Life with Sally

Join me today on my podcast as my leaders share with me their own struggles and difficulties as moms as well as their own vision for what women need.

Do your children have any specific heroes they identify with? Do you? If not, consider going on a hero-hunt—maybe together!

God's goodness is the source and foundation of your child's developing character. As they learn to value that goodness, their character will begin to be shaped by it; when they receive Christ and His Spirit, they will continue to walk in it.

Our children, especially boys, come to us in all sorts of shapes, sizes, issues, personalities and skill sets. I must confess that I struggled with all of my children in different ways at different times. But at some point, I finally had to realize that I needed to make peace with my precious children and the puzzle I was given to figure out with my own different ones, as all were quite unique.

As parents, we are in effect giving God's life to our children by helping them flesh out the words of the old hymn: "Trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to truth and obey." Strengthening your child's faith and shaping your child's will is the path for them to finding their life in Christ, just as every marriage begins with belief and willingness.

We are an artistic bunch: books, music, movies, scripts, cd's. Not a scientist in the crowd. Many of you who have followed J&J have written to ask me about the music we have shared on fb and other places so I thought I would go ahead and put the info here. Enjoy!

Find Jennifer at her blog, here: Jennifer Fulwiler and on Instagram here: Jennifer Fulwiler

Find Randall and his wonderful products on Instagram at Slugs and Bugs and his website here: Slugs and Bugs

You can find Ruth at her lovely blog, Gracelaced, or on Instagram as Ruth Chou Simons.

It's safe to say that most of us would agree with the popular aphorism "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." That unforgettable phrase first entered the collective American mind in 1972 as the slogan for UNCF ads, helping that worthy organization raise billions of dollars in scholarships for African American college students. It has since become part of the American vernacular, expressing a truth that resonates for all thinking people: Every mind is valuable and worthy of investment and development. It also suggests that the mind is a renewable resource, or, as Leonardo da Vinci quipped (though not in English), "Learning never exhausts the mind." In other words, the more we invest in the mind, the more it will give back.

No matter how hard we try to help our children stay on the straight and narrow way, how diligently we try to guard their eye and ear gates, how much we try to model and train them to practice the Golden Rule, they are constantly tempted to be pulled away from God's ideals. Truly faith-driven parents will never completely give up on their biblical standards, and yet the longer we are on the parenting journey, the more we may let go of our tight grip on what we believe Scripture teaches about parenting. But that doesn't change the realness of the ideals.

Because it is launch day and Clay and I are in Oxford, England, we will not be in the right time zone to do our normal facebook launch party. So we recorded a special launch day podcast for you from Scotland.

Nurturing my children was not always a planned part of my normal day, but sometimes the spontaneous times of training and instruction were the best times.

Website: www.LaraCasey.com Shop: www.shop.cultivatewhatmatters.com Instagram: @LaraCasey Set kid-sized goals. Training your children how to set goals, even at a young age, is giving them early practice at one aspect of what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

Kristen Kill is a woman transformed by the delight of God. She is passionate about encouraging women who feel stretched thin with the truth that, even in the tension, God is singing over them with love. After spending the last seven years in the hustle of New York City, Kristen and her husband, Josh, are learning to go slow as they raise their five kids in the Pacific Northwest. Her days are filled with homeschooling, walking her slightly anxious hound dog, and putting off the cleaning for one more day. Find Kristen writing at kristenkill.com and follow her on Instagram @kristenkill.

If you would like to see what Holly is up to, follow her at storyformed.com or find her on Instagram @storyformedhome. To keep up with Glenn's latest musings, follow him on Twitter at @gpackiam. You can also find links to his resources on glennpackiam.com.

Lifegiving parenting is not about changing the culture we live in but about being a counterculture to it. It's not about creating a comfortable Christian subculture insulated from the surrounding world; rather, it's about being the kind of lifegiving home culture that will stand as a testimony of God's biblical design for family to a lost world whose sandy foundations are washing away.

We have had such a great time interviewing different parents asking them to share some of their best ideas and advice about being a parent who raises their children for Christ. Today is our first such podcast. We hope you will enjoy this series and glean from the many ideas shared in the next two weeks. You will love Susie Davis. She is a seasoned mom, an author and loves to encourage those in her ministry. You will be refreshed by our time shared on this podcast, Thanks, Susie.

I think that the goal is to teach our children to obey quickly, but search as I may, I cannot find that as a standard in scripture. And so I may find relief in the grace I have found in scripture.

Join me in my podcast today where I discuss the way to contentment in marriage, how to build this legacy for a lifetime and why God considers your worship of Him as a reflection of how well you choose to love and live in harmony with your spouse.

Discipleship and mentoring took place daily at our table, because of our intentional commitment to inform their values, to reach their hearts with truth and messages from the heart of God.

The lifegiving home must start with a heart that says, "I will be the hostess of life here within these walls to serve all who come here so that they may taste and see that the Lord is good by being here with me."

Our newest book, The Lifegiving Parent, is all about the ways we walk along the path of life with our children, encouraging them to find life in God. Available now for preorder!

If we understand the importance of building this foundation of loving our precious children and teaching them to love others, we will give them the power they need to build strong relationships, stay strong in marriage, learn to work in ministry and a profession well--in short, we will give them the ability to have a fuller, more fulfilling life.

I find myself so anxious to share with you, my precious friends, the joy I find in the message of Christ this year, while deep in the mire of challenges and difficulties. Though I am not able to read or look at my computer or screens because of my eye injury, I have done my best to leave you a podcast message and this blog post that I hope will be of come encouragement to you. Know that you are all in my prayers.

Integrity comes from years of practicing living with godly character. Integrity is a lifelong fruit of determining to live faithfully. Christ is the model for what it looks like to have perfect integrity. But integrity brings the reward of living well into your life and watching God faithfully produce eternal fruit through the pages of your story.

I thought I would catch some of you up on my eye (the fall I had) and a little bit from Joel and Clay for a fun podcast today.

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 implement them in your own life. -The transformative effect of rest in our lives- and the way it equips us to pour out our hearts to others. -How we cultivate spaces that knit beauty and peace into the lives of our children, and all those we influence. -Finding the root of all beauty in Jesus, and learning to trust Him and be satisfied in our relationship with Him as a pattern that shapes the rest of our lives. -Why its so important to talk to give our children a home, a table, and an education that all speak life- that all give them a vision and a picture of heaven- that guide them to the heart of God. -God's provision of his people when they had great fear and anxiety. -The gifts of our "miracle babies" and the way God softened each of our hearts through the joy of motherhood.

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 doing in her life. -The way God's song and beauty and art awaken our hearts to Him. - How we can encourage others through the sharing beauty and the truth of God's word. -The history of the Psalms and music in the church. LINKS - Composer Studies at Cultivating Life With Sally - Monet's Regatta at Sainte Adresse

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 wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Psalm 37:7 Waiting brings deep wisdom and perspective and stretches our character muscles Waiting develops humility and compassion and extends your ability to minister to others Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. Isaiah 40:31

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.