At Home With Sally

If we want to pass on faith to our children, a real, vibrant, strong faith, then in our trials, we must exhibit to them faith that practices walking with God, persevering, holding fast to convictions, even when they don't seem to matter. Faith must believe that He is--that He is with us, that He is good, that He is in control, that He will reward us in His time and in His way.

When we fill our hearts with excellence and virtue, we find ourselves with a wealth of God’s goodness to offer others from the treasures we have collected. Just as Joy carefully filled her box, so we must learn to intentionally pursue activities  that will fill the treasure chest of our hearts with good things. We should look for ways to fill our hearts, minds, and spirits with goodness, truth, and beauty—the things that inspire us, cause us to worship God, and bring light to others. Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting. that will fill the treasure chest of our hearts with good things. We should look for ways to fill our hearts, minds, and spirits with goodness, truth, and beauty—the things that inspire us, cause us to worship God, and bring light to others.

When the Holy Spirit directs our course, the natural consequence is a life outside of normal striving or fleshly effort. We are able to live beyond our own capacity.

We know we are called to follow Christ, to take His message to the world, to raise our children to heed Jesus' call. But sometimes I think we fail to consider that following the Lord might mean leaving behind the ordinary and the familiar. It means exchanging a temporal view of life for an eternal goal. And this may mean leaving behind things we really care about--involvements and pursuits that seem important and worthwhile but may not be God's best for us.

Gentleness grows stronger with practice. It comes with humility. It grows as wisdom and takes root in the heart that values the ones she loves. May God grant us to become gentle in our love, that others may see Him through us. Today, I am speaking with my friend, Amber Lia. She and her friend, Wendy Speak, have written a wonderful book called Triggers: Exchanging Parents' Angry Reactions for Gentle Biblical Responses. You will love this podcast and love this book. 

When you capture the fire of your own significance in the kingdom of God, when you know that as a mother, you have the ability to shape generations to become powerful leaders for the cause of Christ, then that vision will fuel the energy of your life to serve Him every day, whispering the secrets of the kingdom of God. Your fire will be passed on to those who will carry on the torch of faith.

The starting point for all of us, first of all, is to learn the habit of living in the reality of God's view of us, His very generous and gracious love for us at every moment and to avoid thoughts of condemnation, mess and all. 

A joyful heart says, where can I leave a spirit of Christ's fragrance today--where can I dance the dance of life in the midst of darkness? And then practicing the dance steps as He gives them every day.

In the podcast today, you will hear my own story of how out of control I was of my life when my children were little and we had moved to a very remote country place to start our ministry. You will learn about the circumstances in which I had to yield my impossible life into God's hands and by faith believe that this awful place was exactly the place he wanted me to be, the place I was to cultivate life in my own desert.

The next 10 weeks, I will be leading all of us through a podcast series based on my book, Own Your Life and the Bible study guide and planner. It is my hope that this series will remind all of us about the ways God desires each of us to find our place in His story, meaning through our every day and the way to live life in such a way that we can follow along His path of love, purpose and fruitfulness that will last for eternity.  I will be discussing the vision of life as well as the details of life that happen every day. Join me and I hope it will be of great encouragement.

We're all chasing rest and beauty and delightful interludes, aren't we? But why? What do we crave at the root of that desire? Today, Sally and Kristen dive into the third and final podcast in the series that accompanies Kristen's new book, Finding Selah: the Simple Practice of Peace When you Need it Most. They share about the longing for beauty that we all have deep in our souls and discuss the only way it can ever be satisfied. They talk about real ways that we can practically grow in peace in our real lives, and the reason they are so passionate about sharing delight and visible joy with their children. Do you want to change the world? It begins with discovering beauty that changes your whole heart! WHAT WE TALK ABOUT: -How to take action and allow a practice of peace to sink deep into our lives. -God's heart for us to receive the gifts He gives us with joy. -The fact that rest is often active and often requires that we yield or surrender.  -Activities that are restful to each one of us and how you might i

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT: -How embarking on new experiences requires new muscle to develop in us. -What C.S. Lewis spoke of when he called earth "The Shadowlands" -How to develop a vision and imagination for God that will sustain us throughout our lives. -How do we develop a kingdom vision that will sustain us and our children in this place? -What we believe about God and his story for our lives and his vision and story for the world and the part we play will be our foundation for the way we live each day. -Stories of how each of us have shared the delight, enjoyment and mission of God with our children will shape their view of our family and of God.  -Trials we have faced and how they have helped to define our character and how we have seen the way they have prepared us for even greater things. -How we have learned to have interludes of beauty and delight with God in the midst of all our difficult circumstances. -A story of art that captured Kristen's heart and shifted her understanding of what God saw and was doi

Waiting on something has taken up most of my life. Waiting for answered prayers that occupied my heart and hoping that God was paying attention. In this podcast we will talk about the difficulty and sometimes pain we have when we are waiting for answers from God. We will also talk about the value in learning to wait as well as the ways God blesses beyond the waiting time we are in.  God is in control--we must humble ourselves to let Him be God and king over our lives to wait well. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God until He is gracious to us. Psalm 123:2 Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10 Faith is believing when we cannot see--choosing to believe when we absolutely do not know what is happening or what will happen--we choose to believe in God.  Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14 Be still before the LORD, rest  and wa

As we ponder the countless thousands who have engaged in our ministry through the years, through conferences, through the publishing and launching of 20 books and Bible study guides, the development of an online ministry, our blogs, podcasts, small group and international ministries, the Bible studies and conferences that are taking place all over the world, we are humbled by what God has done. 

In today's podcast, you will hear about: *My time with a dear friend, Terri Moon, and reminiscing about our lives with our children who have grown up together.  *Favorite music and why we study composers and their character qualities in our membership, "Cultivating Life with Sally. And how music is healing *Favorite recipes and traditions we both celebrate (She is an amazing cook!) *How worry has never ever changed any of our circumstances *How both of us restore and refresh and celebrate Christmas to bring Joy *Why joy is a healer and why a joyful heart is good medicine. We think that Christmas is a great time to share books as gifts because they also bring healing and inspiration to those we love. So, we are giving away 3 books to our readers for Christmas.

Take time to regroup today--Go eat some chocolate, and don't feel guilty as you are eating it (that would certainly be a waste of good chocolate!) Listen to some beautiful music, watch a heart-warming movie, take a nap, eat off of paper plates to save cleanup! The rest of December is still coming and you will be the better for it. I'll be praying for you!