Day 1
God is the Source of Light and gives Light
Genesis 1:3-5
Exodus 27:20-21; 40:24-25; cf. Leviticus 24:1-4; Numbers 8:1-3
Exodus 13:21; Nehemiah 9:12,19
Psalm 36:9
Psalm 104:1-2
Matthew 17:2 (You can read the whole story in Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-13; and Luke 9:28-36).
1 Timothy 6:16
James 1:17
Day 2
Jesus is the Light of the World
Isaiah 9:2, cf. Matthew 4:12-17
Luke 1:76-79; 2:27-32
John 1:4-9,cf. Job 18:5-6; Proverbs 27:20
John 3:19-21
John 8:12
John 9:5
John 12:44-46
Acts 26:22-23
Day 3
Shine the Light of Jesus to the world
Proverbs 4:18
Isaiah 58:6-8, 10
Isaiah 60:1-2
Matthew 5:14-16
Luke 12:35
John 5:35
Acts 13:47
2 Corinthians 4:4-6
Philippians 2:14-15
Day 4
God's Word is our Light
Ezra 9:8
Psalm 19:7-11
Psalm 119:18, 105, 130
Proverbs 6:20-24
Ephesians 1:17-18
2 Peter 1:1-21
Day 5
Walk in the Light
Psalm 89:15
Isaiah 2:5
Romans 13:12-14
2 Corinthians 4:4-7
1 John 1:6-9
1 John 2:8-11
Ephesians 5:8-20
Day 6
Out of Darkness into Light
2 Samuel 22:29 (Psalm 18:28)
Isaiah 42:16
Isaiah 50:10
Acts 26:17-18
1 Corinthians 4:5
1 Thessalonians 5:5
1 Peter 2:9
Day 7
Living in God is to live in Light
Psalm 4:6
Psalm 27:1
Psalm 37:3-6
Psalm 43:3-4
Psalm 112:4
Micah 7:8
Day 8
God is the Light of Heaven
Isaiah 24:23; 30:26
Isaiah 60:19-20
Revelation 21:22-25
Revelation 22:3-5
May you be blessed. Nancy
Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
The HANUKKAH celebration begins tomorrow evening, Tuesday 16th. We enjoy celebrating Hanukkah each year. Why?
1. It is a celebration that Jesus celebrated (John 10:22-23).
2. Hanukkah in the Hebrew means "dedication." God's temple had been desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 BC but the Maccabees family led a revolt against the Seleucid armies and called the nation back to God. After they had driven them out of Judea and Jerusalem, the Maccabees consecrated and rededicated the temple. However, God no longer lives in a temple in Jerusalem, but lives in the temple of our hearts. We like to use Hanukkah as time to rededicate the temple of our lives to God.
3. It is also called the Feast of Dedication (John 10:22) and the Festival of Lights. It celebrates the re-lighting of the Menorah in the temple and how the light kept burning even when they didn't have enough oil. Because this celebration remembers the relighting of the menorah, we read about God who is the light and how He also wants us to be His light in this world. We do this at our Family Devotions each morning and evening. And each night we light a Hanukkah candle.
I will post the Scriptures about the light in a separate post for you to print out for the following week. Read and meditate on them in your personal devotional time. Then choose the ones you would like to use with your family. For each day, you may like to take half the Scriptures at Family Devotions in the morning and the other half in the evening, or whatever works out in your home. If you have older children, it's a lovely idea for each one to have their own Bible and give a Scripture for each one to read aloud--and to share what they feel God is saying through the Scriptures. If you have little ones, you may only want to take one, or one or two Scriptures from the list and talk about it.
And don't forget to ask your children questions as you read the Scriptures. This is how you learn together.
During the eight days of Hanukkah, I will also send out a post each day telling you a little story about Hanukkah that relates to us as mothers, or a revelation from the Scriptures about the meaning of Hanukkah. By the way, you may like to take time to read the history of the Maccabees in the Apocrypha. The books in the Apocrypha were not chosen to be part of the cannon of Scripture but the books of Maccabees, 1, 2, 3, and 4 are great historical reading and tell how the Jewish nation was saved from extinction at that time. I am sure God used these brave men to protect His people and also the coming Messiah. No wonder Jesus celebrated Hanukkah.
Blessings from Nancy
One writer says, "Children are said to be a trouble and expense, and men blasphemously treat the advent of children with humorous resignation, if not with positive chagrin, and feel that society requires that demeanor. What makes children trouble and expense but the indolence, hardheartedness, or extravagance of parents?"
How true it is that many laugh, sometimes derogatively or even cynically, about the blessing of children. They do this, as this quote says, because of the conditioning of society. But way down deep in their heart of hearts they love children, for God has put that love in our hearts. Who can turn away from a baby's smile? It melts the hardest heart.
God loves children. One of my favorite Scriptures in the Bible is found in 2 Samuel 24 where it tells us about the birth of Solomon and then it says, "And the Lord loved him." The Bible records that God loved this little baby, as He loves every baby He creates and brings into this world.
If we are walking in the likeness of God we will also love and embrace children. When we reject children, it is the opposite to God's character.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
I was reading Psalm 113:9 again, this time in the CEB translation and was arrested by the words: "God NESTS the once barren woman at home--now a joyful mother with children! Praise the Lord!" Before God makes the barren woman a joyful mother, He first nests her in the home. Nesting is part of God's plan for us as women. We are to view our home as our nesting place, the place where we love to be.
The Hebrew word, "yashab" affirms this: it means "to abide, to sit down, dwell, inhabit, settle, continue." Home is not a place to just rest at night, but where we make it our life. And because we make it our nesting place, we are open and ready to embrace children into our nest to nurture and nourish them.
Is this your attitude toward your home? If not, perhaps you have been conditioned by our society and does not understand God's value on the home. Ask God to work in your life, for as this Scripture says, it is God who makes you to nest in your home. It is His working in our lives. It is yielding to His plan.
Love being in your home today. Blessings from Nancy Campbell
I am in awe of God as I read Psalm 113. It begins by proclaiming the greatness of God and that He is HIGH above all the nations of the earth. He is HIGH above all the heavens. Our God who dwells on HIGH has to humble Himself to even look upon the things that are in the heavens, let alone the earth!
But as we read on, the picture changes. It reveals a picture of what this HIGH AND LOFTY God is doing: "He raises up the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the dunghill . . . He makes the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord."
Do you feel as though you are in the ash heap? Let God lift you up with His tender loving arms. Do you think that you are not doing anything very significant as you mother your children? Dear mother, it's YOU that God is concerned about. His focus is on the poor and needy and the mothers of this world. These are the ones He beholds. These are the ones He watches over.
As a mother, you are in the very heart of God. He wants to be with you in your mothering, every moment and in every situation of the day. He is more interested in you becoming a JOYFUL MOTHER OF CHILDREN than any career you could ever get into.
The wonderful revelation of this truth ends with PRAISE YE THE LORD! Is this your response?
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
We all know the amazing story of how God revealed Himself to Moses way out on the back side of the desert. God who is a consuming fire, and yet never consumed, revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush that was not consumed and spoke these words: "I AM THAT I AM" (Exodus 3:14). God told Moses to tell the children of Israel that "I AM hath sent me unto you."
But in the very next verse, v.15, God said, "Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." How amazing! God first reveals His sovereignty, divinity, and majesty, but then He immediately reveals Himself as the God who relates to us in our humanity.
I am the God of your fathers and this is the name by which you will know Me forever. Although God's glory is higher than the heavens, He comes down to be our personal God. In this same passage, God says to Moses, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I AM COME DOWN TO DELIVER THEM."
God also comes down to you dear mother. Although He is the high a lofty God He comes down to you in your home--with all your little children needing you at once. He comes down to you in your kitchen when you are trying to prepare the food, but at the same time the phone is ringing, the baby needs nursing, children can't find their clothing, and your husband is waiting for his kiss goodbye.
Don't panic. Relax. God is with you. He wants to reveal Himself to you in what you are facing right now.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
We read another Messianic prophecy that speaks of the womb in Isaiah 49:5: "And now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him."
THE WOMB IS A FORMING PLACE
How amazing to think that God formed His only Son in the womb of a woman, the same way that every child comes into the world. What high honor God places upon the womb. He could have brought His Son into the world in any manner of ways, but He chose the womb. He came down to our humanity (Isaiah 44:2, 24).
THE WOMB IS A CALLING PLACE
It is from the womb that God called His son to be His servant and it is from the womb that God calls each child He creates in His image. Every new creation is not conceived and formed for nothingness, but for a purpose and destiny. They are called from the womb to serve--to serve God in the particular way His has planned from the beginning of time. If Jesus Christ Himself was called to serve, rather than being served, how much more should we embrace a life of serving? And also teach our children that they are born to serve.
THE WOMB IS A PROPHETIC PLACE
The angel spoke the prophetic word about Jesus: "And, behold, thou shalt conceive IN THY WOMB, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS" (Luke 1:31). God knows from the womb His plan for each child.
THE WOMB IS A PLACE OF DESTINY
Jeremiah 1:5 says, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet to the nations." Here we read of four things about Jeremiah while he was in the womb.
1) He formed him.
2) He knew him (in fact, even before He formed him). How can someone abort a life whom God KNOWS and is forming and fashioning in the womb?
3 He sanctified him (the word is "qadash" and means "to be set apart as a holy vessel, purified, dedicated, consecrated." God sets us apart in the womb for the purpose of living a holy life. He creates us for holiness and to be created more and more into His image, not for uncleanness and sin.
4) He appointed his destiny as a prophet to the nations. God appoints the destiny of each child in the womb (although sadly, many may not walk in that destiny). Psalm 139:16 (HCSB) says, "Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and PLANNED before a single one of them began."
The womb is such an amazing and powerful place--a God-filled, God-working, God-fashioning, God-calling, AND God-ordaining.
Embrace your womb. Give thanks to God for your womb. Protect your womb.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
P.S. This amazing picture is of an eight month old baby in the womb.
Isaiah 49:1 is a prophecy concerning Jesus Christ, the Messiah: "Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken, ye people, from far; The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name." What a beautiful thing that in a Messianic prophecy the words WOMB, BOWELS and MOTHER are stated. God is not ashamed to declare that He called His beloved Son from the WOMB of a MOTHER.
Just as Christ Himself was called and spoken by name from the womb of his mother, so God continues to call sons and daughters from the womb. From the womb they are created and called to a life of fellowship with God and service to Him. The womb is where life and destiny begin.
God told Jeremiah: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5).
God has a plan and destiny for each one of your children, including the one you may now be carrying in your womb. What a privilege to carry God-ordained destiny in your womb. Isn't it sad when some mothers deny a life to come to being for whom God had pre-ordained plans and purposes (Ephesians 2:10)?
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
P.S. This picture is painted by Sarah Brown.
Increase and growth is a normal part of our lives. To be stagnate is slow death. Although we would like to keep our babies at their cute baby stage forever, we'd certainly grieve if they didn't continually grow and develop physically and mentally. God wants us, His children, to always be growing too. Colossians 1:10 says, "That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and INCREASING IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD."
We are usually increasing in some way, usually in what we are interested in most. But are we daily increasing in the knowledge of God? That's a good challenge, isn't it? What about our children? We are proud to see them grow and develop, but in what way are they are increasing? Sometimes we increase more and more activities into our lives and our children's lives. We are on the go from morning to night. But at the end of the day, have we increased in any way in the knowledge of God? How much has God entered into our lives? How much of His truth and revelation?
Are our children growing in stature, and yet starved in their spirits? I look at some of my teenage grandsons and they literally grow taller over night! How wonderful if we could see our children growing taller in the ways of God so quickly, too.
This doesn't just happen. As mothers, we have to make it happen. We must be faithful to set aside time each day, morning and evening if possible, to impart God's Word to them. There is no other way to increase in the knowledge of God.
Here is a good idea for you which I found a great blessing. When you are reading God's Word, look out for Scriptures which reveal the character of God--His faithfulness, longsuffering, love, mercy, justice and judgment, vengeance, holiness, goodness, wisdom, and so on. We often stay stuck on God's love and do not understand the full character of God. Make headings of these attributes and write the appropriate Scriptures under these Attributes as you read them. You will eventually have your own personal concordance of the character of God.
You can meditate on these Scriptures personally, but you can also take an attribute of God, one by one, and read the particular Scriptures at your Family Devotions and discuss them together. There is no greater or more important subject to teach your children than the character of God.
Can I give you a challenge today? Instead of growing busier in family activities, could you seek to grow more as a family in the knowledge of God?
Love from Nancy Campbell
Colossians 1:13 tells us that we have been delivered from the domain of darkness and translated into God's kingdom. This is the testimony of Satan's kingdom; it is a kingdom of darkness and he subtly tries to encroach us again with his darkness.
As individuals, and families, we must be constantly aware of the kingdom we now belong to -- A KINGDOM OF LIGHT. We must keep in prayer and in God's Word, which gives light and exposes the darkness. We must daily gather our children around us to pray together and richly fill them with God's Word so they are not overtaken with darkness -- the subtle temptations of the enemy of doubt, unbelief, blindness to the truth and toward sin, rebellion, and the pull of the spirit of this world which seems to be overtaking the church today.
Dear mothers, guard your home against the darkness. Safeguard your children's hearts and minds. Daily open up your home to the light. Ephesians 5:8 (ESV) says, "At one time you were darkness, but NOW YOU ARE LIGHT IN THE LORD. Walk as children of light."
The words of Jesus are very clear in John 8:12: "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me SHALL NOT WALK IN DARKNESS, but shall have the light of life."
In the power of the name of Jesus, take authority over any darkness in your home today. Ask God to come in and fill every heart and every room and every nook and cranny with His glorious light.
Love from Nancy Campbell
Are you going through a trial? Are you wondering why you have to endure this affliction? Why me? Sometimes we think that we should enjoy picture-perfect lives. But life is not perfect, is it?
As Paul was writing to the Thessalonians and encouraging them in the afflictions they were facing he says, "For you yourselves know that WE ARE DESTINED for this" (1 Thessalonians 3:3 ESV). This is most probably not the Scripture you were hoping for today, but we may as well face the facts. When Paul was encouraging the new believers in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch he exhorted them "to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). It is our appointed lot.
But, it is through our trials that our faith is refined and comes forth like gold (Job 23:10 and 1 Peter 1:7). .
It's not something strange that is happening to us, but something God is working out in our lives for His glory (Romans 8:17; 2 Timothy 2:12; 1 Peter 4:12-14; and 5:10).
Although we cannot understand it as we go through it, God is working it out for our good (Genesis 45:7, 8; 50:20; and Romans 8:28).
And it's not forever. Trials are only for a season (2 Corinthians 4:17; 1 Peter 1:6; and 5:10).
Be encouraged today, dear friend. Instead of complaining about your difficulties, praise God that He is carrying you through (Isaiah 43:2). Instead of wondering why you have to go through this trial, put your trust in God. He is in control of your life and is working it out for His glory.
Love from Nancy Campbell
A reader posted a question from my post, A MOTHER'S CREED, which you can read below. She asked, "If motherhood is the highest calling of women, what about women who are single or barren?" This is a very valid question.
When we give birth to a baby and gradually add to our family we are propelled into the realm of motherhood. However, this is not the beginning of motherhood. Every female is ordained at birth to be a mother. Little girls love mothering from the earliest age. Did you know that a baby girl has two million eggs in her ovaries when she is born?
Every woman is created to be a mother, whether she has many children, is barren, or single. God put within every female an innate desire and anointing to nurture. Even those who spurn motherhood, because of the brainwashing of our humanist society, still can't get away from it. If they don't want to nurture babies, they will nurture a pet. They have to have something on which to pour out their God-given mothering instinct.
Some of the greatest mothers who have lived were not married women and never gave birth to children. Of course, we immediately think of Mother Theresa, who although a single woman, poured out her life in sacrificial love to the poor and the needy. In doing so, she was a great mother and a totally fulfilled woman. A single woman, or a woman who is not able to conceive is still a mother. There is a drought of mothering in our needy and hurting society today. Mothers are the greatest need in society, whether married or single. There are hurting children, disturbed young people, and lonely and needy elderly who are all desperate for the loving touch of an anointed and nurturing woman, whether married or single.
Single women should ask God in what direction He wants them to pour out His loving nurture He has innately put within them. God will lead them to many broken and messed up lives. Often the barren woman ends up with more children than the married. Isaiah 54:1 says, "Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord."
The most important thing is for each one of us, married and single, to generously embrace the lifestyle of mothering God intends for us. Mothers with children, embrace your wonderful high calling of motherhood. Don't hanker for another lifestyle; you are in the perfect will of God. Single women also, embrace the mothering anointing that God has given you and open your heart to mother all whom God brings into your life. There are so many waiting for you.
Love from Nancy Campbell
I am not languishing. I am not deceived. I have a vision. I know who I am and who God created me to be. I know my purpose. I am walking in the perfect will of God. I know it’s not easy, but I’ve counted the cost. My goal is set. How could my career be easy when I am influencing a nation for God, generations to come--and eternity?
How can it be easy when I am destroying the plans of the devil? Such is the power of my God-mandated career, the highest calling ever given to women—motherhood. I have embraced my calling. I am not intimidated by my antagonists. I will not be moved. My heart is fixed.
I may be hidden in my home, but look out world! I am sharpening my arrows. I am getting them ready to shoot forth and destroy the adversary. In the power and anointing of God, I am advancing God’s Kingdom.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Tell me, what is half so sweet
As a baby's tiny feet,
Pink and dainty as can be,
Like a coral from the sea?
Talk of jewels strung in rows,
Gaze upon those little toes,
Fairer than a diadem,
With the mother kissing them!
It is morning and she lies
Uttering her happy cries,
While her little hands reach out
For the feet that fly about.
Then I go to her and blow
Laughter out of every toe;
Hold her high and let her place
Tiny footprints on my face.
Little feet that do not know
Where the winding roadways go,
Little feet that never tire,
Feel the stones or trudge the mire,
Still too pink and still too small
To do anything but crawl,
Thinking all their wanderings fair,
Filled with wonders everywhere.
Little feet, so rich with charm,
May you never come to harm.
As I bend and proudly blow
Laughter out of every toe,
This pray, that God above
Shall protect you with His love,
And shall guide those little feet
Safely down life's broader street.
~ By Edgar Guest
Are we teaching our children from a biblical worldview or a humanist worldview? Here are some scenarios:
1. Your car is stolen. What is your response?
a) Mother: "Isn't it terrible that our car is stolen, children? However, even though it is so inconvenient for us we must not judge the one who stole it as God doesn't want us to judge anyone."
Or b) Mother: "Children, last night our car was stolen. We must pray for the person who stole it that God will convict him and he will return it. You can see, children, how stealing is very selfish because it hurts and inconveniences the people they steal from. God's Word tells us that we must not steal (Exodus 20:15; Leviticus 19:11 and Ephesians 4:28). In fact, God says in 1 Corinthians 6:10 that no "Thieves . . . shall inherit the kingdom of God." God's puts His laws into the universe to bless us.
2. Your children lie to you. What is your response?
a) Mother at the breakfast table: "Remember yesterday I told you all that no one was to take any of the special cookies I baked for the party we are going to tonight? This morning I find that three cookies are missing. Who took them?"
Jacob: "I didn't, Mommy."
Ethan: "Neither did I!"
Olivia: "I would never do that."
Mother: "There is no one else in this house who could take them. We're not starting breakfast until you own up." After a long time and children getting rather hungry they own up!
Mother: "I'm so glad you owned up, but we shouldn't judge one another, so let's just get on with breakfast."
Or b) "Thank you for owning up children. But even worse than stealing the cookies is the fact that you lied to Mommy. Did you know that lying is very serious to God? The Bible says that "all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone" (Revelation 21:8). When we are on God's side we love truth because He is the God of truth. When we lie, we are on the devil's side because tells us that the devil is a liar and the father of lies (John 8: 44). I want you to be children who are always on God's side. Therefore, Mommy is going to have to discipline you so you can learn the importance of not telling lies. We are going to cancel going to the party tonight." (Or whatever discipline is appropriate).
3. Neighbors are different. What is your response?
Emma: "Mommy, who are those people who moved in over the road from us? They have a little child, but they have two mommies instead of a mommy and a daddy."
a) Mother: "Yes, they are different from us, Emma. They are "gay" people, but we mustn't judge them. We wouldn't live that way, but today people are free to live whatever alternative lifestyle they want."
Or b) Mother: "Emma, I am so very sorry to have to tell you that these people are living the opposite way God intends us to live. God tells us in His Word that if two men or two women live together like a husband and wife that it is an abomination in God's sight. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 5:3 that these things shouldn't even be mentioned among God's people. We'll look up some Scriptures later so you can see what God says: Leviticus 18:22; 20:13, Romans 1:26-28, 32; 1 Corinthians 6:9-12; 1 Timothy 1:10; Jude 1:7; Revelation 21:8. Of course, we will love them and pray for them because Jesus loves them, died for them, and wants to forgive them of their sin if they will repent and turn to Him. But we must always stand on God's side and stand against what God says is an abomination."
Dear mothers, of course you are seeking to lead your children in the ways of righteousness which means standing with God's Word, no matter what society says. We are either filling our children with the truth of God's Word or being sucked into the mantra of the humanists and the "religion of tolerance."
It doesn't matter whether it is disobedience, lying, abortion, euthanasia, "dying with dignity" or sexual immorality, we must always check out what God says in His Word and stick by it. And we must always remember that the truth of a subject in God's Word is not one Scripture, but what God says about that subject from Genesis to Revelation. Don't be mesmerized or propagandized along with so many in the church today who have succumbed to the "judge not that ye be not judged" chant in reply to all judgment of evil.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Don't you love the words of the great hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is our God" written by Martin Luther? Let remind you of the third stanza:
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
ONE LITTLE WORD has power over the enemy. What is that word? It is the name of Jesus. Are you facing temptation today. Speak the name of Jesus. Are you filled with fear because of a certain situation? Say the name of Jesus. Is the battle raging in your home and you feel all hell is against you? Speak out loud, over and over again, the name of Jesus. The devil runs at the powerful name of Jesus. Demons quake at the name of Jesus.
"Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
In reply to my post about "Sweet Wives and Mothers" some asked how we can be sweet and at the same time discipline our children and keep order in the home. Throughout Scripture, we see the tension of truth--one understanding of truth on one hand and seemingly the opposite on the other hand. This comes from God Himself. God is a God of love and yet a God of judgment and justice. God is "angry with the wicked every day" and yet He is a God of abundant mercy. Because God is perfect, He wields these divine attributes in perfect harmony. We find it harder to do.
We see a beautiful picture of Christ in Revelation 5 where it speaks of the "Lion of the tribe of Judah." However, when John looks up he doesn't see a roaring lion, but a "Lamb, as it had been slain." Jesus Christ is both the Lion and the Lamb.
We also have these innate attributes in us as mothers. We have divinely within us the sweet, nurturing anointing that God has given to women--a beautiful picture of motherhood. However, we also have within us a roaring lion-like spirit that rises up when the enemy comes to deceive our children and steal their souls. We will not stand for it. We begin to pray. We rise up in the authority God has given us to command our children in His ways. We boldly and firmly deal with sin in their lives--lying, cheating, stealing, disobedience, rebellion, and so on. We don't do it out of frustration and anger, but in righteousness because we know we cannot allow these bad habits to control our children.
And so we walk in the beautiful balance of sweet nurturing and bold authority when it is necessary. We don't learn to do this all at once. The anointings are within us, given by God, and we learn to walk in them more and more as we yield to the Holy Spirit who is conforming us into the image of Jesus.
Think of Moses. He was "Very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth" (Numbers 12:23) and yet he was one of the greatest leaders in history. He constantly had to execute judgment on these people he was leading through the wilderness. You too can lead your children on to the Promised Land with a sweet spirit, but also bold authority.
Love from Nancy Campbell
The following is a very beautiful poem written back in the 19th century. My most challenging line is: "A low and gentle voice—dear woman's chiefest charm."
WOMAN'S VOICE
Not in the swaying of the summer trees,
When evening breezes sing their vesper hymn—
Not in the minstrel's mighty symphonies,
Nor ripples breaking on the river's brim,
Is earth's best music; these may leave awhile
High thoughts in happy hearts, and carking cares beguile.
But even as the swallow's silken wings,
Skimming the water of the sleeping lake,
Stir the still silver with a hundred rings—
So doth one sound the sleeping spirit wake
To brave the danger, and to bear the harm—
A low and gentle voice—dear woman's chiefest charm.
An excellent thing it is, and ever lent
To truth and love, and meekness; they who own
This gift, by the all-gracious Giver sent,
Ever by quiet step and smile are known;
By kind eyes that have wept, hearts that have sorrowed—
By patience never tired, from their own trials borrowed.
An excellent thing it is, when first in gladness
A mother looks into her infant's eyes,
Smiles to its smiles, and saddens to its sadness,
Pales at its paleness, sorrows at its cries;
Its food and sleep, and smiles and little joys—
All these come ever blent with one low gentle voice.
An excellent thing it is when life is leaving,
Leaving with gloom and gladness, joys and cares,
The strong heart failing, and the high soul grieving
With strangest thoughts, and wild unwonted fears;
Then, then a woman's low soft sympathy
Comes like an angel's voice to teach us how to die.
But a most excellent thing it is in youth,
When the fond lover hears the loved one's tone,
That fears, but longs to syllable the truth—
How their two hearts are one, and she his own;
It makes sweet human music—oh! the spells
That haunt the trembling tale a bright-eyed maiden tells!
~ Sir Edwin Arnold (1832-1904)
Sweetness is not something that is highlighted in women today. I wonder why, because it builds a beautiful marriage and makes a wonderful atmosphere in the home. The husband in Song of Solomon 4:11 says to his wife, "Your lips drip sweetness like the honeycomb, my bride. Honey and milk are under your tongue."
Most people have a sweet tooth and like sweet things and husbands like sweet wives. The testimony of this wife is that sweet words are constantly dripping from her mouth. And that shouldn't only be in the bedroom, but in every room and every situation throughout the day. Rather a challenge, isn't it?
Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary adds to the meaning, "gratefulness to the taste, or to the smell, fragrance, agreeableness to the ear, melody, sweetness of the voice, softness, mildness, sweetness of temper."
The picture of the wife in the heart of the home, revealed in Psalm 128:3, is also a picture of sweetness. She is pictured as a grapevine and of course every vinedresser does everything in his power to cultivate sweet grapes. Who wants to eat sour grapes? What husband wants a sour grapes wife? And what children want a sour grapes mother?
We see also how God loves sweetness. In his tabernacle He commanded that sweet incense to be lit every morning and every evening. This incense was made of SWEET spices (Exodus 30:34). He wanted the holy place to be filled with a sweet aroma, just as He wants our homes to also be filled with the sweet aroma of His presence.
The anointing oil that speaks of the Holy Spirit was also to be made with SWEET spices (Exodus 30:23). Some people confess that they are filled with the Holy Spirit, but if they are not revealing a sweet anointing, it is not the Holy Spirit. It must be something else. When we give into our fleshly nature we give off some pretty bad smells for our family to endure; but when we yield to the Holy Spirit we will release a sweet anointing.
May God help each one of us to fill our home with sweetness today--in our words, looks, smiles, and attitudes. This is my prayer.
Love from Nancy Campbell
You may feel you are getting nothing out of your marriage and that can tend to self-pity. But this doesn't help the situation.
Even though you don't feel like it, begin pouring into your marriage. Outdo your husband in loving, blessing, and ministering to him.
It will boomerang back.
NANCY