0:00

Hi

0:07

everyone! Welcome to At Home with Sally.

0:09

I'm Sally Clarkson and I have the

0:11

biggest privilege in the world to be

0:14

with so many friends from all over

0:16

the world who join

0:18

me every week to listen

0:20

to my stories, inspiration, biblical

0:22

encouragement, and I am just so

0:24

glad that you're here today. Thanks so much for

0:26

joining me. Hello

0:37

my friends, this is Sally Clarkson. I

0:40

am so happy that you joined me tonight

0:42

or today or whenever it is in your

0:44

part of the world. I just

0:47

love being able to

0:49

be with you in this

0:51

community of people because

0:53

I feel like more than

0:55

ever I see in my own life lately that

0:58

I need to be connected to people,

1:01

to women, all over the

1:03

world who have a fire in their

1:05

hearts for the Lord. It seems to

1:08

me that oftentimes there are so many needs

1:10

and difficulties in my own life with

1:12

other friends and other people

1:14

at this particular time in

1:17

history that when I

1:19

am in the fellowship or the

1:21

company of people who

1:23

share stories of God's faithfulness, who

1:26

are together, who pray

1:28

for one another, who cherish the

1:31

fact that God is real and God is

1:34

attentive to our prayers,

1:38

these things encourage me. So I hope and pray

1:40

that you will have lots of

1:43

opportunity to be encouraged in my

1:45

podcast today. I

1:48

have had such a crazy Monday but first I'm going to

1:50

tell you a little bit about something else. One

1:53

of our dear friends had

1:55

a special birthday in

1:57

the last week and we were

1:59

gathered together with many

2:01

people, some we knew, some we didn't,

2:03

but in the midst of it

2:06

we asked one of the people

2:09

who was new to us there, or one

2:11

of the hosts asked him, just as

2:14

we were sitting at a table eating great food,

2:16

to share his story. And as

2:18

he shared his story of

2:20

the ways that God had worked in

2:22

his life, the times that he had

2:26

sought him out, the times that he had directed

2:28

his paths, then someone said,

2:31

Sally and Clay tell us your story. And

2:33

so we did, and sometimes when

2:36

you review your story, you

2:38

look back and you think, oh my goodness,

2:40

God has been faithful to work in our

2:43

lives. And yet what

2:45

I found so encouraging was

2:47

that we were all together in

2:50

community, sharing friendship,

2:53

sharing stories, and

2:55

when you look back on the stories of

2:57

your life, you realize that our

3:00

God loves, companions us,

3:02

is seeking those whose

3:05

hearts are his, he gives

3:07

grace when we fail. It was just

3:09

a really special time. So don't

3:12

neglect to celebrate the important

3:14

times in your life. It will be

3:16

really wonderful. Well today, my

3:18

Monday, which is, you find me, it

3:20

seems every Monday lately, right before I'm

3:23

making dinner for my family, and which

3:27

is also in itself just another tiny part of

3:29

my life today. I had

3:31

promised our salmon tonight, my special salmon

3:33

that I make with some,

3:36

it's kind of has some mustard

3:39

and brown sugar and olive oil topping,

3:41

and it's so good. And we had

3:43

looked forward to it all day. But

3:45

alas, when I went to the freezer

3:47

a little bit ago, there

3:50

were only three pieces, and

3:52

Nathan and Keeliah are visiting us here,

3:55

and we're having so, so, so much fun.

3:57

And not

4:00

one of us wanted to give up our piece

4:02

of salmon. So

4:04

we're substituting chicken tonight, once

4:07

again. And I need to run make dinner in

4:09

just a little while so that we can all

4:12

have fun together and talk some more. We

4:14

talk all the time. But

4:17

anyway, that was a funny thing. And earlier

4:19

today, because Nathan

4:21

and I are actually

4:23

working in a book that will come out

4:26

next year, it's

4:28

a follow-up to the book Different. And

4:30

I'll tell you more about it later. But

4:32

we had gotten our editorial comments back.

4:35

And so we had driven down

4:37

to, we have a favorite place that many

4:39

of you know about. And oh my

4:42

goodness, sounds like there are some

4:44

dog fights outside. Isn't that just like my podcast?

4:46

I have drama in the middle of it. But

4:50

anyway, we had driven down 35 minutes

4:52

away to a large

4:55

hotel where I hide in one of the lobbies.

4:58

I get everybody a cup of coffee. And we were

5:01

just working, working, working on our

5:03

editorial that we had to do

5:05

for all the chapters of this book. But

5:08

in the midst of it, Nathan and

5:10

Kelia, who are dear

5:12

best friends, I mean, we have so

5:14

much fun together. And Nathan

5:17

said, I want to take a few pictures

5:19

of you because we will always need more

5:21

pictures on social media to put with the articles

5:23

that you're working on. And I

5:26

said, okay, okay, okay. So I put

5:28

my computer down, which I

5:30

had been working on, and on top

5:32

of this desk that was next

5:34

to this chair where I'd been

5:36

working. And Nathan said, oh,

5:38

wait, go to this chair over here. It's

5:40

bigger and it's more beautiful and it's more

5:43

important and you'll look great there. So I

5:45

went over to the chair. We

5:47

chatted a little bit. He took some pictures. Sit

5:49

up, put your neck up, put your neck down. Go

5:52

from this direction, do this, do that. So I

5:55

did all of these things. And

5:57

then we kept talking. talking

6:00

about some things, all three

6:02

of us, and they said, why

6:04

don't we go on home, and I'm hungry, we

6:06

hadn't had lunch yet, and then

6:09

we can keep working when we get home.

6:11

Well, so we drove the 35

6:13

or 40 minutes because

6:15

there was a wreck on the freeway all

6:18

the way home. And then

6:20

when we got home, I looked

6:23

in my computer bag, my

6:25

little briefcase, and there was no computer

6:27

there. So

6:30

I panicked, it has everything in the

6:32

world on it, books and editing and

6:34

blog posts and podcasts. And

6:36

I said, oh, I can't believe it.

6:39

When we were distracted taking the pictures,

6:42

and I grabbed my briefcase, I didn't go

6:44

back across the room where I hadn't been

6:46

very long and put my computer in it.

6:49

So I called the hotel

6:51

back, and I

6:53

said, I left my computer there. They

6:56

said, well, it'll be a few minutes. So they had

6:58

to spend about 10 or 15 minutes to go find

7:01

it. They did find it. And then

7:03

Clay said, well, I'll drive you all the way

7:06

back down. So he drove me back down, and

7:08

we had to wait for them 25 minutes. It's

7:11

just across the hall when

7:13

I got there. So we drove for another

7:15

hour and a half to

7:17

get my computer. And that's kind

7:19

of the story of my

7:22

Monday. So how in the world is

7:24

your Monday? I hope that your

7:26

Monday has been good. And

7:28

I'm just grateful that I had such good

7:30

conversation and companionship when I was

7:32

with Clay. So it turned out

7:35

well, and now I'm a little bit

7:37

late doing the chicken. So should I do the

7:39

podcast or should I honor my

7:41

family's hungry tummies? Anyway,

7:43

I'm so glad you're with me today. I

7:46

just wanna say, if I don't

7:48

say this at the beginning, I'll forget it. But

7:51

for those of you who need

7:53

some special encouragement, I have been

7:56

so encouraged and excited

7:58

because so many... Many of

8:00

you have been writing me

8:02

about how you're enjoying our membership,

8:04

which is lifewithsally.com.

8:10

And we have all these new things

8:12

going. I already have two. I

8:15

think I told you last week I was going

8:17

to curate some fun things from

8:19

my home, from home decorating and things that

8:21

we have in our home displayed. And

8:24

the ways that we... Here's what I found. Oh,

8:26

no, no, that's my watch. Sorry. Here's

8:29

what I found. Anyway,

8:31

sorry. So

8:34

I already have two reels planned,

8:36

and I have lots of fun things that are going

8:38

to go on as new

8:40

aspects of

8:42

my membership, lifewithsally.com.

8:48

And so I'm going to do some fun

8:51

reels where I actively

8:54

instruct and show and just maybe

8:56

give creative ideas. I thought

8:58

it would be fun instead of just... We have Bible studies.

9:01

We have art and music.

9:03

We have a forum where

9:05

women talk together. I'm

9:08

going to be doing some live

9:10

streaming about home education, about some

9:12

of the questions people have asked

9:14

me about what to do

9:17

with teenagers, what to do with life after

9:19

all the children are gone, how

9:22

to really build

9:25

rhythms in your life. So I'm going to try

9:27

to do maybe two live streams

9:30

for the people in my membership. And

9:32

the reason that we have a membership is because

9:34

we have staff.

9:37

We just added two

9:39

new staff because we're trying as

9:42

hard as we can to

9:44

think through what can we continue to do to

9:47

reach families, to reach parents,

9:49

to reach mothers, to

9:51

reach single women all over the

9:53

world to grow in their

9:55

walk with Christ, to have

9:57

a deeper vision, to have encouragement.

10:00

If maybe you don't have encouragement right where

10:02

you are to people

10:04

and we require all

10:07

of these staff people to help us with all

10:09

of the projects that we're involved in. So

10:12

I am very grateful when

10:15

you join my

10:17

membership, Life with Sally, and

10:19

I think you'll find many things

10:22

there, encouragement, podcasts

10:25

that aren't on my podcast,

10:28

and training and instruction and

10:30

recipes, and lots of fun. So

10:33

anyway, I know a number of you have been

10:35

joining it lately just to have

10:37

kind of a new fresh look this

10:39

summer at your life, and so thank

10:41

you. I really appreciate it, and you

10:43

just motivate me to come up with

10:45

more creative things to do. I

10:48

appreciate your support of Whole Heart Ministries

10:51

and the 11 staff that we are supporting.

10:54

Anyway, so I

10:56

want to come to you today, before

10:59

I lose what it was I was going to say,

11:01

and kind

11:05

of read some of the stuff that I wrote

11:07

as I was waking up. I was praying this

11:09

morning, Lord, what do I need

11:11

to talk about today? What

11:15

are the things that I want to be sharing with people?

11:19

You can look at my blog,

11:23

sallyclarkson.com, and

11:25

at the top of it I have a fun

11:27

picture from Oxford, because that's another thing

11:29

I've been doing lately, is I'm preparing my

11:32

Oxford book, which will launch in October, and

11:35

it's so much fun for me to look back at all

11:37

the pictures and all the places where

11:40

I was learning a lot personally in

11:42

my life, and that will be in

11:44

my book, Living Well,

11:46

that comes out in October. But anyway, so

11:49

that's a picture from that. But what I

11:51

really wanted to say to you is

11:54

that I was thinking

11:56

lately, people keep saying, what are some of

11:58

the secrets? not

22:00

to be served, for even

22:03

the Son of Man did not come to

22:05

be served, but to serve, to give his

22:07

life as a ransom for many.

22:09

He befriended

22:11

his disciples. He

22:13

came to focus on them at the

22:16

heart of his ministry, to focus on

22:18

time with them. He was

22:20

attentive to them, he attended

22:22

to their needs. He

22:24

fed them meals, he taught

22:27

them. He loved them unconditionally.

22:29

He modeled faith

22:32

and faithfulness. He healed. He

22:35

spoke comfort and forgiveness all

22:38

through his life to his disciples. He

22:41

was continuously attentive

22:44

to their needs and ultimately sacrificed

22:46

his life on the cross. He

22:49

gave everything for the benefit,

22:51

for the life, for

22:54

the forgiveness, for his

22:56

disciples. He also

22:59

gave everything for us

23:01

that we might receive wholeness,

23:03

forgiveness, eternal life. He was

23:05

the servant king and I

23:08

learned as I was reading all

23:10

of these child philosophies that Jesus

23:13

was the perfect model for being

23:15

attentive to my children. I learned

23:17

to become a servant mama too,

23:20

copying the ways of

23:22

Christ as a philosophy.

23:26

Training would always happen in our home as

23:28

well. We were

23:30

high love, high

23:33

grace, high training. The words

23:36

wisdom, obedience, love,

23:38

forgiveness, truth, honor

23:40

were more regularly heard day

23:43

to day. What does forgiveness mean? How

23:45

can you forgive your brother or sister?

23:47

How can you love this child? How

23:51

can you be obedient to mommy and

23:53

daddy? It pleases our heart

23:56

when you are obedient because it will also

23:58

be a grace and a blessing. blessing

24:00

to you, it tells us in Proverbs. You

24:02

need to tell the truth. Honor

24:05

means you give respect to the people

24:07

to whom it is due because they

24:09

were made in the image of God.

24:11

They were crafted by God's hands. We

24:14

honor people and you practice honor by

24:16

giving it to mama and daddy when they speak to you.

24:20

And so all of these messages

24:22

were heard every day, but

24:24

we also held saying scratch

24:27

backs, massaged hands, gave

24:29

words of encouragement. We

24:32

were attentive to what we felt was

24:34

in the heart of

24:36

our children. And it's it's the

24:38

same thing in relationships. I

24:41

realize sometimes I'm so busy. I don't always pay

24:43

attention to Clay the same the way that I

24:45

should. He's an introvert. He doesn't ask for it.

24:48

But when I call him when I'm say

24:51

downtown at the hotel working on my podcast

24:54

blog post book, when I call and just

24:56

say I was just thinking about you. How

24:58

are you? Did you hear from the

25:00

contract people that you were waiting to hear from

25:02

or whatever it is? And so

25:06

being attentive in relationships

25:10

is what helps relationships to

25:12

be better. You're attentive to whether someone

25:15

is depressed or exhausted or frustrated

25:18

and then you respond to

25:20

them. You don't look

25:23

at your phone the whole time you're talking

25:25

to someone. You put it aside and you

25:28

are attentive to their heart and to their mood

25:31

and to their feelings. Immediately

25:33

responding to a situation that needed

25:36

training or instruction. Like

25:38

Jesus, I would do all the things He did

25:41

all day long. I would teach and

25:43

train all day long as He did. Often,

25:47

if one of my children, especially

25:49

when they were little, did something

25:52

if they were

25:54

about to hit another child or

25:56

if they scowled

25:58

or had a