It’s easy to slide into negativity, isn’t it? This is a big challenge. Who will take it on? #challenge #thankfulness #gratefulness #nogrumbling #nocomplaining #aboverubies
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Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
Through the weekly and daily devotionals you can be constantly encouraged in your great role of parenting, the highest career in the nation. You can also stay updated on what's happening with the Above Rubies ministry.
The ark kept Noah and his family safe from the flood. But although they were safe, they had to go through the storm. We will never avoid going through the storms and tempests of this life. Consequently, we must learn how to navigate them. God shows the way through the example of Noah who built a strong home, a home that could withstand the biggest tempest that ever hit this earth.
Hebrews 11:7 says: “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”
Each one of us faces our different storms. We may face even bigger storms ahead. The most important thing we can do is continually strengthen our inner man, our marriage, and our home. Ask God to show you any leaks where the destroying enemy can enter.
Our physical home constantly needs repair. I am glad I married a “Mr. Fix-it” as I call my husband. However, more than physical wear and tear is spiritual wear and tear.
Constantly check what is going on in your home. What are your children watching on the electronics in your home? The enemy hates godly homes and he looks for openings in the walls where he can enter in. He looks for broken down walls.
Close all holes. Take authority over compromise, worldliness, and all evil. Plead for God’s protection. Cover your home with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Make your home strong to resist the buffeting of the storms of life. Fill your children with God’s Word so they will be strong to face the storms. Become such a diligent watchwoman that you scare the devil!
Blessings to you today,
Nancy Campbell
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I have been thinking of the blessedness of motherhood. Yes, along with the blessedness is hard work and heartache. However, I believe that the devil robs mothers of the joys and glory of motherhood. Because God ordained motherhood and created us for this high purpose, the devil hates it. He hates what God mandates. He feeds us with lies to think we are wasting our lives when in fact, we are fulfilling the very perfect will of God. When we embrace motherhood, we are on Gods side.
No other woman can compare with the highest favor that was ever given to a woman, a young teenager named Mary, who was privileged to carry the Son of God in her womb. The angel called her “highly favored” in Luke 1:28 and 30. This privilege was given to only one woman in the whole of history.
However, each time a new baby is conceived in a womb, it is also a God moment. It is God who gives the conception. It is God who creates this new, precious life in the womb—a life that has never lived before and there will never be anyone like this one again. And because God gives life and loves life, His favor is also upon every pregnant woman.
In the original Greek, the word for “highly favored” is “charitoo.” This word was never used before the New Testament! It means “to be accepted, to give grace to.” It was God’s grace to Mary to receive the privilege to carry Jesus in her womb. It is also God’s grace to us to carry a life in our womb.
Dear mother, don’t be deceived by the lies of the world and society around you. There is no higher mission you can do in your life than to carry a new human being, and more truthfully, an eternal soul in your womb.
Embrace the blessedness. Embrace the truth. Live in the joy of it. Live in the glory of it. Lift up your head for you are doing something eternal. Everything else you do in life will be left behind, but you will take this precious child into the eternal realm with you if you are faithful to lead him/her to salvation.
What an amazing assignment. You are giving a child the opportunity and privilege to experience the glory of eternity with Christ forever. It’s only in the “forever glory” that you will truly understand the enormity and power of carrying a child in your womb.
Be blessed,
Nancy Campbell
Picture of Meadow Hall, my granddaughter, expecting her first baby in January 2018.
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Each time Colin and I go to UK, a very dear couple, Phillip and Sheila White film all our conferences. They are all available on the following website: http://www.pdtmedia.com/shop/
This will be especially advantageous to all families in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Be blessed, Nancy
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Obadiah chapter 11 talks about foreigners entering the gates of Jerusalem. As mothers, we must constantly guard our home. We must watch for the “foreign” sneaking through the gates of our home.
The “foreign” is all around us. We live in the midst of it. God doesn’t want to take us out of it, but to be shining lights in the midst of it. Jesus prayed, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17:15).
However, although it is all around us, we must be on guard that none of the “foreign” enters our home. Our home should be a sanctuary from evil--all that is opposite to God’s standard, His Word, and His heart.
The Adversary looks for any opening he can find to intrude into your sanctuary. Guard your gates. Guard your home on all four sides. By intercession and prayer, put a hedge of protection around your home (Job 1:10).
Give no foothold for the enemy. Allow no estrangement in your marriage. Don’t allow any worldly spirit to come in through the media. Be ruthless against the enemy. 1 Peter 5:8-9 says, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith."
Let's have the same testimony as Nehemiah when he confessed, “I purged out everything foreign” (Nehemiah 13:30 NLT).
Many blessings to you and your family today,
Nancy Campbell
P.S. Read these Scriptures also: Deuteronomy 7:25-26; Palm 144: 7-8, 11-15; Lamentations 4:12; Ephesians 5:11 and 6:10-13.
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When Christ dwells in you everything you do in your home is a sacred task. #sacredhands #christinyou #homesweethome Aboverubies
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I’m always amazed as I read God’s Word each day to learn so much about our everyday lives. This morning I read the story of David trying to save his life from King Saul who wanted to kill him. David and Jonathan were working out their plan together. You can read the whole story in 1 Samuel 20.
David was currently living in the palace and expected to sit with the royal family for meal time. David said to Jonathan: “Tomorrow is the new moon and I SHOULD NOT FAIL TO SIT with the king at meal.” In the Hebrew the infinite absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis! It means “I am CERTAINLY EXPECTED to sit with the king to eat.” It was mandatory.
Later Jonathan said to David: “Tomorrow is the new moon and YOU WILL BE MISSED FOR YOUR SEAT WILL BE EMPTY.”
We notice from this story that it was the expected and normal thing for every member in the household to be seated at the table for the evening meal. It is a sad thing to see an empty seat. That means someone in the family or extended household is missing. And it is always disappointing when someone is missing.
When our children grew older and were out at work with their own jobs, I still expected them to be home every evening for the family meal. They had to call me in good time to let me know if something very important cropped up. Otherwise they were expected to fill their seat. This is normality, and yet it is passing away from families today. Do you make it a priority for all the seats around your table to be filled each night?
I noticed something else too. Each person sat at their assigned place. Verse 25 says: “The king sat down in his usual place by the wall, with Jonathan opposite him and Abner at his side. But David’s place was vacant.” This shows us that it is important to have order in our home and at the table. Each person knows the seat they are to sit at each evening, rather than everything trying to compete for their own seat.
At our table, Colin always sits at t the head of the table as he is the head of the home and I sit beside him. Each person then has their particular seat.
I also remember how that when Jesus fed the five thousand plus people and later the four thousand, that He did not distribute any food to them until they were all sitting down.
I believe God intends us to sit for our meals. We are not meant to eat standing up or walking around. We are meant to SIT and eat and fellowship together. We don’t receive the same goodness and value from our food when we walk around eating. We need to sit to receive. That means physically and spiritually. We cannot even receive from the Lord when we try to get something from Him in a rush. We must sit to receive, just as Mary “SAT AT JESUS FEET and head his word” (Luke 10:39).
Blessings to you today,
Nancy Campbell
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Better than gold is a peaceful home
Where all the fireside characters come,
The shrine of love, the heaven of life,
Hallowed by mother, or sister, or wife,
However humble the home may be,
Or tried with sorrow by heaven’s decree,
The blessings that never were bought or sold,
And center there, are better than gold.
~ A. J. Ryan
Painting: “Sunset” by Abraham Hunter.
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I feel very sad when I see wives and mothers with a sour face. Down in the mouth. Always a frown. This is not God's picture of a mother. In Psalm 128:3 God paints a picture of the wife in a home that is blessed of the Lord. It tells us that she is a "fruitful vine" in the heart of her home. Not only does she find joy in her home, but she is fruitful, bringing forth luscious sweet fruit.
The grapes of a wild, unpruned vine are usually bitter. The fruit of a cultivated vine is sweet. Sweetness doesn’t often come naturally to us. It’s the opposite to our fleshly nature. It takes learning to submit. It often takes hardship, trials, and pressure in our lives to refine us.
The vineyards that the settlers are growing on the West Bank of Israel are brining forth sweet wine and winning world competitions. They don’t grow in luscious soil, but grow on the stony mountains of Samaria, growing up out of stones. They say that the pressure to grow up through the stones causes the grapes to become sweet.
Just as God promises that "the mountains will drip sweet wine" (Amos 9:13) which is being fulfilled today on the hills of Samaria, so we wives should drip sweet wine in our homes. A sweet attitude toward our husband. Sweet words coming forth from our lips.
The husband in Song of Solomon 4:11 (NET) says to his wife, "Your lips drip sweetness like the honeycomb, my bride, honey and milk are under your tongue." Dripping sweetness! Can your husband say these words to you?
Are you a "sour grapes" or sweet aroma?
Blessings to you today from Nancy Campbell
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Isaiah 60:13 says: "I will make the place of My feet glorious." Originally, the place of God's footstool on earth was the ark in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle where He dwelt. Later, He dwelt in the Holy of Holies in the temple made by Solomon.
Now we live in the New Covenant where God now dwells, not in a physical ark or temple, but in our hearts! Both 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 and 2 Corinthians 6:16 tell us that we are now the "temple" where God dwells. The word is actually "naos" which means we have now become the Holy of Holies for His dwelling. This is too amazing to contemplate.
Even the footstool of God is glorious. And now we are His footstool here on earth. 1 John 4:17: "As He is, so are we in this world."
Dear mother, you are the footstool of God to your children as you reveal God to them through your daily attitude and actions. I love the quote by William Makepeace Thackeray which says, "Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children."
God wants His footstool to be glorious because He is glorious. May God save us from living sub-zero! May we understand the revelation of God's plan for us to be His glorious representation on earth, first to our husband and children, and then to everyone we meet.
As you get out of bed each morning, embrace your glorious commission. Realize that you are His footstool, revealing Christ to your children. You don't need any more motivation than that!
Be encouraged.
Nancy Campbell
Painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
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When we find someone believing a lie, what do we do? When someone is going astray, what do we do? Most times, we prefer to say or do nothing. We don't like to interfere. We don't want to be thought of someone who is condemning or legal, so we keep quiet. We don’t want people to think negatively about us.
But is this what God wants us to do? Proverbs 28:4 says: "They that forsake the law praise the wicked; but such as keep the law contend with them." The Hebrew word for "contend" is “garah” and means "to meddle, to stir up." In other words, stir up the pot!
Is it loving to leave someone in deception? Is it loving to not seek to rescue someone who is going in the wrong direction? (Read Jude 23). How can we change society if we stay silent? God wants us to invade society with His truth. He wants His people to show the way. He wants us to shine His light into the darkness, not hide our light (Matthew 5:13-16).
This doesn't mean we become condemning. A great way to challenge people's thinking is to ask them questions. Ask them why they think the way they do. Ask them why they do this thing. Ask them about their worldview. Christian and non-Christians are constantly bombarded with a secular and humanistic worldview. We have a responsibility to redirect their thinking back to God's way.
Jude 1:3 exhorts us to “earnestly contend for the faith.” And of course, our first accountability is to our children. We must constantly seek to keep them in the truth.
Don't hide your light. And don't forget to smile at people when you confront them.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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I read about a wife whose husband was unkind to her and didn’t want to spent time with her, choosing to spend all his evenings in other company. She went to a counselor. He didn’t spend hours counseling her, but instead gave her one simple message: “Always treat your husband with a smile.”
She began to put it into practice. A few months later she returned to the counselor to say that her husband no longer sought other company, but longed to be with her and treated her with constant love and kindness.
This secret works wonders for a problematic marriage, but also improves a good marriage. Try it.
What about your children? Do they get more frowns than smiles from you? 2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us that we grow into the likeness of Jesus the more we behold Him. It says: "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
In the same way, your children become like the image they see on your face? Do they see a grumpy face? They'll be grumpy? Do they constantly look at a smiling and happy face? You'll have happy children.
“But I don’t feel like smiling,” you reply. Don't live by your feelings. That's such a miserable way to live. Smile when you don't feel like smiling. Soon you'll be smiling because you feel like it and everyone in your home will be smiling, too.
Have a wonderful smiling day,
Nancy Campbell
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Dear mother, you are in the greatest career in the nation. Don’t come down from your high post! #gloryofmotherhood #powerofmotherhood #influenceofmotherhood #ilovemotherhood #aboverubies
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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.” Or modern 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.
When the baby is born the very precious awareness of the presence of God comes to your home. It always comes with a new baby who arrives fresh from heaven. I reveled in this time when my babies came. Savor every moment of it.
David continues: “Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.” As the little babe nurses at the continually-available breasts of the mother, he 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). Dear mother, God watches over every aspect and every season of motherhood. You are not doing it on your own. He is with you.
Trust Him hourly and daily.
Love from Nancy Campbell
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True beauty is not showing cleavage. True modesty is not drab and boring. We wear clothes to cover ourselves, but God delights in beauty and color. #modesty #truebeauty #aboverubies
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Like a shepherd of sheep, we as mothers are shepherding the little flock God has given to us. A shepherd must be both tough and tender. He must brave and courageous as he protects his sheep from wild animals and enemies, but also tender as he personally cares for them.
As mothers, we must also walk in these two different roles. We equate motherhood with tenderness. A tender and nurturing mother is a beautiful testimony of God’s loving and nurturing heart. Every emotion and intuition of mothering comes from God Himself.
However, we must also be strong and brave to rescue our children from all attacks of the enemy. I think of David, who when a bear or a lion would grab one of his little lambs, he would strike down the animal and rescue the lamb out of its mouth! And if the lion or bear reared its head against him, he'd grab it by the throat and beat it to death! (1 Samuel 17:34-37). That's bravery! Nothing would get one of his little lambs!
What about us? The devil is intent on seducing and infiltrating the minds of our precious young children with humanism, feminism, socialism, and every other "ism" (and now the influence of the homosexual agenda) in our state schools. Are we happy for our children to be ravished in the mouth of the lion? Or, are we fearless and daring enough to rescue our lambs out of their deceiving and destructive mouth?
Let’s be tender mothers, but also strong and brave to protect our children from the enemy’s tactics.
Blessings to you today,
Nancy Campbell
Painting: “Reading with Children” by Jessie Wilcox Smith.
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HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you and your precious family today. May you be filled with thankfulness, today, and every day of the year.
Some good Scriptures to read today are Colossians 2.7 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18. And say out loud, “I am thankful today. ”Thank God for specific things for which you are thankful. Here are some things for which I am grateful.
T I thank God for TEACHING me His ways.
H I thank God for giving me my HUSBAND. Marriage becomes more and more beautiful with time.
A I thank God for ANOINTING me to be a mother. Is there any greater blessing, apart from our salvation than to enjoy the blessings of children and grandchildren?
N I thank God for creating me to be a NURTURER and NOURISHER to my family and to others.
K I thank God for His KINDNESS to me.
F I thank God for my FAMILY and His daily FAITHFULNESS to me.
U I thank God for giving me UNDERSTANDING of His truth. My greatest delight is to receive revelation of God’s truth from His living Word.
L I thank God for LOVING me enough to die for me and shed His precious blood for my sins. I don’t like to get a day go by without thanking Him for His great and unspeakable and eternal salvation.
Today, let’s take positive action to thank God for each little and big blessing in our lives. Amen.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a wonderful time of the year for thankfulness and familyness. I am sure you’ll all take time to think of things you are thankful when you sit together for your Thanksgiving meal tomorrow. At the end of our Thanksgiving meal we have toasts. People get up and give a toast to someone they are thankful for in their life—people sitting with us, some who are not able to be with us, and others who have passed on and yet we want to remember with thankfulness the impact they have had upon our lives. This is always a very favorite part of our Thanksgiving meal.
Thanksgiving is one of the wonderful “ness” words that should be part of our daily family life. Our “familyness” life. The following are some of the “ness” attitudes that should fill our home and also describe who we are as a wife and mother. Read them over and let God speak to you.
You may like to print them out in bigger type and pin it on your wall for Thankskgiving. You may like to print it out and take one word for each day for the next month or so and discuss them with your children. Most of all, make them your family experience rather than just words!
Blessedness
Cheerfulness
Cleanliness
Courteousness
Faithfulness
Fairness
Forgiveness
Generousness
Gentleness
Godliness
Goodness
Graciousness
Gratefulness
Happiness
Healthiness
Helpfulness
Holiness
Hopefulness
Hospitableness
Joyfulness
Kindness
Loveliness
Meekness
Maternalness
Motherliness
Oneness
Peacefulness
Politeness
Positiveness
Prayerfulness
Pureness
Richness in soul and spirit
Righteousness
Softness
Submissiveness
Sweetness
Teachableness
Tenderness
Thankfulness
Togetherness
Thriftiness
Truthfulness
Virtuousness, and
Wholeness.
This sounds like a blessed marriage and family life, doesn't it?
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Photography by Erin Harrison
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Are you content in your home? Are you content in your soul? I think it starts in our soul, don’t you? If we don’t have rest and contentment in our soul, how will we have it in our home?
But we must ask another question. How can we experience contentment? Is it dependent upon our feelings? No. “A thousand times No,” as my husband says. (It’s one of his favorite sayings regarding things that are wrong!). And when it comes to something that is right, he says, “Yes, a million times Yes!”
I believe everything begins with our will. I notice in Exodus 2:21 that “Moses was CONTENT TO DWELL with the man.” This man was Reuel, the priest of Midian who lived out in the desert. Wow, this was the opposite of the life he had known--one of luxury, servants waiting upon him, and the best this world could offer.
The word “content” in this Scripture is “ya’al” and means “to be willing, to make up one’s mind, to be determined, to resolve.” Now, that’s interesting, isn’t it? His contentment was not because it was a beautiful situation, one of ease and comfort, and just what he had been looking for years!
Instead, Moses had to determine in his heart that he would be content in this situation. He had to make up his mind to do it.
I believe we must apply the same resolve in our lives. It is God’s plan to give us a home to dwell in. It is God’s plan to raise the children He gives us in a home. It is God’s plan to make a dwelling place, firstly for God, and then for our husband and children.
Many times, mothers are not content because they think of other things they could be doing outside the home. They spent years educating themselves for a certain degree and life vocation, and instead, they are mothering in the home! What went wrong?
We must come to that place in our mind where we know we are in the will of God. This is God’s plan for our lives. And therefore, because it is His plan, we forget feelings. We forget imagining another life outside the home. We cast aside all self-pity, grumbling, and groaning.
We make up our mind and determine to be content. We resolve to be content. And as we do, we find contentment. Everything in life is how you think in your mind and your attitude to your situation.
May you be blessed with a contented spirit today. There’s nothing like contentment to bring peace and calm to your soul. It’s great for your health. It’s great for the atmosphere of your home. It’s great for the blessing of everyone around you.
Be blessed,
Nancy Campbell
Painting by James Sant
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Like me, I am sure you are preparing for Thanksgiving this week. It’s one of my favorite family celebration days. We have so many great traditions and it’s an all-day affair.
However, thanksgiving should not only be for a special day, but our lifestyle. It’s the lifestyle of God’s kingdom. Colossians 2:7 says: “Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, and ABOUNDING therein with thanksgiving.” Have you noticed that the Bible contains extravagant language?
Our God is an extravagant God. He writes extravagant words. Nothing in the Bible is normal. John 10:10 tells us that Jesus not only came to give us life, but ABUNDANT life. He not only gives us peace, but peace that PASSES UNDERSTANDING (Philippians 4:7). He not only gives us joy, but joy that is UNSPEAKABLE AND FULL OF GLORY (1 Peter 1:8).
Now we read that we are not only to be thankful, but to be ABOUNDING in thanksgiving. Some translations say: “OVERFLOWING in gratitude.”
What does it mean to abound? When we look into the original Greek we find even more extravagant adjectives. The word abound is “perisseuo” meaning “to superabound, to be excessive, abundant, exceed, over and above.” The Bible uses the same word in John chapter six where Jesus fed the five thousand men, plus others.
Jesus not only fed the people, but fed them to overflowing. When they were all “filled,” Jesus asked them to gather all that was left over and they filled up twelve baskets full that “remained OVER AND ABOVE (perisseuo)” that which they had eaten.
I believe that we need to come into the TWELVE BASKETS FULL attitude about thanksgiving, don’t you? We all say, “thank you” when someone gives us something or does something for us, but I believe we need to go “over and above” this normality.
How many baskets full do you have over? Perhaps one basket full? You may get excessive sometimes. But not too much. You don’t want people to think are “over the top.” Hey, that’s what you are meant to be! You are never meant to be average, normal, or boring. Especially when it comes to being thankful.
What about two baskets full over? How many times do you thank your husband each day? Do you thank him profusely for even the little things he does for you? Or do you take him for granted? Do you thank your children when they do their chores, or just take them for granted too?
What about three baskets full over and above? Appreciation and gratitude pour from your heart. You don’t have an entitlement mentality. You and I both know that we don’t deserve anything, and therefore we are grateful for every little blessing in life.
What about four baskets full over and above? How our hearts should be filled with thankfulness to God for all His blessings, especially for His great salvation. I cannot refrain from thanking Him every day for His sacrifice upon the cross for me. Our hearts should well up with thankfulness continually through the day for all the wonderful blessings God pours upon us. Often, we don’t see them because of our attitude of ingratitude. That’s why we’ve got to push into the OVER AND ABOVE TWELVE BASKETS FULL ATTITUDE.
What about five baskets full over and above? Are you becoming excessive? Is it becoming normal for you to say, “Thank you soooooo much.” And so, we could go on.
The TWELVE BASKETS FULL attitude can revolutionize your marriage.
The TWELVE BASKETS FULL attitude can revolutionize your family life. Just imagine everyone in the home with this mentality. Outdoing one another with thankfulness. What bliss to live in an environment of thankfulness, blessing, appreciation, and gratitude. It changes everything.
THE OVER AND ABOVE TWELVE BASKETS FULL attitude can change the lives of everyone we meet, and ultimately society.
Start it in your home today.
Love from Nancy Campbell
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