Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

After posting HOUSE RULES yesterday some ladies asked if I would share with them the rules for our house. I should never have used such a title, because I don’t have rules. What could I call them? They are more a basic, fundamental order for the home. And these fundamental guidelines change with times and seasons. I had different “rules” when the children were little than when they grew older.

Let me give you an overall picture of how I liked to run my home from when the children were little until now. My children are now all out of the home, married with their own children. But we still have young people living in our home (Above Rubies helpers and other staying at differing times). We often have up to four young people staying and visitors coming and going.

Do I have the same values for visitors? I’ll share that with you in another post.

I believe in getting up at a decent hour, not sleeping in! You can’t manage a home effectively if you sleep in. The best part of the day is gone before you even start. Wake up time will be a different time in every home and at the different seasons and ages of your children.

Currently I like to get into the kitchen about 7.30 am. I read and pray before this of course. I expect everyone living in the home to have breakfast before 8.00 am when we commence Family Devotions together. I revolve my day around PRIORITIES. Family Devotions, both morning and evening, are the highest priority in my day. Therefore, I plan the order of my day around them. That’s why everyone must be up in time. No sleeping in. I hate sleeping in myself but allow our young people to sleep in on the weekends.

After Family Devotions, we begin the day. Mothers with children will make sure basic chores are completed such as cleaning the kitchen and getting laundry going and then begin homeschooling. I’m not homeschooling now, but school grandchildren at different seasons.

Lunch time comes and we allow an hour for lunch and clean up. Larger families will most probably need longer to prepare, eat, and clean up. Some families like to read the Word at lunchtime too.

For me, after lunch, it’s back to the office to keep writing and keep Above Rubies going. Mothers may continue homeschooling, although usually they can all be finished by lunchtime. The afternoon is a wonderful time for projects, gardening, research, creative ideas, errands, visiting someone in need and so on. And rest time for littles ones.

I like to be in the kitchen again no later than 5.00 to prepare for the evening meal. This is a huge priority for me. I know that Family Devotions won’t work unless I prepare for it. It is such a blessing to have the evening meal ready for when your husband comes home so you can all eat together and at the end of the meal, enjoy time reading God’s Word and praying together. These things don’t happen unless you make them happen.

Here are a few other guidelines I find helpful in my home:

1. I don’t allow children to jump on the furniture and on their beds. This does not teach our children how to care for things or how to act in someone else’s home.

2. I don’t allow chewing gum in my home. Please understand that this is not a “thus saith the Lord.” It is my preference. I simply cannot stand finding chewing gum stuck to the floor or under chairs etc. Therefore, I don’t allow it in the home. Period. Personally, I don’t like to see people chewing gum anyway. I don’t think it equates with royalty, and aren’t we training our children to be princes and princesses in God’s royal kingdom?

3. I don’t allow children to eat food in their bedrooms or anywhere in the house except at the dining room table or in the kitchen. This only makes so much more work for you in cleaning house—crumbs around the house and marks on the carpet etc.

4. I expect ALL children and EVERYONE living in our home to join us for Family Devotions. One time, a young man was staying with us for a week or so. The night before he left he said he wouldn’t have time to come for Family Devotions as he wanted to pack his bag. It was only an excuse as he had done nothing all day! I certainly didn’t let him off the hook!

5. I expect everyone to be at the dinner table on time! No coming when they feel like it. They must be there the moment I call, although usually by this time the children are in the kitchen with you helping you with the meal and putting it on the table.

6. I allowed my children to be “children” and didn’t get at them for many of the stupid and childish things they did. However, I disciplined for disobedience, willfulness, rebellion, lying, and things that God detests in His Word.

7. I trained the children to do their chores with a smile and a good attitude. They would be given another task until they showed the right attitude. Of course, they learn this mostly from YOUR OWN ATTITUDE TOWARD WORK. You show by your actions and attitude that you LOVE WORK and it is a God-given blessing.

8. When the children grew older and were still living at home, I expected them to be home for the evening meal and Family Devotions, unless they let me know in time and it was a valid excuse. I expected them (and still expect anyone living in our home) to tell me where they are going and what time they will be home. And I have certain time guidelines for them to be in at night.

There are loads of other things I could mention, but I think I have gone on long enough.

Be blessed,

Nancy Campbell

Painting: Tasha Tudor

Let’s look at an example in the Bible. Ezekiel 43:12 says: “This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be MOST HOLY. Behold, this is the law of the house.” This is talking about the temple, the place of God’s dwelling.

God had laws for His house. He established many ordinances to make it run smoothly. In Ezekiel 44:5 it says: “Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning ALL THE ORDINANCES OF THE HOUSE OF THE LORD, and ALL THE LAWS thereof: and mark well the entering in of the house with every going forth of the sanctuary.”

Because I am also building a house to the Lord, a sanctuary for the living God and for my husband and family, I believe I can’t do better than God’s plan. If it was important for God to have ordinances to run His house smoothly, I think I also need laws and ordinances to make my home function effectively.

God’s house had order and established daily times for certain functions. I need to make this happen in my home too. I believe in flexibility because every day of every year is different and we never know what is going to happen. However, we need to institute a basic plan to keep order.

And do you notice the ultimate vision? That God’s house will be MOST HOLY. Not only the house, but all around the house. This should be our ultimate passion and vision, to build a holy home for God’s glory. We seek God’s holiness on and in our home, but also on our land--the backyard, front yard, and all around our house. It is all to be holy to the Lord. We should pray this every day upon our home and allotment or acreage, whether it be large or small. We must guard what goes on in our home AND around our home!

“Holiness adorns your house, O LORD, forever” (Psalm 93:5). Does holiness adorn our homes?

Blessings to you today,

Nancy Campbell

Picture: The Charm of Home: Tasha Tudor

How can God teach them? He uses His servants on earth. The best teacher a child can have is a godly mother who teaches them God’s words and ways--a mother whose highest aim is to richly fill her children with the knowledge and wisdom of God.

God shows us in His Word the way He wants us to do this (Deuteronomy 6:6-9 and Isaiah 28:10).

The word “taught” in Isaiah 54:1`3 is “limmud” and means “learned, trained, skilled, and accustomed. It also means to be a disciple.” Are your children “accustomed” to God’s Word? I find so many children and teens from Christian homes are not familiar with God’s Word. They know more about the spirit of the world than the Spirit of God. Theyre more familiar with the worldly media than God’s Word.

A wonderful blessing is to teach your children how to hear the voice of God speak to them personally. When you read God’s Word to your children (or when they read it themselves) encourage them to not only read the words, but to listen for the Holy Spirit to speak to their hearts. When you read together, ask the children: “As we read, I want you to listen to what God is saying to your heart. When we have finished, I want you to tell us all what God said to you.”

You will be amazed at how God speaks to your children. And we need to get them into the habit of listening to the Holy Spirit. The greatest thing you can do is teach them to hear God speak to them personally from His precious Word. This way they will get to LOVE GOD’S WORD. It will become increasingly personal to them. It will become LIFE to them.

Be encouraged today,

Nancy Campbell

A pilot study of 666 homeschooled six to 12-year-olds from four American states published on April 27th in the Journal of Translational Sciences, compared 261 unvaccinated children with 405 partially or fully vaccinated children, and assessed their overall health based on their mothers’ reports of vaccinations and physician-diagnosed illnesses. What it found about increases in immune-mediated diseases like allergies and neurodevelopmental diseases including autism, should make all parents think twice before they ever vaccinate again:

*Vaccinated children were more than three times as likely to be diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum (OR 4.3)
*Vaccinated children were 30-fold more likely to be diagnosed with allergic rhinitis (hay fever) than non-vaccinated children
* Vaccinated children were 22-fold more likely to require an allergy medication than unvaccinated children
*Vaccinated children had more than quadruple the risk of being diagnosed with a learning disability than unvaccinated children (OR 5.2)
*Vaccinated children were 300 percent more likely to be diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder than unvaccinated children (OR 4.3)
* Vaccinated children were 340 percent (OR 4.4) more likely to have been diagnosed with pneumonia than unvaccinated children
*Vaccinated children were 300 percent more likely to be diagnosed with an ear infection than unvaccinated children (OR 4.0)
*Vaccinated children were 700 percent more likely to have surgery to insert ear drainage tubes than unvaccinated children (OR 8.01)
* Vaccinated children were 2.5-fold more likely to be diagnosed with any chronic illness than unvaccinated children.

Worth thinking about.

~ Nancy

ANOTHER INTERESTING READ

The following is another article regarding vaccinations:
http://yournewswire.com/harvard-unvaccinated-children-risk/

Many mothers today are fearful of their children getting measles, mumps, chicken pox, whooping cough and so on. It was so different in my day. All children got these sicknesses at some stage in their childhood and we all survived! I got them all and my children got them. When an epidemic was going around, many mothers exposed their children to others with the sickness so they could catch the “wild disease.” The wild disease is much safer than a vaccine.

And so, we continually make negative statements. I was very challenged as I read Hebrews 3:12 the other morning: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF, in departing from the living God.” The JBP version says: “You should therefore be most careful, my brothers, that there should not be in any of you that WICKEDNESS OF HEART which refuses to trust.”

We tend to think it is a light thing not to trust God, don’t we? We are all guilty of not trusting. Well, I admit, I am. We worry, fret, and try to work out our problems with our own understanding. But God calls it wicked! Ouch!

Why is it so wicked? Because it belittles God. We make him into a little god of our own imagination, a god that can fit in with our finite thinking. But God is so much bigger. His ways are so much higher. His thoughts are beyond finding out.

In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus told us to pray “Deliver us from evil.” This is the exact same word (poneros) as the “evil” heart of unbelief. We must ask God to deliver us from this lack of trust.

Ephesians 6:16 encourages us to take up the shield of faith so we will be “able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” It’s the same Greek word again. With the shield of faith and the power of the name of Jesus we must quench these evil thoughts of unbelief. Evil? Yes, God calls them evil!

Let’s get to the nitty gritty in order understand the seriousness of our lack of trust in our God. Satan is called “the wicked one.” It’s the same word again. When we embrace belief, and make it part of our life instead of trusting God, we give access to the devil, who is the wicked one, and wants to keep us in unbelief.

Romans 12:9 tells us that attitude we must have to this evil: “Abhor that which is evil.” Same word again!

We sang at Family Devotions the other morning:
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er,
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more.

Oh, how I long to be like the holy women of old who “trusted in God” even in the most difficult circumstances (1 Peter 3:5).

Love from Nancy Campbell

Like Thy springs of running water
Make me crystal pure.
Like Thy rocks of towering grandeur
Make me strong and sure.

Like Thy dancing waves in sunlight
Make me glad and free.
Like the straightness of the pine-tree
Help me upright be.

Like the arching of Thy heavens,
Raise my thoughts above.
Turn my dreams to noble actions,
Ministries of love.

God, who touches earth with beauty,
Make me lovely too.
Keep me ever, by Thy Spirit,
Pure and strong and true.

By Mary S. Adgar

’Tis not the fluttering eyelashes
That turn my heart your way,
But the depths of passion in those eyes
And love that they convey—

A dainty queen is not the fullness
Of femininity,
But she who loves her womanhood
And all that she can be!

~ Benjamin Graber

But when you saw Him coming, would you meet Him at the door
With arms outstretched in welcome, to your heav’nly Visitor?
Or would you have to change your clothes before you let Him in?
Or hide some magazines and put the Bible where they’d been?
Would you turn off the radio and hope He hadn’t heard?
And wish you hadn’t uttered that last loud, hasty word?

Would you hide your worldly music and put some hymnbooks out?
Could you let Jesus walk right in, or would you rush about?
And I wonder – if the Savior spent a day or two with you,
Would you go right on doing the things you always do?
Would you go right on saying the things you always say?
Would life for you continue as it does from day to day?

Would your family conversation keep up its usual pace?
And would you find it hard each meal to say a table grace?
Would you sing the songs you always sing, and read the books
you read,
And let Him know the things on which our mind and spirit feed?
Would you take Jesus with you everywhere you’d planned to go?
Or would you, maybe, change your plans for just a day or so?

Would you be glad to have Him meet your very closest friends?
Or would you hope they’d stay away until His visit ends?
Would you be glad to have Him stay forever on and on?
Or would you sigh with great relief when He at last was gone?
It might be interesting to know the things that you would do,
If Jesus came in person to spend some time with you.

~ Unknown.

However, when Jesus died and shed His own spotless blood, the thick curtain separating the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place tore from top to bottom. It is now open. Now in the New Covenant God wants to dwell in our heats. Our lives are now the Holy of Holies for Him to dwell.

Is this true? Unbelievable, but yes. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says: “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and You are not your own?” The word “temple” is “naos” which is the word for the “Holy of Holies.” The word “hieron” is the word for the temple, but “naos” refers to the Holy of Holies.

Can you get this? God has chosen you to be His residence, a Holy of Holies where He can dwell.

Because God is a holy God, He looks for holy people in which to dwell in this world. We as the people of God are to be a holy people. A set apart people. A sanctified people. A suitable vessel for God’s holiness. We cannot afford to be friends with the world. James 4:4: says “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

God is a holy God. The Bible states “holy” three times because once is not enough to describe His holiness (Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 4:8). Therefore, God wants holy people. Holy parents. Holy children—yes, God wants us to raise “godly” children (Malachi 2:15). The word is “elohim,” one of God’s names. He wants children in His likeness filling this world. He wants holy families.

Let’s answer honestly: Are we a worldly family? Or are we a holy family?

Be encouraged today,

Nancy Campbell

Yesterday I posted thoughts on mothering from Debbie Erickson. Today I would like to share with you a Mother’s Day post from another dear friend, Peggy Fitzpatrick. She is also a mother and grandmother. Peggy writes on a different theme, but one which so many of us mothers relate to—the deepest longings and yearnings for our children. I know you will be blessed by her sharing also:

“My heart was awakened at daybreak on this Mother’s Day as I do many days, with the awareness of deepest longings for my children, for their well-being and happiness, for the fulfillment of their destinies, and their absolute good.

Almost simultaneously I became aware that this mother-longing exists in an inexplicable conjunction with the deep groaning of all creation spoken of in Romans chapter 8. I am in awe once again of the sharing we enter into as mothers with this profoundest, indescribably, instinctive identification with the very heart of the Creator of all humanity, an identification that is felt and echoed throughout all creation, and more deeply felt within us than even our own heartbeat.

I know this is not only a mother instinct, it is a life instinct, deeply joined to our Father’s own deep longing. However, we as mothers are given a gigantic dose of this connection with our children that determines our joy and sorrow, pain and concern, righteous anger or deep peace for as long as we live.

Rabbi Shaul wrote (with a motherly longing) in Galatians 4:19, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” Again, in a very motherly description he wrote: “Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?” (2 Corinthians 11:29 NASB). And in 1 Thessalonians 2:19 (NASB) he says: “For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?”

Romans 8:22, 23, 19, 25 (NASB): “For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now, and not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for adoption as sons . . . For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God . . . If we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we eagerly await for it.”

Therefore, to all of us who are mothers, whether through giving birth or through loving deeply, may we know the honor and the privilege today of bearing in our hearts the very heart of our God who longs for us with a longing too deep for words.

And may we draw near to our Lord Jesus who went before us in laying His life down to bring us all into the fulfillment of our destinies. Let us lean into this calling of ours, with faith and hope, with joy and an eager expectation of good. May all the good we desire for our children find its ABUNDANT, more than we can ask or imagine fulfillment in Him.

~ Peggy Fitzpatrick, Nashville, Tennessee.

I read a beautiful message on Mother’s Day from a dear friend of mine, Debbie Erickson. Debbie is a mother and grandmother. She also organized the very first Above Rubies retreat in USA (held in Texas), well over 20 years ago. She wrote so beautifully of what I feel motherhood is all about it. In fact, I shared the same theme in my Mother’s Day post to you, but she wrote more movingly. Therefore, I’d love to share it with you:

“Today is Mother’s Day, a great day that the calendar marks once a year to honor mothers around our country. I think it’s a great idea. Moms need to be honored, treated well, and celebrated--and ideally, not just one day a year. We owe a lot to our moms. We certainly wouldn’t be here without them.

However, I am very keenly aware that Mother’s Day is a very painful day for many women who have longed for children of their own, but haven’t received them yet. For whatever reason--infertility, barrenness, not having found the right man yet, physical limitations, repeated miscarriages, etc., motherhood has eluded many women who desire to be mothers. And, so this can be a sad day for these women. I have had many friends who have felt this pain on Mother’s Day.

I have compassion for these women. Being a mom is a huge blessing and one of the greatest joys and privileges in my life. However, I want to put a different perspective on mothering that perhaps you have never considered before.

I truly believe that there are differences in the sexes. Beyond the obvious anatomical differences between men and women, God put in the DNA of women to be nurturers, to care for someone/something, to pour herself into someone/something to raise it up, to make it better, to help, and to love!

If you are a woman who doesn’t have a child of your own, you can still mother . . .
Yes, there I said it. You don’t have to have a child of your own to mother. So, how does that work? There are loads of examples all around us! Mother Teresa from Calcutta, India was never a biological mother, but she rescued, mothered, and raised hundreds of orphans who had been left on the streets to die. She became a mother to many.

What about the hospital volunteers who are childless women who sit and cuddle the tiny babies in the NICU’s to help their growth and development by their tender, nurturing touch?

What about all the childless women in ministry who have spiritual children all over the world that they train, teach, impart to, and love?

What about all those childless women in helping professions like teachers, nurses, and paramedics, etc., whose jobs include assist and giving aid to, even saving the lives of babies and children?

What about the childless women who give money to fund orphanages, adoptions, rescuing children from human trafficking, and feeding and clothing programs for the homeless? Children can be homeless, too, you know.

What about all the childless women in the world who love their pet dog or cat with all their heart and often give them better care than some moms give their own children?

These all represent ways that women can mother without ever having a child.

I believe in having babies. I believe in adopting babies and children. I believe in all of that, trust me! But for women who having children of their own has escaped them for whatever the reason, there are many ways they can mother, also!

Look around you, dear women!
Who needs a hug?
Who needs some words of encouragement?
Who needs a mentor to say “Come with me? Let me teach you about the Lord and His plans for you?”
Who needs a hot meal or you to invite them into your home?
Who needs a home to stay in while they are getting stuff worked out in their lives?
What single mom needs a few hours of free baby-sitting?
What baby or child needs to be adopted?
Who needs to be held and allowed to just cry it out?
Who needs their hands held while they go through something really scary?
Who needs someone to rejoice with them when things go great?
Who needs someone to grieve with them when things don’t turn out so well?
What dog needs to be rescued or bought?

There are so many hurting babies, children, teens, and adults, elderly, and yes, even animals, in this world who need a momma’s touch. And you don’t have to have had a baby be that “momma” to that child or adult.

It’s in the God-given DNA of all women to want to take care of, nourish, nurture, encourage, love on, and make people (and the world) better.

So, go for it, women! Reach out and change the world with your God-given nurturing DNA! Because it is in you! You’ve got it! God put that special something there in you! Don’t hold back for one second on mothering someone/something just because you haven’t had a child.

Because you have something unique inside of you that someone or something truly needs, I can truly say to EACH WOMAN reading this, ‘HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY” TO YOU!’”

~ Debbie Erickson, Carrollton, Texas.

Our God is a God of increase!

Conversely, I cannot find any Scripture in the Bible that tells us to limit our children to one or two.

Which Bible do we believe?

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

As I hold this baby in my arms
I’m like a picture of You,
To nurture with Your love
Is what You made me to do.”

God chose you, as a woman, to reveal His nurturing anointing to the world.

Are you a first-time mother with a little baby? This is your first official Mother’s Day. May you be filled with joy as you nurture your little darling. Embrace your God-given role. You are walking in the perfect will of God.

Are you a mother with little children around you? Or perhaps little children, middling children, and older children. You are blessed beyond measure. God has destined every child He has given you from the foundation of the world. I know you will be blessed today with your children all around you. Be encouraged to never give up. Remember that even when you face tiring and difficult days God is with you to strengthen you each new day. You are in the highest career in the nation. You are determining the destiny of the nation.

Are you single? Or a mother who desperately waits for children from your womb? You are no less a mother. The nurturing anointing resides in you. May you be blessed today as you open your heart to who God created you to be and reach out to the hurting and needy around you.

The world cries out for the nurturing anointing of God. You can become the greatest mother in the nation as you pour out your mother heart to the lonely, destitute, hurting, and unloved. Think of Mother Theresa. She did not have the blessing of having children from her womb, but she mothered thousands more than a married woman. As Isaiah 54:1 says: "More are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.”

Be blessed today.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Painting by Jessie Rasche, “Pink Love.”

What about grace? Such a wonderful word. It’s used 170 times in the Bible.

The glorious word “salvation” is used 158 times and Savior 39 times.

Faith is mentioned 338 times.

We are told to “pray” 313 times in the Bible, although there are many other words used to describe prayer.

However, when searching the Bible for the different words God uses for children I was amazed. The most common Hebrew word for children is “ben” and there are nearly 4,000 references to this word!

But that’s not the only word for children. God’s heart is so much for children that He has a different word for every stage of their growth, from birth to adulthood. I discovered 50 different Hebrew words for children in the Old Testament and 26 different Greek words for children in the New Testament. These words add up to thousands.

It’s interesting that we constantly hear messages at church each Sunday on faith, grace, love, and salvation, which is wonderful because we can never learn enough of these grand themes. But when do we ever hear a message about family life and the blessing of children? Maybe on the rare occasion? And yet God has more words for children than any other subject.

Do you think we should get more in line with God?

Love from Nancy Campbell

Painting by Corinne Hartley (available from Carmel Galleries).

You can find all the different Hebrew and Greek words for children in THE POWER OF MOTHERHOOD. Currently available ON SALE until 14th May.

Go to: http://aboverubiesbookstore.mybigcommerce.com/power-of-mot…/

When you clean toilets, sing for joy because Christ sings with you and over you (Zephaniah 3:17). When you wash dishes and laundry, acknowledge the presence of Christ with you. When you prepare another meal for your family, do it with joy and excitement because Christ is with you. He doesn’t leave you when you do the commonplace duties. He is not apart from you in the humdrum of life. He is in you and with you.

He promises: “I will NEVER leave you, or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). No matter what you are doing (unless you are sinning and grieving His Holy Spirit), He is with you.

I love Zechariah 14:20, 21 (NET): “On that day the bells of the horses will bear the inscription “HOLY TO THE LORD.” The cooking pots in the LORD’S temple will be as holy as the bowls in front of the altar. Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will become holy in the sight of the LORD who rules over all.”

Every saucepan you pick up is holy because you, and everything in your home, is sanctified by the power of the living Christ who abides in you. To prepare a meal for your family is as sacred as a minister who prepares a spiritual meal for the church!

Therefore, enjoy every moment and every task in your home today.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

When we focus our ordinary, daily life on the eternal, it takes us from the doldrums to delight, from misery to the miraculous, from pre-occupation with self to praising God. Instead of being overwhelmed about all our challenges and problems, we lift our eyes to Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father. We give our difficulties to Him. Nothing is too big for Him to handle.

Did you know that God never gets in a state of confusion or tension? And He dwells in your heart by His Spirit? Therefore, you don’t have to get all tied up in knots? Allow Christ to take control. He’ll do a much better job than you!

Be encouraged today as you read 2 Corinthians 4:1-18: “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a FAR MORE EXCEEDING AND ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY: While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which re not seen are eternal.”

Many blessings to you today,

Nancy Campbell

Here are a few quotes from commentators on Ephesians 6:1-3.

“There can be no obedience where there is no authority; and if a child is not disciplined to obedience it suffers a moral loss which can hardly ever be completely remedied in later years. Obedience to the personal authority of parents disciplines us to obey the personal authority of God.”

“The exercise of authority . . . meets him at the beginning of life with the idea so necessary for all to realize, that in this world no human will is meant to be absolute and supreme, and that the first lesson—which everyone is to learn—is the difficult, but necessary one of obedience. “
~ T. G. Begets

“It is the duty of a child to obey. It is the duty of parents to rule.”
~ R, W. Dale

“If atheism is not normal, why do certain people become unbelievers? First, it is well known that the seeds of atheism can be planted early in life. One of the most dangerous contributions a parent can make toward the spiritual delinquency of his child is a failure to instill within him a respect for authority. If the parent neglects to set the proper example as an authority figure, or refuses to exercise discipline with love, he might well be rejected as an authority-figure by his child, and thus, by transference, the child ultimately may come to disdain all authority, including the Supreme Authority, God.”
~ “Surveying the Evidence by Kyle Butt, Wayne Jackson, Eric Lyons.

Was I always diligent as I trained our children? Not always, although I took it seriously. We constantly need to remind each other of the most important things in life. And this is the most important task of parenting.

Love from Nancy Campbell
www.aboverubies.org

References:
HONORED: Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16; Matthew 15:4; 19:19; Mark 7:10; 10:19; Luke 18:20; and Ephesians 6:1-3. Check also Exodus 21:15, 17; Proverbs 15:20; 19:26; 20:17, 20; and 23;22.
OBEYED: Ephesians 6:1-3; Colossians 3:20.
FEARED: Leviticus 19:3.