Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

We do not live our lives unto ourselves. Every moment and every day we leave footprints for others to follow. This particularly applies to us as mothers. Our children learn how to walk with God and in holiness as they watch our lives. They learn far more by watching us than from what we tell them.

Revelation 14:13 tells that those who die in Christ "rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." Your mothering work never ends. Sometimes you feel so tried and worn out. But it won't be forever. Your little children grow and life becomes easier. Even when another baby comes into the family, there are now older children to help. But there also comes a day when you will rest from all your labors. And more than that, your works will follow you. They follow you into the eternal kingdom to be judged or rewarded on Judgment Day.

They also follow you after you have gone. Your life keeps influencing your children's lives even when you leave this earth. Your powerful influence as a mother affects not only your children, but your grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and generations to follow.

May we leave clear footprints for our children to follow. May we keep pressing on the upward way until the day we go to be with the Lord. How can others follow if we stop before the finishing line?

God bless you today, Nancy Campbell

Please gather your family to pray earnestly. Pray together at your Family Devotions this evening. Don't let anything stop you from praying. The prayers of God's people and the little children are powerful. You may even like to stop what you are doing at the top of each hour and gather everyone around you to pray. This is our plan for today.

~ Nancy

Do you have three children in your family? You and your husband and three children make five. You can put 100 enemies to flight! Do you have six, eight, or even ten children in your family? What a prayer meeting! What power you wield in our home every morning and evening as you pray together as a family. Don't let the enemy side-track you from the most powerful thing you can do together each day.

You can defeat the devil's plans. You can release the power of the gospel to nations that are in darkness. You can be part of bringing revival to this nation.

Don't let good things be the enemy of the greatest!

God bless you today,

Nancy Campbell

It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. It is given you in life, will be opened at the judgment, and will be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, rewards the greatest labor, and condemns all who trifle with its sacred contents.

What a privilege to be VISITED by God? May we never lose the awesomeness and wonder of this divine miracle.

God bless you today, Nancy Campbell

"Did you sleep well last night?
Incorrect: "Yes."
Correct: "Yes, thank you, Mommy." (It is important to teach your children to address the person's name.)

At the table. "Would you like some more dessert?"
Incorrect: "Yes."
Correct: "Yes, thank you, Mommy." Or, "Yes, thank you, Mrs. Smith."
Correct: "No thank you, Mrs. Smith. I am well satisfied." Or: "No thank you, Mommy. But it was very delicious."

When introducing yourself to someone.
Incorrect: "Hi."
Correct: "Hello. My name is Caleb Rogers. It's very nice to meet you." And shake hands firmly.

To answer with one syllable and not address the person who is asking the question, is very rude. Nor does it show respect to the person asking the question. And yet I find that not only children, but many older young people answer this way. They have never been taught basic etiquette.

Do some practice runs with your children each day so that it becomes the habit of their lives.

Bless you today. Nancy Campbell

God called them Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. Arthur W. Pink comments on God's creation of man: "Not both males or both females, but one male and one female; and to make the design of this unmistakably plain God says, "Be fruitful and multiply." For this reason marriage is called "matrimony," which signifies motherage because it results in virgins becoming mothers."

We cannot deviate from God's plan except to our detriment and destruction (Romans 1:20-32)..

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

Today is another day to sharpen and polish your "arrows." It takes purpose, precision, patience, and prayer. Don't give up.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

It is important to get our thinking straight. We must not allow our thoughts to fall in with our fleshly feelings. We must gird up the loins of our mind. We must bring every thought into captivity to Christ. We must begin to think how God wants us to think--in line with His Word, for His Word is truth, not our feelings.

As you allow God to change your ideas and thoughts, you will change your confession, and thus your whole way of living.

Be blessed. Nancy Campbell

BE STRONG, AND DO IT!

These words were written to Solomon to encourage him as he built the house for God. You too, are building a home and family for God. You are building a strong family for this nation. You can't do it in your own strength, but God has promised to be with you. He does not give you this great task to do and then leave you on your own. He is with you to the end. He doesn't stay with you until you are half way through, but right to the finishing line! He will not fail you until you have FINISHED! Look up the Scripture and read it again!

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

The very first marriage principle that God gave is oneness. Genesis 2:24 states that the married couple are to be "one flesh." We are not separate entities. We are one. We should think oneness. We should be yielded to one another to be "one flesh" as much as possible. We should be yielded to one another in one spirit, mind, and purpose to build our marriage and family. We haven't got time to be pursuing our own life. We have been blended as one to build a family that is strong, powerful, and that will impact the world. This happens through oneness. Fragmentation comes through selfishness.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

I think there is a lot of truth in these words. Many people read God’s Word, but it is the letter of the law to them because they read it without faith. God’s Word becomes alive when the Holy Spirit illumines it to us. In the tabernacle in the wilderness, the light from the seven-branched candlestick shone upon the bread on the Table of Shewbread, which represented God’s Word. That’s why the best translation of the Word of God is the Holy Spirit.

As you read the Word individually, and when you come together as a family at Family Devotions, come in faith. Come, believing that God is going to speak to you. Come, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal His truth to you. And what will happen? You will all grow.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

God's plan is for parents to teach their children how to walk with God. And that first requirement is obedience. Acts 5:32 says that God gives the Holy Spirit "to them that obey him." And Hebrews 5:9 says He gives His salvation to "them that obey him." If we don't get into the habit of training our children to obey, how will they suddenly want to obey God? In fact, God looks upon disobedience as rebellion and witchcraft (1 Samuel 15:22-23).

Ask God to help you to be a faithful parent to prepare your children for a life of obedience to God?

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

As children get older, and especially into their teens, they are prone to being swept into the current of this world system. We must teach from a young age how to constantly fight the battle and swim upstream. Here are some pointers:

1. Penetrate your children with a godly and biblical worldview. How they live and think is determined by their worldview. Remember, the public education system teaches your children a humanistic worldview.

2. Teach them to pray. Establish daily prayer times with your children.

3. Fill them with God's Word. Don't let anything deter you from Family Devotions each day with your family.

4. Make sure you have at least weekly fellowship with the people of God (Hebrews 10:25).

5. Teach them to say no to the flesh and the devil and yield to Christ who dwells within them.

What will take them, and even us, downstream?

1. Compromising with the world (1 John 2:15-17).

2. Tolerating sin. God does not tell us to tolerate, but to obliterate! Ephesians 5:22: "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather REPROVE them."

3. Undisciplined time with media.

4. No daily habit of prayer and reading God's Word.

5. Hanging around with the wrong company. Proverbs 13:20: "He that walks with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed." I raised my children on this Scripture. Young people will go the way of those they hang around with. Guide them into wise company.

Are you a swimming upstream family, or merrily floating downstream with the current of this world? Remember- when you are floating, you don't even realize you are going downstream until it is too late.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

The Scriptures tell us that the Father has "delivered us from the authority of darkness and transferred us into the reign of the Son of His love” (Colossian 1:13). Therefore, is it right to live in His kingdom and still adhere to the principles of the old kingdom? Don't you think we should be loyal subjects of God's kingdom?

Can we confess one thing and do another? We have to decide whose kingdom we belong to. If we truly belong to God's kingdom we must stand with life because God is a God of life. He is originator of life. He loves life and loves every new baby that is conceived.

If we side with terminating life, or even hindering life before it is conceived, we can't be a hypocrite. We must confess that we side with the enemy and therefore are not loyal subjects of His kingdom.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

It's the same with reading the Bible. The more activities we pack into our lives the less time we have to read God's Word. However, the busier we are, the more we need the sustenance of His Word, don't we? We'll soon get off the beaten track if we don't have daily doses to keep us in the right direction.

It affects our family life, too. When the schedule is full and everyone is going their various ways, it's easy for the family to become fragmented. Once again, the busier the family, the more we need to prioritize gathering together as a family. Nothing is more important as gathering around the family meal table each day to connect, fellowship, pray, and worship together. Other things may seem necessary, but they are often detours from the enemy to keep us from God's best.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell