All Lives Tell A Different Story

All lives tell a different story, and all of us are uniquely created by God to live our lives according to the hopes and desires and work He has set within us. An essential part of our role as parents is simply not to suppress these variances amongst our children.

It is clear that God values diversity in His creation. And so must we. How important it is that we look at the heart of who a person was created to be. To respect each person’s uniqueness is to worship God for His wonderful design.

Read more about this in Uniquely You — out now!

Uniquely You Launch Day

Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.

"Your children are fearfully and wonderfully made by Him! Through patience and commitment, we will eventually reap a harvest. Today, I encourage you to begin the journey of discovering the individual wonders of each one." (from Uniquely You)

Today my outside-the-box son Nathan and I officially release our second book together, Uniquely You. This book comes directly from our hearts and is a celebration and exploration of the beautiful uniquenesses God has created both of us, and everyone, with.

Our desire is that our stories, words, thoughts, and reflections will offer you comfort and hope, both in your and your family's story. Nathan and I continue our conversation about why we are so passionate about the themes in this book in our latest podcast, also out today. And we giggled the whole way through!

Order your copy today!

Every Child Reflects The Artistry Of God

Each child, and indeed every single person alive, is created with their own impossibly complex web of personality traits and opinions and ways of seeing their environment, and this complexity reflects the dynamic artistry of the great master artist who created us all.

Even as flowers have infinite colors, shapes, and scents, we too are created with effectively limitless possibilities of potential expression. God delights in this dynamic contrast, and it is part of our faith that we learn to see with God’s eyes the glory of His varied creation.

Order your copy of Uniquely You today.

Understanding Your Child As Unique

My whole life I wanted to be accepted as I was, cherished for my irrepressible questions, valued for the curiosity and vibrancy that danced within me. It was from that desire to be understood that I approached each of my children as totally unique and individual from every other person, believing that they would grow stronger and healthier when they were validated as a masterpiece from the hand of God within the context and limitations of their own God-given personalities.

This is the first step toward understanding your child as unique. Just like you and me, our children are fearfully and wonderfully made by God in a way that is particular to them and to the story they will tell with their lives.

Preorder your copy of Uniquely You today.

Nathan's & My New Book: Uniquely You

Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.

A few years ago my outside-the-box son Nathan and I released a book, Different, that detailed Nathan’s story of being a kid with mental illness and learning disabilities and my story of loving and raising him. We didn’t know what to expect when sharing our story but after an interview on The Today Show were blown away with the response.

In the years since its release we have received countless letters from all over the world of people who connected with our story. Not long ago, we felt God put it on our hearts to continue the conversation we began in different and explore further and deeper the beauty of the uniqueness God has created all of us and our children in. 

In our new book, Uniquely You, Nathan and I step beyond mental illness and learning disabilities and explore every way a child can be different. We have nine chapters covering topics of personality, learning styles, discipline needs, love languages, and so much more. We believe that every child is made entirely uniquely, and while navigating how to raise unique kids, God hasn’t asked us to fit our children into a constraining mold, but rather educate ourselves on and celebrate all the ways our children are unique for the purpose of helping them live out the unique story God has for them to tell.

You can preorder the book now wherever books are sold. It officially releases into the world on January 7th.

If you would like to have access to the course of ten short videos where Nathan and I discuss each and every chapter from the book, make sure to join our Life With Sally membership to follow along!

Decluttering Your Soul For 2025

Decluttering my soul is something I do every year before I plan my priorities, goals for the year. On New Year's weekend, I get away to a private place whatever it takes, to view the state of my heart, mind and soul. I ask God to help me clear out my conscience, leave my past burdens in the file drawers of heaven, by faith, trust God to move generously in my new year. I feel lighter, seeing what He will provide for me in the new year. Every year, I share these thoughts that I hope will give you a fresh wind blowing through your soul.

Even as we declutter our home, put it back in order after a busy holiday season, so I find that I must declutter my heart to go into my year free, with grace, hope and good plans. Proverbs tells us to “Guard our heart, for from it flows the springs of life.”

If we do not keep our heart free from those things that would bring darkness, discouragement, criticism, fear, despair, we will not be able to accomplish all of the other tasks we have planned for our year. He must be at the center of our peaceful, trusting heart. But even as in marriage, parenting, friendship, as issues must be communicated and discussed, so our heart issues must come to the light and be talked about with Him, so that we can declutter our souls.

Sometimes we are hold feelings of guilt, failure, disappointment, criticism, resentment, fear, blame. Yet, if we allow these feelings to fester, they will be a sort of poison to our hearts. So giving our burdens, regrets, issues into the hands of God and planning how we will walk forward in freedom is essential to keep a free, pure, loving heart.

Every year, we have sent out a “Decluttering Your Heart” planner to those how want to print it out and use it to plan their year. All you have to do is to join my blog mailing list and it will come to your email.

Stay tuned for announcement tomorrow about a new book by me and Nathan that we hope will be of help to you on the journey of decluttering your soul!

I wish you a happy and blessed new year.

What 30 Years Can Hold

Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.

Thirty years ago found Clay and me deep in the heart of Texas in a tiny little town of 700 people. Our office was a small, old farmhouse, our home a haven in the middle of an isolated rural area. After living in large international cities (Vienna, Warsaw, Krakow, Los Angeles, Denver, Nashville), God put on our heart to start a publishing house and ministry. Our goal was to inspire, train parents to disciple their children in their home, pass on a lasting legacy of faith. We went without an income for 4 years, writing books, seeking to establish conferences, living with my mother-in-law on 200 acres in the middle of nowhere.

We could never have imagined then what God would do through our work and prayers. The privilege of speaking all over the world, writing 40 books together, hosting 20 years of women’s conferences for thousands of women, creating a blog, starting a podcast, was indeed a lot of hard work with long hours. Yet, we saw the hand of God working through all of these years to reach parents all over the world. What God has done is beyond what we could have imagined. We were untrained, low in finances, inexperienced, yet our hearts were led day after day to invest what we could to reach parents everywhere.

One of the legacies of our work is that kind, engaged, kindred friends, and generous people partnered with us every step. They volunteered at our conferences, taught our Bible studies, gave generously of their time, finances to help us to keep reaching out to those whose hearts were ready to respond. We could never have done what we did without the help of like minded people like you God brought our way.

As Clay and I enter what will be our last season of ministry, we are praying that God will give us energy, health, strength to continue to be light in this dark world. We hope to teach more profoundly about the love of God, His desire to work through families to shape a godly generation.

We would be so honored if you would consider joining us in this our last season of ministry adventure. If you have a heart to support our work, please consider sending your gift to Whole Hear by clicking here.

Thank you so very much. A blessed 2025 to you all.

Seeing The Fruits Of My Labor

I have heard others speak about the challenges and rewards of traditional motherhood. And I'll have to admit there was a time when I would listen to such talk and feel it was just mothering rhetoric with little relevance to my life.

As I learned to go to God and listen to his voice, my goals for my family and for myself grew bigger and grander. This is especially true now that my children are adults. They are some of my closest companions.

Together we have learned to look at the world and say, "Lord, in the power of your Holy Spirit, what work do you have for our family this year? How can we expand your kingdom? How can we glorify you together?"

Life as a mother, in other words, is more exciting to me now than ever before — especially as I now see the fruits of my earlier labors. The foundations that were laid in my children's lives, little by little, have given them the ability now to reach for the sky and reach new heights over the years, and I continue to be amazed. (Read more about this in The Mission of Motherhood.)

Stay tuned for more encouragement and inspiration to guide you into the new year in the coming days. Love to you all.

The Shepherd's Meal: Written On Our Hearts

Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.

Tonight finds me in front of the Christmas tree, with a couple of children and their spouses. We planned our Christmas Eve meal together. Some traditions hold you, put a stamp of remembrance on your heart, tie family and friends together. All of my children, when asked what their favorite tradition is for us Clarksons say, “Shepherd’s meal on Christmas Eve.” We have celebrated it together for 40 years.

When Clay and I were early married, I told him that I thought instead of making Christmas Eve one more, over the top, heavy work on “mama” meal, we should come up with something simple, easy, just like the first Christmas. I thought that instead of focusing all of our time, energy, and excitement on “presents” and stockings, on Christmas Eve, we could really ponder the heart of Christ.

His first coming to the shepherd’s with a heavenly chorus, finding a humble mama nursing, tenderly cuddling her baby was the story we needed to celebrate and remember, that he came to high, lowly, educated, pious and ungodly alike. We both agreed that the glory of Christ appearing to common men and women, shepherding their flocks was something we wanted to remember together — the glory of angels singing amidst the ordinary work of shepherds watching over their flocks. And so, Shepherd’s meal became a sacred, beloved tradition for us.

All lights are extinguished, candles lit everywhere, simple soup, a fruit plate with nuts, cheese, homemade, hand-formed herb bread. That was it. This feast became our favorite meal.

The first shepherd's meal found 5 of us in Vienna as missionaries — Clay and I, toddler Sarah and newborn Joel, and a young friend living with us. We squished together in a tiny creaky, old Austrian cottage. The foundation had settled, leaving the basement steps slanted and uneven, with a bit of effect on the rest of the house. Most of the rooms were about as big as a large walk-in closet. Rain would pour down our walls—inside! Pigeons often found their way into the attic and then got stuck there. The energy of young love, youthful ideals, toddler glee, discoveries every day with a newborn son sang happiness and vibrancy into our lives.

A very blessed Christmas, friends.

Chocolate Chip Cookes Can Make All The Difference

The Christmas season, every mama knows, can bring about stress. In moments of busyness or chaos, I’ve found that chocolate chip cookies can make a critical difference. There have been many times my sense of peace has been renewed by a sweet treat and a warm cup of tea or hot cocoa.

A few of our family's favorite sweet treats that we have gathered around and feasted on for countless teatimes over the years are, of course, classic chocolate chip cookies; snowball cookies covered in powdered sugar; decadent Hello Dolly bars; rich butterscotch cookies; gooey cinnamon rolls.

What treats do you and your family love making for Christmas? What sweet immediately makes everything better and restores your peace? What brings the most joy? Tell me in the comments!