Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

You don't have to tell how you live every day;
You don't have to say if you work or play;
A tried, true barometer serves in its place,
However you live, it will show in your face.

The false, the deceit that you bear in your heart
Will not stay inside where it first got its start
For sinew and blood are a thin veil of lace,
What you wear in your heart, you show on your face.

If your life is unselfish, if for others you live
For not what you get, but how much you give,
If you live close to God in His infinite grace--

~ Author unknown.

The kitchen is where we do a lot of testing, isn't it? Especially taste testing! We have to taste the meals we create to make sure they are palatable.

However, the kitchen is also a place where we test who we really are! It's easy to live a patient and sweet life when we are talking with friends or when everything is quiet and peaceful. But, what about when everything is in a turmoil? What about when the baby needs you, your toddler is crying, you are trying to get breakfast for everyone, the phone is ringing, and your husband needs last minute help as he leaves the house. You hardly know where to turn first? What about when the children are cranky and whining or bouncing off the walls? How do you react then?

2 Corinthians 13:5 challenges us with these words, "Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that JESUS CHRIST IS IN YOU, except ye be reprobates." We need to examine our faith in the midst of trials and difficulties. This is the true testing.

However, we need to despair that we cannot live up to God's holy standard. We can't! Do you notice the words "Jesus Christ is in you"? It's not your trying to be perfect in your little world of mothering your children. It is allowing the life of Jesus Christ, who lives within you, to live His life through you. Say No to the flesh. Say No to anger and frustration, and instead thank Christ for His patience and love that IS IN YOU BECAUSE HE LIVES IN YOU!

Your greatest test in your kitchen is not trying to be more perfect, but yielding to the life of Christ in you!

Love from Nancy Campbell

So long as we have homes to which men turn
At close of day;
So long as we have homes where children are
And women stay;
If love and loyalty and faith be found
Across those sills;
A stricken nation can recover from
Its graven ills.
~ Grace Noll Crowell

Here is just some of the things you do in your powerful role as HOMEMAKER!

You make your home a . . .

a House of prayer,
a Household of faith,
a Habitation of love,
a Haven of peace,
a Happening place of joy and laughter,
a Hub of activity,
a Home of Hospitality,
a Home of Happiness,
a Home of Harmony,
a Home of Holiness,
a Home of Honesty,
a Home of Humility,
a Home of Hugs,
a Home of Health and Healing,
a Home of Hearty food and fellowship, and
a Hearthstone where all delight to come.

In your home you . . .

Hedge it about with truth,
Heal broken hearts,
Help one another,
Heap blessings upon one another,
Hold fast the Word of Life,
Honor the elderly,
Hate evil and love righteousness,
Encourage Hard work,
Provide an atmosphere to Hear the voice of God,
Fill it with Heavenly praises.
Love and appreciate your Husband,.
And of course, you seek to make it a little taste of Heaven.

Keep your MOTHER HEART beating strongly in your home.

Love from Nancy Campbell

The ultimate devotion of our lives should be to love God with all heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark 12:38; Luke 10:27). The next love of our life should be for our husband and children and to build a home (a godly family) for the name of the Lord.

David confessed in 1 Chronicles 29:3, "I have set my AFFECTION to the house of my God." Affection is a beautiful word. In this passage the word is "ratsah" and means "to love, to be devoted to, to delight and take pleasure in."We cannot effectively build a family for God's glory if our heart is not in it. Many times our heart and mind is in other places and projects rather than our home.

Where are your dreams? Are they for building a home to the name of the Lord? Not for your name, but for His name. That means we have to do it His way. We can have dreams of success for our children, but often it can be for the glory of our name. God's plans may be different. Let's build to His name (2 Chronicles 2:4).

Can you bring your heart and your mind back to your home? If your affection is for your home and family, this is where you will DELIGHT to spend most of your time.

Our affection should also inspire in our children an affection for the home. They will not imbibe that affection if they spend more time at daycare or school.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Is your home the happiest place on earth?

Popularity is not always a good sign. The popular way is not usually God's way. God's way is the narrow way (Matthew 7:13-14). Therefore, dear mother, don't expect the people around you to be excited about your having another baby or homeschooling your children. Rejoice anyway. You are walking in the perfect will of God.

Jesus said in Luke 6:26, "WOE UNTO YOU, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets." Notice the exclamation mark again! We are more likely to be on the wrong path if everyone around is happy with what we are doing.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Check out these Scriptures: Nehemiah 6:1-4; Jeremiah 6:16; 18:15; Matthew 5:11-12; Luke 6:22-23; John 15:18-21; 17:14-18; Acts 5;41; 1 John 4-6 and 1 Peter 4:14.

“God made mothers more special than anyone else.
He made them the bearers of life and in doing so, knew they had to be more exceptional than the rest of us.
He made them the cornerstone of the home,
the foundation of the family,
the backbone of society,
the ideal of all that is best in the human race.
They are the guardians of decency,
the preservers of peace,
the upholders of truth,
the protectors of morality,
the symbol of virtue,
an inspiration to all that is noble and good in life,
and love knows no great representative than that of a mother’s love.
Upon our earth, not title is more revered and no sound more beautiful or sweeter heard than the tender loving word – Mother.”

~ D. Haughian

It is sad that many mothers today don't enjoy motherhood? And yet God's plan is for mothers to be filled with joy. Psalm 113:9 HCSB says, "He gives the childless woman a household, making her the JOYFUL mother of children. Hallelujah!" Notice the Hallelujah with an exclamation mark!

The full understanding of the Hebrew word is that we will be glee-FULL, merry-FULL, cheer-FULL, and of course, joy-FULL! It doesn't mean half filled, but filled to the top! I forgot to mention happy-FULL! Most translations of Psalm 113:9 translate it "a HAPPY MOTHER."

Why are we not filled with joy? I believe it comes down to our attitude. Mothers are conditioned by society that their role is insignificant and inferior. They think they would be better off somewhere else than embracing their land of motherhood. But, dear mother, you are in the perfect will of God. You are in the greatest career in the nation. Embrace it with all your heart and begin to enjoy your baby and your children. Don't waste these precious years with self-pity and pining for something that is vain and empty.

Enjoy your mothering today. You have a FULL life that is impacting this world and eternity.

Love from Nancy Campbell

"The babe is a marvel of POSSIBILITY! The man who will sway thousands to his will as the whirlwind sweeps the forest lies sleeping in that babe. The organizer of the world’s industries, or the leader of the world’s thought, or the changer of the world’s life, and of the map of the earth, is in that wee morsel of humanity lying in his mother’s arms.

That cooing voice may compel the whole world to listen. Those fat dainty fingers may pen words that a world will be eager to read. A Wesley or a Faraday may Be there, only waiting the coming of his day of action.

And, far more than these, the man who will re-live Jesus’ life, with all its simplicity and purity and fragrance, in some humble corner, that will touch and tinge deeply the life of the crowd, may lie there all open to the impress of father and mother.”

~ S. D. Gordon

To stop conception is pro choice. To be open to conception is pro life. And that means whether the newly conceived life lives for only a few weeks or months in the womb, or is born into this world and lives to 96 years of age! Life is life from God no matter what stage of life.

Every conceived life as an eternal soul and therefore will live eternally. This is the privilege and power of motherhood. We have the awesome blessing to populate eternity.

If we belong to God's kingdom we will be on the side of life, for God's kingdom is a kingdom of life. Satan's kingdom is a kingdom of death and he comes to "steal, kill, and to destroy" (John 10:10).

Love from Nancy Campbell

I read this little story which I am sure you will enjoy:

"An old man surprised everyone with his cheerfulness since he seemed to have an unusual amount of trouble and relatively few pleasures in life. When asked the secret of his cheery disposition, he replied, "Well you see, it's like this. The Bible says often, "And it came to pass," never, "It came to stay."

It reminds me of one of my affirmations, "Things come and things go." As you know, I love affirmations. I often say this when I am going through a difficulty. I also say it when I have a physical pain or problem. I get on with life, forget about it, and usually find that it is not too long before the problem disappears!

Love from Nancy Campbell

Never, once since the world began
Has the sun ever once stopped shining.
His face very often we could not see,
And we grumbled at his inconsistency;
But, the clouds were really to blame, not he,
For, behind them, he was shining.

And so, behind life's darkest clouds,
God's love is always shining.
We veil it at times with our faithless fear,
And darken our sight with our foolish fears,
But in time the atmosphere always clears,
For His love is always shining.

Horace Greely stated, "It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible reading people." And yet, we are being mentally and socially enslaved. More and more, the majority of this nation are becoming enslaved to humanism, feminism, socialism, and progressivism. And this is not only in the secular world, but in the church as well!

We are no longer a Bible reading people. Even church going people are not Bible reading people. Even "Christian" families are not Bible reading people. For the sake of our nation, this must change. But, it starts with families. It is what we do in our families that determines the course of the nation.

How much do you read God's Word in your home? Do you gather your family morning and evening to read the Bible to them? This should be the least we do each day. Unless we, and our children, know the truth of God's Word we will not have the ability to discern what is truth and what is deception. Deception can often look so good and wise, and yet it is deadly. Satan convinced Eve that the fruit was "pleasant, to be desired, to make one wise" and yet it resulted in death. Worldly wisdom can look wise, but if it is not the wisdom of God's Word it will lead us down a wrong path.

Let's become families who make God's Word the priority in our home, the criterion for everything we believe, and the foundation of our lives.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Reading through the Old Testament I often notice the phrase "MANY SONS." For example, 1 Chronicles 8:40 says, "And the sons of Ulam had MANY SONS, and sons' sons, 150." Again, in 1 Chronicles 28:5 David says, "The Lord has given me MANY SONS." We find reference to 19 sons of David in the Bible, although some Bible scholars say there could be 20 or more. Every theme of the Old Testament is reiterated in the New, and so we come to Hebrews 2:10 and read, "For it became him, for him are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing MANY SONS unto glory, to make the captain (the Leader-in-Chief) of their salvation perfect through sufferings."

We see the heart of God from Genesis to Revelation. God begins with His vision to fill the earth to overflowing with many sons and daughters (Genesis 1:28) and then we go to the end of the Bible and read John's vision, "I beheld, and, lo, a GREAT MULTITUDE, WHICH NO MAN COULD NUMBER, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, say, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb" (Revelation 7:9-10).

Why does God want us to bring forth many sons and daughters? Just for the sake of doing it? No. It is all for God. It is to fill eternity to overflowing with sons and daughters who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Every child you bring forth and lead to salvation, will be part of that innumerable company and live forever and ever. You are in an eternity impacting and eternity filling career.

Love from Nancy Campbell

You know the old saying, “The grass is greener on the other side of the fence.” This applies to marriage, too.

Satan would like to destroy your marriage. He loves to bring deceiving and dissatisfying thoughts to your mind. Don’t listen to his lies!

Instead, water, feed, and fertilize your marriage. It will grow so luscious and green that you’ll never want to take another look anywhere else.

~ Nancy Campbell

(One of my favorite little poems)

She rocked me as a little tyke
I happily recall,
In winter, summer, autumn, spring,
And never let me fall.
I've gotten where I am (and here's
A psychiatric shocker)
Because I had a mother who
Was seldom off her rocker!

Sometimes, dear Lord, it seems as tho'
the children never stop!
They ask and ask, and ask again,
until my ears near pop!

"Mum, fix my shoe," "Help brush my hair."
"I want another drink."
"Come quickly, Mum, I think the cat
has fallen in the sink!"

Demands, demands, and more demands,
Help, Lord, it's getting tough.
I know that mothers should be kind,
but this one's had enough!

What's that, dear God? You mean to say
These children are in Your plan?
To help me learn to grow into
A more mature woman?

Dear Lord, I know You gave and gave,
Had so much patience too,
.Help me to see a mother's job
Can make me more like You.

By Jenny Hodgkinson
Printed in Above Rubies, #11.

Mother, you are in the most important career in the nation!
Without you the nation will cease to function!