Psalm 127:4 says: "As arrows in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth."
J. Peterson writes:
"Hold them tight,
Aim them right, and
Give them flight."
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
Words and ideas are indivisible with God. It is the same with us. Our ideas and thoughts about any issue determine what we confess about it. What do you think about motherhood? That's what you will speak from your mouth. Do you complain about mothering? Do you relegate it to something inferior? Or is your confession, "I LOVE MOTHERHOOD"?
How do you think about your marriage? Do you like to complain to others about your husband? Do you speak disrespectfully about your marriage? Or do you confess wonderful things about your marriage? It all depends on how you think.
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
Do you sometimes feel that everything is just too much for you? You wonder how you can keep going. Here is some wonderful encouragement for you from 1 Chronicles 28:10, 20:
Do not fear for
God CANNOT FAIL YOU.
Do not succumb to self-pity for
GOD IS YOUR STRENGTH.
Do not cave in for
GOD IS YOUR COURAGE.
Do not be dismayed for
GOD IS YOUR DELIVERER.
Do not weaken for
GOD IS WITH YOU.
Do not think you cannot do it for
GOD WILL NEVER FORSAKE YOU.
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
Who is your marriage all about? Is it all about you? Many couples live together, but are not bound together, or enjoy life together. They start off with great love, enjoyment, and enthusiasm but often their relationship grows boring and cold.
Why? I believe it's the "all about me" syndrome. What is my husband doing for me? How is my husband serving me? I have a right to be who I am and do my own thing. Soon the couple are living their own separate lives instead of being cemented together.
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 heard the following words repeated often when I was young.
If you have all Word, you’ll dry up.
If you have all Spirit, you’ll blow up.
But if you have the Word and the Spirit you will grow up.
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
Can I let you in on a secret? You cannot build a successful marriage when your life is "all about me." Selfishness never works. Expecting to be served and pampered doesn't work. Even Jesus did not come to serve, but to serve and give his life (Matthew 20:28).
The only way you find your life is by giving up your own life in serving others (Mark 8:35). Marriage is the perfect relationship to experience this victorious way of living.
Here's a project for you. Can I encourage you to change your thinking from "it's all about me" to "it's all about him"? Instead of dwelling on what your husband is doing wrong and how he is not doing this and that around the home etc, why not think of all the ways you can bless him.
Starting from today and for the rest of this week, think of at least two special things you can do for him, say to him, or write to him each day. Why not surprise him by initiating sexual intimacy instead of waiting for your husband to make the first move? And don't forget to have a lovely meal waiting for him each evening as he comes home.
Think creatively. Think out of the box. Think about him instead of you!
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
A young mother wrote to me recently, “My baby is five months and it seems like yesterday he was born. His smile is what greets me when I wake up in the morning, even if I am dog tired. He makes any mood I have change instantly to joy with one look at his smile. I feel God through the way he smiles and laughs and am so blessed to have him and nurse him.” Another mother says, “Everything my two year old does and says inspires me and gives me a new reason to love life. Even the expressions on his face crack me up.”
How blessed we are to be mothers. We get to smile and laugh more than any other sector of people. Each time we look at a baby we can’t help but smile. And they make you smile big! When we watch our children, we naturally smile and can’t help but laugh at all their childish antics. And every time we smile and laugh we de-stress! We release endorphins which make us feel happy and relieve stress from the body. What a great way to live.
This is just another blessing of all the blessings of motherhood. No wonder the Bible tells us that we are preserved through motherhood (1 Timothy 2:15).
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
How important do you feel it is teach your children to obey you? It's easy to let it slip, isn't it? It's easy to get into the habit of telling them to do something over and over again before we expect obedience. It's easy to ask them to do something and not press through to make sure they obey.
What do we teach our children when we do this? We teach them to disobey. We lay a foundation for them to disobey God.
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
1 John 5:19 (ESV): "The whole world lies in the power of the evil one." If this world is in the grip of the evil one, how do we live without getting pulled into its grip? How do we keep our children from its control? We've got to swim upstream.
It's not easy to swim upstream, is it? It takes all your effort. The moment we relax, we start floating downstream again, away with the current of the evil one. That's why we have to constantly fight the good fight of faith. We must fight it ourselves, and for our family. We must teach our children the principles of swimming upstream.
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
To which kingdom do you belong? God's kingdom is a kingdom of life, love, light, and liberty. Satan's kingdom is one of lies, deception, death, and destruction. He is a murderer! That's what Jesus said in John 8:44: "He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth; because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it."
Because he is a murderer, no wonder he is the mastermind behind birth control, sterilization, and abortion. His plan is to stamp out life before it is conceived, but abort it if it is conceived.
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
Recently I read this quote from St. Francis de Sales, "Every Christian needs a half an hour of prayer each day, except when he is busy, then he needs an hour." Immediately I was convicted and wrote beside it, "This is for me." My life is exceedingly busy each day (as I am sure yours is, too). It's easy to crowd out prayer when there is so much to do in our day and our list is so long. But what's the use of all our activities unless they are bathed in prayer? They are like hay and stubble which will be burned up (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
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
Home based upon Christian marriage is so evidently an institution of God, that a man must become profane before he can deny it . . . Of this realm woman is queen. It takes its cue and its hue from her. If she is in the best sense womanly--if she is true and tender, loving and heroic, patient and self-devoted--she consciously or unconsciously organizes and puts in operation a set of influences that do more to mould the destiny of the nation than any man, uncrowned by power or eloquence, can possibly effect.
~ Dr. J. G. Holland
Psalm 37:34 (NLT): “Don’t be impatient for the Lord to act! Travel steadily along His path.” I don’t have visions and dreams (I would love to). I don’t live by my feelings. How then do I live out my walk with God? By plodding on from day to day.
I don’t have to be disturbed by my circumstances because God is bigger than all the challenges I face. I don’t have to be intimidated by my antagonists because God’s truth will eventually win the day.
I don’t have to be fazed by what is going on in the world for God is in control. He is the only Potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords. All presidents, prime ministers, and leaders of this world are all in His hand and He will have the last say.
Therefore, by faith, I walk steadily along God’s path. I don’t have to be high one day and low the next. I keep on plodding on faithfully from day to day, no matter what the day brings. I can patiently wait for God to move because His timing is better than mine.
Steady your soul today, dear mother. God is in control of your life and the lives of your precious children.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Do you remember when the disciples asked Jesus who would be the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven?
Jesus responded by bringing a little child into their midst and said to them: "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me" (Matthew 18:1-6). Read also Mark 9:36-37 and Luke 9:48.
These words from the mouth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ tell us that our attitude toward receiving children reveals our attitude to Jesus. We are to receive them in His name. Therefore, shouldn't we receive each new baby as though we were receiving Jesus Himself?
It seems strange, doesn't it, that many couples want to receive Jesus and yet don't want to receive a baby from Him. We are not meant to receive children with the attitude, "Well, I guess we'll survive somehow if God gives us another baby."
The Greek word for "receive" is dechomai and actually means, "to accept a gift deliberately and readily, to welcome, to embrace, make one's own, not to reject." This word is used 55 times in the New Testament. One of the occasions is about receiving Christ into the heavens after He left this earth (Acts 3:21). With what joy and fanfare He must have been welcomed back into His heavenly home. This is the same way God wants us to receive children in His name.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
No, I'm not talking about Ebenezer Scrooge! I'm talking about a monument stone that the prophet Samuel erected after God gave Israel victory over the Philistines. He called it "Ebenezer, saying, ‘Hitherto hath the Lord helped us’" (1 Samuel 7:12).
What a wonderful affirmation. It's a phrase we need to remember, too. Often we face a new challenge or difficulty and wonder how we'll get through. But, then we remember, God has got me through before and He will do it again! Praise His holy name. As we acknowledge the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord, we are encouraged to know that God will be with us in new trials and tribulations.
Don't forget your Ebenezers. Raise them up like the old hymn writer, Robert Robinson when he wrote, "Here I raise my Ebenezer." You can raise your Ebenezer by raising your hands and thanking God for His goodness and faithfulness. You can raise up something tangible to remind you, such as your Bible (filled with God's promises to you), a picture that reminds you of God's intervention, or some commemoration you have kept.
God has not failed you in the past and He will never fail you in the future. As Joshua proclaimed: "Ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof" (Joshua 23:14).
Raise your Ebenezer today!
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
I read recently read that "Babies are built to expect the equivalent of an 'external womb' after birth." I m sure this is how God intends it to be. A baby that comes forth from the continual security and sustenance of the womb needs to know the continuing security and sustenance of its mother.
It is normal and natural for the babe to be nursed at the breast as the baby requires, not only for food, but for comfort and consolation. It is normal for a young babe to sleep with his mother and nurse at her breasts during the night, rather than lie in the coldness of a bassinet. It is normal for a babe to be constantly close to the mother's skin and heart as she carries him in a baby carrier.
I know that many mothers are influenced by old wives' tales that they must separate their baby and leave him to cry. This goes against everything in a mother's heart. I remember reading these words as a young mother, "There is more in a mother's intuition than in all the books you'll ever read." How true. You don't have to listen to this person or that person. LISTEN TO YOUR HEART, dear mother. Follow the God-given instincts that God has put in you to mother. Go with your heart.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Have you read the story of C. T. Studd, a famous cricketer in England, who gave up everything to serve the Lord in China? He wrote . . .
Lord, send us lion-hearted men
With good courageous habits
Who ne’er will run from the devil’s gun
Like hares and bunny rabbits!
He also wrote a poem about Chocolate soldiers versus real soldiers and how chocolate soldiers melt when things get too hot! One of the stanzas says . . .
For genuine soldiers are heroes
"Chocolate soldiers" are shams
The soldiers of Jesus are lions
Not hares or timid lambs.
And here's some more lines from C. T. Studd:
“Some want to live within the sound
Of church or chapel bell;
I want to run a rescue shop,
Within a yard of hell.”
Do you have sons? Encourage them to memorize these lines.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
What is your goal, dear mother as you train your little army each day? It's easy to lose sight of the great mission we have in the midst of the day to day challenges and everything we have to accomplish. Can I encourage you to keep your vision in front of you? It's a powerful vision. You have the responsibility of training God's end-time task force. Wow, you are not insignificant!
God is preparing an army and you are one of His chosen trainers. Are you training them to fit in with the groove of this world? Or are you training them to be true soldiers of Jesus Christ?
It's not an easy task to train a soldier. A true soldier must learn how to obey his commander immediately. As we train our children to obey us, we prepare them to be ready to obey their Great Commander. A true soldier must be disciplined. They learn how to get up at a certain time and do their chores quickly and happily. A true soldier keeps fit and toned.
Are your children becoming soldiers for God's army? Or are they flabby in spirit and more attuned to the amusements of this world than God's coming purpose for their life? 2 Timothy 2:4: "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."
Train your children with purpose.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
I have always been inspired by the words in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, A Psalm of Life—“But to act, that each tomorrow find us farther than today.” I believe that each day should be a new day of learning and enlightenment, don’t you? We should never allow ourselves to become stagnant. How boring is that?
2 Peter 3:18: “But GROW in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” If a plant does not grow, it is because it is dead! Growing and increasing is part of LIFE!
Each new day we are to grow in grace of Jesus Christ, learning and experiencing more of His victorious life working in us. We are to grow in knowledge, especially the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ for “in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). There is always more and more to fathom, learn, and experience.
Doesn’t it make each new day exciting? Every new day is an opportunity to learn and experience more of Christ and more facets of wisdom and knowledge! A great question you can ask your children at your Family Meal Table this evening is, “What was something new you learned today?” Ask each child to share something—this gets them into the habit of always wanting to learn and expand their knowledge. They’ll want to hear from Mommy and Daddy, too!
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
My purpose as a wife and mother is to:
P Passionately love my husband and minister to his needs.
U Unflinchingly keep my eyes upon the goal of raising a godly generation.
R Resist all temptation to come down from my high calling.
P Persevere in building my marriage and home in the face of all obstacles.
O Order my home with diligence.
S Saturate my children with God’s Word and loads of encouragement.
E Embrace my life-giving role of mothering and nurturing.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
AboveRubies
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