How is your soul today? Be reminded that He is walking alongside you, ready to pour life and love through you everywhere you go. Love is there, waiting to strengthen the soul of a great woman who depends on His love flowing in and through every day.
Today, choose to become a co-creator with Him who is the source of all that is beautiful and good, celebrating His reality in the midst of this puzzle that is called your life.
Read more about this in Mom Heart Moments.
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My life is all about legacy.
“Every day of your life, you have the potential of leaving a godly model to follow, a kingdom message to believe, an integrity that is holy and a purpose that is eternal. God has allowed you the opportunity to touch eternity with your life by giving these gifts to those children he has entrusted into your hands. Live into your legacy and you will change your world forever.” (from Well Lived)
When I became a believer, I was challenged to ponder how I might bring the light of Christ to my world in my lifetime. I was taught to invest in people by serving them, showing them the love of God by my words and actions, inspiring them with messages of Jesus. Discipleship at its core, I reached out to others to do what I had been taught — to pass on a vision and passion to fulfill the eternal purposes for which I had been created.
And then I had children...
Light dawned in my heart that my children would be the most important disciples I would have. I would answer to God for building a legacy of faith into their lives. I would be responsible for reaching their hearts with the love of God; teaching His truths and moral excellence, giving them the ability to think profoundly, encouraging them to become educated in order to use their skills and calling for God, and to pass on the purposes of God which alone would fulfill their longings and desires to live meaningful lives.
Mentoring my children into godly adults met deep needs in my heart to connect to what really mattered and shaped my own virtue and faith.
Leaving a godly legacy takes a lifetime, creates varied emotions — sometimes joy, or feelings of failure, exhaustion. Taking responsibility to mentor my children called me to my best self — to grow intellectually, in character, in virtue, to grow deeper in faith. God designed parenting so we would grow up, become more like Jesus, more mature.
Perfection is not the goal, but a willing heart to partner with Jesus, to live in His grace, to dwell in His unconditional love, to pass that intimate knowledge of Him on, that hearts may be lit to live a legacy in their own stories, through their own lives.
More on today’s new Tea Time Tuesday podcast.
As I’ve partnered with Clay in that bigger picture, it has been my privilege to do my best to be a godly mother to our children—to nurture their faith through my love, grace, discipleship, encouragement, instruction, and inspiration.
I have found purpose and meaning in trying to be the kind of mother I believe was in God’s heart at creation—a lifegiving mother, one who brings the life of God to my children.
I won’t pretend it was always a wonderful journey with no difficulties, but the blessings far outweigh the burdens as I see now the influences of my life on each of my children. They are, as God promised, the blessings.
Read more about this in The Lifegiving Parent.
This has been one of my greatest delights as a mother. Home can be one of the most deeply transformative places in the world, a refuge where lives are touched, hearts are shaped, and God is known.
Home should be a beautiful place filled with God’s grace — where people are loved without expectation, the table is enjoyed with all its God-given delights, memories are made because people want to remember, and the sacred sense of welcome and belonging is offered to each person who enters.
God has entrusted mothers to be the makers of homes, the cultivators of beauty, and the givers of life.
Read more about this in 10 Gifts of Heart.
Regularly scheduled tea times with teens or young adults can become a useful tool for mentoring and discipleship. I do it with my boys and girls, usually alone with them for deeper friendship. I pass on a legacy of faith and encouragement over tea and either cinnamon toast, chocolate chip oatmeal cookies or a cinnamon roll, even a light meal. Great discussions have come from our planned tea times together.
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Godly Endurance is the key to a flourishing life, especially during times like today..
Sitting in the dark shadows of my small cozy library as the sun went behind the mountain, found me and one of my older children talking quietly of struggles, challenges, battles of life, and long term endurance. The deep friendship, shaped over years of shared life, had knit our souls quite together.
I wasn't expecting this moment to be a memorable one. Just a normal moment in the dusk of day, that shaped a soul-satisfying memory.
"Mama," my grown child tenderly whispered, "One of the greatest things you have ever accomplished is to keep our family together through love, faith, laying down your own life, and enduring with as much grace as Jesus could give you, so that our lives could be whole, healthy and strong.”
“I know that only God will know the ways you have chosen to give and serve and forgive, when you had to make the choices to do so. But all of us kids have benefitted because you were willing to weather the storms of life for us and hold us together. I want a spouse who knows how to be strong."
Sometimes, I think mamas hold the whole world together. Their work is that important. Much of our lives as a family has been a battle through raging storms. But, there are some amazing graces on this side of motherhood, when my fourchildren have reached adulthood---I don't have to go back through any of thestorms we barely weathered and much of my labor is behind me. And from all of it, I see four healthy, strong, vibrant adults who are also my beloved friends.
Join me at AthomewithSally for a new Tea Time Tuesday podcast: Summer salad, books, music, scripture to give you hope.
Knowing the limitations of my responsibility as a mother has actually been quite freeing to me. I can be God's agent for cultivating the hearts of my children; in fact, I'm supposed to fill that role. But only God can give them life, strength, and divine guidance.
This means my success in life or in motherhood or as a Christian is not dependent on my being perfect, but on my allowing God, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, to work through me to accomplish his purposes. As I depend on him, he who began a good work in me will perfect it (Philippians 1:6). He will do the same for the precious ones he has entrusted to me.
That understanding is one of the finest gifts of faith I can ever give my children. Even as I depend on the Lord, I must help them learn to depend on him. I must use as many ways as I can think of, as Christ did, to convey to them that none of us has to live the Christian life alone. We have Jesus' promise on that, and the Lord is always faithful to keep his promise. He will always be with us—mother and children alike—even to the end of the age.
Read more about this in The Ministry of Motherhood.
God has shared with me his wisdom along the way. He has shown me that with him I am stronger and more capable of accomplishing more things in life than I ever would have imagined. Even though I don't desire trials, I can enter into them in anticipation of how they can become my greatest accomplishments.
Joy, then, comes in embracing the opportunity to be a part of his world of righteousness and preparing to live with him in that kingdom for eternity. Joy comes in following where he leads me, choosing to believe that his way is good and that he works according to his will. I quench this joy when I resist him and fight against the dance he is trying to teach me. I experience the grace of the dance when I follow his direction and his lead, even when it seems to be the opposite of what I might have done.
To grow in this joy, I have to move where he leads. When dancers attempt to turn in different directions, there is no beauty, no synchronizing of movement. But when they learn to read each other's movements and move as one body, there is a beauty, a grace, and a skill of step that grants the joy of unity and elegance to the dance.
Read more about this in Dancing With My Heavenly Father.
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In almost everything that touches our everyday life on earth, God is pleased when we're pleased. He wills that we be as free as birds to soar and sing our maker's praise without anxiety.
- A. W. Tozer
As it happens, I hide birds all over my home for my sweet grandchildren to discover. And of course, to make tea time more fun, I might just place one on my tea table to create and tell a “bird adventure story.” This is my bird, Daniel, who had so much to say.
I love this quote by Tozer. To know and believe that God “wills us to be as free as birds,” and cares that we we are pleased is oxygen to our hearts that long to know His love. Just a little thought to ponder this week as we seek to show our children His gracious, generous love toward us.
I have been over the top busy this week, so decided to share some short interviews I had with a couple of dear friends. Jennifer Pepito is a dear friend, seasoned mother through many stages of life. Her book gives such scope and life to building home. I know she will be of great encouragement to you.
And Lyndsey Mimnagh, another sweet friend, had so much to say about creating life, beauty, wonder in a home education environment. Both are cherished friends. Enjoy!
Join me for today’s Tea Time Tuesday podcast for more ideas around delight.
As I consider some of my most committed "love" relationships — Clay, who has stuck with me through thick and thin; a few close friends, who have loved and accepted me unconditionally for decades; my children, who are the closest of friends and beloved of my heart — I realize that it has been in my relationships with them that I have had the most joyful memories, the deepest intimate encounters, the greatest celebrations of life.
I have felt deeply loved and accepted in the common life experiences that have knit our souls together. And it all came through committed, "I will be loyal to you and love you no matter what" love.
Jesus said, "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you." How has he loved us? He gave up his throne in heaven and came to the earth as a simple, humble man. He lived and loved and served and healed and poured out his life and died on the cross to pay for our sins. So that becomes the standard for what he means when he says, "Love one another."
If our relationships are built around serving God and obeying Christ by laying down our lives for others, then our giving love will be about pleasing God — regardless of how the other person responds. Every relationship becomes meaningful in light of doing what God wants us to do — to love — so that our joy can be made full.
There is something very freeing about loving in this biblical way. I can always succeed. I can always be at peace no matter how the relationship goes. If I please Christ by laying down my life, then I have done what was expected of me.
Read more about this in Dancing with My Heavenly Father.
Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.
"Tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilities, will always be the favorite beverage of the intellectual." - Thomas De Quincey
This made me giggle. Yet, intellectuals love to discuss ideas and issues. Tea time is a perfect place to cultivate great discussions about interesting thoughts.
A while ago, a friend surprised me and invited me to a wonderful tea time, as you can see.
Often, you we don’t know we need someone to notice us. Yet, on this occasion, I deeply felt the love of my thoughtful friend. Shared memory and the time we talked as friends filled up places I didn’t know were empty. On my podcast today, I share a bit about the classic tea sandwiches I was served at many a tea while I lived in the United Kingdom, as well as traditional food in a proper English tea.
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Each of us encounters friction in every relationship. All of us are selfish and self-centered at heart. We will fuss and be petty. God’s word became to me a guide for how to find peace in relationships, how to invest in them with God’s word as my guide. I still have conflict along my pathway, but I have been straining forward in learning how to avoid as much of unnecessary conflict as possible—and how to love better.
1. A great lover of people is mature in keeping their approach to others Biblically thoughtful. “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12) The golden rule is my starting point in parenting, marriage and friendship. How do I want to be treated? With compassion, sympathy, generous love, kindness. I strain to grow in this way towards others.
2. When Peter asked Jesus how many times we should forgive, Jesus replied “Seventy times seven,” (Matthew 18:21-22). We must forgive endlessly, always. Holding bitterness, unforgiveness in our hearts poisons and hurts our hearts.
3. “Love is patient.” So much to unpack here.
For the rest of these principles, listen to my podcast, At Home with Sally. I will also be sharing about coronation chicken, why attachment is essential for parents with babies, favorite music, a homeschooling planner, and much more more. Join me, and share with a friend.
