Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

Blessing, breastfeeding, compassionating (I’ll explain further down), conceiving, consoling, comforting, cuddling, delighting, embracing, encouraging, gestating, guarding, guiding, giving selflessly, keeping watch, loving, leading, longsuffering, mothering, mending broken hearts, making lovely memories, ministering, nurturing, nursing, nourishing, nesting, praying, protecting, shepherding, serving, sacrificing, strengthening, suckling, soothing, satisfying, satiating, sweetening, teaching, training, tenderly caring, and yearning over our children’s souls.

What beautiful words. Titus 2:3 tells us that the older women are “to be teachers of beautiful things” which are all to do with motherhood and being wife. Why is that artists love to paint mothers and babies? Because there is nothing so beautiful.

I mentioned the word “compassionating.” A. W. Tozer says we should change compassionate into a verb. It then becomes “to compassionATE.” When you show compassion, you are compassionating. When you embrace a baby in your womb, you are wombing.

We don’t hear many of the above words in conversations today. And yet they are the description of our lives as mothers. It’s time to get back to the real world.

Have a blessed day,

NANCY CAMPBELL

It is a picture of God, who like a nursing mother, loves to gather us in His arms and tenderly comfort and nurture us. We see a little glimpse of this in Isaiah 40:31: "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom and shall gently led those that are with young.”

The blessing God gives over Joseph says: “The God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty (Shaddai), who shall bless thee with the blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb” (Genesis 49:25).

The Hebrew word for “womb” is “racham.” This word means “compassion, mercy, tender love.” The amazing thing is that this word is used interchangeably in God’s Word to describe the mercies and compassion of God and also the womb of a woman! Same word!

God’s comfort comes from His breast (from His heart) and also from the very bowels of His womb of compassion and tender mercies. As a mother, you have much need of His comfort, counsel, and comfort. As you find your nourishment in Him, you then minister it to your precious children. As you seek Him to find Him as your solace and source of strength, stability, and comfort, He ministers into your life, so you can comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:3-6).

As mothers, our “others” are first our children God has given us. God has wondrously created us in His image to reveal His nurturing heart and His compassion and tender love. This anointing comes from God Himself and He has put it divinely within us. And even more! He created us physically to reveal these powerful attributes. He created us with the blessings of breasts and the womb. As we embrace the function of the breasts and the womb in childbearing we reveal the image of God. We become pourers forth of God’s nurture, compassion, and tender love.

How privileged we are. Embrace who God created you to be. Find God as your El Shaddai and then as a little “shad” pour out His love and nurture to your babies, children, and to the hurting around you.

In His love,

Nancy Campbell

Belgian paintings: Armand Rassenfosse - Maternité, 1921

But then I thought again. Yes, they are afraid of what we stand for! The first thing God established when He created the world was the institution of marriage and family. Because it is God’s design and His idea, Satan hates it. He seeks to undermine and destroy it every way he can. He loves to pull marriages apart and distort the image of God because marriage is a picture of Christ, the Bridegroom, and His church.

And he is desperate to destroy motherhood. Through the mediums of feminism and humanistic deception the devil woos woman out of the home. He deceives them from knowing they are in the most important career in the nation. The fact is, Satan fears motherhood. That’s why he wants to eradicate it!

He knows that he doesn’t have any power over the women who know who God created them to be—women who embrace motherhood and their home. Women who leave their careers, which are only a passing phase, to pour their lives into an eternal work that will last forever. Women who willingly embrace the children God gives them and are filled with a divine passion to instill God’s principles into their lives and raise mighty young men and women for God.

Satan can’t get his hands on these children because they have a mother guarding over them in the home. She determines the education of her children. And she is at home to fill them minds with God’s truth and a biblical worldview. She is preparing them to go out into the world, strong and bold, to stand against the wolves!

Dearest mother, you are the devil’s biggest problem! Lift up your head. Stand strong in who you are as a mother. Don’t ever give into his temptations and wily deceptions. You are in the most powerful career for women in the nation. You are employed by God, the King of kings and Lord of lords. You determine the destiny of the nation.

And remember, the devil is afraid of the power of motherhood.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

I am always excited to learn more of the Scriptures and love to hear what others are discovering.

"What has God been saying to you lately?" I sometimes ask. Blank stares. No reply.

"What book are you reading in the Bible at present?" Once again, no reply.

We are always eager to talk about what is on our heart, aren't we? Therefore, if we are thinking about the Lord, don't you think we'll want to talk about Him? As we receive new understanding from reading God's Word each day, we'll be keen to share it. So, why the silence?

Surely, as believers, we are not talking more about movies, concerts, shopping, clothes, and everything else but God and His Word.

Will our pages in God's Book of Remembrance be blank, or are we filling them up? Will there lots be written about your family life?

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

Is it loving to leave someone in deception? Is it loving to not rescue someone who is going in the wrong direction? (Read Jude 1:23). How can we change society if we stay silent? God wants us to invade society with His truth. He wants His people to show the way. He wants us to shine His light into the darkness, not hide our light (Matthew 5:13-16).

This doesn't mean we become condemning. A great way to challenge people's thinking is to ask them questions. Ask them why they think the way they do. Ask them about their worldview.

What happens when you ask this innocent question: “Are you planning on having any more children?” This nice little question can often receive a negative and vehement answer! I wonder why some folks can have such a reaction about something that is a gift from God. I think it is because it is a spiritual battle between light and darkness.

But don’t get upset. Smile lovingly. And ask another question? It will open open the way to gently speak God’s truth into their lives. Christian and non-Christians are constantly bombarded with a secular and humanistic worldview and we have a responsibility to redirect their thinking back to God's way.

Jude 1:3 exhorts us to “earnestly contend for the faith.” And of course, our first accountability is to our children. We must constantly seek to keep them in the truth.

Don't hide your light. And don't forget to smile at people when you stir up the pot!

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

Conversely, it takes concerted effort and untiring strength, conviction, and purpose to go in the right direction, which most times is against the current of this world.

Are you living against the grain of this society? Keep standing strong. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t cave in to the easy way. You may receive scoffing and contempt from family members and people around you but put your shoulders back and lift your head. You are on God’s course! Your end is “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Your disdainers are deceived and deliriously drifting on dangerous currents.

And please, do everything in your power to keep your children from drifting in the current of this world. That’s why so many Christian parents take their children out of the public education system. It’s not only the lack of godly teaching they receive, but the influence of their peers. Children, and especially teenagers, want to be in the groove. They want to be like everyone else around them. Therefore, it’s easy for them to drift toward the behavior of their peers.

You can be the godliest parents, but if your children get in the wrong company, it becomes a stronger influence than you. This is not God’s plan. You as the parents should be the strongest influence in their lives. Don’t hand over your influence and God-given responsibility.

Love from Nancy Campbell

You may be feeling utterly crushed. Your life is broken in little bits and you can't imagine how to get it back together again. Dear hurting one, God waits to heal and restore you. Lay your life before Him and let Him come in with His light, His love, His healing balm, and His restoring anointing. He will do it, little by little, if you let Him. Allow His living Word to heal you (Psalm 107:20). Your circumstances may not change right away, but God will heal your soul.

You cannot cope with life unless your soul is whole. Let Him come in and flood your life. His love will enable you to forgive, to let go of hurt and bitterness, and to be healed and restored. Take hold of the truth in Psalm 23:3. “Thank you, dear Father, that You restore my soul.”

He is the only true restorer of the soul.

Be blessed today,

Nancy Campbell

I love the NEB translation: “Penniless, we own the world.”

No matter what you go through, you don't have to go under. Well, you may, if you trust in yourself and your own resources. But, when you put your trust in God, He will not fail you. He will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5-6). He is bigger than your difficulties. No problem is too big for Him to handle. Trust Him.

Trust Him when dark days assail thee,
Trust Him when thy faith is small,
Trust Him when to simply trust Him
Is the hardest thing of all.

When all seems dark around you, the Lord will be your light. Even in the raging torrent He says to you, "For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee" (Isaiah 41:10). Even if you fall, you still can't go under. His everlasting arms are waiting to catch you and hold you (Deuteronomy 33:27).

Keep trusting,

Nancy Campbell

In the Song of Solomon, we see a picture of the bride of Christ. It also speaks of the church and to us as individuals. She goes into the wilderness full of confidence and independence, but how does she come out? Song 8:5 says: “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” She has now learned that her greatest blessing and power is to lean upon her Beloved.

We all have to learn this lesson, don’t we? When we first embark upon motherhood, we often begin with an independent spirit. We are still selfish and want to live our own life.

But God gently works in our hearts by His Holy Spirit. He deals with our pride and independence. As we face the challenges of motherhood from babyhood right through to their becoming young men and women we find we have no wisdom of our own. We are cast upon God. Unless we lean on Him for His wisdom, His strength, and His guidance we make a mess of everything.

Dependence upon God is to trust Him completely. He is bigger than every challenge we face. He is our Rock. No matter how hard we lean on Him, He will never fail us.

Let’s learn to be learners. “Dear Father, I lean on You today. I ask for Your wisdom. I rely on Your strength. I thank You that I can trust my whole life with You. Amen.”

The old hymn we love to sing encourages us to lean on the everlasting arms. His arms will never let us fall. Deuteronomy 33:27 promises us: “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Another hymn says:
Just lean upon the arms of Jesus,
He’ll brighten the way, brighten the way;
Just follow gladly where He leadeth,
His gentle voice obey.

Lean on His arms, trusting in His love;
Lean on His arms, all His mercies prove;
Lean on His arms, looking home above,
Just lean on the Savior’s arms!

Will you lean upon Him today?

Love from Nancy Campbell

I think it’s time to get earnest, don’t you? Let’s become effectual in our praying (James 5:16).

When the children of Israel first came into the Promised land they came to Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Half of the tribes had to stand on Mount Gerizim and the other half on Mount Ebal. The Levites then had to speak the curses to Israel with A LOUD VOICE. God also commanded that after every statement all the people had to answer, AMEN (Deuteronomy 27:11-26).

After the Levites spoke each one of the twelve curses, they stopped, and all the people said AMEN!

God wanted them to say Amen for them to agree! But I am sure it also helped them to keep awake and attentive. It wasn’t just a few adults who were listening, but ALL the families of Israel, including the children. They wouldn’t have time to get into a daydream if they were waiting to say Amen after every declaration.

Do you do this in your family praying? Teach your children to be involved in what others are praying. To agree. To say Amen. To be involved in every prayer instead of giggling, talking, and fiddling!

I say Amen. What do you say?

Nancy Campbell

I am desperate for revival? Are you? I guess we should first ask, what is revival? It is turning back to the original, the beginning! We need revival when we get away from the first things.

In Scripture the “law of the first mention” is very important. When God says something the first time in the Scriptures, we must take note. He lays the foundation for that truth. He may enlarge upon it throughout the Scriptures, but the first mention is the foundation. It must never be discounted.

When we get away from the first mention, we need to be revived to come back! Back to God’s plan. Back to the very first commandments He gave us. Back to His heart. Back to His first words.

We need to forever be coming back to our first love, don’t we? With all the distractions in our lives it’s so easy to get away from our first love for Jesus. There’s nothing more important than being in love with Jesus. This is the hub from which everything else in our life flows out. When we are in love with Jesus, we will love our husband and children and everyone around us.

Jesus spoke to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:4, 5: “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”

But we must also turn back to the very first statutes God gave is in His Word. Not one word of God is insignificant. Every word is eternal and life-changing.

We must come back to the very first words God spoke to the man and woman He created. Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth.” God has never rescinded these words. They stand forever. If we discard them because we think we know better, we disobey God’s powerful and living Word. We certainly need a revival in the church to come back to these words, don’t we?

We must come back to marriage oneness. God’s eternal plan for marriage is that we are to be one. God’s first description of marriage is in Genesis 2:24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.” We are not two people living in the same house but living our separate lives. We are joined in flesh, spirit, and vision to work together to build a strong marriage and family. It’s time to come back!

It’s time to come back to God’s heart for children. Malachi 4:4-6: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

This is one of the greatest revivals needed in the church today. Most of the church has no understanding of God’s plan for children. They limit the number of children in their family as much as the secular world. They have as little regard for the blessing as children as the world does.

This Scripture not only speaks about fathers turning their hearts to their one or two children, but turning their hearts back to the same attitude God has about children. To open their hearts to embrace children. To be fathers who are not afraid to trust God for their children.

We need to come back to believe in the God of the Bible. Many believe in a false God. They believe in a god who is only able to provide for one or two children. Any more would be too much for their god. This is not the God of the Bible.

When we will turn back to the God of the Bible?

This is what revival is about.

May you be blessed encouraged again today,

Nancy Campbell

Every Word of God is powerful, authoritative, and eternal. The devil knows its power and must obey.

That’s why we must know God’s Word. That’s why we must diligently teach our children God’s Word. They must have the Word ready to use against the devil. Jesus was ready to quote the Word. Are we and our children?

Homeschooling children need God’s Word every day. His life-giving Word should be the most important thing they learn each day.

If there are Christian parents who are still sending their children into the public-school system to be subtly brain-washed by humanism, socialism, liberalism, progressivism, and now the gay agenda and alternative lifestyles, they need to give their children TRIPLE DOSES of God’s Word each day. Or how will they survive the deceptions of the enemy?

There is only way to make our children strong against temptation. 1 John 2:14 says: “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the WORD OF GOD ABIDES IN YOU, and ye have overcome the wicked one.”

Does God’s Word richly abide in your children’s hearts?

Blessings to you from Nancy Campbell

Our precious young people live in a society where they are surrounded by deception, evil, and violence on TV and social media. Broken homes are normal. Divorce is a way of life and yet divorce destroys the lives of children. They are never the same again. It’s not what God planned. He plans for children to live in a home with a father and mother who love one another and who are committed to strengthen and build their family together. This assignment is more important than anything else they do in in life.

All the government programs, and even church programs, are only crutches. They are not the real thing. The real thing is stable family life with a father and mother who are committed to their family—even before their careers and every project they do in life.

The word “strengthen” in this Scripture is “chazaq” and means: “to be bound fast, to be attached, to make firm, to cleave, to be constant, to support, to preserve, to hold fast, and to strengthen.” It means to make your roots deep. The HCSB translates it: “Drive your pegs deep.” The NET says: “Pound your stakes deep.” This is what we must do with our marriage and family life. We’ve got to dig in deep.

Why don’t you try to do at least one thing each day to strengthen your marriage and your home life? Establish family togetherness at your meal table. Think of special things you can do as a family in the evenings at home. Don’t always be rushing out. Make your home life rich and exciting.

That’s what you call building. Each one of us either builds into our marriage and home or we pull it down. Proverbs 14;1 says: “Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.”

Are you building into your marriage and home today?

Nancy Campbell

Painting: Laurts Tuxen

It’s people who make home. Mother and father and brothers and sisters. I remember as a child coming home from school. Arriving home my mother would be there, either in the kitchen or in her sewing room. I would say Hi, throw my bag in my room, and run out the door to play with my friends. I was happy and carefree. I felt secure because mother was at home.

However, on some occasions, when I arrived home I found no one at home. My mother was late home from shopping. Instead of running out the door to play with my friends, I moped around the house. Something was wrong. Had Jesus come and left me behind??? I didn’t feel the same freedom to run out and play.

The security that comes from knowing mother is there is powerful. One of the names of God is Jehovah Shammah which means “God is there.” To know that God is always available is so steadying to our lives. In the same way, we as mothers show to our children a wonderful characteristic of God when we are “there” for our children. We show them what God is like.

To be “there” in the heart of the home reveals a little of what Heaven is like because Heaven is only Heaven because God is there. And home is only home because YOU are there.

Dearest mother, you are not wasting your life when you are in your home and available for your children. You show to them a God-like character which brings great stability to their lives.

Be blessed today,

Nancy Campbell

Painting: Jessie Wilcox Smith (1863 – 1935, American).

No one has more influence than a mother.

Society will tell you the opposite, but they purport lies.

As you raise your children for God and diligently teach and impart God’s ways into their lives, you work with God to prepare them for their destiny. As they go out into the world they will influence society according to how you have taught and trained them.

Although my husband and I have traveled to many nations of the world, our children have traveled to nations we have never been to take the gospel. How did they get there? Only because we brought them into the world and imparted godly convictions into their lives.

God spoke through Balaam and prophesied: “How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob; how lovely are your homes, O Israel! They SPREAD before me like palm groves” (Numbers 24:5, 6 NLT). The ESV says: “They STRETCH AFAR.” Their Influence is powerful. Every new godly couple who gets married and builds a strong marriage and family spread the blessing of God in the nation.

Hosea 14:5, 6 (ESV): “I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall SPREAD OUT . . .“ Your children (your olive shoots) will spread out across the nation and across the earth to reveal God’s glory and truth.

Isaiah 54:2, 3 (HCSB): “ENLARGE the site of your tent, and let your tent curtains be STRETCHED OUT; do not hold back; LENGTHEN your ropes, and drive your pegs deep. For you will SPREAD OUT to the right and to the left, and your descendants will dispossess nations.” We know this Scripture speaks of Israel, but we see the picture of God’s heart for our homes and our families. They are to influence the earth.

Why don’t you stand up and stretch out your arms again? It’s good to do something tangible to realize the power of what you are doing in your home and how your children will go forth to influence the world.

May you be blessed in your home today,

Nancy Campbell

Photo: Shaina Streyle, my current Above Rubies helper from Wyoming, doing a Missions trip in Tanzania. Shaina is at the back in a white top.