Spirit, if He doesn't take my paltry fish and loaves and make it into more than it really is, I do not have a hope of making it. I relinquish my desire to control and yield this moment, this day and hope that He will show up.

Owning your life—your actions and decisions, and their consequences—must begin with a healthy view of yourself that is based on what God thinks of you. Once you listen to His voice, your self-perception will change.

If every morning you look at your child as a gift from God, a blessing that He has bestowed today, and thank Him for that blessing, you will approach your children with love, patience, and grace. You have to bow your knee and say, "God, you really are good and you knew exactly what you were doing when you gave me this child.

it is easy for parents to pass on unnecessary guilt, shame, and insecurity to their children because we fear the rejection of critical and judgmental people in our lives. So if I can help other parents understand the profound importance of accepting children as they are, perhaps I can save those children from some of the anguish I felt for many years.

It is vitally important for women to learn how to think biblically for themselves instead of being enslaved to other people’s thoughts and opinions. To truly follow God with everything in our lives, we must learn to develop discernment.

Own your faith. Take responsibility for the miracles God wants to do in and through your life. No one else can faithfully show the people He has entrusted into your care what it means to live by faith. No one else can accomplish the work He created you to do.

Going it alone is, without a doubt, one of the most common and effective strategies that Satan uses to discourage moms. A woman alone in her home with her ideals eventually wears down and becomes a perfect target for Satan to discourage. —SALLY CLARKSON, DESPERATE

Now is the time; today is the day. Own your life. Heaven will tell your story throughout eternity. May you live one worth telling. May you leave a legacy of vibrant faith and a pathway for others that is lavished with generous love and the kiss of God’s favor each step along the way.

Managing our stress and our rest is a sign of living wisely. Refueling as a way to find joy, to create pleasure, and to celebrate life in the midst of all its demands fills our hearts with renewed hope. When we take the time to breathe, listen, and rest from the daily grind to see miracles bubbling up in our lives.

In our hurry-up, multiple-option, online society, we can always leave someone or something we find difficult—a person, a place, a church, a friendship. There is always another option. But real community, long-term friendship, and marriage are precious gifts only to be kept by a commitment to remain in the circle of love they create.

Beauty is about picturing God’s unchanging goodness and daring to bring it into my own small, dusty days.

God “has planted eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11, NLT).

Running at such a pace to keep all of these balls in the air left me gasping for breath and longing for attention and support

We are hungry for the sustenance of sturdy, deep friendships, but we are fed an idea of friendship that is neither nourishing nor satisfying. Friendship can and must be so much more.

how to create a home that nourishes, nurtures, and sustains life and beauty. It is all about how to order your living space and what happens there to embody the joy and beauty of God’s own Spirit.

Home is your garden of life, so to speak, and you are free to order it and plant it as you will. But all great works of life must be planned in order to make them productive, useful, and flourishing.

I began to picture my children’s hearts as treasure chests of a different sort, and I vowed to fill them with intrinsic treasures: the best stories, memorized Scripture, priceless images of classical art, excellent books, memories from great feasts enjoyed together and special days celebrated, great Bible stories and wisdom passages, plus heart photographs of love given, holidays cherished, lessons learned.

But my parents understood that the world that they made within the walls of our house was what constituted home. So I grew up in spaces framed by art and color, filled with candlelight, marked by beauty. I grew up within a rhythm of time made sacred by family devotions in the morning and long conversations in the evening. I grew up with the sense of our daily life as a feast and delight; a soup-and-bread dinner by the fire, Celtic music lilting in the shadows, and the laughter of my siblings gave me a sense of the blessedness of love, of God's life made tangible in the food and touch and air of our home. It was a fight for my parents, I know. Every day was a battle to bring order to mess, peace to stressful situations, beauty to the chaos wrought by four young children. But that's the reality of incarnation as it invades a fallen world....What my parents-bless them-knew...is that to make a home right in the midst of the fallen world is to craft out a space of human flesh and existence in which eternity rises up in time, in which the kingdom comes, in which we may taste and see the goodness of God.

My attitude is ultimately what makes our house a peaceful haven. And because I can only accomplish this by leaning on the Lord, it is my relationship with him that ultimately will provide a nurturing environment for the people I love.

children need to live into the infinite possibilities of innovative ideas, symphonies of created music, breathtaking visual art, transcendent science, and thoughts of God that are too big to be contained by the walls of a church building.

If we are consistent in guiding our children in the right direction, and extend grace to them to be immature on the way to maturity then we will have the best chance of maintaining both our standards and a close relationship with our children.

your defining voice, your generosity, your grace, and when you allow His Spirit to live freely in you, then, and only then, will you have the energy and wisdom to live the Christian life well. It is His work, and He will kindly carry your load.

Influenced by the thought patterns of machines, my own mind cranks along, unable to rest, habituated to the disembodied, unresting online atmosphere. But the constant stream of information isn’t helping me to think more deeply, to contemplate, to have the long-considered knowledge that becomes wisdom. Rather, it is conditioning me simply to glean information and then move on. As author Nicholas Carr wrote, “The Internet is an interruption system. It seizes our attention only to scramble it.”[3]

Gratitude isn’t a gutting out of thanks, nor is generosity a painful sacrifice. Rather, both come from an overflow of joy. And neither is formed in a vacuum; both must come from recognizing that God’s goodness to us is so extravagant that it must be passed on.

We are not computers; we cannot download information about God or life by direct transfer. Life is beautiful and barren and impossibly complex. Books and conferences help us think about our lives, but most of life is not thinking about life—it’s living through

Perfection is not a standard he requires of me as a mother, for his grace extends to me as well as to my children. My heartfelt trust in him will be the fuel that energizes my days as I see him draw my children through this gift that will serve them their whole lives.

Education is not about enacting a prescriptive, boxed sort of curriculum-based classroom, but instead is about passing on a legacy of a love for learning, an independent joy in discovery, a motivation to bring light, beauty, and goodness back into the world of our children.

You are capable of more than you know. You are the right one to handle your life. And what is more, you are never alone in the journey. You have your Girls’ Club around you, and more fundamentally than that, you have God. I think you have it in you to go a little bit farther.

Praying with You Lord, so often we are overwhelmed by all the tasks ahead of us. Today help us to turn our eyes to You so that we can discern between the truly important tasks and those that will not add any real value to our lives. May we look to You as our Peace today. Amen.

Understanding that influence is best cultivated through love and friendship, I sought to deepen my sympathy for what was going on in their hearts, to understand their personalities, to affirm their intrinsic worth to me and to God and to others, and to encourage them on a daily basis.

the fundamental mission of motherhood now is the same as it always was: to nurture, protect, and instruct children, to create a home environment that enables them to learn and grow, to help them develop a heart for God and his purposes, and to send them out into the world prepared to live both fully and meaningfully.

The mother who reaches the heartfelt needs of her children by helping them feel loved and secure, by believing in their dreams, by noticing when they stray and gently steering them back in the right direction, and by teaching them what they need to know to live full and meaningful lives accomplishes a great work for the Lord.

God is active and present in every moment of our lives, but too often we are so caught up in how we ought to be rather than allowing ourselves to be swept up into the whirlwind of the Spirit. God desires that we learn to play again, to experience Him like little children do, open in wonder to the vastness and endless wonder of Him.

When it was time to make breakfast, I moved into my Martha mode. I got irritated that I was the only one working while everyone else stumbled slowly into the kitchen. Before I knew it, I’d had a small explosion. I threw a wet blanket over the moods of everyone, and my good intentions were spoiled by my failure to control my spirit.

Have you ever felt a stirring in your heart as a touching story brought tears to your eyes or as you heard a soaring symphony or a captivating song on the radio that opened a new window in your soul? Maybe you have felt a similar exhilaration while watching a sunset, camping out under the night sky, or holding a newborn babe. Something inside of you quickened, and for a moment, some heavenly beauty connected your inner self with the divine. C. S. Lewis referred to such experiences as joy. These are remnants and reminders of the perfect world God designed for us to live in—the shadow of places He longs to take us to, the reality of the other world He’s preparing for us.

In a culture that often views a child in terms of the expense in time and money he will cost in his lifetime, how important it is to intentionally recognize the infinite value of a tiny human being, created with the very imprint and image of God on his life, and to understand that this little one’s life will have consequences for eternity.

Loving him with the love of God Affirming him daily, believing in who he will become Understanding his limitations and learning to be patient with his disability Never passing on guilt to him for being limited Changing his heart gradually through training in character and inner strength Holding expectations loosely and leaving him in the hands of God

We have to learn to lean into life as something beautiful even if it is not exactly what we expected. Trusting that God works all things together for the good despite the challenges we face is a gift of worship we give to God. Acceptance with humility must eventually come to each of us if we are to please God and not always fight against the limitations of our own family pattern.

It’s all about your heart. Are you yielding yourself to Christ each moment because you love Him and desire to please Him? When that is truly the desire of your heart, you will begin to exhibit His life in your circumstances. As the apostle Paul reminds us, “Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit” (Romans 8:5, NLT).

—A MOTHER’S PRAYER— Father of Encouragement Thank you for taking the time to show love to your disciples by affirming and encouraging them. Help us remember that our well-aimed words will carry life to the hearts of our children. Teach us to extol their positive characteristics whenever we can and to resist the temptation to use words only for correction. Give us lips that speak grace and that show the heart of your love through the things we say. Amen

Make a list of some things your children like you to do with them but aren’t necessarily fun for you—playing a board game on the floor with a young child, going outside to throw a ball, sitting down with a child to read his or her creative story or to look at an artistic creation, and so on. Commit to saying yes to their requests instead of no, knowing that if you invest in what is important to them, they will be open to believing in what is important to you.

God created us to soar, to dance, to fly—to live with gusto as we enjoy and discover the magnificence of the mysteries He has strewn through creation. He longs for us to hear His whispers throughout the day, to see the shadows of His ways moment by moment. But not only that; He also promises to walk with us through each day. Just as the sails caught the wind, letting the boat glide effortlessly through the water, so when our hearts are filled with the Spirit of God, we move ahead through life unburdened and with more ease.

A challenging career suddenly seemed more productive to me because I could measure the results of my work. These precious little ones had endless needs. They were busy little sinful creatures who demanded all of my body, time, life, emotions, and attention! As much as I loved my children, I often felt like a failure. Surely someone else could do a better job with these precious ones than I. And what exactly was I supposed to be accomplishing anyway? Was I wasting my time? What had this husband, who professed to love me, done to me?

God is not so concerned that we are always happy as He is committed to helping us become mature and learn to be content. Begin to ask God how He wants you to live out your role in the story of life He has granted you. How can you live truthfully, heroically, and faithfully in such a way that you will fulfill the very destiny for which you were born? Where must you be faithful? How will you redeem the dark places in your life? How will you leave a legacy of faith that will give courage to those who come after you? Where does God want to see you develop excellence of character?

Each of us has a different life puzzle to assemble. The choices you make in the midst of your life journey do have eternal consequences. Yes, you can throw the pieces at God in anger and say, “I do not like the life You have given me, and I refuse to live within these limitations with a humble heart. You have made me a victim. You have ruined my life. I will choose to live in darkness.” If that is your choice, the puzzle of your life will remain fragmented and separated, with holes in the picture. However, if you choose to bow your knee and submit to the varied circumstances of your life, God will do miracles. If you choose to trust and develop your integrity and an inner standard of holiness that isn’t dependent on cultural standards, the puzzle pieces will begin to come together. No matter what your limitations are—health issues, financial problems, a difficult marriage or divorce, a loss of friendship, death of a dream—your life is meant to be filled to the brim with the potential of God’s blessings. But in order to thrive and heal, you must accept any limitations by faith, trust in His faithfulness each step of the way, and wait for His grace so you can live a faithful story right in the place you find yourself.

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Jesus Himself acknowledged that when we go into our world, we are being sent as sheep among wolves—even in the church at large. Everyone is at a different level of maturity. When I begin spending time with a new friend, I have learned to be aware of warning signs to avoid long-term hurt. If a woman is constantly critical of others; carries lots of drama; tells me secrets and then always says, “Don’t tell anyone”; is fearful, gossips, or is not humble but defensive when corrected, I see these as cautions.

No room is just space. No hour is meaningless. No meal is mere sustenance. Every rhythm and atom of existence are spaces in which the Kingdom can come, in which the story of God’s love can be told anew, in which the stuff of life can be turned marvelously into love. We cannot change the world if we cannot incarnate God’s love in our own most ordinary spaces and hours. Homemaking must be understood as a potent Kingdom endeavor, not merely a domestic task. Homemaking requires a willed creativity, a conscious diligence, because we are called to create new life and challenged to do it in the midst of a world that actively resists us in this endeavor.

He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much” (Luke 16:10). It’s easy to think of heroism in terms of the spectacular—a moment of total sacrifice, an act of unmitigated bravery in the face of danger. But those are the shooting star moments of courage, the ones that flare across the sky and draw our eyes to the heavens. Behind them, around them, enduring after their briefer blaze are the long-burning, humbler flames of faithful living. Heroism doesn’t begin in the moment of crisis, and sometimes it never gets noticed at all, because its roots are in the smallest choices of the everyday. But these are the choices on which all good homes are founded.

Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” I love this quote because I want to be one of those people who dances to God’s invisible music—that invisible reality where God works in response to His children’s prayers, where angels dance, and where heaven prepares a glorious banquet for those just naive enough to believe in a Hero who will take us to a heaven where the celebration will never end. Our God delights to find even one such person. Own your sense of wonder, and the celebration of the stars and the unseen blessings of your life will always bring you a secret delight, an unquenchable song, and a bubbling joy that this world will never be able to quench.

As I reflect back on all of the years of our family’s life together, what I remember best is not the mountains of dirty dishes and pots and pans and socks left on the floor and piles of laundry. I reflect instead on precious times shared with Clay, the kids, and those we welcomed into our home—snuggling on the couch together, nursing babies and rocking them to sleep, sharing movies and huge bowls of popcorn, comforting children after a nightmare, and all those heartfelt kisses and cards that said “I love you!

But to us the heart of tithing isn’t in making sure to pay an exact amount, but rather in being prepared to give freely and generously of our money, our time, and our talents to support God’s work in the world.

When individuals are unconditionally accepted and set free to live into their own abilities, skills, and passions, they are more likely to be motivated to contribute from their own natural resources.

work of seeking to be a mentor to your children, seeking to pass on a spiritual formation that creates a live faith, giving the training required to develop godly character, and creating a love for learning is absolutely one of the most profound works of our whole society and world.

Imagination is the first step to creation, the instigating spark that drives the actions of a hero.

Interestingly enough, we found, the habit of regularly expressing our gratitude and our concerns to God actually made us more grateful and more determined to act generously on behalf of others. I think that’s because regular prayer helps cultivate awareness, and awareness is key to both gratitude and generosity. We must learn how to nourish a heart that is keenly aware both of God’s abundance as it comes to us and the needs of the world around us.

Beauty is more than just pictures on a wall. It is also about colors that bring pleasure, smooth and nubby textures that reward the touch, the wafting fragrance of food in the oven that keeps us sniffing appreciatively, the comfort or excitement of music on the stereo. Beauty is found in the way we light the rooms (we keep a well-stocked shelf of candles and lighters in constant use), the books we open again and again, the way we arrange the furniture and set the table. It is found in natural objects we use for decorating potted plants, shells, autumn leaves, always fresh flowers or pine boughs brought in from our yard and open windows that draw the eye toward the beautiful outdoors.

Major life changes—anything from moving across country to graduating from college New relationships—either in personal or professional work Challenges and difficulties—from sickness to strife to struggle Goals attained and milestones achieved—losing weight, learning a new skill, gaining financial freedom Travel—a visit to a new city or state or country or a journey that brought new insight Spiritual experiences—encounters with grace, growth experiences, new awareness and understanding Special serendipitous blessings—divine encounters that especially encouraged us

God loves when you wrestle Him, Nathan," she said. "Because wrestling is a full-contact sport, and God loves it when you are in contact with Him. Maybe He has a bigger view of your life and is willing to do more than you can presently see.

You need to teach your lips how to be persuasive," I would say, "You have a profound way of thinking, but you will lose your audience if you attack them. How could you have said that with more appeal?

I have always told my children that they might as well decide to embrace God's will for their lives right where they are and engage in the present moment with as much faith and wisdom and skill as they can, because their circumstances are not going to miraculously change.

As long as we believe we can control life by trying, controlling, manipulating, putting pressure on life, we will live in constant exhaustion. We learn daily of our need for His Spirit to live through us because we are inadequate in ourselves. We learn to give up expectations that life will ever be perfect and to be content in the midst of the chaos.

For Nathan, I wanted it to be a place where he could breathe out the pressure to perform, to conform, to always be "good" when what was defined as good was almost impossible for him, as God made him, to conform to.

It is humbling to be the parent of a child who brings our all of your weaknesses repetitively. But living in guilt for not being perfect will never serve our need to grow stronger.

It took me a little while, but I learned to see my "time-outs" as necessities, not luxuries, and to be vigilant about making room for them in my life. Without them, I found it almost impossible to provide the kind of welcoming, accepting home experience that Nathan and all my children needed.

Knowing when to correct and train, when to overlook, and when to enjoy and praise is a constant balancing act for a parent, but I tried to err on the side of compassion and sympathy with Nathan. These seemed to be the tools that opened Nathan's heart to correction. And these gifts could only be given through personal time invested over and over again.

Trusting that God works all things together for the good despite the challenges we face is a gift of worship we give to God. Acceptance with humility must eventually come to each of us if we are to please God and not always fight against the limitations of our own family pattern. If Nathan had grown up in a home where he was constantly put down and corrected, I think the oxygen of God's love would have been strangled from his heart, which needed a wide berth of unconditional acceptance. Love is the food our hearts need to grow, and so I had to figure out a way to give it in a way he could feel.

When children understand that their parents accept them whether they are behaviourally perfect or not, that they can trust the grown-ups with anything, then they will be more likely to seek their parents' help when they have engaged in more serious misbehaviour.

I had to learn that God never intended me to judge my children's value by how well they fit the assembly line of cultural expectations or my own dreams of what I thought motherhood should look like. Each of them was an individual, one-of-a-kind design. Each had a special purpose in the world. And each had a special set of gifts and challenges that affected the way they operated in the world. God had ordained that I would be the mama of these unique children, tasked with shepherding them through life and teaching them what unconditional love meant. It was my stewardship to parent my sweet little ones with all the faith and joy I had chosen as my foundation for the other areas of my life,

Still, on a daily basis, I have to remember to release, to choose patience, to ask for forgiveness when I blow it. But now we have a rhythm to our family that is built on a foundation of unconditional love. Not matter what happens, at the end of the day, this is the place where we all return: "I am committed to loving you and accepting you as God has made you." "I will always be here for you." "I will always have your back and be a friend, whatever life holds." "I will help you search for answers and support your growth." "I will be a refuge you can come home to." "We are a family, and we will love each other always and always.

Accepting reality and deciding to love our unique puzzle brings a freedom and sense of peace that can only come from surrendering to the life that we have been given.

Every single morning when we awaken, God’s mercy sees our frailty and provides a covering of grace through every moment we fall short of perfection. This profound truth is vitally important to being able to love God fully, to live in the deep joy and freedom He wants us to experience every day.

Our children need the same kind of gentle graciousness from us if they are to learn to share their vulnerability, to confess their own sin, and to be free to love. If they fear our strong condemnation and possible rejection, they will hide their sin, perhaps even deceive themselves about the nature of it. They will definitely not avail themselves of our mature direction in their lives.

Imparting this great purpose to our children will appeal to the design of God written into their hearts. They are made to respond to God’s call in their lives. We give them the gift of inspiration when we help them heed that call.

Passing on the gift of inspiration to our children is partly a matter of vision, which helps them understand that God wants to use them in this world to spread his kingdom. But vision alone is not enough. The vision defines the purposes of God, but compassion defines the heart of the vision. When we understand that God’s love reaches into the dark and depraved corners of people’s lives to bring healing and eternal life, then we will see people not for what they are but for who they are—people Christ loves and who need his redemption.

Giving our children the gift of inspiration—helping them understand their spiritual purpose, which is to glorify God and to make him known—is one of the most crucial tasks of Christian parenting.

The ministry of motherhood with my children, especially, can sometimes seem extremely nonstrategic. Settling fusses between immature boys who are fighting over whose turn it is on the computer does not seem like a vital form of ministry, and yet it is in such everyday situations that our children learn vital relational skills. Comforting wailing babies, tending to sick children, cleaning up messes, prevailing upon teenagers to do assigned chores—all standard mothering tasks—can seem depressingly mundane. Yet when I study the ministry of Christ, I see that he responded in compassion to whatever need was presented to him, not just those needs that seemed “worthy” or important.

Words are like food to our hearts, minds, and souls. They have the potential to shape destinies, inspire courage, and instill character. Words can express assurance of love, shape our emotional health, and lay foundations of truth that hold us fast our whole lives. Words have the power to pass on a legacy of faith.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body           and knit me together in my mother’s womb.      Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!           Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. PSALM 139:13-14,

My calling as a mother is the same as any other Christian’s: to fulfill God’s will for our lives and to glorify him. This means I am to follow the Lord’s design for my marriage—cleaving to my husband, supporting him, honoring him, loving him as my own flesh. I am to be a careful steward of the world in which I live. I am to seek opportunities to bring God’s message of redemption to others, to make full use of the gifts and talents he has placed in my life to bring him glory and further his kingdom. And I am to delight in him and worship him and praise him in whatever circumstance I find myself.

we decided that if a woman truly understands how deeply she is loved, she is free to grow into the potential loveliness that God created her to have. When a woman feels truly loved, she is confident in herself, she is more generous of heart to be able to reach others, and her faith grows strong because of the deep acceptance she receives and lives in from her creator.

God’s unfailing love for us is an objective fact affirmed over and over in the Scriptures. It is true whether we believe it or not. Our doubts do not destroy God’s love, nor does our faith create it. It originates in the very nature of God, who is love, and it flows to us through our union with His beloved Son. ~ Jerry Bridges

Busyness falsely promises productivity.

Even as the tiny, temporary lights of city streets, cars, and signs seem to snuff out the powerful stars, so the false lights and values of this world can darken our minds to the grandeur and brilliance of God.

Most of us do not have a corpus of Scripture in our minds, a comprehensive understanding of the Bible and its truths that can counteract the voices of culture.

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.

Only God offers deep-down inner acceptance and approval. Only His unconditional love and acceptance will satisfy our longings. Only His ways bring vibrant health. Paul

He knew through this great work of motherhood, we would slowly be conformed into the image of Christ, and from this commitment we would come to better understand His fatherhood, His sacrifice, and His unmerited favor toward us.

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.

heroism. Her heart is transformed by suffering into one whose quiet and unspectacular faithfulness sustains the

The message of the gospel didn’t begin with death. It began with a world-startling life, the birth of God as a flesh-and-blood baby who lived out thirty-three years of robustly human life. The man Jesus showed us what it meant to live as creative, loving, constructive children of God, our Father.

Our student collects ideas, philosophy, facts, and stories. These synthesize and become foundations of their own mental library of the world.

A child fashioned by a wonder-filled life will cultivate inner strength, a confidence in his own ability to think, evaluate, and know. But those who influence children must fight to protect time for the imagination to have space to work, to have time to engage.

education is about relationship, about being worthy of the hope of our children. Taking seriously the stewardship of their trust as we guide them should be an underlying motivation of our hearts as we commit to influencing them. We are passing on a life, not just information.

The Road goes ever on and on,” said Bilbo the hobbit in the first book of Tolkien’s classic The Lord of the Rings.[8] It does, indeed, particularly the pilgrim road of spiritual growth. No one escapes the summons to journey; we all walk toward Christ . . . or something else. But when the journey is begun in the profound fellowship of home, with those who are farther ahead standing beside us, equipping us, whispering their wisdom in our ears as we fare forth, our journey becomes not an individual quest but a shared pilgrimage. We are drawn forth by the stories of those who have gone before into a living story of our own. Home is the shelter in which those quests of soul begin, in which we are strengthened for our adventure, equipped for the long road of faith that lies ahead. Home is the refuge whose peace allows us a glimpse of the ultimate good we will journey to find. Said Bilbo of the road, “I must follow, if I can.”[9] May we follow the road of faith all our days.

Children are the adults of the next generation, and so our love, education, training, and modeling of all that is valuable in life will indeed shape the history of the next adult generation

Conformity spawns conformity.

INSPIRING BOOKS to READ • Chasing Slow by Erin Loechner • Only Love Today by Rachel Macy Stafford • The Lifegiving Home by Sally and Sarah Clarkson • Slow by Brooke McAlary • Simple Matters by Erin Boyle • The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking • Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist • Simply Tuesday by Emily P. Freeman

God entrusted our children into our hands as one of the best works for which we answer to Him. He gave us the stewardship of shaping, investing in, and inspiring for His glory these little human beings entrusted into our hands by His love and design. Because I had committed my whole life to Christ, one way for me to worship God was to serve these precious human beings He entrusted into my hands. God ordained family and home to have eternal value as the place our children are shaped in the transcendent image of God, through our homes. This is our most lasting legacy. Even as Jesus served us through His sacrificial life, so we model his love through our sacrificial life.

we’d had to walk alongside construction tape that kept us out

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.

If children could grow up in innocence and safety, without the threat of sexual indoctrination and values-shaping dogma from secular public opinion in their classrooms.

Having a home that tells a great story happens over time as we mature, refine, create, and love. I hope you will have that experience as well. Whatever your taste, preferences, and style, you have the freedom to create your own home art and make your dwelling a place that is distinctively yours—a place of comfort, safety, and delight for you and everyone who steps inside your door. 4 THE RHYTHMS OF INCARNATION (SARAH) The world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive

We were meant, in other words, to continue the work of the God whose image we bore, a God who had just completed a cycle of rich, generous, lavish creation. We were meant to be fruitful, existing within the bond of family, connected to community, united in our care for the gift of the earth.

In the beginning God created” (Genesis 1:1), and every atom came from His imagination. I believe He made the world in such a way that to tend it, to touch it, would be to know His heart. He told a story into the earth, the tale of His bounteous heart. We were given the uplifted arms of pines and the vibrancy of a summer garden, the laden arms of apple trees and the dark patience of mountains, to keep us alive every day to all that God is and will continue to be.

We were created for belonging, made to behold the heritage of our creative diligence in children and grandchildren and in the legacy of a home forged and tended in a specific place on earth.

Literature is humanity’s ongoing conversation with itself about what it means to be human, to be good, to live with meaning.

Your one life is a great tale, one facet of God’s continuing narrative within the world.

In the end, I believe, heroism is simply faithfulness, a moment-by-moment choice to do what is right—to love once more, to give without fear in the face of every challenge. Heroism is forged and known in such choices, whether in a blazing moment of courage or in the countless small moments of luminous, ordinary life.

God gave each of us a will-the ability to decide what we are "willing" to do. He did not make us like puppets that can be forced to act in a certain way. Instead, He created us so that we must set the direction of our own hearts and minds. Our attitudes ultimately guide our moment-by-moment choices, as well as the biggest decisions of our lives.

What greater joy can there be than to create a holding place for all that is sacred in life: faith, love, God, purpose, beauty, relationships, creativity, fun, the art of life, safety, shelter, feasting? —SALLY CLARKSON

Instead of seeing fusses and messes as irritations in my day, for instance, I am more likely to see them as opportunities to train my children to be peacemakers and to learn to be responsible for their own messes. Instead of resenting the interruptions in my schedule, I am more likely to accept them as divine appointments. More and more, I have learned to see my children through the eyes of God and to accept the stages of growth through which he has designed them to grow.

How do we make the commitment to give the area of motherhood over to God as a sacrifice of worship to him? We yield our personal rights into his hands. We give up our time and expectations to him—and also our fears and worries about how we will manage. We trust him to take care of us and our family. We let him redirect our thinking and expectations and adjust our dreams. And we wait in faith to see the fruit of our hard labor in the lives of our children, knowing that he will be faithful to honor our commitment to him.

Each of us is a steward of the days allotted for our lifetime, and learning to manage our commitments and priorities is critical.           We can become empowered Christians who live meaningful lives.           We can love generously and have relationships that satisfy.           We can leave the past behind and own a life without condemnation.           We are made to accomplish great feats of faith and courage and to live a life worth telling.

Women who know their God should be mirror reflections of His beauty, vibrant character, generous love, and wisdom. But to reflect such attributes, we must invest time and thought in what our minds and hearts are becoming.

took time to really ponder

We should never expect the world to behave according to our morality, our standards of holiness, or our wisdom. Jesus would still call us to “owe them our love” to fulfill the law.

He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will suffer harm. PROVERBS 13:20

Managing our stress and our rest is a sign of living wisely.

When we take the time to breathe, listen, and rest from the daily grind, we will slowly but surely begin to see miracles bubbling up in our lives.

I didn’t think I was the only one who loved my children but struggled with isolation and boredom in the sometimes overwhelming details of daily life. I believed that, among like-minded women, there was a need for community as we strived to raise godly children without many people to teach us or to share our burden.

Be sure to get away often enough that you are regularly exposed to God’s art and able to remember that He is transcendent above all the details of your life.

Deep friendships are often so very hard to find because this is the fallen place.

A WISE WOMAN TAKES CARE OF HER EMOTIONAL HEALTH, her spiritual health, and her intellectual growth.

Years from now, people may not remember your name, but the way you owned your life, the choices you made, the way you loved . . . your legacy . . . that is what will ripple through the generations who follow after you.

Words make worlds

The lives of most people I know have become increasingly fast paced, and our habits are increasingly drawn into the trivial.

We allow the habit of busyness to replace our habits of prayer and Scripture reading.

We must learn to cherish all the moments of our lives and to call them holy.

Of course we are called to be instruments of His peace, to live righteous lives, and to care for others. But ultimately, our calling is to bring glory to God and to let Him perfect us into the image bearers He always meant us to be. I think sometimes we can bring much more glory to God by being cheerful and delighting in the world and people He has given us than by living a “useful” life where we trot grimly around with a martyr complex that annoys everyone we encounter.

Manners: The Gift of a Gracious

Taking time away to really seek God and to remember what He has done always shows us a bigger picture of Him.

we want our home to be a strong shelter in the midst of the storms of life.

What my parents—bless them—knew, what Elizabeth Goudge understood, is that to make a home right in the midst of the fallen world is to craft out a space of human flesh and existence in which eternity rises up in time, in which the Kingdom comes, in which we may taste and see the goodness of God.

God must have known we moms would need strong friendships as we grew older. Surely that’s one reason why he created families. Friendship is the natural fruit of time invested in each other.

As a young mother, I found that embracing God's call to motherhood once and for all brought me great peace. Instead of seeing fusses and messes as irritations in my day, I was more likely to see them as opportunities to train my children to be peacemakers and to learn to be responsible. Instead of resenting the interruptions to my schedule, I was more likely to accept them as divine appointments. More and more, I learned to see my children through the eyes of God. To fully experience our fulfillment in Christ and fulfill his will for our lives, we must come to the point where we give our whole selves to him — our freedom, our time, our bodies, all of our possessions and gifts — trusting hi, to show us how to use all that we are for his glory. To sacrifice means to give up or surrender something of value. We are living sacrifices, which means that moment by moment, out of our worship for him, we are to surrender our own needs and expectations for the greater value of pleasing the Lord.

If we are to hold hearts faithful, we must aim intentionally, work diligently and wisely, and allow the Holy Spirit to use us to keep their hearts strong, protected, and sure.

Engaging with and enjoying all persons in the family as they are, no matter what stage or age, is essential to build a healthy emotional atmosphere—listening to their fears, laughing at their jokes, seeking to understand their dreams, sympathizing with their fears and hurt feelings, and making sure they always know who they are in the family and in Christ.

When we strive to bring beauty into our lives and our homes, we reflect the nature of the One who made us.

Even as God’s beauty calls out to us in what He has created, beauty in our homes lifts the spirits of all who live or visit there. There is great joy in creating something for the table that pleases the eyes, delights the creative juices, and satisfies our created longing for aesthetic pleasure.

When we model to our children that pleasure, delight, laughter, and food are not God’s afterthoughts, but His generous gifts to us all, we do them a great favor. For the good of our souls and the souls of our children, we must learn to celebrate to the glory of God.

Even the simplest supper, meal, snack, or teatime can become, in some way, a feast—a lavish celebration of the living God’s life and goodness. It’s not just about the physical act of eating, but about sharing and enjoying life as God designed and gave it to us. That is the essence of the lifegiving table.

The unfortunate reality of modern American culture is that it has robbed too many homes of the once-central role of the table in family life and has stolen the goodness of eating real, home-cooked foods.

When we thank God for a meal, we are decisively turning our hearts away from focusing just on our own needs to focusing on the Giver of the good gifts we are about to enjoy.

Scripture depicts the table as something woven into the fabric of creation by the divine mind and imagination of our creator God, who always creates with purpose and intentionally imbues His creation with meaning. That means it is there for our good.

When God opens the “eyes of your heart,” you’re able to see the glory that is often hidden in the seemingly ordinary things of life. Things like tables. Like food. Like daily time together.

I picture that I can be an instrument through which God brings life, beauty, and redemption to the limitations of my marriage and my family—because, in His spirit, I am filled with the life that always brings light to the dark places and redemption to the broken places.

Souls are shaped in the common moments of life, the daily stuff of memories.

People, after all, are not static collections of information; they are stories waiting and wanting to be told. Our stories are what define us and help to locate us within the greater story of what God is doing in us and in the world—the slow but steady progress of the Kingdom spreading across all creation.

When others are coming to me on a regular basis