The Sacred Everyday
By Mackenzie Chester
Categories: Religion & Spirituality, Christianity, Kids & Family, Parenting, Arts, Books
I want to wake up to the miracle of my ordinary life. My name is Mackenzie Chester, and I am a writer, a lifelong journaler, a wife and homeschooling Mama of eight children. I wake up every day with a desire to find beauty, to seek truth, and to live each moment with peace and purpose. If you are longing to find meaning and purpose behind the mundane rituals of your existence, I would love to invite you to pull up a chair, grab a cup of tea or a basket of laundry, and let's talk it over. Life is a gift. It is a miracle. Sometimes we have to search to find the sacred, but it is there... Every. Single. Day.
62 episodes indexed on PodSearch.
Recent episodes
- Aspire to Faithfulness: Podcast #62
Sharing some thoughts on motherhood, the creative life, and living a life that aspires to faithfulness. I am coming to realize that I do not have the capacity to listen to voices of doubt, fear, and regret and also do the daily work that God has called me to do. I can either lose my... Read More
- Impossible Things (Podcast #61)
“And yet, when you look back over the previous chapters, can’t you see what a good story it has been? How many times, by all human reasoning, there was no escape? And yet, here you are… How help has always come. In ways you didn’t expect. When you were too tired to go on, when... Read More
- Living With Questions (Podcast #60)
Often, I find myself so overwhelmed by finding answers to big questions that I am paralyzed. I lose sight of the beauty of my real, present-tense life, and I anxiously search for answers to questions that are just not ready to be answered yet. This episode is a gentle nudge to remind myself (and…
- Drowning in Voices (Podcast #59)
The average person scrolls 2.5 hours a day, thumbing through 10-15 posts per minute. At the end of the day, that is over 2000 voices that are speaking into our lives daily. We are losing a connection to our own inner voices, to our own thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams, and desires. And we are…
- This is Not a Textbook Life: Living a life of hope, grace, and vision (Podcast #58)
It is good to have a plan, to hold a vision in our hearts, and to walk forward into that with faith. But walking with God means we must hold onto these visions loosely and allow him to tell the story as he envisions it. This is not a textbook life. We have access to... Read More
- Creative Family Culture: Interview with My Daughter, Rosanna Chester
I am delighted to share this interview with my lovely 17-year-old daughter, Rosanna. Rosie is a singer-songwriter, and she has so many insightful things to say about creativity and inspiration, life in a big family, making time to do the things you love, and more. I am betting this will be your…
- Dealing With Voices (Trading This World’s Anxiety for God’s Peace)
I go through seasons where I have a constant stream of negative thoughts go through my mind. Fear, anxiety, bitterness, and regret can be hard to overcome, but God desires us to live and move in the direction of hope and peace. In this episode, I share some of the ways he has helped me... Read More
- Time as an Element of Beauty (Podcast #55)
My heart is overflowing today with God’s goodness. I have been looking back and reflecting on the last nine months, how he has brought me through so much that seemed impossible. While I have been sitting and feeding the baby, I have been reading over things I’ve written over the last nine…
- Birth and the Bravest Version of Myself (Podcast #54)
God has used birth like nothing else in my life to get my attention, to draw me close to Him, to help me surrender deeply to the life that I know He has called me to, despite my own fears and feelings of overwhelm and inadequacy. In this episode, 4 weeks away from my 9th... Read More
- Cast Your Cares (Podcast #53)
Today’s episode is for anyone who wakes up in the middle of the night with questions that don’t have answers. If you are struggling with fears of what might happen, or wrestling with thoughts of if only things had happened differently, pull up a chair and let’s talk about finding God in this…
- Certain Faith in Uncertain Times (Podcast #52)
What does it look like to have faith even when the answers are unclear, when there are problems that don’t resolve, when you don’t know how you are going to make it through? In this episode, I am talking about living with certain faith, even in the midst of uncertain times. I hope it is... Read More
- Holding On and Letting Go (Podcast #51)
I find that one of the greatest lessons that motherhood is teaching me is how to hold onto the things that I desperately love while also learning, little by little, to let these things go. In this episode, I share what this looks like for me in this season of eight children, ages 2-15, with…
- When the Everyday Doesn’t Feel Sacred (Podcast #50)
When life is a series of never-ending struggles, when the work is never done, when it all seems drained of joy and beauty, then what? How do we continue to inhabit our lives with grace and keep searching for God in all of it? If you feel a that you have lost control, or that... Read More
- Listening for God’s Voice (Podcast #49)
Over the last few weeks, we have been experiencing a move of God in our family. In today’s episode, I’m sharing some of the ways he is bringing new hope to my life, how he has touched my marriage and our family, and how we are learning to listen for God’s voice, guidance, and direction... Read More
- Marriage, Hope, Love, and Longing (Podcast #48)
Next month, Randy and I celebrate 20 years of marriage. When I look back, I am amazed at the work God has done in our lives through the process of two becoming one. In today’s podcast, I want to share a new thing that God is doing in my heart, and how he is redefining... Read More
- Sometimes Hopes Come Back to Life
A year ago, after a great disappointment of the soul, I wrote these words: Sometimes small hopes die. And there is a grief that comes to us that cannot be measured by reason. A future that has lived in the illuminated imagination of the mind is set backward in time and exists only in shadowy…
- My Ramble from a Cozy Cottage in the Woods (Podcast #46)
I have missed making podcasts this last month! It has been a really busy time for me because I’ve given myself a deadline to complete something that I’ve been dreaming about for over a decade. Listen to today’s podcast, recorded at a quiet cozy cottage in the woods, where I have been working away…
- Life in a Big Family (Podcast #45)
“How do you do it?” I have been asked this question so. many. times. When people learn that we have eight children ages 1-15, I think they are genuinely curious what our life looks like. Today I am sharing a bit about life as a mother of a large family, as well as some thoughts... Read More
- Moving into a Year with No Fear and No Regrets (Podcast #44)
On the last day of the year, I reflect on 2022, thinking about how this year has been different, what I have learned and some of the milestones of this year. I share some of our own family rhythms that we’ve established this year that have been making home in a family with eight children... Read…
- Marriage and the Creative Life (Podcast #43)
What does it look like to be married to a creative soul? Today, I am sharing a little bit of our story and what our life has been like these 20 years, trying to learn how to find peace in marriage while also responding to the deep call of the creative life. Show Notes: Why... Read More
- Taking the Help That Comes (Podcast #42)
There are seasons of my life where I become acutely aware that I am in way over my head. When I want to hand my life over to someone who is more qualified to run it for me because I literally do not know what I’ve gotten myself into. I find that as overwhelming as... Read More
- Homeschool and Creative Family Culture (Podcast #41)
I don’t want my children to be simply entertained through life. I want them to show up for the purposes for which God has created them. I want them to do the things that only they can do. I want them to have the living conversations that can only come from their hearts and mouths.... Read More
- One Small Garden (Ch. 7 Read Aloud of The Sacred Everyday Book) Podcast #40
We never really know what we are building with our lives. I try so hard to understand what it’s all about. I pray for vision, I research my past for clues, I desperately seek God for the next step. This is the life of faith. And though we may think our lives will look one... Read More
- Faith and Miracles (Ch. 6 Read-Aloud of The Sacred Everyday Book) Podcast #39
Are you going to have more? How do you feed them? How do you do it? And the often-implied but never-spoken–why??? When people see us with our eight children, they are curious. For the past 6 weeks, I have been reading aloud a chapter at a time of my book, The Sacred Everyday, A Search... Read More
- Questions at 2 a.m. (Chapter 5 Read Aloud of The Sacred Everyday Book) Podcast #38
If you find yourself lying awake at 2 a.m. asking questions that seem to have no answers, this episode is for you. Many of these reflections were written in the dead of night, stealing out of my dark bedroom, making my way to the kitchen table to pour out my heart to God, to empty... Read More
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