Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

Are you feeling despondent today? Don’t stay in this attitude any longer. Encourage yourself in the Lord.

I think of a situation David faced that I am sure was worse than you are facing now. David and his men came back from a battle to find their city burned with fire and ALL their wives and children taken captive! They wept until they had no more power to weep! But, then all the men were so grieved they talked of stoning David.

In his desperation, what did David do? 1 Samuel 30:6 says, “But David ENCOURAGED HIMSELF IN THE LORD HIS GOD.”  He STRENGTHENED his trust in God. He acknowledged that God was in control. As he looked to the Lord and confessed his trust in God, God showed him what to do.

We will never hear an answer to our problem when we think of nothing but the troubles. It is when we take our eyes off the situation and put them on the Lord that He can then speak to us. Read the whole of 1 Samuel 30 to see how God gave David the answer and how they were able to recover everyone and everything they lost.

You may not have anyone else to encourage you, but you can encourage yourself in the Lord. Speak to your soul to hope in God just as the psalmist did, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? HOPE IN GOD” (Psalm 42:5, 11; 43:5).

Love from Nancy

Are you bold to speak the truth when deception and lies are being proclaimed? Or, do you find it easy to stay silent because you feel too timid or you are concerned what people think of you?

I believe it is a time to rise up in boldness. Proverbs 28:1 says, “The righteous are as BOLD AS A LION.” 

If we are not bold to speak the truth when we are not even facing persecution, how we will stand for truth in more difficult times? Our freedoms are being taken away. God’s timeless truths for marriage and family and the way He wants us to live are being shaken. Our current administration would like to take over the control of our families. They want to even take control of our bodies (Nehemiah 9:37). Are we standing up? If we don’t stand up now, we will lose more and more.

In a wedding ceremony the minister asks the question, “If anyone has any reason why these two should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace.”  If someone had a concern, it was their only chance to speak! I believe that this is our last opportunity. If we don’t speak now, we may not have another chance.

Imagine if ALL God-fearing families began to boldly speak the truth! Let’s start! Soak your children in God’s Word and His truth. Speak seeds of truth wherever you go. Never let a deception go unchallenged. Ever. Come on, let’s start being bold for God and His truth. Let’s hold up the banner. This may be our only chance.

Love from Nancy

Check out Acts 1:8; 4:13, 18-20, 29-31; 5:28-29; 9:27; 13:45-46 14:2-3; 2 Corinthians 4:13 and Ephesians 5:11.

I read this morning in Ecclesiastes 34:13, "Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king."

It's not riches that make a child. It is learning the wisdom of God which is greater than worldly wisdom. A child with riches may be foolish; but a child from a poor family can be rich in wisdom if he or she is taught in the ways of God.

I have a friend who went through a difficult financial time and could no longer afford any homeschooling curriculum. She was devastated. But, her husband reminded her that she had the best textbook available! So she began teaching her children their lessons from the Bible and raised three wonderful girls to adulthood.

Love, Nancy

Two and a half centuries! That's a long time, isn't it?

Check out this amazing testimony! Jonadab gave certain commandments to his family that he wanted them to keep throughout ALL THEIR GENERATIONS AND FOREVER. Two and a half centuries later, the prophet Jeremiah tested Jonadab's family! After 250 years they were still keeping to the commandments of their father, to the absolute letter. Not just some of them, but every one of them--husbands, wives, sons, and daughters.

What a testimony! Can you imagine your descendants still talking about you and keeping to what you said 250 years down the line? God was so blessed with this family that He gave them a blessing that no one else in the Bible received apart from the patriarchs, "Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me FOREVER" (Jeremiah 35:19, read the whole chapter).

It seems that we often fail in passing on God's ways to children in just one generation! I think of how the standard of holiness amongst God's people has degenerated even since I was a child! What about 250 years of generations?

May God help us to understand His plan. We can't be casual about being parents. We have a responsibility to keep God's Word continuing down the generations. Remember the FOREVER MENTALITY?

Love from Nancy

It's so easy to get stuck in the grind of what we are doing each day, isn't it? Often we can't get our mind past the moment. But, God is a forever God and He wants us to have a forever mentality. And especially in the raising of our children. He wants us o be faithful in imparting His Word and His ways to our children so that they will be so ingrained in them that they will pass them on to their children, and their children to their children, continuing down through the generations.

Listen to what Isaiah 59:21 says, "'As for me, this is my covenant with them,' says the Lord: 'My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring's offspring,' says the Lord, 'from now AND FOREVER."

God wants His words to be in the mouths of our children and their generations FOREVER! This takes vision. This takes prayer. This takes reading God's Word daily to our children (morning and evening). This takes more than getting it into their hearts. It takes getting it into their mouths, SO THEY WILL KEEP PASSING IT ON to each generation and FOREVER.

Can we raise our vision to get a FOREVER MENTALITY?

Love from Nancy

IF I LOVE MY HUSBAND--REVISED COPY
(Thank you for all your contributions. I added them to mine so you now have a fuller list. If you haven't commented, you may still like to add further comments. I know you will be blessed and encouraged.)

If I love my husband I will...

Love to serve him.
Love to cook his meals.
Love to have a wholesome meal prepared for him when he comes home in the evening.
Love him to come home to a clean and fresh smelling house.
Love to keep an orderly home for him.
Love to make sure he always has clean laundry.
Love to make him coffee.
Love to make his lunch to take to work.
Love to purchase special goodies for him that he loves.
Love to buy him his favorite dark chocolate.
Love to do nice things for him.
Love to satisfy him sexually.
Love to follow him even though I may not agree with him.
Love to praise him instead of criticize him.
Love to wake up and cuddle with him.
Love to greet him passionately when he comes home from work.
Love to run a bath for him.
Love to encourage and compliment him with my words.
Love to make him smile and laugh.
Love to tell him that he is the best.
Love to text him during the day to remind him how much I love and appreciate him.
Love to speak well of him to my friends and to praise him in front of others.
Love to be his BEST and closest friend.
Love to be his only confidante.
Love to pray with him.
Love to respect him and his decisions.
Love to pay attention to him when he talks to me.
Love to help the children do special things for him.
Love to give him massages.
Love to softly tickle him.
Love to rub his back, shoulders, legs and feet.
Love to be with him while he works.
Love to do what he asks me with a smile and cheerful attitude.
Love to listen to his dreams and ideas and support them.
Love to raise the children in the way that pleases him.
Love to take an interest in his passions.
Love to do everything I can to keep him healthy.
Love to give him surprises.
Love to appreciate him for working hard so I can stay home with our children.
I love to hold hands with him.
Love to admire and adore him.

Thank you for your wonderful contributions!
Nancy

Mother, God has given you a little flock to care for. You are to shepherd them as God shepherds His flock. I know that sometimes you feel overwhelmed and everything seems to be on top of you. But, be encouraged.

Listen to how God feeds His flock. Micah 5:4 says, "And He shall stand and feed his flock in the STRENGTH OF THE LORD." If Christ feeds His flock in the "strength of the Lord,"  surely that's how you should nurture, feed, and tend your little flock.

Don't try to do it in your own strength. Trust in God's strength. He is with you every moment to refresh you, strengthen you, and revive you. Confess your trust in Him and stop confessing all the negatives.

Love from Nancy

Because God is a Creator, He loves to create. He delights in creating each new baby that is born. And every human being God creates is unique, different, and special--a new divine creation that has never been created before. Just think, that when we stop God from giving us another baby, we stop His creativity. We stop the Creator in His work. We interfere in His creative worship.

Not only do we stop God in His work, but we deprive ourselves, the world, and eternity of the special creation God has planned from the foundation of the world.

I think it's time we got our thinking in line with God, rather than our puny human thinking, don't you?

Love from Nancy

What do YOU do?

When the children of Israel were grumbling and complaining and ready to stone Moses, He CRIED OUT to the Lord, "What shall I do?"

God immediately gave him an answer. "And the Lord said unto Moses..."  When you cry out to the Lord, He will give you an answer, too.

Don't try to work it out yourself. Don't become anxious, desperate, and overwhelmed. CRY OUT to the Lord.

Love from Nancy

"‘Tis better far to let Him choose the way that we should take;
If only we leave our life with Him, He will guide without mistake;
We, in our blindness, would never choose a pathway dark or rough,
And so we should never find in Him the GOD WHO IS ENOUGH!
In disappointment, trouble, or pain, we turn to the Changeless One,
And prove how faithful, loving and true is God’s beloved Son."

As a woman, we long for love and security, but more than anything else, a man longs for RESPECT AND HONOR from his wife. It is a God-given instinct that we as wives need to understand. He will never be truly happy until he has it, but when he does, look out world! He will feel that he can face anything.

I'm sure not preaching to you, because I can fall down on this one too. We can love our husband, and yet not show the respect and honor that he needs.

The Amplified Version of Ephesians 5:33 explains the Greek word very clearly, “Let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband (that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly).”  What a challenge.

Honor him with your words and they way you speak to him. Honor him with the way you look at him. Does your husband sit at the head of the table? Does he have his special chair? We show our honor in little practical things, too.

Love from Nancy

I’m setting the table for my wonderful brood,
I’m furnishing it with love and nourishing food,
I’m making it a place where they all love to be,
A place of enrichment and lasting legacy!

Love from Nancy

When Mother Teresa of Calcutta was asked by a young mother about the best way to proceed with pro-life work, she responded emphatically,

“Have a big family. That is the best way to end abortion!”

The confession of the old kingdom is, “Why pray when I can worry?” The confession in God’s kingdom is, “Why worry when I can pray?” We are to live in a world of prayer for we belong to a kingdom of prayer. Philippians 4:6 NLT says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.”

Love from Nancy

In our home I find that it is as important for me to think about what we will talk about at the table as it is to think about what we will eat for supper. The meal table can be boring--or lively, interesting, and educational, according to how we prepare for it.

Quite frequently I ask the girls living in our home to bring something to the table to read to us--a poem, a passage from a book they are currently reading, or a powerful quote. Recently I asked each one to share the book that had impacted their life the most, and why. We learned a lot that night and everyone wanted to read the book each one talked about.

The other night I asked them to come prepared to speak about some person who has influenced the world in some way. Some of the people we learned about were Annie Oakley, C. T. Studd, Eliezer Ben Yehuda, and John Newton.

Of course, if you currently only have little children, you can ask simple questions such as, "What was the best thing you did today?" Or, "What was something new you learned today?"

Put on your thinking cap and create wonderful discussions at your table. It not only engages everyone in heart-to-heart conversation, but becomes a place of learning.

Love from Nancy

We talked yesterday about deception. Peace is another area where we can be deceived. People often say that have peace about something, but really it is just a RELIEF from their circumstances.

Women have said to me, "I felt peace about leaving my husband." Now, I do believe a woman should leave her husband if her life and children are in danger from a violent man. However, many leave their husbands for very weak excuses. And I will also concede that they may feel "peace," especially if they have been experiencing tension, trauma, and constant arguing in their marriage. But, the true fact of the matter is that it is a relief from the turbulent situation. It is not an indication of the true peace of God which we can experience in the midst of turbulence.

I have had other women say to me, "Oh I had such peace once I had my tubal ligation." Once again, they were not experiencing the peace God speaks about. They were experiencing RELIEF! "I don't have to worry about using contraception anymore" or "I don't have to be bothered with having any more babies," they think. It's not the peace God talks about when we put a stop to the way God created us. It's relief!

True peace does not go against the will of God, no matter how you feel (John 14:27). Once again we must guard against being deceived.

Love from Nancy

Check out these Scriptures: Isaiah 29:16; 45:9-10; 64:8; Romans 9:20-21 and Romans 12:1-2.

One of the prayers I constantly pray is, "Oh God, please save me from deception. Expose every tiny bit of deception in my heart and mind and lead me into all your truth." I have to continually pray this because deception is so subtle. You can be deceived even when you think you are not deceived.

Satan, who is the professional deceiver, really knows how to do it. He doesn't tempt us with blatant evil as he knows we will immediately resist it. He comes to us with that which looks "good," "desirable," and even "wise" (Genesis 3:6)! Yes, even things that look "wise" according to this world. This is how he tempted Eve and this is how he still tries to deceive us.

God told King Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites, and all their sheep and cattle as well. Samuel defeated the Amalekites, but he kept Agag the king alive, plus all the "best" sheep and cattle and "all that was good."And he had very good intentions, because he told Samuel the prophet that he saved the best livestock to sacrifice to the Lord. But, he was deceived. He was deceived because he did not fully obey the Lord. He only obeyed half the commandment! Read the whole story in 1 Samuel 15.

Dear precious ladies, let's guard against deception. The words God used about Saul's half obedience were "evil, rebellion, witchcraft, stubbornness, iniquity, and idolatry" (1 Samuel 15:19, 22-23).

And to be saved from deception, we have to do more than pray. We have to LIVE IN GOD'S WORD! God's Word is the only ANTEDOTE TO DECEPTION. If we don't know what God says, we don't have a plumbline to know if we are deceived or not! That's why so many Christians are deceived today. The Word does not fill their hearts. It's not knowing one Scripture about a subject, but what God says from Genesis to Revelation about that subject!

Our children are growing up with deception all around them, too. We must daily fill them with the Word of Truth so they can learn to discern what is truth and what is deception. That's why morning and evening Family Devotions are a very powerful tool in your family life.

Love from Nancy

Check out these Scriptures: Leviticus 10:10-11; 20:24, 26; Jeremiah 15:19; Ezekiel 22:26; 44:23; Joshua 1:8; Matthew 24:4, 24; John 8:31-32; 1 Corinthians 3:18-19; 2 Corinthians 6;17-18; Galatians 6:3; Ephesians 5;6; 1 Timothy 2:14-15; James 4:4 and 1 John 2:15-17.

There are many other lovely "ness" words that should describe our family life and who we are as a wife and mother. Or, they are a CHALLENGE to describe our family life! Read them over and let God speak to you. You may like to print this out and take one word for each day. Meditate on how you can bring the experience of it into your daily family life. Here we go...

Blessedness, cheerfulness, cleanliness, courteousness, faithfulness, fairness, forgiveness, gentleness, godliness, goodness, gracefulness, gratefulness, healthiness, helpfulness, holiness, hopefulness, joyfulness, kindness, loveliness, meekness, maternalness and motherliness, oneness, peacefulness, politeness, prayerfulness, pureness, richness, righteousness, softness, submissiveness, sweetness, teachableness, tenderness, thankfulness, thriftiness, truthfulness, virtuousness, and wholeness.

This sounds like a blessed marriage and family life, doesn't it? I think we've got plenty of work ahead of us, don't you!

And I am sure you could think of other words, too. Share them with me.

Love from Nancy

We've talked about "homeness" and "wombness." We can't leave out "femaleness." God only made two species of humankind--male and female. If we are female, we should seek to embrace our femaleness and live in the fullness of who God created us to be. Anything else is a waste of our life. The more we reveal our "femaleness" the more we give glory to God our Creator.

Embracing our femaleness means that we will seek to speak, act, and dress femininely. We will embrace our motherly instinct which is inherent in being female. To deny our motherliness is to distort our femaleness.

Let's be fully who God created us to be.

Love from Nancy

My last post was about "homeness." I thought I would stretch your vocabulary a little further and introduce "wombness." "Wombness" is not some ethereal imaginative word. It is a reality! It is very much part of who we are as a woman. In fact, we would not be a woman if we did not have a womb! And it also reveals something of what God is like. The womb is more than a place where a baby can be conceived and grow. It is the seat of our compassion.

The Hebrew word "racham" is the word used for a literal womb, but this same Hebrew word is translated "compassion" four times, and "mercy" 30 times. It is the same word that speaks of God's compassion and mercy. When we embrace our "wombness" we also reveal something of the compassion of God.

I was just reading the meaning of "feminine" in the 1828 Webster's Dictionary as follows: "Probably from wemb or womb, by the use of f for w. The last part of the word is probably from man, quasi, femman, womb-man). To be feminine is to be "a womb man."

Don't despise your "wombness." It is a very integral and beautiful part of who you as a woman.

Love from Nancy