Click here to play today’s new podcast episode. “God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.’” Subdue: To work and rule over something in such a way as to cause it to flourish. Bringing order out of chaos. On today’s Tea Time Tuesday podcast, I address what it looks like to bring beauty from chaos, light to darkness, care for our worlds to cause them to flourish. Even as God brought design, beauty and order to our world, so in His image, we do the same—but within our unique personalities, preferences and culture. We model to our children what it looks l ..read more

“Always to be gentle toward everyone.” Titus 3:2 We all long for gentleness and grace. Perhaps before I became a wife, or parent, I assumed, I would be able to be mature, healthy, loving, successful at these relationships. Conflict in my own heart and life, the stress of living with so many needs, so many constant demands, showed me my selfishness. I longed for mercy, but especially for gentleness. I wanted to be understood--that I had a heart to be good at these relationships but sometimes I just couldn't—my own selfishness got in the way. I meant to be patient, giving, loving, but I had my ..read more

We believe in the dark times of life. We worship and sing to Him when we want to hide under our covers. We wait as long as it takes to see His answer to our prayers — and we're so often surprised by the answer. We wait on God, and God alone. We want to be faithful until we see Him face to face. All of life, it seems, works against our faithfulness. Both spiritually and physically, we are weak and vulnerable. We are surrounded by the voices of this world and tempted regularly. But in all of it, God is cheering us on, hoping we will stand fast, desiring our hearts to remain holy and faithful to ..read more

Click here to play today’s new podcast episode. Tea Time Tuesday Some years back, I was up against a wall and couldn’t seem to get over it. Trouble or stress with my teens, a little one with nocturnal asthma leaving me with sleepless nights. Braces needed at $5000 and a car for our teens. Stresses financially, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally. One of my friends asked me to come to her house. When I arrived, a coffee table was set, a beautiful card hand printed with one of my favorite verses. Candles flickered. A cake had been made, steaming cups of tea and flowered napkins, My frien ..read more

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” -Aristotle Training, instructing, modeling and requiring our children to learn and show respect was an every day standard in our lives. We believed in high love, demonstrated by words, actions, instruction. We also believed in high training because we knew that deep in our children’s hearts was a desire to access their potential, to become excellent ..read more

As I look around me I see so many other precious moms tempted to give up. I see moms who struggle, as I struggled, with a sense of inadequacy. Many are lonely, feeling unsupported as they work to give their children what they need. Many are confused, questioning the choices they have made and worrying about things they can't control. And many are simply tired, running low on the energy they need to be the mothers they truly want to be. As I reflect on my days of younger motherhood, there were countless days of performing the endless mundane tasks — picking up mountains of socks, supervising n ..read more

To build a godly legacy with children takes a lifetime of sacrifice. To establish a strong marriage requires years of growing more selfless, giving deeply of love, compassion, forgiveness, and growing in maturity. I truly believe that God will cause all things to work together for good for those—especially mothers—who are called according to his purpose. Through the eventual faithfulness of his disciples, who also had once betrayed him, Jesus was able to reach the whole world. As we wait patiently for the fruit of our faith and service in the lives of our family to be revealed, we will see Go ..read more

How often do we forget the exuberant nature of God? Why do we walk around with dour faces at church as though our displeasure will somehow please God more than being His hopeful, cheerful, grateful children? And let's not delude ourselves: This grim attitude will teach our children to regard faith with a resigned endurance instead of a delighted enthusiasm. When we model to our children that pleasure, delight, laughter, and food are not God's afterthoughts, but His generous gifts to us all, we do them a great favor. The psalmist said it so beautifully: "Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh ..read more

Click here to play today’s new podcast episode. “Ideals and the desire for beauty are simply the echoes of God's design in our hearts. He was the one who designed the world to be a masterpiece of wonder and life. The yearning for peace, health, and comfort is natural to our souls and comes from the depths of our hearts where we can still feel and imagine what God created life to be before the fall.” (from The Mom Walk) We each have an inner longing for delight, recreation, joy, love, romance. We were made for it—just watch an innocent child playing, loving, honestly delighting in the wonders ..read more

Most of life is lived in the waiting, in the meantime. For 43 years, Clay and I have held fast to marriage. We lived through mundane rhythms of life day and night, through all the phases of childhood where relationships were forged, where the Clarkson story took root, where ministry was birthed. In the meantime, between big life events, is where the treasures were found. We all wait to see what is ahead. Will it be calm? Will it be violent? I have waited to fall in love, waited to get married, waited to get pregnant, waited to get pregnant again. Waited for 19 houses to sell when moving, wait ..read more