We are encouraged in Jude 1:20, 21 to "KEEP OURSELVES" in the love of God. God wants to pour out His love and blessing upon us, but we have to make sure we stay under the fountain where God can pour out His blessing.
If we are married and are blessed with children, God wants to pour out His blessing upon us in the home. We embrace His sovereign plan and are in the perfect will of God as we mother our children in the home. Because this is God's plan from eternity, this is where He pours out His blessing. Our responsibility is to keep ourselves in the place where we can receive God's blessings.
It is possible to be in the home and yet far away in spirit, thinking we would rather be doing something else, something more rewarding and prestigious for it is always greener on the other side of the fence. But let's keep under the fountain--in mind, body, and spirit.
It's the same with a marriage. We can live together and yet be far apart through indifference, insubmission, or even rebellion. A wife could think, "Well, he's a bit of a jerk, but I'll put up with him for the sake of the children." This attitude already begins a separating spirit. Marriage is oneness. It's building a life together. It's making it happen even in the midst of hurts, disappointments, and difficulties. Just as God wants us to keep ourselves in His love, we should also seek to keep ourselves in our husband's love.
Don't let your marriage and your life in the home just run its course. When we do this, we are usually overcome by all the difficulties and disappointments of life. We have to KEEP OURSELVES in God's love, in our husband's love, and in the love of our nurturing anointing in the home where God has placed us.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
Psalm 66:7 says, "He ruleth by his power forever; his eyes BEHOLD the nations." God is daily and constantly watching over the nations of the world. Yes, He knows the terrible things that are happening in Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, North Korea and so many nations of the world.
The word "behold" is "tsaphah" and means "to lean forward, to peer into the distance, to look well, to espy, to be a watchman." Although we see evil increasing, God is in the picture. He must long to bring an end to evil and injustice, but He has "long patience" as He waits for "the precious fruit of the earth," the harvest of souls for His eternal kingdom (James 5:7).
But dear ladies, if our heart beats with God's heart, we will also BEHOLD the nations of the world. We will not only be burdened with the little needs in our home, but with the burden of the nations. We will have a heart to pray for "all nations, kindreds, and people, and tongues" (Revelation 7:9).
Can I encourage you to gather your family together each day to pray, not only for your own needs, but for the nations? Pray for the nations who are persecuting Christians. Pray for the nations who are suffering with war such as Iraq and Syria. Pray for the unreached nations of the world.
Let's lead our children from selfish prayers that are only about themselves to feeling God's heartbeat for the lost of the world. Praying families are the most powerful force on earth.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Motherhood was in the heart of God before the world began. Even before the foundation of the world God planned to send His own beloved Son into the world through the womb of a woman. God speaks about motherhood in His Word before anyone knew anything about motherhood.
God gave the benediction at the first wedding ceremony, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). Where were the mother and father? Were they sitting at the wedding table? No. Adam and Eve had no understanding of a father and mother. But it was in God's heart from eternity and He proclaimed it even before mankind experienced it.
In Genesis 3:20 it says, "And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living." Again, Adam proclaims motherhood before ever Eve was a motherhood. Did he know what he was talking bout? No. Adam was speaking prophetically under the unction of God.
Before motherhood ever came into being, God proclaimed it through Adam: "This is My plan and destiny for my female creation: they shall be mothers."
Embrace your eternal and powerful destiny. It is God's mandate to you.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Sometimes you may feel like fainting and giving up along the way. Zerubbabel felt like that too. The prophet continued encouraging him in Zechariah 4:9, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it.”
You have begun building a godly dynasty. Don’t give up until you finish. God is with you now and will be with you all the way through! His plan is for you to finish your task and He will not forsake you until you have finished--and finished in triumph!
Are you getting overwhelmed with homeschooling? You’re tempted to send them back to school! That’s the adversary tempting you! Cry out to God for His help and don’t give into the enemy. You are going to finish your task! Are you thinking you are ready to stop having babies? Why stop before the finishing line? God may have one more special baby for you. Finish your race!
I love the Living Bible translation of this passage, “Therefore no mountain, however high, can stand before Zerubbabel! For it will flatten out before him! And Zerubbabel will finish building this Temple with mighty shouts of thanksgiving for God’s mercy, declaring that all was done by grace alone” Zechariah 4:7).
You won’t finish your great project in your own strength; it will be all by the grace of God.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Psalm 25:12 says, “What man is he that feareth the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.” This is one of the many wonderful promises to those who fear the Lord. Don’t you long to know God’s ways? It’s only when we know God’s ways that we can teach our children in God’s ways.
However, I notice that God teaches us in the way that HE CHOOSES. When we walk in the fear of the Lord, we will be willing to do things God’s way, which is often contrary to the way of our culture. As my husband says, “We want God to walk with us, but do we want to walk with God?” There’s a big difference.
Are you trying to fit God into your way of doing things, or are you changing gears and even changing the way you run your home to fit in with what God wants?
"The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way" (Psalm 25:9).
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
1 Timothy 2:15 tells us that we will be “saved in childbearing.” Does this mean that we will be saved from having a painless childbirth experience? Some women experience this but it is not what the Scripture is saying.
The word “saved” is “sozo” and has a wonderful rich meaning. It comes from a root word, “saos” which means “safe.” That’s nice, isn’t it? But it also means “to be healed, preserved, protected, delivered, and made whole.” On a number of occasions Jesus said to people, “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” The word “whole” is “sozo,” the same word used in 1 Timothy 2:15.
How blessed we are when we embrace the plan God has for us as women. We are be saved from deception and are preserved and protected physically. Science is now catching up with God’s truth and more and more studies reveal that the more babies a mother births and nurses at her breast, the more physical blessing she receives. She is also protected from the epidemic of female cancers.
Thank you, Lord for your protection and care and for the perfect plan you have for your female creation.
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 cracks 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).
Love from Nancy Campbell
It is heart-warming to be embraced into a welcoming home, isn’t it? It makes you feel good, as if you belong, and how good it feels to belong. But not only should our doors and gates be welcoming to people we invite into our home, but especially to the Lord.
Psalm 24:7-19 says, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.”
I am sure this is talking about the triumphant entrance of Jesus back into glory after He conquered death and hell and took captivity captive. But it also relates to our individual lives and our homes.
What kind of welcome do we give to the King of glory? Do we open the door of our heart, and the gates of our home each new day, and welcome Him in? What a wonderful way to start the day: “King of glory, I open the gates of my home to you this morning. Please come and enter every life and every room. I want you to fill our home with your mighty presence. Expose every bit of darkness and deception with the light of your glory.”
Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts! Who is the Lord of hosts? He is the Mighty Warrior, the God of war who will bring all His enemies into subjection. He is the Ruler of the universe, standing ready to intervene on the behalf of His people. Do you have battles raging in your home? He will fight your battles for you. He is the Lord of hosts.
Open your gates and welcome Him with open arms today.
Love from Nancy Campbell
Have you blown it? You've fallen again! You feel as though you have failed! Don't despair. God has put a principle in the universe that when we fall we will get up again. Isn't that great? Jeremiah 8:4 says, "Do men fall and not get up again? Does one turn away and not repent?"
If you've fallen, just get up again! That's the way! Isn't that how we encourage our little ones when they are learning to walk or when they are learning anything new as they grow older? This is the same way God treats us. He knows that we are weak and frail, but He encourages us to get up again. If you have sinned, repent and receive God's forgiveness which flows freely to you through His blood that He shed for you.
Psalm 37: 23-24 says, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand."
"Even if you fall seven times in one day, you can get up again each time" (Proverbs 24:16, Psalm 145:14 and Micah 7:8). Praise the Lord.
Love from Nancy
“She always made home happy.” This was an epitaph a husband inscribed on his wife’s grave after 60 years of marriage. What a powerful life. Imagine 60 years of making a home happy. As she put aside her own interests and sought to make her husband, her children, and all her came into her home happy, she blessed so many lives.
Could this be written over my grave, or yours? Are we consciously seeking to make our husband happy? Are we intentionally blessing and encouraging our children each day? Are we seeking to make our home a delight? Or are we too busy taken up with our own problems, self interest, and self pity?
Can I tell you a secret? The best way to get out of the doldrums and depression is to forget about yourself and try to make someone else happy. “How can I make someone happy when I feel so lousy?” you ask. Forget your feelings. Just do it. You will be amazed at what happens.
When you make others happy, you become happy yourself. As you become happy yourself, you’ll make others even happier. Your husband will be happier. Your children will be happier.
This is the way to go, mother! Start making someone happy right now. If your husband is around, sneak up on him and give a big kiss and cuddle. Or give him a call at work and tell him you love him. Do something special for one of your children.
What a great goal for today. Make your husband happy, your children happy, everyone you meet happy--and guess what, you'll be happy!
Love from Nancy Campbell
How much to do you believe in the power of God’s Word? Psalm 19:7-11 tells us that His Word restores the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, gives us warning, and “in keeping of them there is great reward.”
I believe God’s Word has the power to fill up weaknesses in our own lives and our children’s lives. If you have a weakness in your life, search the Scriptures for God’s Scriptures that relate to it. Meditate on and memorize these Scriptures. Constantly confess these Scriptures out loud. As you do, you will find that the weakness will turn into a strength in your life.
I also used this principle as I raised our children. When I saw an area of weakness in their lives, or an area where I knew God needed to work in their lives, I would search the Scriptures to find answers. I would then minister these Scriptures into their lives. It is not your words, but God’s Word that will change their lives.
I would encourage you to do this also in the training of your children. Write the applicable Scriptures up on your walls. Teach and explain the Scriptures you researched to your children. Use them as memory verses. Repeat and recite them over and over again.
You will be amazed at how the Word brings change into their lives and molds them into the image of God.
Love from Nancy Campbell
Psalm 37:34 (NLT) says, “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. Praise God.
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.
Love from Nancy
God hovers over motherhood. He is with you from the beginning to the end. Are you waiting to give birth to a baby soon? God will be with you in your birth. David confesses in Psalm 22:9, “Thou art He that took me out of the womb.” Many translations say, “You brought me safely from my mother’s womb.”
Whether you are having your baby at home or in a hospital, put your trust in God. He is the one who brings the baby safely from the womb. He is hovering over you for the life of your baby. Trust Him.
When the baby is born you become aware of a special atmosphere--it's the presence of God in your home. It always comes with a new baby who is sent fresh from heaven. I reveled in this beautiful atmosphere when my babies came.
David continues, “Thou dist make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.” As the little babe nurses at the continually available breasts of the mother, the baby learns that he can totally trust God. As the breast is always accessible, so he learns that God, Jehovah Shamah, will always be there for him.
Another Psalmist confesses the same thing as David, “Upon Thee I have leaned from birth; it was Thou who took me from the maternal womb. My praise is continually of thee” (Psalm 71:6 MLB).
Put your trust in God who is watching over every aspect of your motherhood.
Love from Nancy Campbell
The great preacher and author, Dwight L. Moody confessed, "If I could relive my life, I would devote my entire ministry to reaching children for God!" He understood the power of investing in a child's life. Dear mother, you are in this very ministry! Every day and all day! What a privilege. There is nothing more powerful that you could be doing. The investment you pour into your children will not only bless your own family, but the world. But, even more--future generations, and eternity!
Don't let the enemy fill you with his lies that motherhood is insignificant. You are part of the greatest work in God's kingdom. When the people brought children to Jesus, the disciples shooed them off, thinking Jesus would not have time for the children. This made Jesus angry and He let them know. He said, "Do not push these children away. Do not ever get between them and Me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom" (Mark 10:13, 15 Msg). Mother, you are at the very epicenter of life in God's kingdom!
Love from Nancy Campbell
Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, "I will very gladly spend and be spent for you" (2 Corinthians 12:15). The adding of "and be spent" adds the meaning of "vehemently, heartily, and exceedingly" to the phrase. This was Paul's attitude to the new believers in Christ.
What about us mothers? We have precious lives in our care that God has given us to disciple. What is our attitude towards them? Are we willing to "spend and be spent," or do we resent the fact that motherhood takes every bit of our energy and time? Read 1 Thessalonians 2:8, 9 for a little more understanding.
Paul's attitude was not just because it was his duty, but "VERY GLADLY." I often see mothers with the attitude of "very complaining," "very resentful," or "very unhappy."
Come on now, dear mothers. You are in full time ministry for the Lord. You are discipling precious souls.
What's your attitude today?
Love from Nancy Campbell
Dear mother, can I ask you what voices you are listening to? There are so many voices in this world, all vying for preeminence in your mind. Humanistic voices lure you away from the heart of the home, the place God has divinely provided for you to raise your children. Voices tempt you to get involved in more and more things that take your time away from your home and family.
God has innately put in you what He wants you to do. Listen to your heart, dear mother. Listen to God's voice. You are needed for your children. No one else will ever love and care for your children like you do. No one else will ever be sensitive to their physical needs, and especially their innermost needs as you will.
Someone else can always replace you in your career, or your organization, or even extra church activities, but no one can adequately replace you as the mother of the children God has given you. You were born for this mission. It is your destiny.
Love from Nancy Campbell
In the midst of your daily routine and challenges of mothering you can often forget the awesomeness of what you are doing. Did you realize that your children are not only a gift from God to you, but a gift from God to the world? Motherhood is so far-reaching. It's not confined to your little home. Each one of your children have been destined by God and have been in His heart from the foundation of the world. God has a special purpose for each one of them to fulfill. What a privilege to raise a child who is "a gift to the world"!
God said to Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5 WEB). The word "appointed" in the Hebrew means "a gift" and in other Scriptures is mostly translated "give."
Rejoice in the greatness of your calling today. You are nurturing and preparing children who have been appointed as a "gift to the world." As you nurture them, teach them, pray over them, and prepare them you will get to see the exploits God will do in their lives to bless many people. This is the power of motherhood. It is not something you are doing for yourself. You are blessing the world!
Love from Nancy Campbell
We are so good at complaining, aren't we? We not only complain about things that are going wrong, but we even complain about the weather. "Oh it's so hot! I can't stand this heat." "Oh this weather's too cold!" Why can't we receive everything from the hand of God? After Job lost everything, he confessed, "What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"
Psalm 74:17 says, "Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter." Because God is the Creator of the summer heat and the winter cold, shouldn't we learn to embrace them and the special blessings that go with each season?
Our big extended family all leave on the weekend for our annual holiday in Florida, drinking up the sun and surf (sadly Colin and I miss this year as I have four Above Rubies retreats in a row). Fall, then winter will be coming soon. Yes, it will be cold, but we look forward to snow falls, wood fires burning to keep us snug, candles burning, and hearty meals to keep us warm. There is such joy in all God's seasons, isn't there? So let's change our vocabulary to thanking and praising God instead of the habit of complaining. What do you think?
Love from Nancy Campbell
The world was shocked back in April 2009 when Obama bowed from the knee to the Muslim Saudi King, Abdullah. When we bow to someone we show submission to them. Now we don't go around bowing to people, but we constantly bow in our hearts. Who and what are we bowing to in our daily life? Do we bow to God's ways, or our own self will?
Judges 2:17, 19 tells us how the children of Israel went after other gods "and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in . . . they corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way." How easy it is to bow to our own stubborn way.
Dear mothers, can each one of us today seek to bow to the Lord in every circumstance and challenge we face?
What worldview do we bow to? Is it a truly biblical worldview or the popular humanistic one that is prevalent in our society today and even in the church?
The way we live will reveal to whom we are bowing. Let's make God, the Potentate of the universe, the preeminent One in our lives and our homes.
Love from Nancy Campbell
The state of a city will be according to the state of the homes within the city. In Psalm 46:4 (JUB) it gives a description of the homes of Jerusalem: "There is a river, the streams of which make glad the city of God, the sanctuary of the tents of the most high." The city is filled with gladness because streams are flowing into and from the homes of the city.
What are these streams? They flow from the river of the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39 and Romans 5:5). As mothers, we have a responsibility to "make glad" our home. The words in the Hebrew mean "to brighten up, to cheer up, to rejoice, to make merry and very glad." The only way we can do this is to be filled with the Holy Spirit and allow the streams that flow from Him into our lives to flow out from us to our husband and children.
What are these streams? They are streams of love, forgiveness, sweetness, healing of the soul and body, holiness, encouragement and building up, compassion and kindness, tenderheartedness, humility and meekness, longsuffering and patience, and streams of forbearance and peacemaking. These streams can only come from the river of the Holy Spirit.
Are you making your motherhood glad? Are you making your home glad? Are these streams flowing from your life or are they stagnant? Don't allow the logs of self-pity, discouragement, despondency, unforgiveness, and discontentment to block up the river. Let the steams flow to fill your home with gladness.
Love from Nancy