Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

No children in the house at all,
No finger marks upon the wall,
No corner where the toys are piled—
Sure indication of a child.
No little lips to breathe the prayer
That God shall keep you in His care,
No glad caress and welcome sweet
When night returns you to your street;
No little lips a kiss to give—
Oh, what a lonely way to live!

No children in the house! I fear
We could not stand it half a year.
What would we talk about at night?
Plan for and work with all our might,
Hold common dreams about and find
True union of the heart and mind,
If we two had no greater care
Than what we both should eat and wear?
We never knew love’s brightest flame
Until the day the baby came.

And now we could not get along
Without their laughter and their song,
Joy is not bottled on a shelf,
It cannot feed upon itself;
And even love, if it shall wear,
Must find its happiness in care;
Dull we’d become of mind and speech
Had we no little ones to teach.
No children in the house to play!
Oh, we could never live that way!

By Edgar Guest.

It all starts with us. First, we choose what we do with our emotions. We choose how we handle our trials. I know that life isn’t perfect. Many things don’t go the way we want them to. Life often hits us whammies we never imagined.

Whatever we face today, we can choose to trust God. He is bigger than any situation we face. We can choose to praise Him in the midst of the storm. We can choose to rejoice in every situation. We can choose to see things in the light of the eternal, instead of the here and now (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

We can choose to fill our home with God’s presence. We do this by choosing to praise God instead of complaining, moaning, griping, and falling into self-pity. Psalm 22:3 says that God dwells in our praises! That means that when we choose to praise instead of groan, God dwells in us. His presence comes to us and fills our home. The word is “yashab” and even means to “sit down.” He sits down and rests in our praises. Some translations say that He is “enthroned” in our praises.

1 Peter 4:12-14 inspires us to rejoice even in the midst of fiery trials. Actually, we are to “exceedingly rejoice.” And when we rejoice instead of grumbling, “the spirit of glory and of God rests upon” us (v. 14). Isn’t that incredible? That sure brings a wonderful atmosphere to your home.

What rests upon you and your home today? The morbid mud of self-pity, or the glory of God?

Love to you today,

Nancy Campbell

But what decision builds into the marriage and the home? I think you’ve guessed it. It is so easy to build into so many other things in this life and forget our greatest building project.

That doesn’t mean, of course, that you will never go out. There are always special occasions. But we need to be sensitive and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit as to what is the best thing. Good things are often the enemy of the best! It’s so easy to get into the habit of always going out, which doesn’t build up the marriage and the home. I believe it is important, as much as possible, to be home with your husband and family to prepare the evening meal, to sit together for the evening meal, and to enjoy family worship together.

Proverbs 14:1: “Every wise woman builds her house: but the foolish plucks it down with her hands.” The New Century Version says it very clearly: “A wise woman strengthens her family, but a foolish woman destroys hers by what she does.”

Every day make decisions. Every day we plan our schedule. Let’s always make our decisions in the light of building up and strengthening our marriages and families. And remember, it’s not just the big things, but the little everyday things that are the most powerful building tools.

Blessings to you today,

Nancy Campbell

Your Bible. Most important of all.

A Daily Devotional of your choice. You may love to have “100 Days of Blessing” which is a devotional especially for wives and mothers. We have both volumes 1 and 2 available for you at http://tinyurl.com/100DaysBundle

A different version of the Bible than you normally read. I keep my “Hebrew/Greek Key Study Bible in the King James Version. However, I love to have a couple of different translations to also refer to. I am a connoisseur of Bible translations and change them in my basket from time to time.

An old hymn book (it is wonderful to read some of the wonderful old hymns to inspire you in your worship and walk with the Lord).

A hard-covered diary in which you can write the most important Scripture God gives you for the day.

Two or three pens (or even more as they seem to disappear quickly), as you want to have a pen on hand when God speaks to you. I need a load of pens as I am a professional pen looser!

Keep your Meditation Basket in the place where you love to sit with the Lord. You can pick up your basket and take it with you anywhere in the house. To your bedroom. Or to the sofa where you are nursing the baby. You may like to take it outside under a tree while you watch the children play, or wherever you want to go. It’s all in the basket. You don’t have to run around finding everything when you find another cozy nook somewhere.

I hope this is an inspiration to you. Have a lovely day.

NANCY CAMPBELL

But it rarely happens without food. Food paves the way for these life-changing and sometimes nation-changing moments to happen. And who does it come back to? The mother in the home. She is the one who prepares the atmosphere by lovingly preparing the food and graciously setting it on the table. It doesn’t have to be exotic food. It only needs to be simple food. But food is needed!

How Jesus loved to sit at the table and share divine truths. What was Jesus own testimony of himself? “The Son of man is come eating and drinking” (Luke 7:34). Robert Karris, the author of “Eating Your Way Through Luke’s Gospel” says: “In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal.”

Proverbs 31:15 (NASB) says: “She (the mother in the home) rises also while it is still night and gives food to her household.” SHE is the one who prepares the food. SHE is the one who prepares the way for family togetherness. SHE is the one who sees beyond the work of cooking food to the great things that will happen as the family and others come to the table around the food.

Of course, it’s not always perfect. Especially when your children are little. It can be exhausting and hair-raising! But dear mothers, keep establishing the habit of family meals around the table. You are training your children. You are establishing godly and biblical habits. Eventually your work and training will be rewarded. Your children grow, and you will eventually have amazing times of conversation and discussion together.

In the meantime, if you are desperate for more intelligent fellowship, open your home in hospitality. Invite people to your home to sit around your table with you. This is normal Christian life. It is the extension of our mothering and homemaking ministry. It is the lifestyle of the kingdom of God. Acts 2:46, 47 (NET) says: “Every day they continued to gather together . . . breaking bread from house to house, sharing their food with glad and humble hearts, praising God and having the good will of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number every day those who were being saved.”

Rejoice in the power of preparing meals in your home today.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Painting by Phoebe Wahl

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