LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 219: The Four L’s of Raising Children, Part 3

Michele and I speak today about teaching our children to work. No, not how to work, but how to LOVE TO LABOR! How do we instill this love to work in our children? Check it out.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Well, Michele is here with me again! Our third podcast together, and we’re going to start another word that begins with “L.” What is it today, Michele?

Michele: LOVE LABOR.

Nancy: Whoa! Love labor! Teaching our children how to love work. We didn’t say how to work. No, how to LOVE work. There’s a big difference, isn’t there?

But, before we even get onto that, I still have something to share from last week about loving to learn. I mentioned, of course, in the last two podcasts, how important it is to learn, but first of all, how to listen. We need to learn the art of listening to know how to obey. We need to learn the art of listening in order to know how to learn. It comes from listening. There are two very lovely words about listening in the Bible. Many, of course, but the two main ones I’d like to share with you.

The first one is in that story in 1 Kings 3:3-14, where God came to Solomon and said: “Solomon, ask Me what you like.” And what did Solomon ask for? He asked for a listening heart, a hearing heart. Now, we don’t often pick that up as we read it. I’ll read it here for you. 1 Kings 3, looking for it here.

Michele: Well, as you look for that, it reminds me of how Solomon had a teachable spirit. If you want to hear and listen, you have to have the spirit to want to be taught. That teachable spirit, he’s asking the Lord for something here. It’s pretty amazing. I want to have a teachable spirit. I want my children to be able to have that teachable spirit where they will want to learn.

Nancy: There, in 1 Kings 3:9: “Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?” He asked for an “understanding heart.”

The word is shema in the Hebrew. That word literally means “to hear with attention and obedience, to give undivided attention.” That word is often used, “to hear.” That’s the word that is used. He asked for a hearing heart. Then it goes on, where God says, “Yes, and I will give you a heart to discern.” Discerning also comes out of hearing.

Then there’s another word for hearing. That is in the story of Saul. King Saul, God told him to go out and to wipe out the Amorites, I think it was. He had to get rid of them completely. everything that breathed, and all the animals.

But Saul didn’t obey completely. He kept some of the animals. His excuse was that “I kept them to sacrifice to the Lord.” But he had disobeyed what God said. And the prophet comes to him and says: “Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”

The word “hearken” is kashab. What does it mean? “To prick up the ears, sharpening them like an alert animal.” If you have a watchdog in your home, you will know how that when, maybe a car is coming in the gate, you may not even have heard it. But you dog has heard it, and his ears go up. They just prick up, and he’s listening. That’s the way God wants us to listen! With pricking up our ears to listen.

One of the very first things that God wants us to learn, we forgot to tell you this in the last podcast, is something that I’ll give to you here. I’ll read it to you. Deuteronomy 4:10: “I will make them hear my words, that they may learn,” what? What does God want us to learn foremost, before anything else? To fear the Lord “all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.”

Deuteronomy 6:1-2: “Now these are the commandments . . . that ye might do them . . . That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life.”

Deuteronomy 31:11-13: “Thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.” Get that? “Gather the people together, men, and women, and children . . . that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and that their children, which have not known anything, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God.”

That is the very first thing God wants us to learn, as mothers, and wants our children to learn, to fear Him. And what is the fear of the Lord? Proverbs 1:7: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” Let’s teach our children how to live in the fear of the Lord.

FAMILIES WORSIPPING TOGETHER

Do you notice there, ladies, that God called everyone together. Whenever God wanted to say something to His people, He called them all together. Not just the adults, no. What does it say here? The men, the women, and the children. Every time God wanted to speak to His people, He always did it in the hearing of everyone.

Let me give you a few other Scriptures about that, because I think this is something we have to understand also. In fact, I believe we’ve got to get back to the Word on every little thing, don’t we?

Even when we come and gather together, whenever you gather, whether it’s a Saturday, whether it’s a Sunday, when you gather with the people of God, it seems that the current way we do it is that everybody goes into their different age groups. The little ones to the nursery, then the little bit older in their little group, and then the next ones to their Sunday school class, right up through their ages.

Wow! In fact, in some churches, everybody’s in the worship together. Then it’s time for the Word! And what happens? It’s an exodus! You can’t believe it! Everybody starts to file out of the church! All the Sunday school teachers, and all the children, and they’re all going out. Wow! Only half or even a third of the church are left! It’s unbelievable!

But when we go to the Word of God, we don’t ever, ever find that. There is not one Scripture. I have to confess that’s how we did it. My husband and I have been pastoring all our lives. We started out like that. Sunday school for all the children. Everyone was in for worship. Then out went the children. That’s how we did it.

Until one day we began to see, “Hey, where do we find this in the Bible? We cannot find it in one place.”

Michele: I think what our children are learning is that they’re a distraction. We’re teaching our children that they’re a distraction and people can’t learn. But it’s not just the children leaving, it’s all the adults who teach the children.

Our children are, a lot of times, going to be entertained. We’re called to be set apart. We’re not called to be set aside. But if we’re just going out and entertaining and giving them a bunch of fluff, they’re not receiving the Word, the deep things of God, in the Word of God, we underestimate our children’s ability to learn.

ARE WE DUMBING THEM DOWN OR LIFTING THEM UP

Nancy: We are. What we’re doing is dumbing them down, bringing them down to child level when we are to be bringing them up to maturity. Children may not understand everything that is being said in the main auditorium where the preacher is preaching, but they get it. It goes into their spirit. It’s how it’s meant to be. Let me give you a few other little Scriptures here.

Joshua 8:33-35: “And Joshua read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel.”

Wow! That was not a half-hour sermon. It was not an hour’s sermon. How long would it take for all that? Most probably all Exodus and Leviticus, and goodness me! Help! There was so much! And who had to be there? “With the women, and the little ones.” Yes. Oh, yes, everyone was there. Not just the men, but the women and the little ones.

2 Chronicles 20:4 & 13: “And Judah gathered themselves together.” This was a time when the enemy was coming and all of Judah came together to pray, “to ask help of the LORD . . .  And all Judah,” all, “stood before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.”

Yes, and did you notice, “their little ones”? “Oh, but the little ones, we can’t have them. We need babysitters for them. Goodness me, we’ve got to get them out in the nursery, or something, because they are such a distraction!” Oh, no, we have to teach them how to be in the congregation of the people. God never, ever allowed the little ones to be separated. They always had to be there.

The Hebrew word for “the little ones” is the Hebrew word taph. It comes from “the tripping gait or short steps of little children.” In other words, those ones that are toddling around. But even them, God wants to have in the midst. Isn’t that amazing?

Go over to Ezra 10:1: “Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children,” and the word is taph, all the little, wee ones, “for the people wept very sore.”

Let me give you just one more. Joel 2:15-16. This was where they were calling a solemn assembly of fasting and prayer. “Oh my, we wouldn’t want to have little ones there, would we? No, you’d better get babysitters! This is a time for prayer and fasting!”

And so, the Word says: “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders.” But it doesn’t stop there, ladies. “Gather the children, and those that suck at the breasts.”

God wanted everyone there, even the little babes, because right down to the littlest, they can learn. The littlest ones may not even understand but they are still hearing. They’re hearing the Word, and it is subconsciously going into them. Amen?

Michele: When my babies were just babies, even when they were in the womb, when I’d read the Word, I’d read it out loud. That was on purpose. The Spirit of the Lord was there. It’s in them, even at the tiniest of age.

Nancy: Oh, yes, yes. That’s when we start, in the womb!

Michele: Absolutely.

Nancy: Well, we’re going to talk about teaching our children, not just to work, but what? To LOVE WORK! How are we going to do this, Michele?

Michele: Oh, my goodness! So many ways! Number one, just like we teach them to love the Lord, and we teach them to love to learn, to teach them to love labor is number one—set the example. How are we facing work? Whether it be in the home, mothering, schooling, volunteer, meals, housework? It could be anything, anything at all.

What is our view on work? Are we doing it unto the Lord? Do we have a joyful heart? What do our children see? Do they see us grumbling and complaining? Do they see us putting things off and not getting work done? They will follow our lead.

Those little ones, my daughter gets so excited to help me make the bed when I have a smile on my face. I say, “I get to make the bed!” When our older ones were younger, we used to call them “get-to’s.” The words “you have to,” instead, “you get to.” You get to do this! It was so funny to see the things that we could get them to get excited about.

Nancy: Yes, yes. It’s true. It does come back to us, doesn’t it? I guess I was blessed to be brought up in a home where my father loved work. Oh, he loved to work! It was his joy to work. Actually, lovely ladies, this work is in us because God put it in us. If we have a resistance to work, we are actually resisting who God made us to be!

In fact, the very first thing that God did, after He had created man, was to put him in the garden to work, to work in the garden. Now, let’s look at that, shall we? Genesis 2:8: “And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden.” And there, “the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”

Now, the word “dress” is abad in the Hebrew. It literally means “to work, to serve, to labor, to toil, to till.” Yes! It’s a word that really means, “OK, you’ve got to get stuck in and toil!”

WORK IS THERAPEUTIC AND CREATIVE

That word comes immediately after God created the man. God gave that instinct to work, right at the very beginning. It is in us because work is a blessing! Work is therapeutic! Work is creative! Work makes the world go round. In fact, as we work, is when we find better ways of doing things, faster ways of doing things.

This is how all the inventions come about, because people that are doing say, “I can find a better way of doing this! I can build a better thing!” It’s always finding a better way of doing it as we are working. Work is a wonderful thing. God gave it to us, and we have to embrace it as part of our lives! Amen?

Michele: Amen! Isn’t it amazing, how the love of learning and the love of labor go hand in hand? They go absolutely hand in hand, because if we take that love for learning and apply it to labor, wow! The things that we can accomplish, and the things that we can explore, and the things that we can invent are just amazing.

Then, if we have that along with Colossians 3:23-24: “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not to men. Knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ.”

Wow! People that work unto the Lord, they’re going to be others-focused. They’re going to put others first. They’re going to do things with excellence. They’re going take initiative. They’re going to work diligently. They’re going to have integrity, and they’re going to work with a joyful attitude. That’s what I want to see in my children.

Nancy: Yes! OK, now Michele, tell me, how have you been able to put that love for work in your children? Have you got any examples about that?

MAKE IT FUN

Michele: Oh, yes! Lots of examples! One, make it fun. With the little ones, just a smile on your face can make a world of difference. But as they grow older, sometimes you’ll see that reluctant attitude. Just remind them of what the Word of God says, number one—but then also, set an example, making it as fun as possible.

We’re building a home right now. We’re in the beginning processes of building a home, so this is a project that my husband and my boys are taking on. I told them two requirements: I don’t want it duct-taped together, and I don’t want it flex-steeled together. So, they are up to their necks of learning and labor right now but they’re going to have a reward at the end. Just being able to have that reward at the end of something they’ve built, our home! And their inheritance, at that. It's pretty amazing.

Sometimes it’s pointing out to our children why we do the things we do. There’s the “how-to’s,” how do we clean the bathroom, how do we do the things? But why? Why is this important? Why do we need to make our bed if we’re just going go to bed again at night? That sort of thing.

If we can teach them the “why’s” behind some of the things we do, it can make a world of difference in teaching those good work ethics and good work habits. There are things they get up and do from a small age and it becomes a habit. It becomes their work ethic. The reward is at the end of it.

Just recently, we’ve had my son who is becoming an adult (so I don’t want to keep him little)! But he’s going to be 20 in just a few short weeks. He’s been home with us, and he’s been making dinner almost every night.

Nancy: Oooh, how dreamy! [laughter] How wonderful!

Michele: It is so dreamy! But you know what, I see the light when we sit down with our meal, and we’re like, “Oh, wow! This is amazing!” Even at 20 years old, his face will light up. Just that encouragement, when our kids are working hard, and they’re doing something great. Don’t forget to encourage them even as they become young adults. That encouragement can go a long, long way.

ENCOURAGEMENT SHOULD ROLL OFF OUR TONGUES

Nancy: Absolutely. I do believe that is so important to be always encouraging our children. You can never encourage your children too much. Encouragement should be rolling off our tongues. I believe that encouragement is the rich soil in which we grow our children to their full destiny.

People do things out of encouragement. The Word of God says in The Living Bible, Proverbs 12:25: “A word of encouragement does wonders!” It does wonders! A lot of it is all about attitude, isn’t it? When we’re working with our children, we need to let them know, “Oh, isn’t it fun to work? It’s so great!” But also, we’ve got to teach them diligence too, and habits. So much is habits.

You mentioned making your bed. I believe that is the habit we should instill in our children right from the time they can make their beds. They learn to do it. They don’t come out of their rooms until their bed is made. That is a very good habit.

In fact, there’s a whole book called Make Your Bed. I forget the author, but you can go to Amazon. It will come up, written by a general. He puts making his bed as one of the foundational successes of his life because it taught him a habit. “I’ve done something. It is completely finished and orderly, right from the beginning of the day. That’s going to set my pattern for the day.”

In teaching our children to work, one, we are teaching them how to work diligently and delightfully, and, of course, encouraging them along the way. But it’s amazing, ladies, how much God talks about work in His Word, and how much He talks about diligence, and how much He speaks against laziness. Oh, my! There are so many Scriptures about that.

Michele: In 2 Thessalonians 3:10, it says: “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” With four boys that love to eat, that’s a big deal. That’s high stakes right there! [laughter]

Nancy: Yes, yes, they also need to learn that too as they’re growing up. We’re teaching our children, right from the beginning, so why are we teaching them to do chores and do work? We’re preparing them for their future life, so that they’ll grow up with this work ethic of enjoying work, loving work.

I see my children loving work. One of my boys especially, he just loves to work! He is incredible. In fact, it’s our son Steve, and he has always, I guess for years now, I think for over 33 years or more he has managed the Newsboys. That’s the Christian band that our oldest son owns. Steve has managed them on the road. His incredible work ethic, his incredible management has actually done wonders for that band and made them what they are today.

In fact, this last summer tour, he was brought in by Maverick City, which I think is perhaps the most popular worship band today. But they brought in Steve to manage them. They were unbelievably blessed. In fact, I saw a post from my daughter-in-law, and they’d given him this thing that says, “The Best Manager That’s Ever Been.” [laughter] It was something like that. It was even better than that. Yes, because of his incredible work ethic, and also his amazing creativity and personality too, but it all starts with work.

Anyway, I think we’re actually at the end of this session. We’ve got to talk a little bit more about this next session. So, we’ll be coming back for that, ladies! Love you!

“Dear Father, I thank You for all the precious women, mothers, wives, daughters, maybe even husbands, listening, Lord. Father, bless them with Your Word. Encourage them.

“Lord God, teach us all Your ways. One of Your ways is to work. Even Jesus said, “My Father works, and I work.” It is part of the Godhead, to work.

“So, Father, give us wisdom in teaching our children the right way, the right attitude, to work. It makes such a difference to the whole atmosphere of the home. I pray this blessing upon every home today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Michele: Amen.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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

Check out: MAKE YOUR BED by Admiral William McRaven

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 218: The Four L’s of Raising Children, Part 2

Today Michele and I chat together about teaching our children to LOVE TO LEARN. One of the secrets of learning is first learning to listen. We cannot learn unless we develop the art of listening. Come on in and listen for more ways to teach our children the secrets of learning.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Today I have Michele Schrum with me again. Hey, Michele, wasn’t it such a great prayer meeting last night?

Michele: Oh, my goodness! It was so wonderful! Even my 11-year-old, almost 11-year-old, was commenting on it. He’s just loving the prayer meetings.

Nancy: I know! Isn’t it great when children love prayer meetings? He was praying! My, he was praying up a storm, wasn’t he?

Michele: He was, and he had to jump in. There weren’t any breaks, so he jumped right in. I was so proud of him. [laughter]

Nancy: I know! We were really praying on the issue of what is happening in this nation. We were so concerned to hear of this break-in in President Trump’s private home. It’s so unbelievable what is happening in our country! That would only happen in a country that’s a dictatorship.

Oh my, we, as God’s people, do need to be praying, don’t we? It’s so blessed to be part of prayer meetings where we’re crying out to God for the nation. We are believing God is going to do great things.

Here we are again, today, to continue speaking about the four L’s. Michele and her husband Randy raised their children according to four words that start with “L.” Last week we talked about loving God, and how to woo our children to love God with all their heart. Today it’s another “L.” What is it, Michele?

Michele: It is the LOVE OF LEARNING.

Nancy: Oh, wow. That is so great, isn’t it? We’ll chat about that together today, because I think this is very important to remember in the educating of our children. It’s not just trying to teach them and get them through all their curriculum lessons. It’s giving them a love for learning because learning is for life. That’s what I believe about education. It’s not a certain number of years where people go to school, and then college, and that’s it. No, it’s learning every day of our lives. If we can put that passion in our children, well, that’s so great, isn’t it?

Michele: Oh, it’s so good. That love for learning for life, we love that. It reminds me of going to the grocery story, when the grocery store clerk asked my younger children what grade they’re in. They look at me with that blank homeschool look, like, “Grade?”

I’m like, “Oh, man. Just how much he . . . I think fourth grade, fourth grade’s good.” [laughter] Because it’s not about a number. It’s not about even the curriculum. It’s about the love of learning and being able to learn. A child that loves to learn can learn their whole life.

Nancy: Yes, absolutely. Knowledge is important. I love that Scripture in Proverb 19:2 where it says: “That the soul be without knowledge, it is not good.” God wants us to pursue knowledge because He is the Author of all knowledge. In fact, in Colossians 2:3, it says: “All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him.”

Oh, the greatest knowledge that we will ever have is the knowledge of God. Of course, we are to pursue all different avenues of knowledge. But I do believe that we always need to keep in mind that the greatest knowledge is the knowledge of God. To teach our children who God is, and to know Him, oh, I think that’s the greatest thing that they can ever do.

In fact, one time, when our children were growing, I got this idea that as I was reading the Word each day, I would look out for the different names of God. God has so many different names. Not one name can describe Him for He actually surpasses all the names that are given to Him.

As I would write each name down, then, as I came across another Scripture, I’d write that Scripture under that name. I had as the heading, “The Name of God.” OK, perhaps it’s “Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our Provider.” Well, maybe the “Lord God of Hosts,” which means, “The Lord of the Armies of Heaven.” That name occurs many, many times in the Word of God. Or “God, Who is Our Shepherd.” The list goes on and on.

I had at the top of the page one of the names of God as I’d find it in the Word. As I’d keep reading, from day to day, I’d find new Scriptures and put in under that name until I had this whole book of all the Scriptures revealing the Names of God. I could take them and use them in our family devotion time and read these Scriptures to our children so they could get to know God in this attribute. I think that’s a very important thing, that our children begin to know God, to know Him, all His different attributes.

I think many people today, because they haven’t pursued the knowledge of God, and by the way, have you ever read that book by A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy? Oh, have you read it, Michele?

Michele: You know, my older daughters have read that book. I have not read it, but I’ve heard their description of the book and it sounds amazing.

Nancy: I would encourage everyone to get ahold of that book. You can get it off Amazon very cheaply. Anything by Tozer is so profound. But this book, oh, you’re just in awe as you read the different attributes of God. It’s so wonderful. If our children grow up not knowing the attributes of God, how will they know Him? They will end up creating a God of their own imagination.

I think that’s what many people do today. I believe many people in the church, they go to church, they sing hymns, and they go to worship God. But who are they worshipping? Are they worshipping the God of the Bible? Or a God that they have put in their own little box, who fits in their little lifestyle?

I remember one guy saying to me, we were talking about children, he said, “Well, you know, we could only afford three children. We weren’t able to have any more.” I said to him, “Well, is the God that you believe in, is He a God that can only provide for three children?” That’s an interesting question, because most people in the church today only believe God can provide for even only two children! That’s the God they have put in their little box! This little, wee God!

But no, our God is great! Our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills! Our God has promised to provide for every child that He gives. Our God is a big God! He is the God of provision, even when we can see no provision. We have got to begin to know Who our God is. We can take our children through all their lessons, but if they come out of our homes and they don’t know God, what have we been doing?

Michele: Absolutely. That’s why last week No. 1 was to LOVE THE LORD. But listen to this in Proverbs 18:15: “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” As we teach our children to love the Lord, and as we teach them to love learning, they’re going to be digging in and digging out who God is. As we teach them and train them, we can cultivate and develop a love for learning.

Nancy: Absolutely. Going back to last week, at the end of last week, we were talking about how important it is to teach our children how to hear. Unless we teach them how to listen, they won’t even learn how to obey.

But I also believe, unless we teach them the art of listening, they really won’t learn all that God wants them to know. I think one of the greatest ways of learning is listening, listening with the ear, and listening with the heart. We can listen to verbal instruction, and to even written instruction. We’re listening with the ear, and with the heart. It’s so important.

I find listening is a very powerful thing. It’s something we really have to cultivate. Even in our daily morning and evening family devotions that we have in our home and my husband reads the Word to us, because I want to listen with all my heart, I start off listening, but no, I have to confess, there are times when I will even get into a bit of a dream!

Oh, and I get way off in something and my husband will ask a question. I have to say, “Oh, Darling, can you read that again? Please say that again?” He’ll say, “Have you been dreaming?” If I can do that, when I have such a heart to listen, what about our children? They can easily get into a dream.

We have learned along the way, my husband and I, that it’s important not just to read the Word to our children. We have got to do it in a way that keeps their ears attentive so that they are not getting into a dream, but they are being interactive. We’re keeping them on their toes.

My husband will do lots of different things. Sometimes he will be reading, and he’ll read the wrong word, totally opposite to what the Bible says. If nobody even interrupts or says something, he knows we’re not listening!

“What did I read just then?” And he will read it again, with the wrong word. Oh, we’ll pick it out! “No, that’s not what the Bible says! It’s this word!” But you see, doing that, it keeps us listening. Actually, it’s great too. He’ll get us all to say the right word, out loud! It gets it into our very being.

Then he’ll stop, and he’ll ask questions. “What does this word mean? What do you think God is saying in this verse?” He’ll start the verse, and he’ll stop. “Who can finish it for me?” Hopefully we can finish the Scripture. We’re keeping on our toes.

In the Daily Light on the Daily Path, I didn’t write that. That’s a most wonderful book of compilation of Scriptures for every morning and every evening for the whole of the year, put together by the Bagster family over 150 years ago. These Scriptures are the same in every Daily Light. But I produced a copy, which has ideas for parents at the beginning of each chapter. It can help you to keep it exciting for your children and teach them the art of listening.

Can I take you ladies to a couple of Scriptures here? Mark 4:23-25: Jesus said, “If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.” Just because we have ears doesn’t mean to say we’re hearing! “And he said unto them, take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that which he hath.” Those are powerful words coming from the mouth of Jesus. It’s the opposite to how we would think, isn’t it?

Michele: Oh, absolutely! As we’re teaching our children to hear and to listen, you touched on Colin stopping and putting the wrong word in and getting the children and others around you involved. That’s the key to teaching them to learn.

We should, instead of lecturing our children, we should have discussions with our children. Then we can get them involved, or part of the conversation, or thinking for themselves. I allow my children to, not interrupt, but politely interrupt. I would say, raise your hand, if they have a question or comment that has to do with whatever we’re learning, or we’re reading about, which is great.

Benjamin Franklin once said:

“Tell me, and I forget.

Teach me, and I remember.

Involve me, and I learn.”

So getting our children involved, letting them ask the questions, having those discussions, is, to me, like the brain being hands-on.

Nancy: Amen! That is powerful. I love that quote, Michele. Well, I think it’s what you do, spend time discussing with your children rather than lecturing. That is so important. And you know the Scripture that I just read; we would think, our brains would think absolutely the opposite. In fact, this is how we think in our culture today, this entitlement culture that people who don’t have, well, we’ve got to give more to them.

Jesus is saying here, “OK, those who have, I’m going to give more! Those who don’t have, I’m going to take away!” Now, why would He say such a thing? I believe, because He knows that those who have, why do they have? Because they are seeking. They’re not going to waste what they have.

LOOK FOR REVELATION

It’s the same when we come to God’s Word. We can come to the Word of God. We can read it. I’ve heard people say, “I read the Bible, and I get nothing out of it.” But why? Because they’re not seeking Jesus in the Word. When we seek Him, when we listen with our heart . . . When I read the Word, I am looking, I am waiting for God to speak to me out of every word, not just the whole verse. I am looking even at every word! Because every word He speaks is life to me. I think because I come with this anticipation, and God knows my heart, I get revelations. I’m amazed at how understanding comes. God gives more.

We go over to Matthew 13:12. It’s similar, but we’re going to read this one too: “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” We put this into the context of learning. As we learn with listening ears, we will get more. We will learn more. If we just learn because we have to learn, and we’re not really taking it in, well, we really don’t get much, do we?

I think this is a good idea. When we come to our table, especially in the evening when there’s a little more time than in the other meals of the day, I love to bring subjects for discussion to the table. We did this as our children were growing up. It was the most exciting time. I would bring a subject. “What do you think about this, children?” Everybody would get going and sharing what they thought about it. There was real interaction.

I believe the table is the place, not just to eat some food, but to feed our bodies, to feed our souls with interaction and heart-to-heart conversation. Then, of course, the most important part of the meal of all, to feed our spirits and fill them with the Word of God. We dare not let our children ever leave the table without feeding their inner man. How can we feed their outer man, and forget the inner man? That’s even more important.

But I also find it’s important to have this discussion time, because if I don’t, when I come to the table, and I don’t bring anything specific to talk about, well, nobody talks about anything. It’s just a bit of shallow conversation. It’s not really very worthwhile.

But often, you can bring a question. A question I quite often love to ask, I used to do this, and I still often do it with folks around our table. “What was something that you learned today?” That’s a good question for homeschooling moms. “OK, children! Can you tell me just even one little thing you learned today?” And each one has to have a turn around the table, and Mommy and Daddy, because we should be learning something new every day too. That’s a challenge. I think, “Oh, my! Am I learning something new today?” That’s a challenge for me, everyday!

If our children are silent, help! What kind of schooling are we doing? Maybe we’re too eager to get them through all their lessons. They crammed so much into their brain that they haven’t remembered a thing! Sometimes it’s better to do it a little what the Bible says. “Little by little, here a little, there a little. Line upon line, precept upon precept” (Isaiah 28:10). It’s better to learn a little less but remember it! Also, when you articulate what you learned, that’s when you keep it. Isn’t that true?

Michele: Absolutely.

Nancy: You keep it.

Michele: Yes, that is so true. As we’re sitting around, like you said, Mom and Dad get their turn too. That’s setting the example for your children. You’re setting an example of your excitement to learn. You’re a lifelong learner, and you let your children see you trying to figure out new things, or you’re digging in deeper. You have questions too. Sometimes you need to figure it out together.

Just setting an example before your children is so huge, because like we said last week, children will mimic you. They will follow your example, whether it’s good or bad. So let’s make great things for them to mimic or to copy. What a great thing, to love to learn, and to love the Lord. New things.

Nancy: Oh, yes. You know, all our children learn so differently, don’t they? I guess you notice the difference, as I did when raising our children, between the boys and the girls. Often, girls are happy to sit at their desks and work on their books for hours and hours. I was like that as a child. I could sit for hours with my books. I was a book person. I loved books. I loved study.

Then, when my first child came along, he was a son. And, goodness, he didn’t have a love for books! He loved to listen to me read. I read to my children for hours. We used to read serial stories in the evenings. We’d read a few chapters each night, but they got longer and longer. “Don’t stop! Don’t stop now! Can we keep going?” Until I’m going to sleep reading! We read books and books and books together, and they loved that.

But he wasn’t one of these sitting at a desk for hours, studying. No, he wanted to get out and do things! And make things. He learned more like that. Not that he was any less intelligent than me. Far more! His intelligence was so far greater but learning in a different way.

Michele: Yes, I remember when my daughter, Calli and my son, Carter were younger. They’re grown now. You talk about different learning! My daughter Calli very rarely got punished, because she was my compliant child that loved to listen. But if she ever did, she usually got jumping jacks.

For my son Carter, he was like, “Why does she get to do jumping jacks?” He did jumping jacks as I was teaching him how to spell. You do a jumping jack for each letter. It was so funny to hear the difference in learning. Now Carter is almost 20. He grew to be my lover of books. He loved to sit down. He was very book smart.

My younger son, Niles was watching his brother when he was older, probably about 16, 17, really in the books and learning all about the financial world, accounting, things he loves in that realm. My son Niles, you could almost see the weight on his shoulders. He was like, “That’s what I get to look forward to??”

One day he came in from getting the mail. He was entranced. He was watching and looking at something. I’m like, “What is that, Niles?” He’s like, “Mom! Look at this! What is this?” He shows me and it was for a trade school for welding. I’m trying to explain what it is and he’s like, “People can learn from other people how to weld?”

This happens to be a trade school where you can go to learn how to weld. He looks at me and goes, “You mean, people go to college to learn how to weld?” I’m like, “Well, sort of. You can do trade school, or you can just learn from someone who’s really good at welding.” He’s like, that was it. He puts it down on the table and goes, “That’s it!” It was like the weight was lifted off his shoulders and his head came up. He skips off, he was so excited.

He didn’t necessarily have to have his nose in the books like his brother Carter because he’s actually a hands-on learner and he wants to be out there, exploring, and building stuff. That’s still to this day, he’s going to be 15 in a couple of weeks and he’s still that way. Hands-on learning.

He and his twin brother actually inherited a four-wheeler recently from my sister, a free four-wheeler. What’s better than that? There’s no such thing as a free four-wheeler! [laughter] But they knew it going in that it needed work. They have been, with a little bit of direction, because I want to make sure they’re using this opportunity to learn from, they have learned so much about mechanics. Not only that, they fix one problem, and they have the next problem they have to figure out.

They’ve also had to work to be able to earn money for all these parts and for repairs. So, it’s been great. They’ve been coming into their dad and asking questions when they get stuck and other people around here that maybe know some more information about mechanics than they do, so they are learning so much by fixing up this four-wheeler. It’s been fantastic.

Nancy: Oh, yes. And now, of course, you are beginning the building of your house up on the Hilltop. The boys are going to be all part of that. In fact, they’ve already been doing things, haven’t they?

Michele: Oh, absolutely. Just two weeks ago, they learned how to operate heavy equipment. They had a bulldozer up there and a skid steer. They were operating heavy equipment. I went up there, was taking some pictures of them, and sending them to some friends and family. It was amazing to see.

When you’re able to put your hands to the plow, literally, the learning that takes place, and the lessons! Even when I watched my son back over a tree that I wanted to keep. It was OK, it was all right. We can grow another tree. There’s lots of trees up there, actually. I knew it was OK. He’s gaining so much knowledge, and so many skills that will be used for life.

Nancy: It’s so wonderful. We do have to always be aware of how each child will learn. Of course, it’s easier, often, for boys growing up where they’re on the land and there is so much for them to get their hands on and learn.

I look at some of our grandchildren who have been driving cars and heavy equipment from the time they were little. Because it’s all around and they think it’s a natural normal thing, like walking down to the gate. What they can’t do! Oh, goodness me, it’s just amazing! They can do everything to do with building.

But what about, if you’re in the city, and you’ve got boys and they’re getting into their teens. Oh, wow, they’ve got all that testosterone, and you’ve got to find an outlet for it. But God has promised in Deuteronomy 28 that as we seek Him and obey His ways, that He will bless us in the city, and He will bless us in the country.

I believe that as you ask the Lord and wait on Him, He will show you avenues for your boys, even in the city. You can be aware of their gifts and find people who are, maybe, in that line of work, or whatever. They can learn from them, or they can get a little job, an extra job in that way. God will open those doors.

Michele: Absolutely. We lived in a suburb for a while, longer than we wanted to. But God opened doors for my boys, and my daughter. My daughter baked bread for a season and was selling bread out of the home. Actually, another homeschool mom asked her if she would teach, she could pay her to teach her daughter to bake bread.  It was amazing, the opportunities.

But my son Carter, he’s the one who’s very book smart. When he was about 14, 15 years old, we found a gentleman, a Christian homeschool dad who owned a large apartment complex. He needed help, so he hired my son to come help with maintenance and lawn care. My son got hands-on experience in how to drywall, how to do some plumbing, electrical, just the dirty work of tearing out carpet and measuring for new carpet.

He learned so many skills. And even though it wasn’t his favorite thing to do, one, he got paid, so he liked that. And two, he gained so many skills. He’s going to be 20 and he looks back now, and he’s like, “You know, I didn’t love that every time I went, but I’m so thankful that I had that opportunity and experience. I know I’ll save a lot of money in the future, not having to pay a plumber necessarily, or an electrician.” It’s amazing.

Then my younger boys, when they were about 11 or 12, on their own, took initiative and started a lawn care business, The Lawn Care. They got a few yards in our neighborhood and started mowing. That turned into odd jobs that different neighbors needed done. Anything from helping move furniture to pulling weeds.

We even had an elderly gentleman in our neighborhood that we developed a great friendship with. We were able to pray with him and minister to him. It was amazing. He would have them come down and do simple things like pick up sticks. He liked the company more than anything.

Then during the winter, they would shovel snow and all these kinds of things. There are opportunities anywhere you live, for boys and girls. You can teach your children that the opportunities that they can learn from maybe are not their favorite. But at home, you can even teach your children to their interest. Things that are of interest to them make learning fun. You can’t make everything fun. Sometimes they just have to do math, and they discipline themselves.

However, I have learned, and they see my example, even things that I used to not like, like folding socks. I used to not like to fold socks. Now I love to fold socks. I had the revelation the Lord gave me one day. It’s like, if I didn’t have all these children, I wouldn’t have all these socks! Now, as I fold clothes, I always pray over my children whose clothes I’m folding.

Now they’re starting to do their own laundry. Actually, I haven’t had to do laundry because they’re using the laundromat. Me and my six-year-old, that’s her job. She helps me. But when we’re at home, they’re all starting to do their own laundry.

Everything is how we set our minds to it, how we persist in our hearts. Our children are watching us. We want them to be able to do this in their hearts before the Lord, and do everything they do as unto the Lord, and not unto man. Let’s set that example.

Nancy: Yes. And also, I think we teach our children too, by not doing everything for them. As our children are getting older and they want things, I don’t think we should go out and, “OK, you can have it.” As our children were growing up, we actually didn’t have the money to give them what they needed anyway.

Our boys, as they were growing, they wanted to get into go-carts, and then as they got older, into motocross. Then, of course, they wanted their cars. Well, we never bought cars for them. They had to save up and buy them themselves. I can remember our son going out early in the morning with paper runs. I can remember my eldest son going to the dump and finding stuff there. Then he’d go round the neighborhood selling it, to make money.

We didn’t give them what they wanted. They had to go out and find a way to earn the money to get the things they wanted, to do the things they wanted. In doing that, they learned that you don’t live this entitlement life. You don’t expect, “Oh, I should just get this, and it should come to me. No, I’ve got to work for it. I’ve got to earn it.” That’s something we have to learn, that that’s part of life.

My eldest son is a millionaire today. But he got there, not by anyone giving him one cent, but by going out there and getting it! I think we live in such an affluent ageand it’s such an affluent society. Children have grown up receiving and accepting and expecting so much! Whereas they need to learn how you’ve got to work for things and go out and get them if you want them.

Why does our time always go? We’ll look forward to next week, ladies, for the next “L.” We’ll keep it a secret until next week. You’ve got to come in and check it out.

And do tell other mothers about these podcasts, ladies! We do them just to encourage you, inspire you, and bless you. Every single mother needs this encouragement, so share the link with all your friends on Facebook, or any social media you have. Or tell other mothers when you’re talking to them. Tune in and listen. Let’s pray.

“Dear Father, we thank You that You’ve put within us the desire to learn and seek after knowledge. We pray You’ll give us that anointing to cultivate that in our own lives, and in the lives of all our children.

“Lord, above everything else, too, oh God, just to teach our precious children, Lord God, to learn of You, to know You, to teach them who You are.

“We pray that every child of every family listening today will have an encounter with You. Lord, that they’ll encounter You, that they’ll come to know You personally as their Savior, as their Lord, as the God Who is real, and Who is near, and Who wants to come and fill their lives. We ask this in the Precious Name of Jesus. Amen”.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 217: The Four L’s of Raising Children, Part 1

Michele Schrum talks with me today about how they raise their children according to the four L's. The first is to LOVE THE LORD. We can't make our children love the Lord, so how can it happen? In what ways can we help them and exemplify this?

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! It’s always so great to be with you. I feel so blessed that I can talk to you, you precious ladies, all over the USA, and all around the world.

It was so wonderful, as my husband and I have been doing an Above Rubies itinerary in England, to meet ladies who say, “I listen to your podcast.” It’s so great to hear of people listening in other countries. I know you are listening in many different countries of the world.

Today I have with me Michele Schrum. Michele and I are going to be sharing together today. But before we do, I want to catch you up with a few things. But I’ll get Michele to say “Hi!”

Michele: Hello, it’s so great to be here and be part of this.

Nancy: So I thought I’d catch you up with what’s been happening in the last few weeks. Colin and I have just got back, after three weeks of being away. We were nearly three weeks in England, speaking at an Above Rubies Family Camp.

Then at different meetings, traveling up throughout the UK. We started down in the south of England in Hampshire. Then we gradually went up, until we got right to the north of England, up in Cumbria. Of course, it was beautiful to travel through that lovely country. And best of all, meeting the wonderful families as we had meetings, and the precious families that we stayed with along the way. It was so wonderful!

I must say “Hi,” to Claire in the bath. Claire told me that she loves to listen to the podcast in the bath because that’s her quiet place where she can be on her own, although she loves being with her four darling little children. They were so beautiful!

I was amazed, as we traveled and had different meetings, to meet lots of new people, but to meet dear old friends. One lady arrived and I said, “Wow! Hello, Margaret! How are you?” And later I asked her, “Margaret, for how many years have you been coming to Above Rubies retreats or meetings?” She said, “Nancy, I first came 24 years ago.” Isn’t that amazing? I can’t believe we’ve been going to England for meetings for that many years.

We stayed with another lovely family, Vicky and Phil Goldby, in their lovely, wonderful home that God has so amazingly provided for them. I actually printed a testimony about how God provided this home for them in Above Rubies.

I met Vicky about 14 years ago. She has been coming to Above Rubies retreats and meetings all through those years. I’ve watched her little children grow. Now they’ve grown into fine young men and women. Now she is having her tenth baby. That was so exciting.

Of course, Chris and Anna Peach, I wonder if you are listening. And their amazing family. We’ve been friends for years. Every time we go to England, we never fail to see them. Of course, I have here, right now I have Emily, who is one of my Above Rubies helpers here. While Emily was here holding the fort, I got to be with her mum and dad and other daughter back in England. Her daughter, Samantha, was an Above Rubies helper too, two times! So, it was lovely to catch up with their parents also.

We got to the end of our meetings, and we had one day, one free day. Our dear friend, Martha, came down from Scotland to pick us up to take us back to Scotland. I thought, “Well, we’ve only got one day together. We’ll have a nice time of catching up on what’s been happening in the last couple of years.”

But no! That was not Martha’s plan at all! She said, “We’ve got a day planned!” The next morning, we set off. She said, “We’re going out to the west coast of Scotland. I’m going to take you to a little island.” Because she knew how much I have longed to go out to the Hebrides, to the islands out in the Hebrides west of Scotland, where there was once a mighty revival through Duncan Campbell. Actually, it started with two women who prayed and prayed. God came mightily and moved.

I’ve always wanted to go out and wondered if I would still feel the lingerings of that revival. We had planned to do that with Martha and Adam, her husband, two years ago. It was all planned, and we also had other meetings, and a big women’s conference in London. But it was all cancelled because of the plandemic. This was the first time we’d been back.

We only had one day, so she said, “We’ll go to one little island.” So, we couldn’t believe it. We thought we’d just drive out to the west of Scotland, not believing how beautiful the scenery was going to be. We drove through the most beautiful hills, and sheep on them, and glorious trees, and forests, and the river flowing by. It was so restful and wonderful!

Then we came to Oban, and then onto a bridge that we had to cross over. It was called “The Bridge across the Atlantic”! Really, ladies, it was only a little bridge, but it did cross the Atlantic. It was just a little part of where the Atlantic came in. We were truly crossing the Atlantic! But that was quite fun to do.

Then we moved on. In a little boat, we went over to this island. It was called Easdale Island. It was a slate island where they used to mine the slate that was used for roofing all over the world. Back in 1881, there was a terrific storm that came. With the high tide and this storm, it completely flooded the island, flooded all the slate mines, so they were never able to mine slate there again.

We were able to walk around the island and see where these slate mines were. Now they were filled with water, and they were beautiful little lakes. It was so lovely. Colin wasn’t able to walk around the island because he’s been on crutches for quite a few months with a very bad knee, although when we left for England, he decided to throw away his crutches.

He went on two walking sticks which wasn’t so cumbersome. He managed to get around everywhere on those. He had to stay behind in the museum, which turned out so great for him, because he found out that way back, going way back to our ancestors, that Duncan Campbell, yes, he had married into another family who owned these mines. Then it became part of the Campbells. He found out that our ancestors actually owned Easdale Island, and some of the other islands around. He thought that was quite great.

That one day was like a month’s holiday. Then we flew home the next day, from Edinburgh, down to Heathrow, caught a plane back to the US. We were home for a day, to find lots of things had happened. We found that somehow, someone had taken the plug out somewhere, and two deep freezers had gone rotten. We lost two deep freezers of food. I had to take hold of that Scripture where it says where they “joyfully took the spoiling of their goods” (Hebrews 10:34).

Then the sceptic tank had overflowed into the house! It’s amazing how all these things happen when we’re away. Oh, and another adventure that happened, they even had a skunk in the office! I’d never even seen a skunk on our property for the 22 years we’ve lived here. Here they had this skunk that they had to try to get out. And you can still smell it! Even since I’ve been home.

As soon as we got home, we had a day at home. Then we flew to San Diego, to our Above Rubies Family Retreat over there where we have been going for many years. Gary and Trish Evans have been organizing these retreats for guess how long? For 24 years! This was our 24^th retreat that they had organized. Such wonderful faithfulness. They have kept going through thick and thin. Many times, quite challenging circumstances happening that would maybe stop them from doing it. But they’ve kept on and we’ve had these wonderful retreats out there for all these years.

Here we are today, back again. As I said, Michele is with me. Michele is now my closest neighbor! They live in an RV right next to our house because they are working on building up on the Hilltop. They’ve got ten acres there and I’ll let Michele tell you all about it.

Michele: Oh, we are so excited! We have ten acres, heavily wooded. My husband and my boys, all of us, have been working on it. We’re so super-excited to be down here. We moved here after seeking the Lord, and praying, and looking for land all over. This is where we ended up. This is where we landed. Nana doesn’t know all the stories while she was gone. There was a mouse. There’s even a mouse story!

Nancy: Oh, no!

Michele: We got it fixed before you came back. A mouse chewed through the air conditioning wire, and the whole air conditioning was out. Randy, my husband, came over, and fixed the wires, once he figured out what it was.

It still wouldn’t work, so we had to call this air conditioning guy out here. It had fried the motherboard, so he had to replace it, and fix it so it wouldn’t happen again. We got all that fixed, and we’ve been catching the mice. It just goes to show, we don’t want you to leave for three weeks again! [laughter]

Nancy: Oh, no! I can’t believe it! The whole place falls apart! But praise the Lord, we had you here to rescue it!

Michele: We put it back together as best we could. Yes, so we’re living in the RV. We have four children still at home. We have seven total. We have a 28-year-old daughter, Taylor, and then a 23-year-old daughter, Callie, who was a Ruby girl here three-and-a-half years ago. A son, Carter, who is 20. Then we have twins that will be 15 in just a couple of weeks. We have Elijah, who will be 11 soon. Then Ruthie, our youngest, is six.

Nancy: We’re so blessed having them here. When you do get built up there on the Hilltop, we’ll so miss you here. The other day, Michele and I were talking about raising family. She said, “Well, we have raised our family on four L’s.” I said, “Oh, that sounds interesting. Tell me what they are.” So, she told me, and I thought, “Oh, wow, I agree with every one of them! Michele, you’ve got to come and tell the ladies on the podcast all about them.”

So, we’re going to start today. We’ll start with the first one. I won’t tell you the others because we’ll keep them a secret until we get onto them. Tell us the first one, Michele.

LOVE THE LORD

Michele: The first one is “love the Lord.” Our job as parents is to teach our children, and equip them, and influence them. Then they get to decide. We can’t make our children love the Lord. But there are things we can do, practical things that we can do for our family, and for our children, to teach them.

Nancy: Yes, I love that you have started with that because that is the very first thing, isn’t it? To love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our might, and with all our strength. That’s our whole being, isn’t it?

To me, and I know Michele feels that same, how can our children love God like this? They’re only going to do it as they see us loving Him. I think our children learn more by seeing than what we teach them, don’t you think? It’s more caught than taught. Our children need to see that we love God. Do they see it in our lives? Do they see that He is the passion of our lives? That He is the pre-eminent One in our homes. He is the pre-eminent One in our lives.

Michele: Yes. That is definitely the number one thing when it comes to teaching your children to love the Lord. It’s to live by example, to give them an example. Children are imitators and we need to give them something great to imitate. They observe everything we do, our actions, and our speech.

Are we loving the Lord with all of our hearts, and our minds, and our strength? If they see that, and they see the joy that comes out of that, and they see God’s blessing that comes out of that, hard times and good times, they’re going to desire that more. I heard a pastor a while back say, “Our children will tend to do what we do in excess, whether it’s good or bad.” Even in mannerisms and the way we say things.

I have a silly little story about my daughter Ruthie, when she was younger. She wasn’t even two years old. I think she talked from the day she was born. She’s always been a talker. We were in the car, driving somewhere, and someone said something silly. We hear from her little car seat, “Oh, my word!”

And I turned around and said, “What?” My husband looked at me and said, “That sounded just like you!” I realized that little phrase I picked up, I would say it if something was silly, or if it was ridiculous, “Oh, my word!” Here is my little one-and-a-half-year-old, saying “Oh, my word” Just the same way I would say it. They are definite imitators.

Nancy: Oh, yes, Scripture says: “As is the mother, so is the daughter” (Ezekiel 16:34). It is so true, isn’t it? I think I shared with you on a recent podcast that passage from Nehemiah 13, where Nehemiah found that there were Jews who had married foreign wives.

He discovered that these children couldn’t even speak the Hebrew tongue. They lived in Jerusalem and couldn’t even speak the language that was their language! They were speaking foreign languages. Why? Because that’s what their mother spoke. They imitated their mothers.

So, our children are going to imitate us and take on the kind of vocab we have. It’s so true. But I was thinking, Michele, that in loving the Lord, it also includes loving His Word, doesn’t it? It’s part of loving the Lord. If we really love Him, we’ll love His Word! We’ll love it like David loved it.

In Psalm 119, that Psalm with 176 verses, ten of those verses, David bursts out and says: “I love thy law. I love thy commandments.”

Verse 167 says: “I love them exceedingly.” Not just love them, but love them “exceedingly,”

He says in verse 127: “I love thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold.”

I wonder if we truly love the Lord and love the Word above fine gold? Does it mean more to us than all the money we can make, and all the material possessions that we want to acquire, and even fill our homes with? I think if we really show to our children where our priorities are, even by the way we plan our days . . .

I’ve often talked with you about this on our podcasts, so forgive me sharing it again. But I do believe it is so important. I have always felt that it is so important for us to gather our families every morning and every evening, to come into the presence of the Lord to listen to His Word, because we love it, and to pray to Him and worship Him because we love Him. We don’t do it, “Oh, this is a duty you’re supposed to do.” But we do it out of passion, because we love Him, and we can’t wait to do it.

In fact, the little time we spend in the morning, and in the evening, out of 24 hours in the day, is the least we can do. I think it’s the least we can do to show, even to our children, that God is number one in our lives. Because this habit of, well, some people call it “Family Devotions,” some “Bible Time,” some “Worship Time,” or whatever you call it in your home. It doesn’t matter, as long as you do it.

But I guess you have found, like everyone finds, it’s easy for it to be crowded out. There are so many things that happen in our lives. We’re so busy, and this happens, and that happens. Oh, wow! We can’t fit it in.

But I have found that the only way I can make sure that I fit it in, is that this is going to happen. It is our habit, and everything else in our plan of the day, everything else in life fits around it. So, THIS IS WHAT WE DO AND EVERYTHING ELSE FITS AROUND IT! Because Who is the most important? Is God the priority in our lives?

And what do our children see? When they see other things, “Oh, well, we don’t have time for family devotions today. Look, we’ve got to go here. We’ve got to do this. Here, this is really, we’ve got to get this done.” They see these things, things that really, we’re not going to take to eternity with us. Things that may seem important.

But where’s the priority? Who is the most important? Is that thing the most important? Is it more important than meeting with the One we love? So, I think this is one of the ways, of many ways, we show our love to the Lord. Because we want to do it.

Michele: Absolutely. And that’s one of the other keys to teaching your children to love the Lord is to remove distractions. Remove the busy-ness. Remove, it could be anything. Anything in this world can be a distraction for it sometimes. Entertainment, relationships that maybe aren’t the greatest. But yes, remove those distractions. You have to put the Lord first.

We expect our children to love Him with all their heart, mind, and soul. We need to, which means He’s first, He’s Number One. Remove the distractions. Our schedule, in our home, revolves around what my husband has sought the Lord after, such as Monday-night prayer meetings, Wednesday-night prayer meetings.

Other things might come up, but my children know that’s what we’re doing, and that’s where they’re expected to be. They can be out fishing with their friends, or working, or doing good things. But when it comes to prayer time, they know they need to be home, and be over here.

Also, we tried to make our time in the Word, we call it “family devos” in our house, family devotions. We try to make it fun. We sing songs, especially when they were younger. Singing silly songs that were just Scripture, even in the car, anything. Make it fun.

We also did family fun nights on most Friday nights. So, our devotion would be more geared towards an activity. But it always had a lesson in God’s Word in it. For example, one of my children’s favorite memories, I’m talking about my older ones when they were little. We were talking about Proverbs, where it talks about controlling your tongue, and words that you speak. There were several different verses around that.

My husband had gone to the Dollar Store and bought every child a tube of toothpaste. We gave them a paper plate and some tools, like Q-tips, some different tools they might need for this activity. He told them all to squirt out the entire tube of toothpaste on their paper plate. So we did, and then he laid, I think it was a $50 bill in the middle of the table.

He said, “Whoever can get all the toothpaste back in the tube, and it’s full, can have this $50.” They were trying everything! Needless to say, nobody got the toothpaste back in the tube. It was all about, once your words are out, you can’t take them back, and how powerful words are. It was an example of one of the fun family nights.

Nancy: Oh, that is a powerful one! I think that would be a good one to try in your family, wouldn’t it? I think you’ll most probably keep the $50! That is amazing. I love that. I think there’s nothing like practical things. That’s how Jesus taught. He taught so practically, didn’t He, about the everyday things of life.

You were talking about prayer, and the priority of prayer, too. I think we’re living in a day where prayer is not really a priority in most homes. Our children grew up with prayer meetings. It was part of their lives. People often think that “Oh, it’s just adults who go to prayer meetings.” But no! The prayer meeting is the most wonderful place for children and for babies. In fact, God wants the whole family to come together.

At so many of our prayer meetings, there are nursing mothers, and little toddlers and children. We have seasons of whoever is there, and they’re different ages. But often Colin will say to the children, “Ok, children, you all pray first, because you’ll most probably be going to sleep.” So, the children will pray, and then it won’t be long before they’ll be going to sleep. It’s so wonderful that they’re sleeping in the presence of the Lord. It’s such a beautiful thing.

But it also shows to our children that God is our priority. We love Him. We long to be in His presence. We love to pray. It’s the same with church on Sunday. Many people go to church because, “OK, that’s what you do.” But no, we go because we love to go. Because what does it say in 1 John 3:14? “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” If we love them, well, we’ll want to be with them, won’t we?

Many times, today it seems that people can make excuses. “Oh, something happens,” or “We’ve got to get this done, so we can’t get to church today.” Or “These people turned up, oh, so we couldn’t come to church.” But I don’t believe that we ever should have one excuse!

Rain, hail, or snow, whatever happens, that is our commitment. There’s something about commitment in life, isn’t there? Commitment to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, but we show it in our actions, and what we do, don’t we? I think one of them, there are so many ways, but I do think that one of them, too, is our commitment to the people of God, our commitment to that weekly gathering.

Did you notice I said “gathering,” because during this last plandemic, there were so many churches that just caved in and stopped church. Of course, they had their Zoom meetings. Now, zoom meetings, they can give a powerful message but they’re not church! They’re a Zoom meeting! They’re not church. Church is the ASSEMBLING OF YOURSELVES TOGETHER! (Hebrews 10:25).  That’s what it’s about. No matter what, that’s what God has told us to do.

Now we see many saints in countries where they’re being persecuted. They are not allowed to meet together, but do they stop? No! They don’t stop, even in the face of persecution! A lot of how we live, what we do, our children see it, and they know whether we truly love God with all our hearts, or whether we really find that all these little interruptions in life are more important.

Michele: Oh, absolutely. And another thing we have to teach our children is obedience. Obedience, people argue, “Well, obedience is not love.” But it’s closely related. In the Old Testament, God gave His people the Ten Commandments, the Law, so He could keep them safe. But also, so they could follow them, to show their love to the Lord. Yes, teaching our children obedience, and how to listen, and how to hear our voice, teaches them how to hear God’s voice. If you don’t have those things, how do we expect them to love the Lord?

Nancy: Yes, I love to look up the different Hebrew words. One of the most common words is for “hear.” Michele was just saying how important it is to learn to hear. I believe, before our children can even obey, they need to learn to hear. Hearing is very important. I think it’s one of the first things that we teach our little children. is how to listen. How to listen.

Jesus said over and over: “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” We can hear sounds, and even people talking with our ears, but are we actually hearing what they are saying? Before our children can learn to obey, they’ve got to learn to hear.

I love to encourage mums, when they’re first teaching their children how to obey, and they tell their little child, perhaps they’re talking to their little girl. They say, “Now, Susie, I want you to pick up your toys.” We have to make sure that she has heard, so we say, “And what did Mommy say?” “Pick up toys.” “OK, now when Mommy says something, you always have to do it straightaway, so OK, can you pick up your toys right now?”

And so, they will respond, and pick them up. We keep doing that as we’re teaching them to obey, so that they’re hearing our voice. We’ll ask them to repeat it, so we know they have heard. If they’ve heard, they must obey immediately. We’re teaching them how to obey right away.

Even as our children get older, it is important to make sure that they hear. It’s no use saying, “Hey, Bobby, can you bring that thing in for me from outside? I need the rubbish bin (“rubbish bin,” you call it the “trash” here0. [laughter] I still say all our New Zealand words. “Bring in that trash can,” and you could be shouting it out. He may not have really heard you. You think he’s in hearing distance, but he could have his mind on something else.

You have to make sure they hear before you can maybe discipline for disobedience. No, because they must hear. But once they hear, we have to teach them that habit of obeying right away.

Michele: We have a saying in our home that goes:

“Slow obedience is no obedience.”

My children have to finish it. If I say, “Slow obedience,” they have to say, “Is no obedience.” And they know what that means!

Back to hearing, something our children will be in the other room. I have a child in the other room, and I might say something. They might not hear my instructions, but they’ve heard my voice. They’re expected, instead of saying, “What?” They’re expected to come and say, “Mom, did you need something? Did you say something?” That is another form of obedience.

Nancy: That is very important, too, teaching them that. Even if they didn’t hear you properly, they come back and find out what it was that you wanted. Yes, that is so good.

I love your phrase, “Slow obedience is no obedience.” That’s so good, because many children will lag to do what you tell them. Hopefully we’ve got them into that habit. When they were little, I always used to say:

“Delayed obedience is disobedience.”

Take either of those slogans, or both of them, into your home. Your children should grow up with those.

Also, I have written here,

“When you children learn to listen, they learn to obey. And when they learn to obey you, they learn to obey God, because we are parenting on behalf of God.”

We have to remember that mothers. Sometimes we sort of forget, really, who we are, and the authority that God has given to us as mothers.

God has given authority to the status of motherhood and fatherhood. It is a powerful status in God’s eyes, because God is ultimately the Father, and even in the fatherhood of God, we see the mother-nurturing heart of God. It all comes from God. Fatherhood comes from God. Motherhood comes from the very heart of God. And so, we are revealing what God is like, and He has given us an authority from Him to parent on His behalf.

Ultimately, our children are His children, so we are parenting them on His behalf. That’s why God says: “Children, obey your parents,” because when they obey us, they are obeying God.

When He says: “Children, honor your parents,” they are honoring God. When they dishonor or disobey, they are dishonoring God Himself.

But I am always, perhaps, challenged or encouraged, in that Scripture in Leviticus 19:2, where it says: “Fear thou thy mother and thy father.” Did you notice something different? In every other place, it says: “Obey thy father and thy mother . . .  Honor thy father and thy mother.” But here, in Leviticus 19:2, it says: “Fear thy mother and thy father.”

God never puts anything haphazardly. Here the mother is mentioned first, which I believe is significant, because we’re with the children all day. By the end of the day, they’re hardly hearing what we’re saying. Sometimes it can all be in a big shambles. Whoo! Father comes in the door, and woof! Everything comes into shape. One word from Dad and look out!

There is something, there is an authority on the father. But God wants a mother to have that authority too. Yes, she has that beautiful, loving, gentle, nurturing bond with her children. But God has also given her an anointing of authority that her children should even have an awe of her, because they must know that even Mother is parenting on behalf of God. That’s quite amazing, isn’t it? It really is.

Michele: Absolutely. There’s another aspect I don’t want to leave out. Teaching your children to love the Lord is testifying, to remember. The word “testify” means “to remember what the Lord has done.” So, remember the family.

But then your children, your children can hear from God, just like they learn at a small age to hear your voice. They will learn to hear God’s voice if we cultivate that in our lives. As they learn to hear God’s voice, and they see God doing things in their lives, or your family’s life, give them opportunities to testify and remember.

One of the things we had in our home before we sold it, now it’s in a storage box, so it’ll go back up some day. We had a remembrance wall. It was a wall full of all these different little trinkets, and some pictures, just odds and ends. People would walk in and see it, and they would be like, “What is that?”

It gave us and our children the opportunity to testify. Everything represented something God did for us, in our family, something significant that we wanted to remember and thank God for. There was everything from seashells to pinecones, you name it, a nail. But they all had a story of how either God provided, or God came through, or this amazing opportunity we had from the Lord.

We encouraged our children to participate in that. There were some things significant to them. They found the trinket and put it up there. They were able to testify. But you don’t have to have a remembrance wall to do that. Just get your children talking. If they can go back and teach what they’ve learned, or what God has showed them, then they’re going to remember so much more.

Corrie Ten Boom once said, “The best learning I had came from teaching.” That is, I’ve noticed, significant in my boys. I loved during the prayer meeting, when some of the gentlemen here will call out my young men and say, “What’s on your heart? What does God have on your heart today?” It was amazing, because God can speak to them, and it challenges them.

It reminds me of some of my early morning walks with Nancy’s daughter, Vange. She comes over, many mornings of the week, at 6 am. She tried 5:30, and I pushed it back to 6. We go on these early morning hikes. One of the first things she asks me almost every day is “What has the Lord revealed to you this morning?” I’m like, “This is weird! I just rolled out of bed! I may or may not have brushed my teeth.”

But it challenges me. I have to stop for a second, like, “Yes! Yes!” Because God is always speaking, and He’s always revealing Himself. We have to open our ears and listen, be willing to hear, hear from the Lord.

Nancy: Oh, yes. I just want to reiterate there, as we’re closing this session, how I love seeing your boys in the prayer meeting. Here they are, just 14-year-old boys, but they are into prayer! It is so wonderful! And they are into the Word of God! Most prayer meetings they will have a little Scripture that they will voluntarily read out.

Why are they like this? Because they see this passion to pray and love the Word in their parents. They have got it too. It’s so beautiful. I believe we pass it on, don’t we? I’ve always had such a love for the Word of God, just to receive from His Word, always getting revelations. Now, it just passes on down the family. Anyway, time has gone, so let’s pray.

“Dear Father, we thank You that we love You, because You first loved us. Oh, Father, we ask that You will do something in our hearts. Help us to love You more, to love You, Lord, with all our mind, and all our soul, and all our heart, and all our strength. Yes, that means with all our actions.

“Oh, Father, I pray that You will bless every precious mother and wife, and daughter, and whoever else is listening, Lord, that we will all love You passionately, seek after You, love Your Word, love to pray, love being in Your presence. Oh, God, just help us, that we will not be distracted so much by all the material things of this world, but we will seek after You with all our hearts. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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If you have a moment, it would be lovely if you could email a little thank you letter to Darlene. She sacrifices much of her time to transcribe these podcasts for you and I know it would encourage her to know that you are blessed by her hard work. Thanks so much.

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 216: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 27

Have you heard of the Georgia Guidestones? And did you hear that they are now wiped out? Listen to the story.

In this podcast I also share with you the last four descriptions of the land of motherhood. The last one is the greatest of all. It is the GLORY OF ALL LANDS! After hearing these 20 descriptions, you are certainly going to know that God has brought you into a BLESSED land. God calls motherhood an "exalted" career.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! It’s “Good Morning” as I am sharing with you. Not sure what it will be where you are, wherever you are in the world. It’s so great to know that mothers and wives are listening all over the world. I’m so blessed to be able to chat with you.

Oh, I must tell you about a great victory we had recently. I wonder if you have ever heard of the Georgia Guidestones. I heard about them, but I didn’t know a great deal. These are huge, massive granite stones about 19 feet high that were built out in the middle of nowhere. Elbert Country, about 90 miles from Atlanta.

They have been sitting out there for about 40 years. Nobody knows who organized their construction. It was all secret. Although many have their ideas, no one knows, but it has to be someone or some people who belong to the New World Order, because on these huge granite stones were written, not God’s Ten Commandments, but the ten commandments of the New World Order. Because each one was revealing the agenda of the New World Order.

They were written in eight different languages. On the tablet in front of the stones was written, “Let these be guidestones for an age of reason.” The first inscription, just the first one, oh, goodness me! That was enough to scare you off. It says, or did say, “Maintain humanity under 500 million.”

Let’s put that in perspective. The current population of the world is 7.795 billion. That’s nearly eight billion. To bring it down to their 500 million, they would have to wipe out nearly 90% of the world’s population. It would have to be an orchestrated and planned genocide like nothing we could ever, ever dream about. Those words have stood there for the last 40 years! Absolutely against civilization, and against God. They have stood there, written in defiance of God’s plan.

Well, a few weeks ago, we had a friend staying with us, Gary Evans. Gary and Trish Evans have put on Above Rubies retreats in California, mainly in San Diego, for the last nearly 25 years. They have been so faithful in this ministry. Actually, we are having another retreat this year in San Diego. We weren’t able to the last two years because of the plandemic. But we’re back again this year. The first week of August. Check the website. If you’d like to get in on that, it would be so great to see you.

Anyway, Gary was doing a round trip. all the way from California, meeting up with different people as he went. While he was here, he said, “I thought on my heart to go and see the Georgia Guidestones.” We were talking about it, and how they were revealing this whole new world agenda. But he said . . . (Oh, we were having a prayer meeting. We have two prayer meetings a week here in our home).

At our first prayer meeting, he said, “Will you pray with me? I have such a burden upon my heart to pray that these guidestones, these great big, huge, mammoth granite rocks, with all this junk written on them, will come crashing down. Let’s pray that an earthquake, or an explosion, or something will happen.”

Of course, we all felt, yes, that they should not be standing there. How dare they stand there, in defiance of God? We all began to pray. We began to really home in, and pray against these guidestones, and against the spirit behind them. We prayed that God would do something supernatural and mighty, an earthquake would come, or an explosion. Somehow God would do something to wipe them out, and bring them down, flat on their faces.

Well, you know you pray, and you pray up a storm. And then, just three weeks later, we woke up one morning to see a video, this explosion of the Georgia Guidestones! It was amazing! You pray these things, and then you actually see them happening? It is so incredible!

I do believe that God burdened our hearts to pray about this that night. We didn’t only pray that night. Now that the burden was upon us, we kept praying. Not only at our prayer meetings, but at our family devotions where we pray each morning and each evening. It was so amazing to see the answer to our prayers. I’m sure that many others have prayed against these guidestones, so-called guidestones of a humanistic order.

But they have come down! You can go online, and you can see the explosion! There were actually two explosions. At the moment, to this day, no one knows who did it or how it happened.

We believe God answered prayer. Dear ladies, our God is a prayer-answering God. He is a mighty God. Prayer is powerful. This was so encouraging to us, especially coming on the wave of the overturn of Roe v Wade. You pray for years for things, and it's so wonderful when we see these victories. I would encourage you too.

PRAYING FAMILIES

I’ve often asked the question, “Are you praying in your home? Are you praying as a family, morning and evening as you gather your family together? Do you even have a prayer meeting in your home to pray for the nation and the nations of the world?” You know, we as families, as we are praying families, we can be impacting this nation and the world. The most powerful thing you can do as a family is to be a praying family.

WARFARE PRAYING

We love to pray the Scriptures. We have so many different Scriptures in our prayer boxes for different subjects. One of them, our favorite, is Proverbs 75:10: “All the horns of the wicked will I cut off. But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted” Here God is saying that He will cut off the horns of the wicked.

The horns on an animal are where an animal gores other animals, where he will go after them. He goes after them with his horns. They are where they push back the enemy. The horns speak of power and authority and pushing back the enemy.

Of course, the wicked have horns too, and they are pushing their evil upon civilization. But God has given us power also. He has given us the power of prayer and the power of warfare prayer, where we can push back evil, push back our enemies that are against God and His truth, and His righteousness. We can have lovely prayers, but there are also warfare prayers, where we must get into warfare, and we must use our horns.

On the altar of incense in the tabernacle, which speaks of prayer and worship, are four horns, one on each corner, speaking of the power and authority in prayer, and how it can go out to the four corners of the world. We have power to pray right to the four corners of the world! J

Jeremiah 48:25: “The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, saith the Lord.” We can pray these prayers. They’re Scriptures! They’re the word of God. They have power. We can pray that the enemy will be cut off, that his horns will be broken.

I love praying these prayers, too.

Psalm 64:8: “So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves.”

Psalm 140:11: “Let not an evil speaker be established in the land.” These Scriptures are the word of God! We can pray them! Because they are anointed, and they can become anointed prayers against the enemy.

Oh, and so many other Scriptures, great to pray the Scriptures! Oh, yes, I love those Scriptures that David prayed many times, that his enemies would fall into the pit that they are digging for the righteous. And the enemy today, there is a very vile enemy from the pit of hell, where Satan is stirring up evil people too, and they’re making pits. They’re digging pits for the righteous, for those who love God.

But we can pray this biblical prayer. And this prayer, we read it seven different times in the word of God. And then also, another prayer he prayed is that his enemies would fall into the same net they are preparing to catch us. This prayer was prayed five times in the Bible.

We can take up these prayers that David prayed. We’re not praying against flesh and blood. We’re praying against principalities and powers. But we can use the Word of God. I want to encourage you about that today and share that amazing victory with you.

We are now praying that if they would seek to set those guidestones up again, we’re praying against it, that everything will go wrong, that they will not ever be able to put them up again. And that the agenda of reducing drastically the population of the world will not be put out there for the whole world to see. Amen?

Well, ladies, let’s continue. We’re getting down to the end of our journey through the land of motherhood. I’m wondering if I can finish the last points today. We’ll see how we go.

Last week we were talking about, IT IS A LAND OF REST. Just one or two more Scriptures there.

Isaiah 30:15: “For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; in returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.” It’s amazing how God gives promises. Then we read at the end, “But they would not.” You know, God gives the way to live in rest. But we have to choose to obey Him. I think about here, where it says: “in returning and rest you will be saved.”

In Malachi 3:7, it talks about returning to the Lord. Now returning back to the Lord is not just some emotional thing. Oh, you’re in a meeting and you feel stirred up. “Yes, I will, once again, I’ll give my whole life to God.” It’s all very emotional.

No, returning is OK. It’s an actual practical thing where you return to obeying God’s laws and commandments and ordinances. In Malachi 3:7, God says: “Even from the days of your fathers, ye have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.” Returning is always returning back to God’s ordinances, God’s laws, God’s commandments.

In Malachi 4:4-6, in that wonderful promise where God says that He will turn the hearts of the fathers (that includes the mothers), the turning back to our children, the turning back to the home, the turning back to fatherhood, the turning back to motherhood. That turning there, it means to go back to the starting point. If we’ve got away from it, we come back to the starting point, to the mandate God gave in the very beginning.

Jeremiah 6:16: “Thus saith the LORD, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." But once again, “they said, We will not.” Can you believe it? Oh, so many don’t want the old paths. They don’t want the biblical paths. Oh, they’re in the new paths! They’re in the humanistic paths. We are surrounded in our society with humanistic laws and ordinances.

Did you know, precious ladies, yes, God has commandments, laws, ordinances, but the enemy does too. The kingdom of darkness does too. I haven’t got the Scriptures with me today. I was just reading them the other day about how the evil world, they also have their ordinances and their laws. Whatever kingdom you are in, you’re going to keep those laws and ordinances.

Where is the good way? It’s the old way. It’s God’s truth, which was true from the beginning, and will be true for eternity. You can’t get away from it. In that you will find “rest for your souls.” But we have to go that way. We don’t want to be like those in Jeremiah’s time that said, “No, no thanks, we don’t want to do that.”

Oh, I love Hosea 11:11. In the Knox Translation, it says: “In their own home, saith the Lord, I will give them rest.” A lot of mothers don’t have rest today. They feel overwhelmed. Sometimes their stomachs are tied up in a knot. They’re just, “Oooh.” And life is one big sort of whiz from one thing to the other. They’re not living in rest.

Often, it’s because they are doing too many things outside their home. God says: “In their own homes, I will give them rest.” This is where God gives rest. It’s not out of the home. It’s in the home. We can get involved in so many things, often good things. Oh yes, very, very good things.

In fact, sometimes we’re screaming around everywhere, running our children to this, running our children here, there, everywhere. This class, this sport, this lesson. Oh, my! And they’re all good. Oh, every one of them is good! Yes! That’s why you’re doing it! Because you only want to do good things. But even good things can get you out of rest. Even good things are not the best things. We’ve got to find the best way. And God’s way says: “In your own homes, says the Lord, I will give you rest.”

OK, next one!

No. 17. IT IS A LAND OF OBEDIENCE

Isaiah 1:19: “If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.” It’s when we are in obedience. Let me give you just a few Scriptures. I won’t give you all of them, because, oh, we have so many Scriptures. But I’ll put all the “to do” Scriptures in the transcript.

Let’s just look at one or two here. Deuteronomy 4:5: “Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do so in the land whither you go to possess it.” So, in our land, in the land of the kingdom of God, in the land of motherhood, God wants us to do the commandments He has given to us.

He said this over and over and over again about the land. “When you go into the land, I want you to do My commandments. I want you to keep them.”

Deuteronomy 4:6: “Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?”

Let’s go to the next chapter, 5:1: “And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.”

Let’s go over to Deuteronomy 28 which is the blessing chapter. Deuteronomy 28:1: “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth.”

And then it goes right on, right down to verse 14, giving you all the blessings that God said He would give to them when they went into the land, if they would be obedient to His commands. So, it goes on. I’ll put all the Scriptures in the transcript. There are so many of them.

No. 18: IT IS A LAND OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

 Psalm 37:29: “The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell therein forever.”

Proverbs 2:22: “For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.”

In the land of the kingdom of God, remember what the New Testament says: “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Romans 14:17).

Also, in the land of motherhood, it’s a land of righteousness. As we walk in righteousness, we will receive the blessings of the land.

No. 19. THE LAND IS A GIFT

We’re getting close to the end! It is a land that is given to us. It is a gift. Oh, ladies, did you know that in Deuteronomy, nearly 70 times God reminds the children of Israel that He gave the land to them as a gift. Now, as we are relating our motherhood to the land, we are reminded too that God gives motherhood to us as a gift.

MOTHERHOOD IS GOD’S GIFT TO YOU

Dear ladies, motherhood is God’s gift to you. He has given it to you. It’s not something you planned out yourself. God planned this glorious career of motherhood. He even created us perfectly for the task. He created us physically, innately. In every way He prepared us for the beautiful career of motherhood.

He said, “Here, this is My gift. And the children I give to you, they are My gift to you.” They are all gifts from God. Yes, children are His gift. Motherhood is His gift. I want you to be reminded today to see motherhood as God’s gift to you.

Oh, it’s so sad, to hear so many mothers complaining, whining, groaning, about their motherhood. And yet, it’s God’s gift! Oh, when we understand that, we’re going to stop moaning and whining, I hope!

Anyway, here’s a few Scriptures about how God says the land was a gift. Firstly, to Abraham: “I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldee to give thee this land to inherit it.” (Genesis 15:7)

Leviticus 25:38: “I am the Lord your God which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.”

Deuteronomy 1:25. The spies confessed after they had been through the land: “It is a good land that the Lord our God doth give us.”

Oh, that’s a Scripture that we should make our confession, dear ladies. Motherhood is a good land that God has given to us. You can make it personal.

“Motherhood is the good land God has given to me.”

We need to speak these words out loud. When we speak them out loud, they become part of us. This is the Scripture, and this is the truth. Motherhood is a good land and it’s God’s gift to you.

In Deuteronomy 19:7-9, God said that He would give them more land if they obeyed His commandments, to do them. Actually, even today, Israel doesn’t have all the land that God promised to them. One day they will have that, but they don’t have it all together at the moment.

MORE AND MORE

For us, too, in the land of motherhood, God says, “I will give you more land as you obey My commandments, and you embrace your motherhood.” God is a MORE AND MORE God. He is always wanting to give us more.

As I have mentioned before, one of my favorite Scriptures is Proverbs 4:18: “But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” In every realm, in every way, God is always wanting to give us more. In the land of motherhood, there is more. Do you think you’ve got it all now? No, there is more!

Now, I am past my days of mothering our children. I have many, many grandchildren now. They have all grown. And now I have great-grandchildren. Even today, every once a week, my lovely granddaughters bring their little children along, their little toddlers and growing little ones. They play soccer together on the front lawn. It’s so gorgeous to see them. Half of them don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s such fun.

Here I am, seeing now great-grandchildren. But do I know all of motherhood yet? No. There’s still more. I’m still seeing more in the Word of God as I read His Word. God continues to give me more revelation, even at this time in my life.

I’m so sad when I would hear from some mums. They have received Above Rubies for many, many years. Now their children have grown, and they’ll send a little message to me and say, “Thank you, Nancy. I have so enjoyed Above Rubies over the years as I’ve been raising my children. My children are grown now. I don’t need it anymore.”

I think, “Help! You don’t need it anymore? I still need it!” I am a mother! My motherhood didn’t stop when my children grew up because this is who I am! God created me a mother. I had all that mothering instinct in me from a little child. I still have it today and I am a mother until I meet Jesus!

It’s who He created me to be, and my mothering is only to extend, and to be more and more. God promises us He will give us more. He will make it more and more, so don’t settle for what you’ve got! Believe for more and more, for greater, greater things! And an enlargement, and more understanding, and revelation, and joy, and blessing in your motherhood! Amen?

Let’s see what I’ve got here. Deuteronomy 11:21: “That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.” That’s what God wants for us in the land, in our land of motherhood, that our days will be as heaven upon the earth.

Deuteronomy 15:4: “For the Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it.” And once again, I’ll give you these nearly 70 Scriptures in the transcript, because that would take a little bit too long to give them to you here.

And now, lovely ladies, as we close today, number 20! The last point in this incredible journey of the land of motherhood. And the last point . . .

No. 20. IT IS THE GLORY OF ALL LANDS

Wow, that’s an amazing point to end on, isn’t it? Ezekiel 20:6 & 15. You can read it there. The land is called “the glory of all lands.”

We go to Hosea 9:11. In this Scripture, God talks about motherhood as the glory of the nation. It’s actually a Scripture of judgment. God is coming to Ephraim to judge them because they had turned away from the Lord. He has had patience, and patience, and patience. But they have kept turning away from Him. Now He says: “As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird.”

What is their glory? No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception. In other words, God says that birth, conception, and pregnancy are the glory of the nation. When God’s judgment was upon them, He said, “I’m going to take away your glory.” That was to take away the blessing of conception, pregnancy, and giving birth to children. This is the glory of the nation, the glory of motherhood.

I have done lots of podcasts on THE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD. You can go to my webpage, and you can check the podcasts. Or you can check the transcripts. Just go down until you see the word “glory.” I have done quite a few series on THE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD, and THE GLORY OF MOTHERHOOD. You can catch up on those if you didn’t get to hear them.

In Daniel 8:9 and Daniel 11:16 & 41, again the Bible calls the land that God gave His people, it was called “the glorious land.” God intends our motherhood, this land of motherhood, to also be a glorious land.

I know, darling ladies, that many times you don’t feel as though it’s glory. Oh goodness, you feel it’s the opposite. Oh, yes. True, it’s not always easy, and it can be a mess, and it can be challenging, and it can be overwhelming. But you know what? It is still the glory. It is the glory. It all depends on our understanding of truth, and our confession.

I have shared with you now 20 descriptions of the land. Every one of them has been amazing. Now, we’re culminating on, “it is the glory of all lands.” It is the glory of all careers. It is exalted above every other career.

Let me just finish with Ezekiel 19. In this passage, God is giving a picture, an allegory about Judah. But he likens Judah to a mother. In Ezekiel 19:10, it says: “Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.” A similar picture to Psalm 128:3 of the mother being “a fruitful branch, a fruitful vine” in the heart of her home.

MOTHERHOOD IS EXALTED

Ezekiel 19:11: “And she had strong rods for the scepters of them that bare rule,” talking about her sons and daughters growing up to be strong in God. “And her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.” Here God pictures her, He pictures her as a mother, exalted.

The word in the Hebrew means, “to soar to a great height.” That’s how God sees motherhood. That’s how He want you to see it. All the world tells you it’s nothing. It’s just down in the pits. Oh, you know, you’ve got better things to do.

No, that’s the world telling you that. Do you believe this humanistic jargon? Or do you believe God’s Word? God’s Word says that motherhood is exalted far above, higher than every other career in the nation, because it is the most impacting, the most influential. We as mothers determine the next generation. Therefore, we determine the future, the destiny of the nation! Be encouraged, dear mother. Embrace your land of motherhood with all your heart. Embrace it in all its glory.

We did it! Twenty descriptions. But guess what? I haven’t finished yet, because now we’ve got to move on. Next time, we’ll find out what we have to do in the land. There are ten different things that God has spoken about what we’re to do in this land of motherhood. So, we will be going on to them, and continuing. But we’re closing now. May the Lord bless you with all of His blessings.

“Dear Father, oh, I pray that every young daughter, older daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, will receive the blessing of Your truth and Your revelation today. I pray that You’ll bring them into the glory of motherhood. I pray that you’ll bring them into the revelation that You have exalted the career of motherhood. Because you have exalted it, we know the enemy wants to deflate it and minimize it. But, Lord, we do not listen to his lies. We receive Your truth, that it is an exalted career, and You want us to soar to great heights. You want us, Lord, to be those who will rise up, rise up to be who You created us to be. Rise up in the power and the anointing of motherhood! To impact our family and our society and ultimately, our nation. We ask this in the precious 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.

If you have a moment, it would be lovely if you could email a little thank you letter to Darlene. She sacrifices much of her time to transcribe these podcasts for you and I know it would encourage her to know that you are blessed by her hard work. Thanks so much.

SCRIPTURES TELLING US TO OBEY AND DO HIS COMMANDMENTS IN THE LAND:

Deuteronomy 4:14; 5:31-31-33; 6:1-3; 6-9; 7:11-16; 8:1, 6, 7, 11; 10:13; 11:1, 8, 13, 22, 26-28, 32; 12:1-3, 32; 13:18; 15:5, 7; 19:9; 26:16, 17, 18; 27:1, 1;0, 26; 28”1. 2. 9, 13-15, 58, 59; 29:9, 29; 30:8, 10-14, 16; and 32:46, 47.

SCRIPTURES TELLING US THE LAND IS A GIFT:

Deuteronomy 1:8, 20, 25, 35, 39; 2:29; 3:12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20; 4:1, 21, 38, 40; 5:16; 6:10-12, 23; 7:13; 9:6; 8:10, 23; 10:11; 11:9, 17, 21, 31; 12:1, 9, 10; 15:4, 7; 16:20; 18:9; 19:1-3, 8, 10, 14, 21:1, 23; 24:4; 25:15, 19; 26:1-3, 9, 15; 27:2, 3; 28:8, 11, 52; 30:20; 31:7; 32:49; 34:4,52; Joshua 24:15; and Jeremiah 16:15.