Sally Clarkson's Blog, page 37

Tea Time Tuesday: Bonnie Scotland

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When You are Scottish — the sound of the pipes can put a wee spring intae yer step or bring a wee tear tae yer eye.

Tea Time Tuesday in Bonnie Scotland

Sometimes there are places that wrap their vast beauty around your heart and hold you there with a sense that you are experiencing another world. From the first time I visited St. Andrews, I was charmed, inspired, and held such a sense of belonging. Maybe my life story has a history or legacy in the past that brought great joy or fulfillment to my ancestors who lived there. But every time I must leave there, tears uninvited spring to my eyes.

Kindness and friendliness ooze from the people I know there. The sing-song accent invites me into whoever I am talking to. Today on my Tea Time Tuesday podcast, I will take you on my trip to this small town and invite you to travel for just a bit into one of my favorite places.

Pilgrimages have been made to St. Andrews, the holding place of the bones of the apostle Andrew. People longing to experience a closer relationship with God, or those with heartfelt prayer requests would walk “The Way of St. Andrews Pilgrimage” for countless miles to experience the spiritual life of the cathedral there. It was destroyed during the Scottish Reformation but still holds a historical draw today. Lots of history you can read about this.

Some of my favorite authors of children’s books come from Scotland. You’ll have to listen to my podcast to hear about them.

Scotch Eggs are a favorite of some friends of mine, and there is a favorite dish that I cannot quite bring myself to taste.

Every time I visit, I sneak by myself into the ruins of the old cathedral that has heard so many prayers and shown such gentle and strong encouragement to so many through the ages. St. Andrews encourages us to leave a legacy of love, faith, laughter, dancing, and beauty. May you have a week filled with romance, love, laughter, dancing, and beauty this week! Do you have a favorite place that brings soul-deep joy to your heart?

Sacred Celebrations

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There is something sacred about life celebrations. To underline and commemorate a life accomplishment or joy gives it weight and adds importance. Celebrations live in the hearts, minds, and souls of the one celebrated for a lifetime and gives hope and courage when hard times come.

Last weekend, some of our family was able to travel up to bonnie Scotland to watch our son Joel receive his Doctoral Degree in theology. To wear the robes, to be honored by the wise and seasoned professors is an accomplishment worth lots of celebration.

Part of the joy was talking with his friends and professors, eating feasts of delicious food together, chatting and laughing about the “old times,” when interest in theology developed around our dinner table discussions, and just life. Reminiscing about all the moments of the journey and just being happy together was a highlight for this mama. I just love being with all and any of my children together.

I am so very proud of wonderful Joel. I can hardly believe he has his doctorate. I think any great task or accomplishment in life isn’t just about finishing it, but it is about the character that grows inside when a person has to be self-disciplined, self-motivated, and diligent to work hard when no one is around to prompt such work. Learning to strain in the virtues of courage, endurance, and confidence when the tough seasons come and whisper, “You will never finish this!”

And yet, to keep going with fortitude is part of the prize. What a joy it has been in retrospect to see how consistently Joel manifested these attributes through the years of study. In reality, like Jesus, he has grown in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and man. I am so honored to celebrate him and to know him as one of the best men I have ever known. Congratulations my wonderful Joel.

The Lifegiving Home Book Club Kicks Off Next Week!

Each day I receive letters from women all over the world who are over-burdened, overwhelmed, and exhausted. “Sally,” they write, “I would love to light candles at dinner and have relaxing tea times and invite people into our home but that just isn't practical for our family. I believe in the ideals you write about but I just can't figure out how to get there.”

 

One of the most surprising, yet deeply fulfilling ventures of my life was the gratification of turning my home into a place that breathes life, inspiration, love and faith. But I had to learn how to shape my home over years. 

 

This summer, as we welcome a new season with a slower pace, I wanted to come alongside you as we work through The Lifegiving Home book in my Life With Sally Membership. Not only will you be inspired by the ideals in the book, you will learn how to practically apply them to your daily life, no matter your life stage or home situation.

 

Through this book club, we will work through what it means to create a space that supports joyful, vibrant, productive living and supports growth of body, soul, and spirit. If we look at the lovely world God designed for us, we can see a pattern for what He always intended for us: a home environment filled with color and creativity and order, a welcoming provider of laughter and refuge, a space where memories are made and shared. 

 

My friends, remember this: building well is a long process. Creating a lifegiving home is a long process taken one step and one season at a time. This summer, are you ready to take a small step forward in creating the lifegiving home you and your family's heart has longed for?

When does the book club start?

The book club will officially kick off on Wednesday, June 21st with the first week's email sent straight to your inbox! It will be seven weeks long and wrap up August 2nd. 

 

Does the book club cost anything?

No, the book club is a free benefit for all Life With Sally members! If you aren't a member of Life With Sally, you can join by clicking here! 

 

Where is the discussion happening? I'm not on social media! 

The discussion for the book will be happening on the Life With Sally forum and you will get a link to the discussion thread in each weekly email. 

 

How does the book club work?

Every Wednesday, starting June 21st, you will receive an email that has two (or so) chapters to read from The Lifegiving Home covering topics like:

Creating lifegiving rhythm and routines

Discovering the heartbeat and vision of a Godly home

How to show love to all who enter our home as servant leaders

How to build a fun and faithful family culture

…and so much more! We will dive into those topics in the email and include special resources to help you break down the ideas, inspiration, and principles of the book into small, actionable steps that you can implement in your own home. These special resources can include anything from a guided workbook or journal to podcast episodes, Life With Sally content, recipes, or videos. You will also receive a link to that week's discussion thread on the Life With Sally forum where you can unpack all you've learned and swap stories, inspiration, or ideas with other like-minded moms. 

Tea Time Tuesday: A More Excellent Way

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“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”

-Hebrews 12:1 NLT

Our culture is in great need of heroes, stories with sacrificial endings, and inspiring lives of those who strain after all that is good, beautiful, and true. I consider my work of faithfulness a success when, in hidden moments of life, I hear and see my children making hard choices—the choice to work hard to pay bills, the choice to be moral and cultivate integrity in a world that gives permission to compromise, the decision to stay faithful in places the world or others would say "give up."

We live in a mediocre culture. The voices of our culture in this contemporary world will almost always give you permission to compromise your ideals, give up on commitments, escape the hard work, go the easy route. “Oh, they will be just fine—don’t interfere too much.”

But, there are not many examples of people to whom you can point your children and say:

“Look at that person—they have worked hard, sacrificed their lives, accomplished something great in this world!”

We need to say to our children, "I believe God has designed you to give something great to your generation in your lifetime!”

I am convinced that if we women understood that we have a capacity to work a little harder, give more, and cultivate more intentionally, we would indeed be able to see greatness of soul, depth of faith arise out of our children’s lives. Nothing truly great is ever accomplished without great effort. We are, after all, charged with subduing a world that is in rebellion against God. By investing more time in our children, we are helping them mount up over inertia, laziness, bad habits, and self-centeredness, and giving them practice at developing good habits, skills, and abilities—all of which need to be intentionally nurtured, taught, modeled, and trained into them by their parents!

Hear more on my podcast today about His excellence through us. He is our source of strength.

Obedience: The Action of Authentic Faith

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“Mama, why do I have to obey you and Daddy? Who said you were the ones who were right?” (From one of my children who wanted to do something they knew we didn’t allow).

Obedience is the action of authentic faith; “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”

I often said to them, “God loves us so much that He gives us principles of wisdom that teach us what is right and wrong, what will lead us to a happy and productive life. God protects us by making painful mistakes in our lives by giving us instruction. But parents are God’s representatives to teach you how to obey Him. If you learn to obey us, you will be able to obey God when you are an adult and you are alone with out a mama and daddy to tell you what is the wisest thing to do in life. Mama and Daddy are God’s representatives to help our precious children learn to love wisdom, how to be wise in life. You practice with us so that you will be ready to follow God’s leading when we are not there to help.”

Many years ago as a new believer, I did a big, broad study on obedience in the Bible. We cannot please God unless we cultivate a heart that wants to obey Him. Jesus says if we love Him, we will obey him. It is not about being religious, or works oriented, or “churchy.” It is about having a heart to ponder His words and stories, His ways that He dealt with people, His love and then do what we can to obey His heart lessons. We grow little by little as we strength our muscle to obey, even when it is a challenge. Without a heart to do what God tells us to do, we cannot please Him.

To obey means to act according what you have been asked or ordered to do by someone in authority, or to behave according to a rule, law, or instruction. Obedience is the action of authentic faith. Jesus said, “If you love me, obey me.”

More on my podcast today: At Home With Sally

This week, I pray you will be sensitive to listen to the Holy Spirit, to obey what God tells you to do, to be a picture of His goodness, His truth, His love because of your heart to obey Him in the real and now.

FOR MORE

Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.

Leave an iTunes Review These are so important as they help our podcast reach more women with messages of encouragement.

Follow on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news and updates.

Share with others. My prayer is that this podcast brings encouragement to women and families, and I would be honored for you to tell others about it.

Join my friends and me in membership at Life with Sally, a place for me to share more teaching from the Bible and messages on education, motherhood, discipleship, and more

Tea Time Tuesday: Rest, Celebrate, and Be still

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“But indeed I would rather have nothing but tea.”

-Jane Austen

Take time for your favorite cuppa and relax a bit and enjoy Tea Time Tuesday. I have fun collecting tidbits. I also welcome more ideas of some of your favorite books, music, recipes, and stories about wonderful people. Enjoy!

As I was flipping through my photos, I came across this one. Almost a year ago, one of my favorite people in the world asked me over for a spot of tea. Cherished moments and deep friendship remind me all over again about blessed I am to have this friend. When someone invites you out of the chaos of life into a beautiful moment, it refreshes us unexpectedly.

Jane Austen shares my feeling about tea time—it is the taking time, not just the flavor of tea, that brings us peaceful moments. How many times do you think Jane Austen wrote tea time into her books? You will be surprised! It was fun for me to explore.

Today, I talk about a book for women as well as a book for children of various ages, especially middle school on up. Summer is a time to read just for fun.

This week, I not only listed a piece of music that everyone should know, but also a little bit about the composer.

A second recipe for fresh summer veggies.

And a look at why God considered that David, out of all the heroes of faith, beyond all the stories in the Old Testament, was a man after God’s heart. So much fun.

FOR MORE

Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.

Leave an iTunes Review These are so important as they help our podcast reach more women with messages of encouragement.

Follow on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news and updates.

Share with others. My prayer is that this podcast brings encouragement to women and families, and I would be honored for you to tell others about it.

Join my friends and me in membership at Life with Sally, a place for me to share more teaching from the Bible and messages on education, motherhood, discipleship, and more

David: A Man After God's Own Heart

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Of all the heroes of faith in all the stories in the Bible, David was called by God, “A man after my own heart.”

Imagine if a parent said this about his child. Basically, it would be a parent saying, “That child does so much to reach my heart, that child gives me such pleasure.”

David wrote poetry about His love and adoration of God. Do you write songs/poetry about how much you love and trust Him? David sang his songs for God. He attempted to capture the integrity of God’s love and care for him. He wrote love poems to God,

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want of anything.” What trust! What a grateful heart.

How does David show he is a man after God’s own heart in the beloved praise of God as his shepherd—the one who protects, provides for, and restores his own? How can you show God that you are after his heart right in the midst of your story today?

Be encouraged by the podcast today on At Home with Sally.

FOR MORE

Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.

Leave an iTunes Review These are so important as they help our podcast reach more women with messages of encouragement.

Follow on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news and updates.

Share with others. My prayer is that this podcast brings encouragement to women and families, and I would be honored for you to tell others about it.

Join my friends and me in membership at Life with Sally, a place for me to share more teaching from the Bible and messages on education, motherhood, discipleship, and more

Tea Time Tuesday: Cheers: Sit Down and Rest a Spell

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“I must drink lots of tea or I cannot work. Tea unleashes the potential which slumbers in the depth of my soul.” -Leo Tolstoy

Isn’t that a great quote? I cannot work without tea. It “unleashes my potential” happens to be true for me. And isn’t this a great spot? I have favorite benches all over the world. I sit in natural places, decked with beauty, I drink something wonderful and I center myself to a point of peace. Then I go back to life. Do you have such a place?

“Cheers, friends! Sit down and rest a spell!” my grandmother used to say when we came to her house. Always a welcome, always a cheery wish for us to take time for a visit, a time to chat, a time to be friends.

So, today, sit down and rest a spell. You will be so glad you did.

This week, I put aside many responsibilities and sat down with various of my people. Travel with Joy and me to London, and visit the places where we celebrated life together. We ate amazing food, walked thousands of steps, visited King’s College in London where she has a postdoc and teaches, and had an evening in the darkness looking out on the ships on the Thames, the city lights, the London Eye, and chatted about all that was on our heart.

I took time to visit with friends visiting from America. Ran into 3 different people who recognized me on the street—and gave a surprising response to one of them—(what in the world was I thinking?). Heard stories of valor, took time to go on long walks with one of my favorite people, to eat a hamburger out in the meadow.

This week, pondering Simon and Garfunkel, Robert Louis Stephenson’s book The Kidnappers, ate an Indian breakfast, pondered God’s never-ending presence in my life, and enjoying the beauty of spring. Won’t you join me?

I am always so tickled that so many of you like Tea Time Tuesday—what do you like about it and what do you want more of? I want it to be a “Take off your shoes and set a spell,” sort of time.

People Who Know Their God

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“But the people who know their God will display strength and take action.” - Daniel 11:32

I love to be close to my children, to Clay, to a handful of friends who know me as I really am—what I like, my secrets, my ways of life, my home, my sweet ones. The knowledge we have for one another causes us to feel the blessing of intimacy and the grace to be known and still loved.

So it is with God. God is relational. He was the designer of the possibility of love, friendship, giving and receiving heartfelt conversations and connection. He cares that we take time to know Him. And when we know Him, our hearts and lives will be transformed. When we know Christ, Christ’s spirit will cause us to display strength and take action in our worlds to bring His love and light to bear.

This week, I had the privilege of meeting several people who shared their stories and the circumstances of their lives spoke so loudly of their knowing their God intimately. One sweet woman, who had already raised her children who were now adults, felt compelled to adopt a sweet little girl who had no family to live with, to love her. She and her husband are parenting all over again with this sweet girl as their very own. They displayed strength and took action.

Ainsley is another dear friend, who because of her love and knowledge of God, started conferences for women so that they could have close friendship and community with like-minded women through Wild and Free. She arranges, works hard, plans, and serves so that others might be encouraged. By faith, she and her husband bought property, a retreat facility, to host conferences and people to a beautiful place where they could come to be inspired. So much more—but her life reflects that out of her love and knowledge of Him, she reached out, she served.

Do you have a friend whose story has encouraged or inspired you because of her knowledge and love of God? Or tell me about your story about how knowledge of Him has changed your life. I would love to know about it. I hope you enjoy the verses I share this week on my podcast.

Many blessings of grace and love to you today, friends. And may you know Him and experience His love more every day.

FOR MORE

Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.

Leave an iTunes Review These are so important as they help our podcast reach more women with messages of encouragement.

Follow on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news and updates.

Share with others. My prayer is that this podcast brings encouragement to women and families, and I would be honored for you to tell others about it.

Join my friends and me in membership at Life with Sally, a place for me to share more teaching from the Bible and messages on education, motherhood, discipleship, and more

Tea Time Tuesday: Friendship is Not Frivolous, but Essential to Our Well-being

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Friendship is not frivolous but essential to our emotional, spiritual and physical well being. Solomon, the wisest man in the world, wrote this.

two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:

If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

We were made for companionship, community, close friendship. We are happier deep down, flourish more, grow stronger in every way when we have a close friend standing with us in life.

Work is better with a friend, helping one another up from a fall, keeping warm, defending against an enemy.

He also said, “A friend loves at all times—when it is convenient, when it is not.

Jesus made very clear that friendship, laying down a life for a friend, was the centerpiece for passing on the knowledge and love of God from one generation to another. It is why he chose his disciples and modeled to us what love and influence looks like. Seeking godly friends, building this kind of community is holy work.

My friend Jacqui and I talk today on Tea Time Tuesday how God has used our friendship.

Giggle with us, sigh with us, as we share the ways God has blessed us and used our friendship. Praying God will multiply your blessed friendships.

She pulled out a wonderful quote:

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” — Marcel Proust 

And from C. S. Lewis, whose friends were in many ways his family:

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.”

Teatime Discipleship is all about ideas to build close bonds with others with whom we can share and survive life. What is your favorite friendship advice?

So much more on Tea Time Tuesday! Hope you enjoy it.