­
Blog — SallyClarkson.com

Growing A Heart Of Joy

I must water and feed those things that I want to grow. If I want to grow a heart of joy, then I must plant the words of God and his truth. I must feed joy daily to ensure that it becomes a healthy fruit of my heart. I must be vigilant to pick and demolish the weeds of doubt, despair, sin, complaint, and selfishness, which threaten to overcome this joy. A hedge of protection should be in place so that nothing comes in to destroy the very place that God designed for me to cultivate faith, truth, beauty, and joy.

It takes diligence and constant vigilance to ensure that a garden remains healthy, vigorous, and strong. It requires attentive care, every day. "All gardens are prone toward ruin unless they are cared for every day," a gardener friend once said to me, "But mine is a work of love, and so I am committed to keeping it beautiful as long as I live."

These words of hers live on in my thoughts and dovetail with the proverb, "Watch over your heart with all diligence." Diligence definitely needs to be a resolve and commitment so that nothing robs me of the fruit of joy.

Read more about this in Dancing With My Heavenly Father

Tea Time Tuesday: Well Lived: A Journey of Faithfulness

Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.

Writers like C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, spun amazing tales but their messages came out of lives of hardship, hard work, integrity, perseverance through wars, disappointment and hard fought faith. taught me that their amazing work came from many years of diligent toil in all aspects of life. A well-lived life requires diligence, repentance, faith, humility, hard work, generous love, godly perseverance, day after day. This was the lesson from my Oxford years.

Many years ago, Nathan and Joy and I attended a national actors, singers, and dancers competition where the kids competed in a number of events. One of the perks of the competition was that the kids got to meet with real Hollywood producers, agents, and record companies, as well as some directors and marketers from Broadway.

A poised woman, perfectly styled blonde curls, large blue eyes, and sophisticated clothing was the evaluator for a performance in music and acting. She was a Broadway producer who wrote an evaluation after performances. With a poised demeanor and gentle tone, the experienced woman said,

"You are indeed quite naturally talented at acting and communicating. However, what you need the most is to be surrounded by people who are more talented and more experienced than you, who will challenge you to move further ahead in your skills. It is always wise to put yourself in the company of others who are more excellent than you."

What great advice, and how needed in the lives of my children at the time! I have adopted this principle in my own life for many years. When I read, “He who walks with the wise will be wise” in Proverbs, I began to look for those friendships and acquaintances with women who challenged me to be “more” than what I already was. I seek out excellence in most arenas in my life — not because I have it together, but because I always want to be growing.

Cultural voices tell us that we deserve a break, that it is okay to compromise. Standards of life for most people are quite mediocre. These voices give us permission to rest on the laurels of whatever we’ve already accomplished, and to stay complacent.

Yet, I believe if we understand that we have an amazing capacity and call to be like Christ, hard working, bright, authoritative, influential — because we are crafted in the very image of God to be like Him, then we will always be straining, in a positive way, to become all that He created us to be and to fulfill our capacity in life.

Intentionally placing ourselves in the company of other excellent people; reading inspiring and challenging books, studying scripture in depth, practicing anything in which we would like to become more excellent, will expand our capacity to accomplish great works in our lifetime.

God disciplines us, stretches us, and trains us that we might become more like Jesus — so our hearts might reflect more of His sacrificial life and love and when someone sees us, they will be looking at the very character of Jesus. He delights in using normal, run-of-the-mill people to do great things for His kingdom. Rarely did He choose “important” people to be the ones who experienced a miraculous life.

So, how about you? What kind of woman do you want to be when you grow up? What can you read this summer to better your mind? What can you do to shore up your weaknesses? How can you stretch yourself to become more of the woman Christ created you to be?

It is only in being intentional and purposeful about your life that you will grow. And in growing, your heart and soul will become more fulfilled, because God's will, which is that we become more "holy" — set apart for His purposes — is indeed good and acceptable and perfect.

No one but you can make you more excellent — you must want it and work for it yourself!

So, start a group, join a Bible study, make up a new exercise plan, develop a skill, take some lessons, meet with a mentor — make this summer one of growth, stretching and inspiration so in a few months you will be amazed at the progress you have made, and in conquering one or two areas of growth, others will also fall into place.

Love Acted Out

Love acted out is the adhesive that holds the whole of your family together. Constructing a strong foundation of expressed love requires work on your part to research the ground on which you are building that strong tower, to understand the special nature of each child in whom you are investing your time and attention.

By investing in love, intimacy, and friendship in a way that made sense to each of my children, I helped them know that they belonged to our little community called “Clarkson.” They could always know that in this place, they would be held, loved, and seen.

Read more about this in Uniquely You.

God Is Your Constant Companion

I have found that almost every season of motherhood has brought with it an overwhelming amount of worries, duties, fears, and responsibilities that seemed far beyond my capacity to deal with. In my younger years there were sleepless nights, ear infections and asthma, moves, and constant demands on my time. Later, there were schooling issues, finding good friends, activities, more moves, and a variety of other new problems.

Every mother I know has seemingly endless seasons of stress, challenge, and worry. But it is a waste of time to spend energy and hours worrying, fretting, and troubling ourselves about things that we can't make go away.

How can we handle the stress? Only by learning the place of prayer in the daily moments and issues of life. We are like little children coming to Him, giving up our entire souls with every bit of worry, joy, and fear into His committed, capable hands.

Prayer gives us constant access to God's presence. It keeps us in relationship with Him. It is only by prayer that we are able to release our lives into our Father's hands and accept the comfort and sustenance He offers.

Seeking God and acknowledging Him as our loving Father puts the issues of our lives in a larger perspective. It helps us to walk this journey of motherhood with faith and vision, without always being weighed down by our worries.

Read more about this in Your Mom Walk With God.

Tea Time Tuesday: Curating Delight As a Way of Life

Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.

Tea Time Tuesday

“Earth, teach me regeneration as the seed which rises in the spring.” -William Alexander

I have 178 photos of daffodils. These yellow lovelies are happy flowers, delighted to be alive, blooming in their glory. Some fairy must have planted them all over the UK to bring hope, delight.

In these perilous, dark times, we must be a curator of joy, delight so that our families, friends, children look to us to find hope. It was so wondrous after a very cold winter, to be reminded that spring is on the way — nothing can hold it back.

Each winter when all appears to be dead or dying, daffodils pop up, as if out of nowhere, daffodils proclaim, there just may be a surprise and delightful life ahead.

The Unstoppable Power of Returning Spring

God masterfully transcribed lessons, insights of life into the very warp and woof of His creation. Spring, summer, winter, and fall cast the pulse of life as we experience it.

A time to bloom, to grow full-blown, to harvest. Then all dies, for a season until the cycle of life starts over again.

But winter will not have the last word.

There are winters in our lives — times when it appears that everything is dead or dying. Cold, stormy weather beats at the windows of our hearts as well as the window pains of our rooms. As Jesus said in Matthew, there will be times when the storms will burst against our house.

During this darkness of the cold, there is a deepening of roots that will allow new, better growth, a putting off of the old leaves and wilted fruit to make way for the new. It is in the darkest of nights that wisdom is learned, perspective is given, and humility clothes our souls.

In winter, gloom flows over and the fog of despair rains hard on our hearts. This is not the end of our story.

The power of returning spring is unstoppable, as though God's song refuses to be quieted.

A force so strong that it defies all other forces, life will indeed show its glory, beauty, and strength, again.

Every year, when darkness seems longest, daffodils spring up first, blooming “with all of their heart,” they proclaim, hope is coming, light is on its way!

These, are a true picture of resurrection life. More on today’s new podcast.

The True Ministry Of Motherhood

In the end, the measure of my success as a mother will not be how well I have taught my kids or cared for them but whether I have been faithful in helping them respond to God's call on their lives. This is the true ministry of motherhood — to usher my children into the living presence of God, to nurture in them a heart for Jesus and the Great Commission he has called each of us to fulfill.

Jesus isn't limited by the personalities of our children or by our own personalities or by our education or life skills or lack of the same. He is only limited by our trying to do his will our way, in our flesh. When he takes over, he confounds the limitations of our natural life circumstances. If we trust him, he will do whatever is necessary to accomplish his purposes in our lives, and he'll do it in his own time.

Read more about this in The Ministry of Motherhood.

Bearing God's Life Into The World

Humility and obedience is the instrument through which God's life, through Christ, entered the whole world and delivered His salvation and love. When we give ourselves to God as a servant, we can also become the vessel through which He brings His life, salvation, and beauty into the world. This is what it looks like to bear God's life into our world, our community, our family.

Read more about this in Teatime Discipleship For Mothers And Daughters.

Tea Time Tuesday: Live and Live Well

Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.

I dedicated my book Well Lived to my precious Lord, who has held my hand, comforted me, taught me His ways, given wisdom and companioned me with grace, mercy, and love at each step of my journey.

It was when I was living in Oxford, my 70th year, that I pondered my life and realized that my pathway had been filled with His grace and light. Somehow, God led me to know and understand the truth and reality of His word, His guidance, His ways.

I believe that each of us has a unique pathway to walk, individual stories to live, precious personalities to exercise. We are made in the image of God has endless potential to live into His spirit’s presence in our lives. We have capacity to access spiritual truth and righteousness, to grow intellectually and share from that from a well of righteousness and truth. We have a soul that can create beauty and art with our lives. And because He is a God of unconditional love, His spirit can live through us to bring His love and affirmation, inspiration to those He has placed in our pathway. And we can know and understand vast and deep life-transforming theology from investing in His word and walking in His ways.

The way to live well, to flourish on the unique pathway of our lives, is to follow His wisdom, to obey His ways. It must encompass our thoughts, our inner choices, our willingness to live by faith, our commitment to take “Every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,” that we will be able to live all of our years well, to see His purposes and ways for us.

As a young woman seeking to follow His ways, I stumbled and fell along the way. I did not have others ahead of me to share from their experience or learned truth. I longed for understanding, encouragement as I followed the ideals He placed in my heart. It is why I wrote this book, in hopes that what I had learned over years might inspire other fellow travelers on the path of righteousness.

This world can be confusing, messages about life are contrary, circumstances are taxing, women are longing for direction and peace of mind to know that their lives matter. Join me on a podcast series on my book Well Lived today.

The Essence Of Home

Whether single or married, parent or childless, student, missionary, working away from home, traveling as a way of life, or in between places while being transferred—anyone can “make home” amidst the ever-changing circumstances of life. But it won’t just happen by accident. Homemaking — not in the sense of housekeeping, but in the broader sense of cultivating the life of a home — has to be done on purpose.

The essence of home, you see, is not necessarily a structure. What makes a home is the life shared there, wherever that may be. And cultivating the life of home requires intentionality, planning, and design. There must be someone (or several someones) to craft the life, the beauty, the love, and the inspiration that overflows from that place.

Read more about this in The Lifegiving Home.

Training Takes Time

Even as Jesus had to be patient with fully grown but spiritually immature men who seemed slow to respond to his training, so we must practice patience with our children — and ourselves. The very nature of training is that it usually involves immature individuals, which means it takes a long time to accomplish its goals!

Yet Jesus' experience with his disciples can also encourage us to persist, because we see that the long, frustrating process of training really does make a difference. No matter how futile the process may seem at times, most children eventually learn the truths and habits we are diligent to instill in them. As Proverbs reminds us, if we "train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it" (22:6).

Read more about this in The Ministry of Motherhood.