At Home With Sally

I so enjoy having friends who inspire me and who have messages that fill my heart. Ruth Chou Simons is such a friend. Her art, her words and her friendship always help to fill some of the dry places of my spiritual heart. We recently recorded a podcast together of some of the issues we have both experienced in this long journey of life as a woman, a spouse, a working writer and a mother. I hope you will be encouraged by our time together. I also am excited to share her new book with you because it is so beautiful and so encouraging.

No matter how hard we try, how many achievements we make, or how many ideals we keep, we will never be able to do enough to earn God's love. Such attempts lead us down a dead-end road paved with feelings of life-depleting guilt and condemnation. Only the grace and love that God gives freely through his merciful nature can provide us with that which we long for: peace and joy.

When these tests come upon us, it is our one moment when we can look at our circumstances, feel our feelings of despair, and then choose to say, "I don't understand, but I believe and I will wait, and I will rest, as an act of my will, because you are the Lord of Hosts and you are my Father."

Five years ago, my friend Ainsley Arment started a community of mothers who want to give their children a quality education, but also a childhood full of wonder, freedom, and curiosity. This community, called Wild + Free, began on Instagram but has spread into real-life gatherings all over the world. I’ve spoken at several of her conferences, and she’s just written a book called The Call of the Wild + Free: Reclaiming Wonder in Your Child’s Education.

To build anything great and strong requires time. But a hedge of strength, protecting, guarding the beauty inside is a safe-guard from destroying the sacred trust. Marriage is one of the most profound ways God designed for us so that we could slowly learn and develop in our own lives, the very character of Christ, learning to serve, love, and give ourselves as He did for us. We hope you’ll enjoy this podcast today, as Kristen and Misty are again joining me to talk about marriage!

I hope you will give yourself time to really ponder the podcast today and to breathe in the beauty of this story. We only have this life, today, to choose to celebrate the reality of God in the presence of others and we never know when this opportunity will be over. Let me know your thoughts after you listen.

Marriage is meant to be a picture of the love Christ has for the church; His commitment and persevering faithfulness to us. He said He would never leave us or forsake us. He laid down his life for us.  Jesus treasures marriage because it is the holy place where His love for the world is modeled by how we practice giving to one another and staying the course of our commitment. What might you do to strengthen your own marriage, today?

I have had several podcasts lately about friendship. I almost didn’t play this one today because I wanted to be sure you had not heard too much about friendship from me lately. Yet, in this podcast, I realized that there have been crucial dark moments in my life when I would have floundered or fallen apart if I had not had friends to carry me, to comfort me, to guide me when I couldn’t see where I was going. So I hope that you will listen to this podcast today and be encouraged once again about how vitally it is to understand that much of our joy is sustained through relationships with people who have chosen to love us, to help us, to be committed.

Sometimes, we need to just stop life from invading every moment of our day and sapping all our energy, and take the time to make a new plan. Rest, rest, rest. We all need to regularly rest to keep ourselves alive. But we need more than rest: sometimes: we need something fun.

My friend, Glen Packiam, has written a book that will refresh your understanding about how Christ comes to you to satisfy your life, to validate your story and to show you how to become His life and light to those He brings your way.

Friendship is an imperative part of a healthy life! We hope you’ll enjoy our podcast today as we discuss women’s friendships. Today, ponder the podcast and pray about the truths we address for your own life. Reach out to at least one woman this week. And we do pray that each of you will find a sweet friend with whom to walk through the pathways of life.

We can make a commitment to take every situation, every feeling, every fear to God as it happens. We don't have to remain in a state of emotional separation from the Lord every time we get out of step. We simply have to practice walking each step with him and allow his presence to bring us the joy that comes from resting in the arms of our capable dance partner through each measure of life's song.

If we as parents can learn to embrace our relationship with God, we will be empowered to create for our children and anyone else who crosses our doorsteps a true culture of love—a home environment where the life of God is breathed through all moments and love becomes the fuel for living with hope, purpose, and expectation.

Join me today in my podcast where I share the story of my being in Communist Poland as a young, single women wondering if I was even capable or adequate to being a missionary. God has taught me so much about cultivating joy every day since then, but it is a long journey of maturing a little at a time to learn to dance in His joy every day.

We are all triune beings; body, soul, and spirit. All of those areas need maintenance and attention. This means we need sleep, and healthy food. We need to watch our caffeine intake and avoid spending too much time on the couch. We need fresh air and sunshine.

It is in being faithful to our own set of tests that we become mature and fitted for the ministry he has called each of us to accomplish. If we aspire to be a general, so to speak, spiritually, then we must first pass the training and tests of life as a private!

Own Your Circumstances, Own your design, Own your puzzle and make it an interesting, god-glorifying place to live or at least slowly move into that direction. Don't be a victim to your life's duties, find ways to make it personally fulfilling.

“God’s desire is for us to experience true joy and deep fulfillment. It must start, however, with the journey into the recesses of our heart. It is only as we release our hold on the things that we think we need to be truly happy, when we open our hands freely, that we experience true joy.”

Misty and I are back this week with another sneak peek into our membership site, Life with Sally! Every month, I record a new Bible study just for members. My desire is to leave a legacy of encouragement, trust and wisdom to those who long for it as I do. Consequently, I do a Bible study every month for my membership to encourage them from my own walk in scripture. We’ve been looking into the book of Proverbs recently, and today we are sharing the second half of a particular study on the power of words.

C.S. Lewis is one of my heroes. I love his writing and thinking. Yet, I appreciate him even more because of his very difficult life. He wrote great psychology of many characters not just because of his imagination, but because of the experiences of His life which taught him to forge through the dark times to strain into the light.