PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 287: Raising Children to be Adults, Part 2

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 287: Raising Children to be Adults, Part 2

Allison Hartman joins me again today to talk further about raising successful and capable children. What are Allison's secrets? Tune in to find out these principles.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hi, ladies! I have Allison Hartman with me again. We’re going to continue talking about that subject we talked about last week, raising our children to be adults. I hope you’re getting inspired by this.

I’d like to start off today with reading a Scripture. It’s Psalm 144:11. David is praying here, and he says: “Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” And why is he praying that? We’ve got to get rid of these strange kinds of people who are filled with deceptions and who don’t know how to work and “whose right hand is the right hand of falsehood.” They’re not walking in truth.

Why? So “That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace.” Then it goes on about the blessing of the nation: “That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets: That our oxen may be strong to labor; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets.”

Don’t you like that verse, Allison? “No complaining in our streets. Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.” But David’s prayer was, “Oh, God, deliver us from all that is false because we want a generation of young people who are growing up mighty in God.” He talks about his sons: “That our sons may be as plants growing up in their youth.”

Do you love that, Allison? It doesn’t say “growing up in their teens,” or “growing up in their adulthood.” “Growing up in their youth.” That word “youth” in the Hebrew actually means “the state of juvenility” In other words, it’s their time of being juvenile, which is up to about 18 years of age. Well, in our society it is. But that’s juvenile. Here’s it’s talking about youth, so it means from childhood, and even in their teens, they’re growing up.

I love the Young’s Literal Translation of that Scripture. It says here: “Because our sons are as plants, becoming great in their youth.” Isn’t that wonderful? Dear mothers, can you get a vision of that? Of your children, your sons, becoming great, even while they’re young? Becoming “great in their youth,” even in their juvenile state, whereas often they are very immature and foolish. But no, God wants them to grow up learning to be adults, learning to be mature, becoming great in their youth.

I love to think of David, going down there to the Israelite army. There’s Goliath, and he’s challenging the Israelites, and there’s not one Israelite who is ready to face the giant. They’re just quivering in their boots! If they had boots. I’m not sure! But David goes down there, and how old is he? Most commentators say he was only 17 years of age. You’ve got Ethan. He’s 17.

But David is this youth. He was “but a youth,” and he challenges this giant. He kills that giant. He takes on that giant because this giant was blaspheming the Name of his God, and he would not have it. But you see, he was out there already taking responsibility, already was out there on his own, looking after his father’s flock and his sheep, having to take responsibility to protect them.

On more than one occasion, David tells the king, “I can go out and take this giant! I’ve taken on lions that have come to get hold of my little lambs!” He tells of one instance where he put his hand in the mouth of that lion and pulled out the little lamb. He was brave and he knew how to take responsibility, and how to protect, as a man, not just a little boy.

I think, especially in our society today (it was a natural thing many years ago for young men to grow up being adults). I think of stories my father told me. He was only a young teen, about 13 years of age. He and his brother were moving from one end of the island of New Zealand to the other. They were moving to a new farm. It was miles and miles and miles and miles. They had to take all the cattle on horses. They were just young teens, no adults with them. Taking on that responsibility was just normal. Their fathers expected them to do that.

In fact, oh, I was talking to Arden, my grandson, the other day. That’s Serene’s oldest son. He said that he’s getting a new business ready for young men. They’ll be doing a podcast soon. Well, he’s been doing a lot but they’re not ready to launch it yet. He said, “Nana, we’re calling it “A Good Man’s Never Stuck.” And where does that phrase come from? It comes from my father, who got it from his father, my grandfather.

All my growing-up years, anything that was a challenge, anything that had to be fixed and maybe he didn’t know how to do it (but he’d find a way), he would say, “A good man’s never stuck!” That phrase came down from his father to him and his brothers. It got passed on to our family. I passed it on to our children. All our children have grown up with that phrase. Now, our grandchildren, all the young grandsons all know that phrase. It’s part of their DNA. “A good man’s never stuck!” I love it!

Allison: They’re living it out. I remember Vision. Vision broke down on the highway, not too long ago, after leaving us. We had vacationed together, and on his way back, a couple of hours away from home, he completely broke down. I thought, “What in the world is he going to do?” But if he didn’t know, he figured it out on what to do. Same with Cedar. He broke down too and had to redo his whole engine on the side of the road. He was able to do it because he’d been raised to do that.

Nancy: Yes. And then, you see the opposite. A year or so ago, we had a young man living with us, staying with us. Lovely young guy. He borrowed our car, but then we got a call from him, up in Dickson, about half an hour away from us, saying, “Oh, can you please come? This car’s got a flat tire! I don’t know how to change it!”

We’ve got to get our young men knowing how to be young men, don’t we? I love that thought. Our sons growing up as plants in their youth. I love that passage too, don’t you, in 1 John. John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, talks to the young men. It’s amazing how God pinpoints young men.

He says here in 1 John 2:13: “I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.”

Again, he repeats it in verse 14: “I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.”

That is talking spiritually, but I believe it’s in every aspect, because: “First that which is natural, then that which is spiritual,” the Bible says. He’s saying, “Young men, you are strong!” That’s what young men are meant to be. They’re not meant to be little wimps. They’re meant to be strong, physically and mentally and spiritually. “You are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.” They’ve learned to be strong in every area of their lives.

RAISING SALMON

Allison: That’s right. That’s right. I was thinking about when we were in Scotland. We were sitting there.

Nancy: Yes! I remember that day! It was so cold!

Allison: By that beautiful river, and we noticed all the salmon were heading upstream. It’s so opposite of what is natural, what is easy. It would have been easier to go downstream, with the current. But we noticed that they were all going upstream. Almost everyone knows why.

We were sitting there, looking at them, and I just had this thought. I said, “Wow! That’s what we’re doing with our children! We’re raising salmon. We’re raising countercultural, against-the-flow young people.” We talked when we were there. We said, “Let’s do a podcast on this subject.” I was thinking, “How do we raise strong, strong men, young men?” Because it really is against culture, right?

Nancy: That’s the thing!

Allison: It’s not what culture’s teaching.

Nancy: It’s against culture. But I noticed that day, did you notice, Allison, how they didn’t just swim up that river and jump up a bit. They had to jump this waterfall. It was high! Were there any that got there on the first jump? I don’t think there were any. We watched them jump and fall back into the river. Then they’d try again, and they’d jump again. They had to have many tries before they could actually get up. I think there were some who never made it.

That’s really what happens today. There are some who don’t make it, because maybe they’ve only been trained to go with the flow, to go along with culture, to be taken up with the tide. We’ve got to encourage our children.

Allison: You see mothers who are just going along with what their friends are doing.

Nancy: Yes! So, they’re going with the tide.

Allison: Even ask on Facebook, “Hey, can I ask a parenting question?” When you ask on Facebook, what do you think Facebook is going to say? It’s going to say exactly what culture’s doing.

Salmon can jump up to eight feet in the air to get over obstacles. They travel 900 miles. Nothing’s easy. In fact, the mother will die when they get there. They’re so exhausted from going upstream to lay their eggs, but they go through that, knowing that’s what they have to do. It's so inspiring. There are so many visuals, and so many analogies that we can draw from watching what salmon do.

I’ve been thinking, what are some things that we’re doing that are countercultural? How do we raise them to be strong? One thing that, even in our Christian circle, we get a little pushback on is raising our children to be workers six days a week. Not training them to work their five days. School days until three o’clock, and then they’re free! I think it’s very important that we raise children like that.

Nancy: Actually, the Bible talks, and I wish I’d checked where the reference was before we came to this. But it talks about a man going out to work and coming home at evening time. That’s a day’s work. *

Allison: Sure. Sun-up to sun-down.

Nancy: It’s not like half a day, or three-quarters of the day. It’s a day’s work. That’s the picture that God gives, of the man coming home at evening time. It’s “six days thou shalt work, and on the seventh thou shalt rest.” Really, we’ve got to have a rest day.

Allison: The only way to do that is by leading by example, right? As mothers and fathers, we’ve got to do what we’re teaching them to do. What we talked about in the last podcast of having your children’s floor to be your ceiling which means we have to raise children, raise adults who are better than where we are. If that’s going to happen, number one, we have to show it by example.

But then also, I was thinking, “Man, our children, our littles and our bigs that we’re raising, they’re amazing!” They really are. They have a lot of talents. I don’t think that if we’re babying and coddling and mothering our children to where we’re doing everything for them, we’re never going to get out of them what is their gifting. In order to get our children’s gifting out of them, we have to let them do it.

That is something that we’ve done, allowing them to run a household. If we’re raising mothers, well, what is a mother going to do? They’re going to run their household. We need to let our daughters run our households which means we can’t micromanage them.

If I want them to get all the children ready for church, how is it helpful if I’m telling them, “Oh, no, no, no, you’ve got to put that on them! Do it this way. Let me do it for you.” No, you have to let them, “Hey, I need you to get all the children ready. Surprise me on what they’re wearing.” Or “I need the whole house cleaned. Do it the way you need to do it.” Let them make those choices.

What will happen is that you’re going to find that your children have talents that they could have never practiced if you didn’t allow them. My girls are incredible cooks, but I don’t cook at all. They won’t let me cook, because they said they cook so much better than me! How did they become good cooks? I allowed them to do it. I allowed them. “Come up with your menus. Come up with how you’re going to do it. Research. Find good recipes and have fun.”

Nancy: Eden decided she’s going to do this turkey this special way.

Allison: Right. She saw it on Instagram.

Nancy: Oh, and it was so amazing! All that she had to do, and how she was going to flatten it. And this special way to get in all the beautiful flavors. It turned out amazing!

Allison: Right, and I think it’s because I’ve allowed her to have that freedom. Or during the retreat when she’ll prepare for 800 people!

Nancy: I remember that time when you had ordered all these foods, and they did not come in time.

Allison: That’s right.

Nancy: And so, there you were. We’ve got 800 people coming for that retreat (we have more now).

Allison: One day to go shop for all this food.

Nancy: And there was no food! So, you just tell Eden, “OK, here’s the credit card. Go to Sam’s or Costco,” whatever it was.

Allison: She was probably 17 or 18.

Nancy: “And just get the food.”

Allison: To buy nine meals for 800 people. Now! Just sent her with my credit card.

Nancy: And she was about 18 years old.

Allison: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Nancy: Could you do that with most 18-year-olds? No.

Allison: They would be so overwhelmed, or they’d come home with things that you’re like, “Oh, no, no, no, no! We can’t have that much of this! We needed this!” But she was able to mathematically figure it out because she’s been buying our groceries for our family since she was nine or ten years old. I would allow them to go into Walmart together. “Hey! Surprise me! Figure out what we’re eating and go figure out what we need to make. Then make it.”

I really do. I’m a huge delegator. Some could look at that as laziness, but trust me, I’m not lazy. I do lots and lots of other things, but I only do what only I can do, and I let them do everything else. They can cook much better than I can. They can grocery shop much better than I can because we’ve allowed them to do it.

This may be jumping ahead, but what does that mean in the long run? Well, for our family, what it means is that I have now cloned myself into better clones. Now our business, instead of our business capping at (we photograph 65 schools). Do the math. There’s no way we, as a couple, can photograph 65 schools during the school year. It’s impossible.

Because we’ve been able to clone our children to be better than us, well, they all are now doing their own schools, which means Daniel and I don’t have to say no to different schools. In fact, it’s kind of sad, but funny and great for us, but I ran into our competition in the dentist’s office one day. We have a huge photography studio.

There’s one other photographer in our area. I ran into her one day, and she said, “How do you do it? How are you able to do all these schools?” Because she’s doing the same thing we are but there’s no way she can do the volume. I just kind of laughed. I said, “Well, I gave birth to all my employees!” She’s like, “That’s how you do it!” That’s amazing, because she only has one child. She didn’t raise her to do this.

Nancy: A lot of people will limit their children, saying, “I can only have two, because I want to do this, and I want to do that.” And even people who are serving the Lord, “Oh, we wouldn’t be able to serve the Lord, or do this or do that if we had more than one or two children.” What they don’t realize is that they are shooting themselves in the foot!

Allison: Completely!

Nancy: Because the more children you have, well, that’s what God said in the beginning! The very first words He said to mankind, as we all know: “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth.” He didn’t stop! He kept going! He said, “And subdue and take dominion.” Now, how are you going to take dominion? Only through having your children! The more children you have, the more dominion you will take for God, or even in your own sphere of influence, or even business!

Allison: That’s right. We’ve absolutely dominated the school photography market in our area in Florida, just by sheer numbers. Every businessperson can relate. It is hard to find good help. What do you do? You raise your help. You raise your children to be your replacement. I always say, “I’m raising my replacement.” I am! I am raising my replacement, because one day, they’ve already started taking over for us.

But it starts when they’re little. You can’t just wait until they’re 15 or 16, because that’s what culture’s doing. If we’re raising salmon, then we’re raising adults to go against culture. What does culture look like? Culture is raising children to work maybe five days a week. It’s teaching them to get a job once they’re out of the house. No! They don’t need a job to get out of the house! They need a job in the house!

In fact, I don’t even encourage my unmarried children to get out of the house. I’d much rather they’d be in the home and working for our family. We’re allowing them to find what they’re good at. There’s no way to find out what you’re good at unless you’re given a chance to do it.

If dads are out doing their cars, well, bring your little five-year-old son with you! Hand him the wrench and let him change that tire. If they can’t learn how to change a tire when they’re five and seven and ten, well, when they’re broken down on the side of the road, what are they going to do? They’re going to have to call AAA or somebody to come change their tire.

While we’re putting this retreat on, I don’t put the retreat on myself. All my children help me. I give them their jobs according to their gifting. They’re all different. Halle’s really soft-spoken and quiet, but she makes everything beautiful. Why would I go decorate my house? I don’t decorate my house. I let Halle do it because that’s her specialty.

I don’t even have to delegate housecleaning. I let Makenna do it. Makenna’s our oldest. She’s so good at it, I’ll say, “Hey, I need your help. Come over and help me delegate.” When we’re setting up photography sets, I don’t create photography sets because I’m not that good at it. My girls are so much better than I am, so guess what? I give them the money and send them out shopping. They put together a photography set that’s gorgeous. They have such pride in it. They’re so proud of themselves. But the results are incredible.

Another interesting thing that happened to us is, we had an accountant for 20 years who ended up getting in trouble with the law. We had to let her go. We were all in the middle of our busy season, and all of a sudden, we had no accountant. I don’t know anything about taxes, accounting, anything like that. I had to give the job to someone I trusted.

Well, I trusted my Eden, who at the time was 19. She didn’t know anything about accounting. I sent her to our CPA. Our CPA trained her, and immediately she did our books. She did all of our accounting for us. Now she does payroll. She does all of our taxes. She does all of our bookwork because I sent her to someone who was good. She didn’t take a class in accounting. But she’s doing accounting for our several hundred-thousand-dollar business because we needed one. We raised her up to do that.

Nancy: Yes. And you had employed an accountant before that.

Allison: Right.

Nancy: And she does the job just as well.

Allison: Correct. Better, because I can trust her. I can trust her. We can’t limit our children. We’ve got to use our . . .

Nancy: That is the thing. I think we have to get out of the mindset that children, young people, have to go to college to learn something. No! There are even better ways to learn. Often, it’s the need also. “We’ve got to do this.”

Allison: A lot of people will ask us, “Give us some ideas on ways that we can let our children be entrepreneurs.” So, I’ll throw out a few practical tips. But again, you have to make it for your family.

Something that we did early on was, we love to go yard sailing, garage sailing, thrift store shopping. When Makenna, our oldest, when she was probably ten, eleven, we started garage sailing with her.

We would buy a set of bunk beds. She would take the bunk beds, wipe them down, take a picture of them, and put them in the newspaper. She would resell them. Let’s say we paid $50 for them. She would resell them for $300-$400. That just tripled, quadrupled your money. Then she’d take that $400, and she’d go back garage sailing, because now that’s her money, right? She’s 12 years old and she has $350 to spend. She’ll take it and go buy a dining room table.

She flipped furniture, and when she was 19, she had saved enough money to become a swim instructor, which was $12,000. She had that money saved up by the time she was 19, just by flipping furniture. Furniture flipping is great.

Obviously, doing yards. My husband did pressure washing and painting and things like that. Home remodeling. You can teach your boys how to tile a floor, or paint, or pressure wash, and they can go and work for other people making between $50 and $100 an hour. There’s no reason a young man couldn’t make that.

Even when they’re little, let them do a lemonade sale out in front of your house. Have them put it out there. Make homemade lemonade and let them learn how to communicate with customers. Growing produce, and then setting up a little farmer’s stand. Having chickens, selling eggs. You can take that and turn it into a farmer’s market one day.

Selling things door-to-door. There is so much you can learn from selling things door-to-door, because you’re learning how to communicate with a stranger. Obviously, I would recommend going with them, or sitting in the car. Don’t go up to the door with them because you want them to learn how to talk to adults. But we’ve sold coupon books. We’ve sold mistletoe. We’ve sold scuppernongs in our driveway.

Think about things that they’re interested in, then let them make a business out of it. Help them come up with ways of coming up with a business name, coming up with a plan. Even if the business fails, which it may, it’s learning how to overcome objections. We’re big believers in being self-employed. Obviously, it doesn’t work for everyone, but I feel like it’s a really great, great thing for a family to have a business.

Nancy: Oh, yes! And I’m thinking, as you say, that we find our giftings in our children if we allow them to do these things. I love that Scripture, Isaiah 8:18: “Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.”

Our children are for signs and wonders! That is in every realm. The Hebrew words, let’s have a look at those. The word for “sign” is oth. It means “a sign, a signal, a banner, miraculous signs, a standard, a flag, a beacon.” They are a banner shining the image of God and all that He has put in them. I love that Scripture.

My father would say it continually throughout our lives: “A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before kings” (Proverbs 18:16). It's not sending your children to college that makes the way for them. It’s the gift that God has put in them. It’s a man’s gift that makes room for him and brings him before kings.

Well, my father knew that in a little way. We come from New Zealand, a sheep country. Of course, shearing is a big industry back in my county of New Zealand. It was my father who designed the way that shearing is done today. It was called “the Bowen Technique.” He invented what was called, “the long blow.” He was able to shear the sheep so much faster and more effectively.

His expertise brought him before kings. Well, not really kings, but queens. He shore sheep before the Queen of England, who has now passed away, on a number of occasions. He met her, talked to her. In fact, he even had a royal command. When she first came out to New Zealand after becoming Queen, he and his brother, my uncle Godfrey, were asked to give this shearing demonstration before her. She absolutely so loved it.

She was taken up with it, but sadly, her husband, the Duke of Edinburg, was not there because we’d had a tragedy in our nation. Our big train (steam engine in those days) that went from the north to the south, back in those days a steam engine, the bridge was wiped out, and so many were killed. He was at the funerals of so many of these people.

She wanted him to see it so much, so she sent out a royal command, because they didn’t know where my father was. We went on holiday, and nobody knew where we went. We didn’t even know where we were going ourselves. We were driving along in the car, and my mother said, “Let’s go here!” Us children said, “No, we want to go here!”

We wanted to go to Matamata Springs. Actually, that is the site where they filmed the Lord of the Rings. Back in those days, it was these natural springs. We thought it would be so lovely to live in these hot springs every day. We were there, but no one knew where we were.

They had to send out by radio (in those days, we didn’t even have TV). “Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Ivan Bowen, please contact this number!” Eventually the people at the campground heard. “Oh, yes, he’s in our campground!” They go and get him, and he calls the number. It’s a royal command from the Queen that she wants another shearing demonstration. That was quite amazing!

My father was also a preacher, so he often used this great illustration. He would say, “I have had two royal commands in my life: one from the Queen of England. Wouldn’t it be terrible if I hadn’t obeyed her? And said, “Ah, no, I can’t be bothered!” But no, it was a privilege to obey her and do this for her. But I’ve also had a royal command from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who commands all men everywhere to repent! And, of course, I’ve obeyed that command, too!” What a great message!

Anyway, it is true that it is the gift in our children that will open up doors for them. What you are sharing about is giving opportunity for their gifts to develop.

And then “wonders.” The Hebrew word is mopheth, and it means, “a miracle, a special display of God’s power.”

That’s what God wants to do in our children. He wants to display who He is and what He has put in them. It’s all miraculous because it comes from God. I look at the gifts in our children and think, “Help! They didn’t get that from me!” They got it from God! We can’t even take credit for it, can we? We’ve got to be those who will encourage others’ gifts.

Allison: I think we have to be wise. We were talking earlier, before the podcast, about how families lose their children, lose their hearts. I think it’s so important to keep our children’s hearts. You can’t keep your children’s hearts if you don’t have your children. Think about that.

Nancy: That’s so true.

Allison: If they're always gone, if they’re in the car and they’re with their friends, and they’re playing sports, and then they’re working outside the house at the local coffee shop, if you don’t have your children present, it’s almost impossible to have their hearts. Because guess who has their hearts? Their youth pastor, their friends, and their co-workers.

The Bible talks about bringing the fathers to the children and children to the fathers. You can’t do that if your children are not with you. How do you do that? You allow an opportunity for them to work in the family business. If you don’t have a family business, you start one. You create one.  

I was thinking, just in my life, I waited tables. Probably the worst experiences and the worst influences I had were in the restaurant world. Everyone wants to be a part of something. They want to belong. Do we want our children belonging in the restaurant world where all they’re really doing is going along with culture?

If we’re truly raising salmon, we’re raising children who don’t mind standing and saying, “Ooh, I don’t look at that on my phone. I don’t work just five days a week.” If that’s the kind of young people we’re trying to raise, then we shouldn’t want to put them in that workplace. The only way to do that is by intentionally helping them come up with a business idea on their own.

It’s so important. I’m reaping the benefits of this so I can speak from experience. I have littles, but then I have bigs who have arrived at adulthood and they’re doing it. They’re actually owning their own businesses. They’re raising their children themselves, so much better than even I raised mine. I really encourage people to do this.

Nancy: I’m thinking, even this morning, before we got to this podcast, we went downstairs. “OK, this big room, we’re going to clean it up!” All your little ones came down, nine, seven, five. You didn’t have to ask them. They got brooms. They knew how to sweep around, under the sofas, and under this and that.

It’s so great to see, because I’ve had other children come into my home. I remember one time I had some children, part of a family who came. It was time to do the dishes after the meal. They actually ran and hid! Because they didn’t want to have anything to do with it! Well, they didn’t even know how. They just didn’t know how. Some don’t even know how to sweep or sweep around things. They don’t know. You pull out the sofas. You pull out this. You sweep behind! You get to the edges. They’ve never been taught these things.

Allison: That’s right. One thing I think we should definitely mention is purposely aligning your family with friends and other families who feel the same way you do on this topic. I love coming here, and getting to hang out with other families, who when we say, “Hey, let’s do a project for Nana and Granddad,” like right now, they’re working on the pumphouse roof. We’ve been working on a few projects. Not as many as we normally do, but how much more fun is it to be with other families who are also raising their children that way?

Because then your children aren’t pulled, saying “Oh, my friends are down there playing volleyball, but I’m up here scrubbing Nana’s floor!” Wouldn’t it be a lot more fun to say “Hey, guys, let’s work together and scrub Nana’s floor? Or finish painting this bedroom? Then we’ll all go play volleyball together.”

There’s nothing wrong with having fun. Please don’t misunderstand. We have lots and lots of fun as a family. But we do it together because we work together, but we also choose friends who are also raising their children to work hard. We do have some friends who are not hard workers, but our children would prefer to hang out with their friends.

That’s why, going back to our Family Camp, if we can plug that real quick, where have we met friends who are raising their children in this way? We’ve met them all at Above Rubies Family Camps. Three times a year we get together in Panama City with sometimes 100+ families. All of them, their goal is to try to raise godly adults. The best way to do that is by being around other families who are also raising godly adults.

I really encourage you guys out there, you mothers, to align yourself. If you’re feeling like, “I don’t even have one family like that,” well, then you need to put on your Christmas list that you want to come to the Above Rubies Family Camp and meet another family like that. Sometimes that means driving and spending a couple of hours driving to go visit that family, because you don’t have any who live in your town. But go.

Here at the Hilltop, you guys are so blessed. Not everybody has that in their own community. We have had to create a community. We’ve done that through the Family Camps. We want our children to be the ones who everyone wants to hire. “Ooh, I want the Hartman children to come stay with me because they’re going to leave the place the way they found it or better.” Or “They’re going to work hard, and they’re going to help clean up the kitchen after I make dinner,” because that’s how we’ve raised them.

Nancy: Amen! Well, I trust you have been blessed, ladies. Our time has gone again. Let’s pray.

“Father, we thank You for families. We thank You that this is the way You designed for us to live. I pray Your blessing on every family listening. Father, I pray that You will strengthen them in their purpose as they raise their children. Lord, give them purpose. Lord, I pray that You will put creative ideas in their hearts and in their minds, that, Lord, You will give them strategies for their family, because every family is unique.

“Lord, we don’t expect families to do what another family is doing, because everyone is unique, just as every child You have given to us is unique. Every family is unique. We thank You for that, for the uniqueness and blessing of every family. We pray, Lord, that You will bless them, and they will be able to live to the fullness of Your purposes for them, and Lord, that You will enable them to bring encouragement to their children, to enhance the gifts that You have given to them.

“Above all, Lord, we pray that they will become God-fearing, praying families, Lord, who are affecting this culture for You, Lord. Save us from being families who go along with the culture of this world. That Lord, we will be those who have biblical worldviews, and, Lord, are going according to Bible culture. Help us, Lord, to do that which Your Word says, not just what society says. We ask it in the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Psalm 104:23: “Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor until the evening.”