Sergey Ivanovich Svetoslavsky
“Behold, Thou dost desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part, Thou will make me know wisdom.” Psalm 51:6
If someone could see the inside of your soul, the pathways of your thoughts, the flow of your worship, the landscape of your thoughts and attitudes, what would it look like? Would it hold beauty or ugliness?
A beautiful soul is cultivated and crafted over time by the elements that surround it and that pour into its inner chamber. One lives and pours out words, behavior, attitudes, goodness or evil from what is dwelling inside it’s borders.
In the same way that if one fills a pitcher with lemonade, and lemonade pours forth, so one must be careful to fill one’s soul with all that is beautiful, true, lovely. When my children were small, I always thought about the verse:
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. Phil. 4:8
I sought to fill the moments of our days with all that was beautiful, inspiring, noble, lovely, good, excellent. Exercising vigilance to pick out stories and books that would inspire; seeking to protect my children from insipid, empty, dark, sarcastic, or shallow books, media, people was constant. I knew that I was laying a foundation for life. I wanted them to have such a vast amount of truth, beauty, love and goodness stored up in the deep vestiges of their souls, that they would draw from the wealth of true beauty the rest of their lives.
Such investment requires purposeful planning and active engaging in each moment of their lives. How blessed I have been to see that what I invested has reaped rewards.
My concern, today, is that many young moms, exposed to contemporary culture, don’t even have a model or understanding of what is good. Christianity is mediocre and weak and insipid because the souls of believers are as empty, shallow and contaminated as the fallen culture that surrounds us. One cannot watch garbage and violence and adultery and not be effected. One cannot feed on what is shallow and not become shallow.
In the same way that cancer and diabetes are growing rapidly and devastating many lives because of the intake of what is unhealthy in our foods, products and environment, so our souls will die and become ill and infected if they are always surrounded by garbage, pollutants, contaminants.
One cannot pass on what one does not himself have, and so if we want to pass on health and beauty and goodness, then we ourselves must discipline ourselves to invest and pour into our minds and souls truth from scripture, seek out wise people, read great books and thoughts as well as protect our souls from all that is base.
Media is on occasion used for good, but it is mostly a wasteland of mind-death and soul-killing.
And so, as I ponder what I want to become more of this year, I must take seriously the cultivating of my own soul, so that when others come to draw from me, they are drawing from Him, because I have invested time in Him, His word, His wisdom, His truth and His ways. I am working on my own personal goals to choose how I will use my time, this year, to insure that I am growing in all the elements that are beautiful, true, wise, good, lovely, and I am seeking to guard my heart (and my soul.)
“Above all else, guard your heart for it is the well spring of life.” Proverbs 4:23
*Seek out a time to get alone, away and consider how you would like to grow this year.
*Evaluate what are the good habits and what are the bad habits that you practice and how they influence your soul, and your heart and consequently, your worship of God, as we are commanded to worship Him in our minds.
Make a plan of how you will grow in wisdom, beauty and truth this year. What will you read? When will you have a quiet time? What do you need to stop doing?
Make a plan for all the ways you will pour beauty, goodness, wisdom and truth into your children this year. What books and stories will you read to them? When will you have devotionals with them? How do you need to change to reflect love and graciousness to them so that they will form their relationship habits on gentleness and generous love?
What do you need to do to focus more on investing instead of just passing time with emptiness? (internet, television, computer, etc.)
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask it of God who gives to all men liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
All of these issues I will be speaking about at our Mom’s conferences this year, as I am so very concerned about what I see happening in the lives of my wonderful mom friends. Please join us if you can. The Lord Jesus will be in our midst.
Register HERE. or call 888-488- 4466 to register.
For those of you who cannot come, we hope in the next year to figure out how we can stream the speakers and our messages, as we so desire to encourage you in your calling from God to be a civilizer and one who disciples your children into godly people. Pray for us to develop people and resources so that Clay and I may help encourage more precious women. Thanks so very much.
Listening to His leading for this year. Thank you for the reminder and challenge to be Holy. He speaks in the quiet and the noise to moms.
I was just thinking of something similar this morning. How when my kids were both growing up, I made certain they were surrounded with wonderful literature, music, etc., along with carefully chosen TV (the younger they were, the more we parents controlled what they were allowed to watch).
But there were plenty of good options then. The Disney Channel had lovely programs like Avonlea. These days the programs on the channels for younger viewers can be really bad.
I was thinking how it took a choice to seek out good quality TV and books for my kids but at least I had a pretty good foundation from the choices of my own childhood. My mother didn’t care what I watched but most of what was on TV was safe.
Younger mothers do not have that same anchor.
Just recently I had coffee with a younger friend of mine (who just turned thirty). We hadn’t gotten together to chat for a year and after the usual “what has been happening with you” talk, the discussion turned more serious as she shared concerns she was going through.
She was astonished as I told her I went through the same things at the same age. You could visually see her relax as she realized her feelings were normal for those turning thirty. I came away thinking how important it is that the “older women teach the younger”.
What you are saying here reminds me of what Charlotte Mason said, that we are to be gatekeepers at the door of ideas. Ideas are such powerful things and are deeply impacting to our hearts.
I want to find a time this week to sit down and really ponder the questions you’ve asked. Thank you so much for your encouragement. I am always eager to learn from mothers who are farther down the road than I am, and I am so looking forward to your conference in Dallas!
WOW! You know, we don’t watch TV at home, we homeschool, we go to church. But, I realize the battle is still so strong and there is so much to be proactively guarding your hearts (and your children’s) against! Such a great article! I wish I stay near enough to your conferences, Sally. =(
Thorougly enjoyed reading “Filling your soul with beauty, truth and goodness” and plan to refresth and recultivate my thinking to continue being persistentent in building those truths in my children.
I always enjoy reading your website. As you stated, “Christianity is mediocre and weak and insipid because the souls of believers are as empty, shallow and contaminated as the fallen culture that surrounds us. One cannot watch garbage and violence and adultery and not be effected. One cannot feed on what is shallow and not become shallow.” Its hard to find genuine believers who can effectively draw the line and encourage the less weak to continue in the right direction. Thank you, again.
Thank you Sally for words that draw the heart into beauty. I pulled a quote from this to send to my husband because it is such powerful truth and a great reminder of why we do what we do and why we keep pressing on.
I am so looking forward to learning from you next month in Denver. Thank you.
Such a good reminder to be “gatekeepers” for our kiddos, as well as our own minds & hearts.
Thank you, I needed that refreshing reminder. I just long for beauty and this reminded me to put it before me all day, not just for a few minutes a day. In other words keeping God’s Word before me and His song on my lips and noticing the beauty around me and not getting caught up in the battle of my mind or the lure to the computer or even sitting too much in front of wholesome movies is brain killing after a while. I need “living” beauty!! Thank you!
It would be fab to have your stuff streamed and then I could attend a conference Not a hope of me getting to one! What you have written about it what has been on my mind this last few days. Got a few days before New Year to try and sort something out!
Blessings and hope you have having a lovely Christmas.xx
Sally-I LOVE THIS POST. Thank you so much for writing this! Thank you for taking the time to love and on and invest those of us coming up behind you! I am printing it and keep it to look back on. This topic has been on my heart for a long time now. We do Charlotte Mason curriculum in our homeschool, and one of the things I love most about her practices is that they help me be intentional about this- keeping beauty in and emptiness out. Our culture is is a powerful force. But God is more powerful! Thank you, thank you, as a mom who is further ahead, for taking the time to share with those of us coming up behind you. I pray to do the same for moms that come up behind me. I hope you all can live stream soon- I would have a big group of moms gathered at my house watching!!
Thank you Sally for this post. IT was very encouraging! I live in Central Florida and was wondering if you ever plan on doing a conference down south? Would love to hear you speak. May you continue to follow the Lord in everything. God bless you and your beautiful family!
I really appreciate this blog post, it really left an impression on me. I am pregnant with our 3rd and have been in an all around bad mood for the first few months. I was beginning to get discouraged and came across your post. I just found out about this conference and was trying to find every possible way to make it but financially it’s just not going to work right now. I know I really need to hear what you have to say at your conference so I hope you will be able to find a way to have it streamed online. Would love if you could offer a conference in Iowa sometime! So thankful for what God has laid on your heart and that you keep pressing on to share it all with us, there are so many mommies who need to hear this, especially me!