FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 56 - How Can We Change the World- Part 22

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, I do hope that you are having a wonderful day, or maybe a wonderful evening. We are continuing the adjectives that I have found about the way that God wants us to work. We are up to number 22.

No. 22. WITHOUT GRUMBLING AND COMPLAINING

He wants us to work without grumbling and complaining. We all know that of course, don’t we? But often we still grumble and complain. Oh my, we have to be encouraged about this, don’t we?

I think of the children of Israel back in the wilderness, when God brought them out of Egypt with a mighty, miraculous hand and showed forth His power and might. I don’t think there have ever been such miracles as the bringing of the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, how God parted the sea and brought them through and then for 40 years they wandered in the wilderness.

They could have gotten into the land much quicker, but they really just weren’t ready. God really had to work in their hearts. In fact, He had to get Egypt out of their hearts before they were ready to go into the Promised Land.

The Bible says that He tempted them ten times, but every time they failed and most of the temptations ended with all the children of Israel grumbling and complaining instead of trusting God. They had seen His miracles, they had seen His power, but they still didn’t know how to trust Him. They grumbled and they complained. They grumbled because they didn’t have enough food.

In the end God just blessed them and gave them manna every day, six days a week for forty years. Until they got into the Promised Land, God faithfully provided. They saw so many miracles in the wilderness.

Isn’t it amazing, ladies, it’s so challenging to me that of all those millions who came into the wilderness, of that generation that came in, only two went into the Promised Land? I mean, they were saved through the blood. They put the blood upon the doors, the type of salvation. They were saved through the blood, they came through the water, and they had the pillar of fire above them by night and the pillar of cloud by day. They received miraculous miracles continually. And yet, only two got in—only two.

And what stopped them? Their unbelief, grumbling, and complaining. I think we see this in 1 Corinthians 10:1-11: “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written. . . Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed. . . Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

Everything that happened in the Old Testament, every story about every person (we all know the stories), but all the stories, all the things that happened, and every word that was written, it’s all written for an example. It’s all a type for us to learn from.

So God says, I want you to learn from those who murmured and grumbled. We do have to watch that, don’t we?

Philippians 2:14-15 says: “Do all things without murmurings and disputings [or some translations say “without grumbling and complaining”] That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.”

When we do things without grumbling, we shine as a light. That’s how we’re to do our work and how we are to teach our children to work too. If they see us doing it with joy, and we’re not going around the place grumbling and complaining, we’re showing them the example. We’re showing them the way.

Not only are these attitudes for us, they are for us to teach our children. So we teach them a good work ethic. These 25 adjectives are adjectives we need to put in our children.

We can give them these as they grow up and our sons get out there to provide for their families and get into their careers. If they have these attitudes, they will be successful. It’s not really how many degrees you have.

I have talked to men of recent times, CEO’s of companies, and they have told me that these days they are not looking so much for those who have degrees, but those who have intelligence, a good work ethic, and a good attitude to learn.

They said, “We can teach someone with a good attitude, a quick mind, and a good work ethic the way we want it done. They can learn pretty quickly and do better than someone who comes with all their degrees and thinks they know it all, but don’t have a good attitude or a good work ethic.”

They find a lot of these college students come out and don’t have a good attitude and are not a blessing to the company at all. Of course, if they have a degree, the good attitude, and a good work ethic, they will be a very good asset to the company. But without the good attitude and the good work ethic, they’re not going to be much of a blessing, nor are they going to be very successful themselves.

So these are wonderful things for life. These are the things that help make our home run smoothly with joy and blessing. This is the way we are preparing our children for life.

I think today we have too many lazy young people who don’t know how to work. They may know how to study, have gone to college, but they don’t know how to work in their home.

I know teens who don’t even know how to do dishes! Help! They don’t know how to do the dishes! What I mean is how to do them properly. You give them the job and it takes them so long to do it and they don’t really know the way you’re meant to do it—Okay, let’s get these dishes all rinsed and put here. Now we’re going to wash them, then we’re going to put them into the rinsing, then we’ll put them here to dry! We can do it in order and get it done!

They’ve just got it all in a mess, dishes are all over the place.

My, when I do the dishes, I’ve usually got all of the plates, maybe we’ve had 13 or 14 people around the table, I have them all washed and rinsed by the time the hot water has even got into the sink.

We need to teach our children how to work with a good work ethic, with all these attitudes we’ve been talking about.

No. 23. WITHOUT SEEKING RECOGNITION

Ephesians 6:6 says: “Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ. . ..”

When we work, we’re not doing it just to please people. Although, I think as a wife and mother we do. I want to please my husband. I want to please my children. I want to do it for the blessing of my home. But ultimately, we’re doing it for God. If we get that attitude, that’s a good one—we’re doing it for God. He, ultimately, is the One Who is looking on. He is beholding.

Now sometimes your husband may not give you any compliments. He may not say, “Oh, you’re doing such a wonderful job. I’m so grateful to you for the way you’re teaching our children and caring for them.” That would be so wonderful. If husbands are listening, I hope you do that.

But dear, lovely, precious wives and mothers, if your husband doesn’t know how to give compliments, remember, you’re still doing it as “unto the Lord” and He will bless you. The Word of God says that He will reward every good work.

That is found in Ephesians 6:8 and comes after these attitudes: ^“Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever good thing [Good thing! Did you get that? GOOD THING!] any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord. . ..”

Listen to that again, precious mothers: “Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord.” Any good thing you do does not go unnoticed by God.

Oh yes, it will go unnoticed many times by man. It may go unnoticed by your husband. It may go unnoticed by your children. But it won’t go unnoticed by God. And He says that every good thing you do, He’s going to give you a reward. You’re going to receive the same.

Now, you as a mother and a wife are doing a good thing. In Titus chapter two where it speaks to the older women to teach to the younger women, what does it tell them to teach them? Do you remember? It tells them to teach them “good things.”

And what are these good things? It then enumerates them: To love our husbands, to be obedient to our husbands, to love our children, to be a keeper of our home, to be chaste, pure, and good. These are good things.

In fact the word in the Greek is kalodidaskalos. Didaskalos means “to teach” and kalos means, not only good, it means “beautiful.” It’s more than good. It’s beautiful.

These works that you are doing in your home, to love your husband, to love your children, to love keeping your home—it’s a beautiful work, beautiful! Did you get that, dear wife and mother? It’s beautiful.

God says when you embrace this and when you do it as unto Me, you do this good thing, you’re going to receive the same reward. You’re going to receive a good reward. Do you love that?

We see that again in 1 Timothy 5:10 where it’s talking about the woman and it says she is “well reported of for good works.” Once again, GOOD WORKS.

And what is the first good works that it says? That she has raised and brought up children. The work there is teknotropheō. Teknon means “child” and trephō meaning “to feed, to nourish, to nourish with food.”

So it’s speaking of a woman, first as a baby comes to her, she nourishes her babe at her breast. But then as the children grow, she’s still a nourisher as she nourishes them with food, cooks meals for them and the bigger they get, the bigger the meals she has to cook.

She is always nourishing them. She’s not only nourishing them physically, but spiritually as well, as she nourishes them with the Word of God, and she nourishes them with food. There we see it: wonderful, beautiful, good works.

And so you don’t forget, here’s the promise again: “Knowing that whatsoever good thing [and these are all good works that you are doing] any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord. . ..” Isn’t that wonderful?

I hope your husband blesses you; but if he doesn’t, don’t despair. God is beholding. God is going to reward you for these good works you do in your home.

No. 24. WITHOUT GETTING WEARY

Well, we all get weary, don’t we? I know it’s not a little thing to watch, to care for and to look after your children, your little ones, and then getting to your bigger ones.

It’s a big task and it can be wearying. Especially when they are little and often you have to get up at night to a sick child, and oh my, you just feel so wearied and worn out in the morning. That can happen because there are always times when we’re facing something with our children.

Then you may have a new baby and the baby is wanting to nurse at night. But dear precious mother, can I encourage you to take your baby to bed with you and nurse your baby in bed? You will find that this is so much easier for you.

I found this out along the way. My first babies I didn’t do that. I woke in the night, I sat up with them, fed them, and it was so wearying. Oh my! Then I learned that you could take your baby to bed with you. At first, I was very concerned because I also heard the old wives’ tales, “Oh, you could lie on your baby, you could suffocate your baby and you better not do that.” I know hospital staff even say this today.

But dear ladies, this is not true. You can nurse your baby safely in bed if you learn to do it the right way. Sometimes it needs a little bit of practice. You have to practice everything to do it the right way.

I always nursed my baby on my side of the bed, never had the baby between us because I felt that would be dangerous. If you are a mother, you’re not on drugs, you’re not a half-witted mother, but if you’re a concerned, loving mother, you can learn to do this the right way and you can learn to do it safely.

So you can bring your baby into bed, nurse your baby and you’ll go off to sleep. If you’re holding the baby securely and the right way your baby will continue to nurse off and on all night.

Sometimes, my husband, when he’d wake in the morning, he would say, “Well, did the baby wake?” and I would say, “Oh yes, here’s the baby in my arms.” But really, I’d had a good night’s sleep. My baby was so happy, instead of screaming in a little cot all on its own, screaming for Mummy and I’d get up feed the baby, then put the baby down. But the baby screams because it doesn’t want to leave Mummy.

And so you have these terrible, sleepless nights. Sometimes you’ll have a wonderful husband who will say, “Let me take the baby.” He’ll be pacing the baby around, walking with the baby and trying to get the baby to sleep. But you won’t be sleeping, neither will he, and it’s all ridiculous because all you need to do is bring the baby to bed and nurse the baby. That’s what your baby wants. He wants to be near you, he wants to be next to your skin. He just wants to nurse on and off throughout the night. That is normal for a breastfed baby.

A breastfed baby can’t last throughout the night. Breast milk has a soft curd and it digests quickly and the baby is ready to nurse again. It’s not like a formula that forms the hard curd in the baby’s stomach and the baby can last longer. But that’s not how it’s meant to be. The baby needs that constant nursing and constant sucking, but you can still have that beautiful night’s rest. Isn’t that so good?

Oh, I wish I’d had that with my first baby. I wish I’d had Nancy Campbell come and tell me. But I had to learn by experience and so I pass that on to you.

We do have to watch because sometimes we can let ourselves get too weary by not doing what is right. Sometimes we don’t get to bed on time. We stay up later and later, then feel weary the next day.

I believe, mothers, that we need to prepare ourselves for the next day. We have a big challenge, it’s a big job, to care for our children, manage our home, get everything done throughout the day and cook the meals. There is much to be done and so we have to prepare for the next day by getting a good sleep, going to bed at a reasonable hour.

My mother, who has now passed away many years ago, she used to say, “The hours of sleep before midnight are the best hours of sleep.”

I used to think that was an old wives’ tale and I used to try and squeeze out every little bit I could get out of the day. Even when I was a mother and as I started Above Rubies, I used to go down to the office at night and I had to keep going until I couldn’t keep my eyes open one minute longer. Then I would think, “Okay, now I deserve bed.”

But that was the wrong way to live, completely the wrong way. I had to learn that by experience because that is not good for your health. The old wives’ tale is now scientifically proved.

In fact, I was just reading yesterday a scientific article, which stated that every hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours of sleep after midnight. In fact, after about nine or ten pm your cortisol is starting to click in and that’s a negative against you.

Instead, if we go to bed at a reasonable hour, the serotonin, the good hormones are kicking in and the growth hormones, which are good for children too, and even adults.

We need that. They have done studies to find that a woman who has five hours or less sleep a night, her percentage for breast cancer goes up about 48%. Interestingly, if she has nine hours or more, her risk for breast cancer also goes up about 38%.

It’s interesting because it’s not just, “Oh, well, I can sleep for ever.” No, too much sleep is not good either. But too little is really negative for your body.

They say that a person should get an average of seven to eight hours every night. That is good for your body and especially don’t keep it too late. Start those hours before midnight. I know it can be a temptation, can’t it?

I remember a dear friend of mine. She was running a home school Facebook group and she said to me, “Oh, Nancy, it is so noticeable. At ten o’clock at night is when the Facebook group comes alive.”

During the day hardly anybody is on. They’re with their children and life is busy. Then they have the evening meal, dishes are done, children get to bed and then ten o’clock— “Oh! This is my time! I can get on social media, on Facebook, Instagram, or whatever she likes to get on.”

This woman told me that this homeschooling Facebook group got really humming. But all these mothers were still up. Yes, they were just getting started because when you get on Facebook, then you go to this and then you go to that and it can just keep going on and on. Sometimes it gets to midnight!

And so you’re being deprived of those hours of sleep before midnight. You’re being deprived of your health, refreshing, and your beauty. Yes, even your beauty is renewed. Instead, you’re going to get cortisol, which is aging. You don’t want to do that. You want to do the things that will give you anti-aging hormones. Anyone want to say amen?

Another thing is, at ten o’clock at night, perhaps your husband is a night owl, but maybe he’s in bed. And what are you doing? You are up having a good time, doing your own thing. Maybe he needs you. But he’s being deprived.

You see our job— not our job, our delight— is to always be available to our husbands. I think it is a good thing, a beautiful thing, to go to bed with your husband. So if he’s going to bed at ten, go to bed with him. He might need you. He may not, but he might. Then you’ll both be blessed.

Not only will you be getting serotonin and growth hormones because you’re getting hours in before midnight, but then you’ll get oxytocin because you’ll be just so blessed together.

Think about those things, ladies. Yes, I know we can get weary, but just watch what you’re doing.

I know before I was married, I was a bookworm. I loved to read. I still love to read! But I don’t get the time to read like when I was young. If I had a really good book I’d read into the night, especially if it was a good story I would keep going until I was finished. Of course then you can hardly face the day because you’ve been reading all night. You’ll know what I’m talking about if you’re a bookworm.

But when I married and when children came along, I had to learn to discipline myself. I had to put my books aside.

In fact now I will only read a good, real story. I don’t read junk stories, but a good biography and a good historical novel I’ll keep them to more vacation times. Instead I will read more meditational books, doctrinal books, or theological books. Actually they send me to sleep! I only have to read a couple pages of them, and it puts me to sleep because I start thinking and meditating and I’m off to sleep.

We do have to discipline and watch ourselves. Don’t do things at night. Even reading will take you into the hours of the night. Then the next day you’re blurry eyed and can’t really focus.

Then of course we claim the promises that God gives us of renewed strength for each day, especially as we take advantage of the sleep that He gives us. God gives us nighttime to sleep, renew our energy, and refresh us.

Don’t throw it in the face of God and say, “I’m so tired, I can hardly cope. I can hardly manage,” when God gave you the night to sleep but you’ve been up for hours with the light on.

In fact, that’s not really good. None of us really live how we are meant to today. Because we have electricity, we all have the light on as long as we’d like. There was a time when night came, you went to bed and then got up real early.

I find now that if I get to bed at reasonable hour I wake early. I may wake at 4:30 or 5:00 and oh, you look out and wow! It’s getting light already, the day’s starting! Most people are still sleeping, but the day’s starting.

So instead of tempting to lie there I can get up. When I get up, I could think of one million things to do. I could do some exercises, I could go for a walk, I could get on my computer and get this done because I have ten million things waiting to do. But I don’t do any of them. I find that the Word of God, the presence of God calls me, woos me. Oh my, I just get wooed, I’ve got to get into that Word, it just calls me.

Do you have that pull on you? You just have to get that Word; you can’t do without it.

I have my little basket. I call it my meditation basket. I have it in my office in the day because it has my notebook I write my notes in, my journal, my Bible, my hymn books, and my study books. It’s all there. I carry it down to the office because I’m using it during the day.

Then at nighttime when I turn off my computer, I bring it up, put it on my kitchen table. It’s waiting for me in the morning as I come out to the kitchen table to open that Word. Oh, it is just so wonderful!

I wanted to read you Deuteronomy 33:24. This is the chapter where Moses blesses the tribes of Israel and He’s blessing Asher: “And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children. . ..” Isn’t that lovely? It’s no wonder He gave that blessing, Asher, meaning “happy.” “.Let Asher be blessed with children. . ..”

In verse 25 He says: “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.”

That’s a wonderful promise, “As thy days.” Each new day, God doesn’t give you strength for tomorrow, but each new day He will give you strength and this is in the context of having children. Isn’t that wonderful? Praise the Lord!

Last one, ladies, number 25, so let’s get it done in this session.

NO. 25. ZEALOUSLY

It is zealously. This is the way we are meant to work— zealously.

In Psalm 69:9 and John 2:17, the testimony of Jesus was: “. . .The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. . ..”

That was the story, of course, when Jesus went into the temple and He saw all the Pharisees and all the people selling their wares and everything. It just so grieved His heart that His temple, which housed the presence of God, which was called a house of prayer, had become a den of thieves.

So He began to turn over the tables and throw out everything. He did that with the zeal of the Lord.

Over in Titus 2:14 it talks about this too. It talks about Jesus giving Himself for us and redeeming us from all iniquity, purifying unto Himself a special, set-apart people, zealous of good works.

Now we were talking before how mothering and homemaking, God calls it a good work, a beautiful work and now the Scripture talks about being zealous of good works.

Therefore, if the work that we are doing is good, well, we better be zealous about doing it, don’t you think?

Zealous— doing it with all our hearts, doing it with zeal. Not half-heartedly but doing it with the zeal of the Lord! Amen.

Well, shall we pray?

“Dear Father, we are so grateful to You for Your precious Word which shows us the way. Thank You, Lord, for teaching us how we are to work, how we are to be zealous and how we are to do it as unto You and not unto men.

“Lord God, You have shown us the way, how we can do it without getting weary if we live the way that You want us to live. I pray that You will give to each one listening Your wisdom, even Your wisdom about going to bed early at night. These are such practical things. But Lord, we need to use Your wisdom even about them. We can get into the rut of doing what everybody else does.

“We’re living in a whole new era today of people getting up late and staying up late, but this is not really the way You planned and it’s not for the blessing of our bodies. So I pray that You will give me and each precious wife, mother, and daughter listening Your wisdom, Lord God. Teach us the way You want us to live. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 55 - How Can We Change the World- Part 21

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello again, ladies, so good to be with you again. Well, you'll never believe it, I have been talking to you for forty minutes, and we got to the end and found it hadn't recorded! We are starting again. I do hope I remember some of the things I told you. Often, when I'm speaking, I know the Lord anoints me to say things to minster to you and to bless you, and I don't think of them again, so let's pray.

“Father, I pray that You will anoint me in this session as I speak to these precious ladies. I pray that You will bless them. I pray that You will give me the words to speak into their lives. I pray that You will give them ears to hear, eyes to see beyond what they have ever seen before. I ask Your blessing on them in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Well, it's just as well we've got a quiet day here in our house on the hilltop, here in Primm Springs. That's an unusual thing in this home, especially now that we've got to record again. We've still got some time when there is quietness. Even last week when I was talking to you, there was a commotion downstairs. Grandchildren arrived, and we couldn't even hear ourselves think up here. We had to get  that all sorted out, but today, it's quietness. I have three Above Rubies' girls at the moment, and one goes back to Canada tomorrow. They're all going out with some of the cousins to rock climbing, not a real mountain but rock climbing down in the city of Nashville.

They actually went to do it last week. They were all excited. About three carloads were going into the city but sadly, on the way, one of the cars had an accident. It had been raining for three days, and one of the cars aquaplaned on the wet road, and the car got out of control, began to swerve to one side, banged into the median, and then over to the other side and back to the other side and in between semis and traffic pouring into the city.

It was miraculous. The car was totaled, but they came out alive, five beautiful girls, and they are alive. They are safe, and they are unhurt. We have been thanking and are still thanking the Lord for His goodness and for His protection, His angels that He sent. It had to be divine, angelic protection that this car careening from side to side with semis and cars coming down that highway. How they didn't miss fifty cars, I don't even know. It had to be God. It shows how we need to be praying for the safety of our family, doesn't it?

We pray for safety for our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren every morning as we begin the day. As we have family devotions after breakfast time, we always pray for their safety. We bring them before the Lord, and we have a little pattern prayer. Sometimes, we pray it, but of course even if we pray this pattern prayer, we will still pray what God is putting on our hearts. We pray that God will watch over them and keep them safe, and I've forgotten the rest at the moment . . .  I'll tell you later if I think of it.

It's a good thing, ladies, to pray for your family and your children every day because our trust is in God, isn't it? I think of all our family, and they are traveling in cars, motor bikes, planes, all over the world, and in and out of the cities, and it's God's divine protection that He keeps them, so we praise the Lord for that blessing too.

Anyway, today, they've all gone into the city, and the children who are often around here have gone down to the creek. Serene and Sam have a little creek river down at the bottom of their property. It's a beautiful little creek and now it's summertime vacation. She loves to take the little ones down each day. It's a long walk down to the bottom. Down, down, down. It's a long walk back up. Serene pushes little Solly, who is 15 months, and Remy, who's four. She pushes them up this steep hill. She loves it. If I'm going with her and I say, “Can I help push?” She says, “Nope, nope.” She will not even let me help push because she wants the exercise. She loves it. Of course, all the other little children, any child from five on, are walking themselves, and they are pretty fit because they can run down those hills and run up those hills, and they get really fit. Of course, they have a beautiful time at the creek too where it is so lovely and shady.

Anyway, this unusual moment has happened in our home. Everybody and all the extras, the comers and the goers, and we are here quietly talking to you. I am still talking about these work adjectives. God doesn't leave us without knowing what to do. I have found 25 different adjectives about how God wants us to work in our homes. We are up to . . .

No. 18 WILLINGLY

In Proverbs 31, which is the Proverbs 31 chapter, of course, about the virtuous woman. This woman is more than virtuous. That's what we read, but the Hebrew word is chayil, and that actually means “valiant, brave, courageous, wealthy. “This woman is not only virtuous, she is a courageous woman, she is a strong woman, she is actually a woman of war. This word is usually used in the context of war.

It's amazing that this same Hebrew word is translated in the Old Testament as valiant when it's speaking about men. It's speaking of the valiant men ready to go to war. When it comes to the woman, they translated it virtuous. Actually ladies, valiant to face the fight. It is what we do as mothers in the home—we are facing the fight. We are facing the fight to raise our families for God in the midst of a deceived generation. The enemy is always seeking to come into our home subtly, but we are there. We are the guardian. We are the valiant women. We are the one who is ready to fight against the enemy because we are guarding the gates of our home.

It says this woman in verse 13: “She seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands.” Willingly. There we see that adjective. She doesn't work lazily or because “I just have to this job.” No, she works willingly.

Friday evenings my husband and I like to keep the Shabbat meal. Shabbat is the Hebrew word for Sabbath. Now, we are not Sabbath keepers as such in a religious way nor are we Saturday worshipers. We have our church fellowship on Sunday. But we love this meal. It is so beautiful. It's a very family-orientated meal, so we love to enjoy it. It's a time when the husband blesses his wife, and as a father, he blesses each of his children, and we love to do that. We love to do it with our grandchildren when they come over, and we love to do it with visitors. We usually have visitors for our Shabbat meal on Friday night, and it's a beautiful thing for them too, as they learn this blessing meal. That's what it really is.

At the beginning of the meal, the husband reads Proverbs 31 because the whole meal is about extolling the wife and blessing her in the home. One night, when he was reading verse 13, he said, “And she worketh willingly, willingly, willingly,” and he kept saying the word, and I really got it. Sometimes, we have to really emphasize a word to really get it, don't we?

That's meant to be the attitude we have in our homes, ladies. Everything we have to do, we do it willingly with this beautiful, willing attitude.

No. 19. WITH A GOOD ATTITUDE

We go over to Ephesians 6:7, and we read: “Rendering service,” (that means to serve, to work),“readily with good will.” We do it readily with a good heart. Now, I looked up some other translations of this Scripture, and I found eight different words that are used in different translations to describe this “working readily with good will.” I'm going to read them to you. As you listen, just imbibe these adjectives, which is the way God wants us to work in our homes.

Readily, enthusiastically, wholeheartedly, heartily, cheerfully, eagerly, with pleasure, and willingly. There we have the word willingly again. The Fenton translation says: “Working willingly from your soul.” Isn't that beautiful? Proverbs 31:13 says that we are to work willing with our hands, but I don't think we can work willingly with our hands until we first get it into our souls. We have to get it into our souls first. We have a willing attitude, Amen? When we've got a willing attitude in our souls, then we can work willingly with our hands, even if it's mundane stuff, even if it's servile, menial stuff.

Sometimes we do have to work with our hands. It's actual work with our hands. Sometimes, we've got to work hard with our hands. We've got to use elbow grease. I often have to remind my grandchildren about using elbow grease. I often have to teach my Above Rubies helpers about what it means to work using elbow grease. Do you know what elbow grease is? It's bending your elbow to really scrub hard.

Once a week, we usually scrub all the spots off our carpets. Our carpets are getting a bit old. We've been in this home for 20 years plus, and it's time we threw out these carpets. I simply can't wait to throw out these carpets and get some wooden floors. I hate carpets because they hold the dust and the germs, and they really aren't healthy things, especially when you've had them so long. We are praying and believing for some money, as soon as we can, like you are. You're most probably praying  and believing for something. As soon as that happens, we are going to throw out these carpets. In the meantime, because they are getting older, every week, every Friday, which is our cleaning day, our Preparation Day, we clean the house from top to bottom.

We have to scrub any spots. Goodness me, I don't know how spots get on the carpet because I am a great believer in keeping food to the kitchen. I have lots of children running in and out of my home, and I have to remind them, you only eat in the kitchen. You can eat at the servery, you can eat at the table, but you don't take your food into the lounge, and you don't take your food into the bedrooms because that only spreads dropping of crumbs and food, and that makes more work. I like to confine food to the kitchen, but somehow, I don't think it always happens because I find spots on the carpet. I find people have obviously carried their coffees and carried this and carried that, and they've spilled it, and there are marks, so we have to scrub them off.

I find that sometimes some girls haven't actually learned elbow grease. They wipe it off, and they are doing it as best they can, but you don't even notice the dirt move. I have to show them, “C'mon, this is how you do it. Elbow grease. You’ve got to scrub. Yes, c'mon.” I'm often having to tell people how to get stuck in and work hard. I grew up with the words, “you get stuck in” and trained my children you get stuck in and you do jobs with all your might.

We are working willingly with our hands. We do have to do work with our hands, don't we? I think back when I was raising our children, especially at the beginning of my marriage, we didn't have a washing machine like we have today. I had one of those old wringer washing machines. You've most probably seen pictures of them, and they have the wringer. We would put all the clothes in the washing machine, and then I would have to do a nappy wash. What on earth is a nappy wash? Well, New Zealanders, you know, but Americans, nappies are what we call diapers down in New Zealand. My first three children in 17 months, I had Wesley, then twins were born when he was 17 months, and then I had four under four. I had lots and lots of diapers, or nappies as we called them, so we would put in a nappy wash, and then we would have to get them out and then put each one through the wringer, turning the handle on the wringer to make it go through and you have to watch because sometimes you can even get caught with things going through the wringer so you have to be careful.

Once you've done that and put them all in the basket, you have to go out and hang them on the line. Back in those days, we never had such things as dryers. Goodness me, we didn't know what such things were. Now, it's just normal. Every person puts their clothes in the dryer. Anyway, we would go out and hang our clothes out. That was one of my favorite jobs because you could get outside, and you could exercise because when you hang your clothes up, you have to lift your hands up to hang them on the line. It's such good exercise.

Now, here, in the States, I actually don't have a clothesline. Although, I do because Serene and Pearl, knowing my love of clotheslines, they bought me one a few years ago. But guess what? My lovely, darling, gorgeous husband still hasn't put it up for me, so I still have to hang my clothes out because I love the fresh air. I hang them over my deck. It's not as good as being hung up on the line, but at least they are out in the beautiful sun. I cannot even bear to wear underwear that I haven't had out in the sun. It deodorizes and disinfects and freshens, and the sun is so beautiful, and it bleaches and it's glorious.

I love my towels and clothes out in the sun. When I bring them in, unless it’s been a windy day, they come in quite stiff and hard. Well, some people may not like that because they may like to have it all soft and fluffy as they get it out of the dryer, but I love this hard towel because when you dry yourself, it's really hard, and you get a nice brisk rub. I really like that for my skin, so I love having my towels out on the deck.

I love my sheets too. I sleep in linen sheets. My husband and I haven't been doing that for long but now that we have linen sheets, we would never use any other. I would wait for a sunny day, and I wash my sheets and put them out, and it's so glorious. I bring them in in the evening and put them on the bed after being in the sun all day, freshened and made so beautiful. It's so wonderful to sleep in them. We adore it. I love getting clothes out.

I don't use my dryer unless it’s been raining for a week, I don't use the dryer, but everybody else in the house does. I have my Above Rubies' girls, and they all use the dryer. I say to them, “Girls, look at this beautiful, sunny day. Wouldn't you love to hang your clothes out on the line and get them deodorized? It's so beautiful, and they freshen, and the smell is glorious. You put your clothes in the dryer, and it wears them out. Look at all that fluff you take out every time you use the dryer, and it uses my power, thank you very much.” I don't say it like that, of course, but I would hope that they might like to do it. But nobody ever does. They put them all in the dryer because they are used to doing it. That's most probably not something you do with your hands these days, but maybe some of you do. It really is fun to do that. All right, that was the good attitude and working willingly

The next one . . .

No. 20. WITHOUT BEING SIDETRACKED

It's easy to get sidetracked, isn't it? Of course, my lovely mothers, you get sidetracked all day being a mother, don't you? Every moment someone is needing you for something. You're doing something here, and you're focused and suddenly, you have to give up the focus because you've got to attend to another little one here. I think mothering is the ANOINTING OF INTERRUPTIONS, and we have to learn how to handle them, don't we? To handle them with patience and peace and knowing part of mothering is interruptions. Though my children have grown, I still have lots of interruptions. I have lots of little grandchildren around still, so I have lots of interruptions, and we have to learn how to handle them, don't we?

We also need to learn to be focused on our ultimate goal of what we are doing, especially as a wife and mother. I think of Nehemiah. Nehemiah came back from Babylon to help build and repair the gates and walls of Jerusalem. As he came back to do that, he had lots of enemies. Now ladies, you are actually female Nehemiahs because you are building the walls of your home. You are a builder. Proverbs 14:1 says: “Every wise women buildeth her home, but the foolish plucketh down with her hands.” You are building every day. We are building into our marriage; we are building into our children; we are building into our home to make it strong and secure in God.

We are building in the midst of enemies. We've got enemies all around us. We have enemies of the media. We have enemies of the education system, all trying to pull down the family. We have the enemies of feminism and humanism and socialism, all seeking to pull down the family. Even in the midst of this, we still have to keep building. Let's have a look at some of Nehemiah's enemies:

Nehemiah, chapter 6:

 “Now it came to pass when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein. That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, 'Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono.' But they thought to do me mischief.”  Notice, he didn't bother going himself. “And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I AM DOING A GREAT WORK, SO THAT I CANNOT COME DOWN: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you? Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner. Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand.” This time, they came with a letter to try and get him to come down.

Then, in verse 10, we find the sixth time. He came to a home to this guy and this guy said: “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay thee.  And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in. And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me.” You see that Nehemiah, as he built the wall and built up the gates, had all these enemies attacking him continually, in different ways they came at him. They tried to put fear in him and tried to make up all these excuses of why he had to come down off that wall. But what did he say? I CANNOT COME DOWN. He didn't get off that wall, ladies. He sent messengers and told them, “I'm not coming. Say what you like, I'm too busy. I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?”

Ladies, you have enemies. You have those saying all these different things to you. “Oh, why are you having so many children? Why are you homeschooling? You could be popping your children in school and getting out and doing what you want to do.” They have all these things they are saying to you, and maybe they even come from your parents or your in-laws. You've got them all around you. What are you going to do? Do you get into a state of self-pity? Do you get fears in your heart? Do you listen to them? Or do you say, “I'm doing a great work. I can't come down. I haven't got time to come down to your excuses. I know what I'm doing. I know I'm in the will of God. I know this is God's purpose for me, and this is what I'm doing.” You're not going to be affected by all the words of your enemies and your antagonists that are around you.

In the whole of society, maybe you're the only one in your street, the only one in your community, but you're going to stand strong like Nehemiah did. You notice how they come to him and in verse two they said, “Come, come, come, Nehemiah. Come down into the plain of Ono.” That's where they wanted him to come. That's where the devil wants you to come, ladies. Yes, did you notice that they hired people? Tobiah and Sanballat hired messengers to come and to trick Nehemiah and to put fears in his mind and to put falsehood in his heart and to come and try and trick him to get off that wall. It's the enemy, the devil, who uses and hires all these deceivers to bring these words to you, especially to get you down to the plain of Ono.

“Oh no, I just can’t keep doing this. I'm too tired.”

“Oh no, I don't know whether I can keep homeschooling. It's too much of a challenge for me. I'm not very good at teaching.”

“Oh no, help, I'm having another baby. What are we going to do? How are we going to afford it? Oh no.”

Darling ladies, are you listening to the “Oh no's?” The hired messengers from Satan? Or are you listening to God? He's given you this work. You are in His perfect will. He has given you a great work. It's a good work, a great work. Yes, you haven't got time to come down. I'd encourage you to take that Scripture, go to it in your Bible, Nehemiah 6:3, and write down that confession from Nehemiah: “I am doing a great work that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?” You're up, you're not coming down. Write it up or print it out from your computer and pin it up and put it on your kitchen wall so that it will encourage you. Amen?

Alright, let's go to . . .

NO. 21. WITHOUT EXPECTING ANYTHING IN RETURN

In Luke 17, Jesus tells a parable and in verse 20, He says to them: “When you have done all that is commanded of you, say we are unworthy servants, we have only done what was out duty.” Sometimes you can think, I'm having to do my duty. But dear ladies, I want to encourage you about duty. Duty is part of life. Duty is part of every field of work, even in the field of work that your husband is doing. Every field there is duty. There are the basic principles that have to be done, even done every day, to keep that work going, to keep that project, that work, it's got to keep going. It needs the daily duties to keep it going. Even in our homemaking and our mothering, we have daily duties. There are certain things that we have to do.

Now, sometimes I know you can look at them and think, oh, this drudgery again and you can think of your duties as a drudgery, or you can think of them as a DELIGHT. It all depends on your attitude. I want you to think of your basic duties that have to be done every day, often the same thing, but not see them as drudgery but see them as DELIGHT because they are the foundation of this great home and family and marriage that you are building. Without, these foundational duties, you can't build on them; you can't even do more creative things if you don't do the duties. If you see them as a very important thing, a wonderful thing, you can see them with delight. Everyone you face, you face it with delight. Hallelujah. This is part of this great home I'm building, and I'm going to do this with delight. Hallelujah. You do duties with delight. You teach your children how to do duties with delight. Amen? I'm always challenged by these words when it says, “We are unworthy servants. We have only done what is our duty.” Maybe that's all we've done, but it's still a blessing, and God is watching the way we do our duties, and we will have our reward. Let's pray, shall we?

“Father, we thank You so much again for Your Word and for showing us these attitudes You want us to have toward a work ethic. Father, I pray that You'll give us all these wonderful attitudes in our hearts as we work in our homes, as we do the great work You've given to us. I thank You that You've given every one of these precious mothers listening a great work to do. It is a great work in Your eyes, Lord God, and I pray that You'll help them not to come down but to stay right up there in this great work they are doing. Fill them with Your joy. In the precious name of Jesus, Amen.”

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 54 - How Can We Change the World- Part 20

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Hello ladies. We are continuing our series on “How Do We Change the World.” We’re still on No. 15, which is, WORKING WILLINGLY AS WE SERVE THE LORD. It’s always doing something a little bit beyond the normal. We have 25 different points about the way we are to work. We are relating this of course to our homes because we’re wives and mothers. Some of us are young mothers, some middling, some older mothers. We all have to have the same attitudes toward work.

God is the one who instituted work. He shows us how he wants us to do it. I have found 25 different adjectives of how we are to work in our homes. We’re up to number sixteen.

No. 16. RELYING ON GOD

We can’t do it in our own strength, and I know that you’ve found that out. Our own strength runs out, but praise the Lord, we can enter into His strength because His strength is renewed day by day. Every day He gives us new strength. I love that Scripture back in Deuteronomy 33:25 which says: “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” In other words, for each new day you will get your strength. God doesn’t give enough for tomorrow. He gives you enough for today. So if you’re getting through today, praise the Lord! Don’t worry about tomorrow. Because tomorrow, God will give you strength again for that day.

In John 15:5 it says: “Without me ye can do nothing.”

In Philippians 4:13, you all know this Scripture: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” And so, we can rely on His strength for each new day and that’s how you get through. That was how I got through in the early days of my mothering when I had three little babies under seventeen months, then I had four under four, and more later. But in those early days, with so many little ones all around me, I didn’t ever do anything extra in those days. I just got through just looking after and making sure they were fed and nurtured, and we ate.

God strengthened me for each new day even though there were times when my tiredness was overwhelming, but God always got me through and He will get you through too as you trust in Him, as you rely on Him.

One of my favorite Scriptures is Isaiah 26:3-4 which says: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:” God’s strength never runs out, dear precious mothers. It’s everlasting. This is the strength which you enter into, the strength on which you rely, this is the strength which gets you through each new day. His everlasting strength. Amen.

Well the next point, number seventeen, is to work thankfully.

No. 17. WORK THANKFULLY

Colossians 3:17 says: “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” And so we do everything with a spirit of thankfulness. Now that’s a new attitude to get into, isn’t it? Because sometimes we go around doing things with a grumbling attitude, groaning and complaining, “Poor me, and I don’t know why I have to do the same old thing as yesterday. I never have time to do what I want to do. I’ve just got to do this to keep this home running, keep these children alive.”

But no, that’s not the attitude. Let’s do everything with thankfulness, dear ladies, thankfulness. So, as we have a thankful spirit, that’s going to ripple onto our children and they will begin to have a thankful spirit about doing their chores, about everything in life. I believe it’s so important to have this thankful attitude.

Sometime back I was reading in the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. Now I’ve often told you about the word, abundant. That word, in the New Testament, it means “to super abound, to be excessive, abundant, exceed, over and above, more than is necessary,” and we find this very word in the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand plus—hat was five thousand men, plus whoever else was there.

And you remember how Jesus got them all to sit down? Isn’t that interesting? You know that every single point in the Bible is important. There is not one little word that we gloss over. The other morning in our worship service we sang the words, “I don’t want to miss one word You speak.” It comes from a beautiful worship song. I can’t remember any of the other lines. That line just got to me. And I just keep praying that line. “Oh God, I don’t want to miss one word you speak.” I want to hear what God is saying to me. And when I read the Word, I don’t want to gloss over it, I don’t want to just, oh well I’ve got to read my Bible. No! I want to read EVERY WORD, so that every word speaks to me. I don’t want to miss one word. And so even in the stories in the Bible there are words, there are messages, there are principles in every story.

When Jesus asks the disciples “What have you got?” and they say: “Five loaves and two fishes” and then before Jesus broke the bread and gave them the food, the Bible tells us that He . . .  He didn’t just tell them . . .  the Bible says that He COMMANDED the disciples to COMMAND the people to sit down. They had to sit down in groups. And Jesus didn’t feed them, just oh well, here’s the food everybody and they’re all just mingling around, you know, doing whatever they want to do. No. Jesus got them all . . . ALL . . . ALL, that’s the word that’s used, ALL. there wasn’t one standing up. There wasn’t one just doing what they thought they’d like to do. Everyone was seated. They were being prepared to receive the food. When they were seated, then Jesus broke the bread and gave them to the disciples and they just kept feeding the people and feeding them and the food just multiplied, and everyone was fed.

Now this is the principle, ladies, for our homes. I believe that it is important to SIT FOR OUR MEALS. To sit as we eat. And of course the Bible is always correct because now there are scientific studies done which show that if you eat on the run, you eat standing up, you eat while you’re working, and you don’t really think about your food and half the time you hardly know you’ve eaten, that you don’t get the nutrition, you don’t get the goodness out of that food, unless you are seated. And the more that you sit and fellowship and talk together as you eat, the more nourishment you’re going to get from your food.

There is a principle in the Word of God about sitting to eat. We can pick it up in the Old Testament too, but I won’t go into that today. I want to remind you, lovely mothers, to make sure your children come and sit for the meal. Don’t, “Okay, children. Here it is! Just come and get it” and they walk around eating, or they just go to their room and take it and just sit in front of their social media. No, no, no. That’s not how we eat. Eating is for fellowship at the same time. It’s for nutrition of course. We’re going to get so much more if we sit.

Make sure your children sit at the table. That’s why we have a table. God designed tables. God had a table in his heavenly kingdom before we ever had them on earth. When Jesus was talking to His disciples He said: “I want you to come and sit with me at my table, in my kingdom.” (Check out Matthew 8:11; Luke 13:29; and 22:29, 30). He talked to His disciples about the table that is in His heavenly kingdom. God loves tables.

The picture He gives of a family that is blessed of the Lord is in Psalm 128:3 (TLB): “Your wife shall be contented in your home. And look at all those children! There they SIT AROUND THE DINNER TABLE as vigorous and healthy as young olive trees.” Where are they? Just running around, getting up and down from the table? No, sitting around the table. Now I know it takes time to establish your children into the habit of sitting, because little ones, they want to get up and they want to do this, and they want to do that.

No, you gradually train them to sit at the table and to stay seated while you not only eat food for your body, but you eat food for your soul and your spirit, and we have the reading of the word. Like in Holland, the people there, they call family worship or family devotions “Finishing up the meal” because they won’t leave the table, that’s the godly families, they don’t leave the table before they have finished. That is, you eat food for your body, but then you must eat food for your soul and your spirit before you get up.

We little by little train our children to sit, to sit to eat. I have people often living in our home and I can see that, okay, they’re used to maybe just walking around eating their lunch and they’ll get lunch and start sort of wandering around or just standing up. I’ll say, “Hey, there’s a chair there. Come on, let’s sit together. Because you are going to get so much more out of your food if you will sit to eat.” Anyway, that’s not my story for today. But Jesus got them seated before He gave them to eat.

Then we know that after they’d all eaten and they were all FILLED, because that’s the word the Bible used. They were filled. They weren’t half empty, feeling like they needed more. No, they were filled. But then Jesus told them to go and pick up all that was left over, Oh, I like that too. Jesus didn’t like wasted food. No, He didn’t just let them, well it was obvious, they even left food. There was more than they needed, because that’s what Jesus does. He’s always MORE THAN IS NEEDED. And He gave them more than they needed. It wasn’t to be left around. It wasn’t to be just left over. Jesus told them: “Go and pick up that which is leftover.” They picked up twelve basketfuls.

And what does the Bible say? They FILLED UP TWELVE BASKETS FULL THAT REMAINED OVER AND ABOVE.” That’s the word in my King James Bible in John 6:13. And that word over and above is perisseuo, that same word that we’re always talking about that means “abundant, superabundant, more than is necessary, exceeding, over and above.” And here it is, “over and above.” It was more than they needed. That word is also used in Colossians 2:7 where it tells us that we are to “ABOUND in thanksgiving.” The same word as “over and above.” Some translations say: “Overflowing in gratitude.” Same word. It means “not just the normal.”

Isn’t that what we’re talking about, ladies? We’re not ever going to be the normal status quo. No, we’re over and above! We go beyond. And here it is again, the same word. Same word that’s used for thankfulness. Abound. Over and above in thankfulness. When Jesus told them to pick up the leftovers, over and above. Twelve basketfuls!

Now, the little challenge I have for you, darling ladies, is this: how big is your thankfulness? How much is it over and above the ordinary? Because that’s the meaning. Over and above. Ok, they picked up twelve basketfuls over and above.

How many basketfuls, over and above, do you have in the spirit and attitude of thankfulness each day? Are you kind of just barely there? Oh well, okay, well you know. Actually you’re not very thankful all day. But come on ladies, we can’t be normal like the normal person who’s usually grumbling and complaining and we’re not only just to be thankful, but to be over and above. Now actually, being over and above is a little bit psycho. Now are you one of those you don’t want to be psycho? You don’t want to be thought you’re a bit different. Come on, this is Bible language. We’ll never change the world being ordinary. Come on, if you really want your home to be filled with joy, thankfulness, children that are filled with happiness and joy, a husband that’s filled with joy, a home that just overflows, everybody that comes in feels that spirit of joy, well, you can’t be ordinary. You’ve got to go over and above!

How many basketfuls are you going over and above? How many times do you thank your husband for just going out each day and providing for you and working hard for you so you can be home with your children? Do you remember to thank him? When he does some little thing for you, do you thank him? We take so much for granted, don’t we? We take one another for granted. Let’s not do that. Come on, let’s be the “over and above” people. Let’s get a few basketfuls, you know, gathering up a few more basketfuls. And so, become someone who’s always thanking, remembering to thank your husband for the little things he does for you.

Thank your children when they do your chores. Now, we have to, we expect them to do their chores and do them cheerfully. But when they do, don’t take it for granted, thank them.

“Thank you so much for doing that.”

“Thank you for doing the dishes, I so appreciate it.”

“Thank you for your lovely joyful spirit.”

“Thank you for helping your brother with doing that job.”

Thank you, thank you, we’re just thanking all the time. We get into the habit of thanking. We thank anybody who does anything for us. We thank our children. We thank our husband. It becomes a way of life to be constantly thanking, or as the Bible says, it doesn’t just say constantly thanking, it says ABOUNDING, being OVER AND ABOVE in thanking.

I remember once when a missionary family came to stay with us and they were getting to know all our family, they got to know the Johnsons. Just go through the trees a couple of minutes and there they are. That’s Evangeline and her family. Their children have been trained to be thankful and when they are saying “thank you,” they don’t just say “Oh, thank you.” They always say, “Thank you sooooooooo much!” In fact, that is a typical phrase from a Johnson. “Thank you soooooooooo much!” and they will say that just for the very ordinary things of life. When it comes to birthday time or Christmas time and its present time and each one is giving a present each one will give the other a hug and say, “Thank you SOOOOOOOOOO much!”

Anyway, this family really cottoned onto it. It was a real challenge to them. They thought, “Wow, we’ve got to do this in our family.” And so they all began to become more thankful than they ever were before. It was rather interesting. When they were leaving our place and they all had their heads and their hands out the window waving goodbye and they all put their heads out and yelled, “Thank you SOOOOOOOOOO much!” They were kind of moving up their basketfuls into maybe seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, have you ever got to that much?

Anyway, I do believe that we need to become a more thankful people, don’t you? Even when we’re working. “Well, praise the Lord! We’ve got all these dishes to wash. My, look at all the food that we filled on these plates, hallelujah, thank you, Lord!”

Well, the other day, I posted, one of my posts on Facebook, because every day I send out a message to encourage wives and mothers. I hope you get it. I’m not a fan of having Facebook to waste your life, but I do use it to bless others and I hope I can bless you. If you want to be encouraged and blessed each day you can go to my Above Rubies Facebook.

I think I told you about it on another podcast, but I was talking in one post about how important it is to start the day with a cheery word and a cheery attitude. I think it is so important as our children come to the kitchen each morning from their bedrooms to get them into the habit of saying, “Good morning, Mummy” or whoever is in the kitchen. And, of course, we will have that same attitude and “Good morning, Bubby! Oh I love you and welcome to another wonderful day we’re going to have together.” And it’s so important to just have this cheery spirit. Especially as we start the day.

I was writing in this post about a family I was talking to and they were telling about their teenager who comes out in the mornings with a very sour face and just mumbles and doesn’t really, you know, want to be very happy. The father was very concerned, and I was saying, “No, you can’t let that go on. You need to encourage her to give a cheery “good morning.” It’s not because, because I know the daughter, she’s a very beautiful girl and very social and she gets on with all of her friends. She’s the most social being, it’s not that she has any problems at all. She has a very lovely life and is very well cared for. It’s just a habit that teenagers can get into.

Well, we shouldn’t ever let them get into it because we should establish the habit when our children are little, but why I am telling you this is because I was very surprised. Because I always get a lot of feedback and lots of mothers were blessed by this encouragement post on Facebook, but there were a couple of ladies who answered negatively. I was surprised at how many ladies liked their negativity.

It actually does concern me. I really want to speak into it while I’m on this podcast and while we’re talking about being thankful and about having a “TWELVE BASKETSFUL thankfulness mentality” and a joyful mentality. Let me just share some of my thoughts. One lady said, “Rather than my sharing about fake cheerfulness . . . ” (Well, I wasn’t sharing about fake cheerfulness. I was sharing about a good habit that we should establish in our homes. Now it is true, that there will be times when maybe one of our children are not feeling well or they are going through a difficult time) and this little reply went on to say, “It is more important to raise children that are in touch with their souls and emotions enough to help others because they’ve healed themselves. I think we should put down this a perfectionism.”

But no, I don’t really agree with that. Ok, there’s two sides here. Yes, if a child has a problem, physically or even emotionally, now, as a mother we’re going to discern that. This is a different thing than establishing a habit of everyone beginning the day cheerfully with a thankful and joyful spirit. If our children are in this habit and they come out in the morning, we will notice if there is something really wrong. You can tell the difference, goodness me. You don’t have to be a mother for very long. Well, I have been mothering for how many years, fifty-five years. You know when there is a real problem. You have discernment to know if your child is sick or if your child is going through something that is very difficult and challenging. You know the difference between that and just a sour, morbid face. Just because really, they can’t be bothered. Teenagers can get into this. Yet they can go out with their friends and they’re happy as a bird.

We can’t allow them to show that kind of emotion at home. Getting in touch with your soul and your emotions . . . can you give me a Scripture where it tells us to do that? Have you actually read a Scripture where it says, “Now I want you to be in touch with your soul and your emotions”?

No. I actually have not found a Scripture in the Word of God that says that. In fact Jesus said, and these are the words of Jesus, He said, “If any man will come after me let him deny himself.” Deny? Deny what? “Deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” And that word “deny” means “to refuse oneself, to give up oneself.” That means, there are times when we have to give up the negative. We have to give up our self-pity. We have to deny it. Because, let’s face it, dear ladies, the easiest thing in the world is to get into negativity. To get into a self-pity party. To get into a mood. If we let our feelings and our thoughts go, they usually go to negativity. They go to thoughts of ourselves. They go to “poor me” and how things are affecting me. It’s all about me. Most people who are thinking about their soul and emotions and are in touch with their soul and their emotions, really all they’re thinking about is me. It’s a me mentality.

I don’t believe that we should foster that at all because it‘s not Bible and it is not for their ultimate blessing. Now of course we’ll discern if there is a real problem and then we will minister to them and of course we will be ministering to them not to stay in that, how to get out of it. We’re teaching our children how to live in victory. Most of the world does not live in victory! Most mothers are not living in victory and in triumph over their problems, over their challenges, over the difficulties they face. They’re under them because they’re so called in touch with their feelings and emotions.

Look, the worst way to live is according to your feelings. Feelings come, feelings go, feelings are not really true. They usually tend to the negative. We need to deny those negative feelings because they don’t bless us, and they don’t bless anyone around us at all. In fact if we go, let me go back to that passage in Matthew, Matthew 16:21-24. If we go back a little before the words that I read, and it says here:

“From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” I used to read those words and think, “Oh, they are so strong. How could Jesus turn to Peter and tell him to get behind Him?”

Oh that was so powerful. Goodness me, but I had to think about it more and realize that Jesus was seeing beyond the flesh. Peter had such a good heart. Why did Peter say those words? Because He did not want Jesus to go through suffering. He did not want Jesus to be killed. “No Jesus, that can’t happen to you!” But Jesus knew the will of God. Jesus knew the Father’s will. Jesus knew that He had to go the way of suffering. He knew that that temptation was not coming from Peter himself, but it was a temptation to Him from Satan himself. He had to rebuke that negative thing that was against the word of God. He had to speak so strongly, not so much to Peter, but that spirit in him.

Actually, this passage helps us to understand, often many mother-daughter relationships. Especially, I’m talking about married daughters, maybe, you know, you’re finding it difficult too, when you have a child that you’re scared to tell your mother. She doesn’t want you to have another baby. It’s so sad that many older parents today have been so brainwashed by society that they don’t understand themselves the blessing of many children and they think, “Oh my, one or two is enough for my daughter. If she has any more, she might, you know, oh goodness, she won’t be able to do this or that. Maybe she’ll have more sleepless nights. I just want what’s best for her. I just want this lovely life for her. I don’t want her to have any more children.”

Maybe that’s what your mother or mother-in-law is saying to you. Dear mother, they are saying these words in ignorance. They don’t really know what they’re saying. They’re not savoring the words of God. They are savoring the things of men. They don’t really understand God’s perfect will. God’s perfect will is not always the way that’s the easiest way. It’s the way of truth. It’s the way that God has planned. It may take more hardship. It may take more suffering, but it’s the way that God has for us. It’s the way of glory. Because the way of suffering is the way of glory.

Anyway, I just want to encourage you if you do have, you know, a mother who’s so anti your having children. You have to understand that it’s just because she doesn’t understand God’s ultimate plans. But you can keep on knowing you are in the will of God.

It goes on to say, what we’re talking about is denying ourselves. Denying our fleshly attitudes. You know all of us can feel lousy. It’s so easy to just feel depressed and oh, I know myself, I could be the most down in the dumps depressed person if I gave into my thoughts and my feelings. But no, the word of the Lord tells us that we are to “gird up the loins of our minds” (1 Peter 1;13). We are to take into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

“Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). We’re living by God’s truth and not by our feelings. And so therefore, ladies, it is important to teach our children, yes, it’s not a fake cheerfulness. No. When we teach our children to come out in the morning and to say, “Good morning, Mummy and Daddy!” and to have a smile on their face, that’s not fake. That’s teaching them what is right.

What you do with your facial attitudes and your body, it changes the way you are inside. You put a smile on your face. You speak positively and cheerfully. It changes you on the inside. Ok, you may not have felt like doing it, but you do it by faith because it’s the right thing to do. Christ who dwells within you doesn’t go around with a sour face. He doesn’t go around down in the dumps. No! He is filled with joy. He is joy. He is peace. He is thankfulness. He is all that we need, and He lives within us and we’re either going to live according to our flesh and give into the negative, horrible, fleshly feelings and thoughts or we’re going to live according to the truth of the word of God. We’re going to teach our children that from the very beginning.

I do believe, you know, it is true. There is something that I learned, going along in my life. Most people only have a certain amount of emotion that they can cope with. If we turn all that emotion onto ourselves, it is a negative lifestyle. It’s not only negative to us, but negative to our husband, our children, and everyone around us. I do believe that we have to give room in our souls and in our hearts for others. Have you got that, ladies? So many times we can be prone for just keeping it all for ourselves. All my thoughts and all my feelings are for myself. No! If you live that way, you’re going to live a miserable life.

No, we’ve got to give room for others. I often ask, “Lord God, help me to have room in my heart and soul for the needs of others.” I remember one time I was walking over the threshold of my home carrying my groceries. I had just been out to the supermarket and the Lord spoke to me. It’s amazing, isn’t it, how God speaks in very mundane circumstances? And these words came so powerfully, I’ve never forgotten them. “Nancy, how can I reveal to you the needs of others if you are always thinking about yourself?”

You see, we’ve to give room in our hearts for others. We give room in our hearts for our husband, our children, others around us who have needs. Let’s have big hearts for others. Not those who, “we’re in touch with our souls and emotions or our feelings and our negative thoughts.” No. We’re going to train our children not to live that way. But to live for God, live for others. What did Jesus say again? Yes, let’s go read it in another passage because it’s in all the gospels. That was in Matthew. OK, let’s read it in Mark, Mark 8:34, 35: “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.”

We don’t find our lives by just trying to look after little me. We find our lives by pouring our lives out for others. We teach our children this lifestyle. This lifestyle of cheerfulness and joyfulness and thankfulness. We seek, by the grace of God, to be those that have a “TWELVE BASKETSFUL mentality” of thankfulness and joyfulness. How many baskets do you have, dear ladies? Remember it’s the same word, perisseuo, OVER AND ABOVE, twelve basketfuls. Same word that’s used for that food that was picked up. It’s the same word for overflowing, abounding, over and above in thankfulness.

Prayer:

“Lord God, we thank You so much for your word because Your Word brings us to how You want us to live. It takes us from the negative. It takes us from depression. It takes us from our feelings. And You bring us up, Lord to another plane, a higher plane. Lord, we don’t want to live in this low plane in our feelings, we want to live, Lord above. We want to live and overcome above our circumstances and our challenges and our difficulties and everything we face. So we ask that You help us, and You’ll bring us into this lifestyle personally and teaching our families and our children. In the name of Jesus, Amen.”

P.S. The song I mentioned above is “I’m Listening “ by Chris McClarney.

I don’t want to miss one word You speak,

Cause everything You say is life to me,

I don’t want to miss one word You speak,

Quiet my heart, I’m listening.

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 53 - How Can We Change the World- Part 19

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello ladies, we are gradually getting through all the different attitudes that God tells us about working in our homes. We are up to number 13, and there's two that go together here, lovingly and laboringly.

No. 13. WE ARE TO WORK LOVINGLY AND LABORINGLY

Now, they seem opposite, don't they? Let's look at some Scriptures.

Galatians 5:13: “By love, serve one another.” We see how these two words go together. If  we love, we will serve. That's part of love. When we serve, if we do it with the right attitude, we are showing our love. Love and laboring are twins; they go together. I love looking out for twins in the Bible. There's lots of twins that go together; God couples them together.

1 Thessalonians 1:3: “Your love has meant hard work.” There we see these twins again together, love and hard work. Sometimes, you feel as though you're working so hard in your home and all it is, is work, work, work, serve, serve, serve, and often, you do the same thing you did yesterday, you have to do it again today. Everything gets in such a mess and clean, clean, clean again. Well, darling ladies, as you serve, as you work hard in your home, you're revealing your love to your family, to your children and even to God. He sees your hard work, and He sees it as love.

Don't do it with a grudging spirit. Do it with a joyful spirit, do it with a spirit that says, “I'm so blessed to serve,” and you will find that it will make all the difference.

Hebrews 6:10 says: “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love.” Notice that phrase, “labor of love.” Have you noticed before that they are coupled together? Labor and love, it goes together.

Don't despise hard work. It's part of loving your husband; it's part of loving your family. The wonderful thing is it also brings reward. Let's keep reading. “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have showed toward His name in that you have ministered to the saints and you do minister.” That word “minister” just means to serve, serve the saints. Now, Paul is writing, or the writer of Hebrews is writing and saying, God's been noticing. He's not going to forget your work, your labor of love because you've been serving the saints, and you're still serving the saints. He says you have showed it toward God's name.

When we do this, we are doing it as unto the Lord. When you're working hard in your family, in your home, to keep your home right, to keep your home running smoothly, to manage your home, it takes a lot to manage a home, especially as your home grows. You start with a little baby but then another one comes along, and then maybe another one, and often you have more and more children, and more and more things happening. Because the more children, the more things happening, and the more things going on in the home, and there's more and more to manage. To run a home efficiently and smoothly it takes management and hard work. We're not just doing it because we have to, we are doing it as unto the name of the Lord. God says that He doesn't forget. He's not going to forget it. Darling ladies, He does not forget your work in your home. 1 Thessalonians 1:3. I have quoted that verse; I gave you the J. B. Phillip's translation. Here is another translation: “Your labor of love, in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.” One translation talks about “the slavery of love.” It all goes together. Lovely ladies, please don't despise hard work. It's all part of your loving, the labor of love.

I noticed a most wonderful Scripture the other morning as I was reading, and it's in the book of Ruth. Actually, I was doing a study on marriage and all the different Hebrew meanings of the word “cleave.” Some time I will talk you through that study because it is so powerful, and there are ten different words to describe that word “cleave” in the Hebrew.

One of the words that is used, that is translated in the King James Bible is where Boaz said to Ruth, “Abide here, my daughter.” Most other translations say: “Stay here close, keep close, stay here.” Let me read you this whole Scripture. “Then Boaz said to Ruth, 'Listen carefully, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one but stay here close by my maids.'” When I read that Scripture, I got a wonderful understanding. Of course, it was spoken to Ruth. This is the wonderful thing about the Scriptures, all the stories about the people, yes, they relate, they're about that person or they are about Israel. They are practically talking about something that happened, but the Word of God is alive, and everything that is written is written for our example. It tells us that in 1 Corinthians 10:6, 11. Every word relates to us personally, and I believe that this is a prophetic Scripture for mothers in the home.

Listen to it again, lovely ladies. Listen as God speaks to you, for this is His Word, and it's His Word speaking to you personally. “Listen carefully, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one.” You see, lovely ladies, God wants you to glean in your field, in the home that He has given you. He has blessed you with a home. Maybe it's just a little tiny home, or a big home, it doesn't matter. It's your home where you can make a place for God. It's your home where you can make a lovely place for your husband. It's your home where you make it a beautiful place for your children, to raise your children, to nurture your children, to teach your children. God wants you to work in your home and to glean in your home. In fact, you will glean a harvest, but He doesn't want you to go to another field. No, and he continues, “But stay here close, stay close in your own home. Glean in your own field.”

As you do that my lovely mothers, you will be blessed, and God will bless you just as Ruth was blessed. She obeyed that command of Boaz, and she stayed in that field. She worked hard in that field, and she stayed there. Maybe other fields looked more tempting, maybe there was more to glean over there in those other fields. Maybe they had a lot more for her to pick up to take home to Naomi. But no, he said, stay here in this field, so we have to learn to be content.

Don't look at some other field. Sometimes you look out and think, “Oh goodness me, I should be out there in the workforce; I've got these lovely gifts, and I should be using them.” Lovely ladies, this is where God has you at this present time. This is His will, and this is where He wants you to learn and to work, so embrace it. Don't go to another field, don't leave the one God has given you. When you leave the one God has given you, you move out from His blessings. You stay in the one God has given you, you maybe don't think you are getting a lot out of it at this time, but you will; the reward is coming. God is not unrighteous to see your work and labor of love. God beholds. God watches. God rewards. He rewards our labor of love. He rewards us as we stay in this field, in the place, in the domain, in the home God has given to us. God has given it to you so don't go looking somewhere else. Amen? I was so blessed as I read that. Lovely ladies, enjoy your loving and laboring. Amen?

Let's go to the next one.

No. 14. WE ARE TO WORK MIGHTILY

Have you noticed it never tells us just to work? There's always an adjective. This one is Ecclesiastes 9:10: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” I'm sure that you have given your children this memory verse to learn. I gave it to my children when they were very young. I was always reminding them, “Whatever you do, do it mightily, do it with all your heart.” Perhaps if you haven't given this memory verse to your children yet, you could give it to them this week. It's a good one for them to have it in their hearts. Then, when they are doing a chore, and they're just meandering around and doing it so slowly, “Come on children, remember, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. Let me see those muscles! Show them to me.”

Come on, teach your children how to work hard. It saddens my heart to see children growing up who don't know how to work. Work is part of life. God gave the institution of work before the fall because it's a part of man's life; it's a part of who He is. He wants us to do it with all our might, and when our children see us working with all our might instead of doing things slowly and grumblingly, they see us doing them joyfully and with all our might, they are going to get that same understanding. When your children are doing the dishes, teach them to do it right.

I have watched people do the dishes, and I have to actually walk away. They take so long, and they wash one dish and put it into the rinsing water and then put it on the rack. I can't believe the slowness. I like to get stuck in and get those dishes done in just a few minutes. We should teach our children how to get stuck in. Yes, get stuck in. That's a good phrase. I believe that's so important to teach our children.

NO. 15. NEVER GIVING UP UNTIL YOU FINISH

That's a  good part of working, isn't it? It's so easy to begin a job and then we flake out.

Zechariah 4:9 says: “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it.” That was talking about the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem when they came back from Babylon, but it talks here about starting and finishing.

Jesus also finished his work. In John 4: 34 Jesus said: “My meat, my food is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work.” His prayer in John 17:4, Jesus said: “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” This is also a very important part of working. I know it's easy to start something with a hiss and roar and then as time goes on, we kind of lose the enthusiasm. I know this even with my doing Above Rubies. It's a magazine, which I trust you all get. If you don't get the magazine, Above Rubies, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I'd be happy to mail you some copies. I've been doing this magazine now for over 41 years.

I remember when I started. I had such a burden. In fact, it was one of the greatest burdens that came upon me in my whole life. I couldn't not do it. I had to do it. It was something that just came upon me. I knew that I had to get out this magazine that would keep coming to encourage women, encourage them in their marriages, in their motherhood and in their home life. I look back, and I think, wow, how come God chose me? I wasn't the right person; I didn't even know how to do it. I hadn't any experience in journalism. I didn't know how to put a magazine together. Who was I? I wasn't any great mother, but God put it in me. I obeyed. Of course, as it came upon me, I had great vision. I never thought of the future, I just got started, started with a hiss and roar.

Actually, I only started with printing 1500 copies. Even that seemed enormous at the time. I remember my husband saying to me, “Don't come back on me financially; we've got enough bills.” Because I felt to make it by donation, so I went ahead in faith and printed this first magazine. I had no clue what would happen to it. I couldn't even imagine, but I sent it out to a few people. I was speaking at a Ladies’ Convention, and I shared it and went back home to my children. I began to get letters from the top of New Zealand to the bottom. People writing in, “Thank you, I got your magazine, thank you for strengthening me in my convictions as a wife and mother.” They sent a donation. I was able to pay the printers. Hallelujah. Well, the next issue, the second one, I printed 5,000 copies. The next issue, the third issue, I printed 25,000 copies. In three years, in little New Zealand, I was printing 100, 000 copies. They were going out across the land. It was unbelievable. God was touching hearts and bringing mothers back to the home. It was a God thing. It wasn't easy, and it grew, and then we moved to Australia and established it there, and then another ten years after we moved to the States and we've been here now for 28 years now.

I have kept plodding on. They often say that when you get a vision, it's one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. The only reason Above Rubies keeps coming to you today is that I keep plodding on. I have never ever given up for all these over 41 years. It actually takes most of life, apart from all my family life. I do it as a labor of love. We've been talking about the “labor of love” which are twins, and Above Rubies is a “labor of love.” My husband and I have never taken any finance from Above Rubies. All that comes in for the magazine, for the books, for everything, goes to print the next issue of Above Rubies, which costs over 60,000 dollars to print and send out. That's why you're still waiting for the next issue, and I'm still waiting for the money to come in. Pray for a miracle. When the money comes in, I will print the next issue.

With anything, we have to keep working at it until the end. I plan to keep going. It's the same, of course, with the greatest institutions in life which are marriage and motherhood. God wants us to keep going to the end. I love Ecclesiastes 7:8 which says: “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning there of.” Ladies, it's not so much how we start, although it's good to have a good start, but it's how we end. Even if you haven't had a good start, you can still have a great end. Did you know that?

I want to encourage you today. Maybe you didn't get a good start in your marriage; that doesn't matter. With the help of God, the One who designed marriage, as you and your husband submit to His ways and to one another and begin to love and serve one another instead of yourselves, God is able to do beautiful things in your marriage because He designed it. He wants you to be blessed. He wants it to be so beautiful. Even if you had a rocky start, you can keep going so that it becomes better all the time. You talk to couples who have been married for years and years and years, like us. My husband and I have been married for 56 years. When you get to this stage, what is the testimony? My testimony is that marriage gets better and better every year. Our marriage today is much more beautiful than when we started. I could hardly even compare it. Don't despair. You have many years left. If you are willing and open to God to work, He can do glorious and beautiful things, and He can make your marriage greater and greater. You begin as a failure and end as a victor.

You can do that also in motherhood. Yes, maybe even in motherhood you didn't have a very good beginning. You started out and you didn't know what you were doing. I think many mothers, unless they've been raised in a big family and they've had babies coming on and they are used to babies around them. It's such a blessing for children to grow up in a big family. Because older children have babies around them, they learn to mother, the sons learn to father. They're ready for marriage. They're ready to face the whole thing of marriage and motherhood and fatherhood, but there are so many who grow up in a two-child family and right through their middling and teen years, they've never even had anything to do with a baby. I mean, there's not a baby in the house. None of their friends have babies, and they get married, and they've been trained and conditioned and brainwashed in feminism and humanism and their career is more important than motherhood.

They get married, and they conceive, and a baby is coming. Help! They don't know what to do. They're overwhelmed. They have no experience; they have no one to help them. When this baby comes, they love this baby because every parent loves their baby, but they still don't love motherhood, so they have this confusion going on in their head and goodness me, it's pretty hopeless. I mean, I even started off with all that confusion because I didn't understand about motherhood what I understand today, and God had to teach me along the way. I thought I was meant to be out there doing many other things, changing the world, not cooped up in this little house with a baby and then suddenly three children under 17 months because I had twins, and then I had four under four, and here I was with all these screaming babies around me.

God had to show me that I was in His perfect will, and I was doing the most powerful thing that He had intended me to do. I didn't start off knowing it all. In fact, I was clueless about so much. I had to learn as I went along. I think you have to too. You didn't start off well but darling ladies, even if you started as a failure (I've failed in so many ways), you can end a victor as you press on in God, and you learn His ways and you seek to do it His way. “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning there of.” Don't worry if you messed it up in the beginning. Don't worry if you were a failure. Press on. Press on to the victor's crown. Press on to the end. You will make it. Amen?

Not only did Jesus finish His work, but Paul did too. Let's read about Paul. In Acts 20:24 it says: “But none of these things move me.” What were those things? All the things that he was facing and had faced and was going to face, prison and afflictions, so many things: “Neither count I my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus.”

What is the ministry you've received of the Lord Jesus? It's your motherhood. If God has given you children, that's it. If He's given you children, this is the ministry He has given you to do. He doesn't give them to you to give to somebody else to look after. He gives them to you, not only to care for and nurture but to train and to prepare for life and to prepare for their marriages one day. You've got this wonderful ministry, and you're going to do it. You're going to finish it. In 2 Timothy 4:7, he says: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”

We are going to look at three different F's in this Scripture. The first one:

1)    Paul FOUGHT the good fight.

We are certainly in a fight for our families in our nation today, aren't we? Family is God's idea and the enemy is out to destroy it. Because motherhood is God's ultimate plan for women, the devil hates it, and he wants to destroy it. In this hour of history, we face a fierce fight. Feminism, humanism, the media, and public education have brainwashed the majority of women to think that motherhood is insignificant and not worthy of their time.

But because we know this is deception, we will not be tempted.

We will not be wooed.

We will stand against the tide.

We will not give in.

We will fight the good fight.

We will stand up for motherhood.

We will stand on the side of life. We not only have to fight for our own motherhood today, in the midst of a deceived society, but we have to fight for life in society.

We've got to fight for the family.

We've got to stand up for the family, for motherhood, for marriage, for a marriage between a male and female.

We will stand against same sex marriage.

We will stand against abortion because we stand for life.

Nehemiah 4:14 says when they were building on the wall, Nehemiah came back from Babylon to help them build up the wall and to rebuild the gates of Jerusalem, and they had enemies around them trying to stop them build. When we build for God, the enemy always gets upset.

You are a builder, mother, in your home.

You're building a family.

You’re building a marriage.

You’re building a godly generation.

You’re building into the eternal realm.

You're a builder, and the enemy doesn't like it because he wants women who will not be builders but those who will be foolish and who will let their families weaken and fragment.

We are those who stand strong.

We cement our family ties; we make them strong.

We build the family, but we will have enemies. They'll all be around us and Nehemiah said to those building on the wall: “Be not afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and terrible and fight. Fight for your brethren, fight for your sons, fight for your daughters, fight for your wives and your houses.”

Yes, lovely ladies, we have to fight today for our future generations. We have to fight for our children growing up in our homes for when they get married and have children because we are in such a fight in this nation because there is a huge section now of this nation who want to take this nation down a course of socialism. How they can even think of such a thing. It's only because they are brainwashed by our professors and liberal colleges today and our liberal high schools. They are being brainwashed and victimized and propagandized to believe all these lies, and these young people are growing up thinking that socialism is something good.

We only have to look at history, we only have to look at current events of what is happening in Venezuela. That's socialism. We have to fight this. We must stand and fight. We must stand for truth. No matter what. Don't crawl into your shell. Always stand up and speak boldly for truth. We fight the good fight.

2)    Paul FINISHED the race

Paul finished the race. He said that. That was his confession. “I have finished the race.” He would not give up until he finished. Mothers, we are also in a race. Well, we're not racing, but we are plodding on. We are in this race till the end.

I love to talk about the Four Watches of Motherhood, the first, second, third and fourth watch. Maybe some time I'll get to tell you all about them. Sadly, there are many mothers who walk out on the fourth watch. That's when their children have grown and now there are no children left in the home, and they think, “Wow, I've finished motherhood. This is my time that I can go off and go on cruises and do whatever I like.” In fact, earlier this year, Colin and I went on a cruise. We were so blessed. Our daughter Pearly and her husband, Charlie paid for a cruise for us for a Christmas present. We did enjoy this lovely cruise, but we were so amazed to see a different lifestyle as we spoke to many couples, and many of them were older couples, and we would say to them, “Is this your first cruise, like it was for us? They would say “No, this is our 52^nd cruise or something like that.” Just about every ne had been on so many cruises. This was their lifestyle, to go from one cruise to the other because all their children were all grown and had left the nest, but that's not actually biblical. I'm sure it's lovely to go on a cruise every now and then, but God has given a mandate to older women to teach and encourage the younger women. We don't give up motherhood just because our children have grown.

In fact, if we have been raising a family, we will already be beginning to have grandchildren. There should never even be an empty nest. The way God has planned it is that we have children, if God happens to bless us this way, until we reach menopause. If you have a child and you're trusting the Lord and by the time you get to about 45 or so and no more children are coming along, you may have a daughter in her twenties who is getting married and having a baby. You have a grandchild, so you have grandchildren coming around, and you have all these other mothers who need your encouragement and help. This nation is lacking; it is void of older mothers teaching the young mothers. We've got to finish our race to the end.

3)    Paul was FAITHFUL to the end

The third F: Paul was faithful to the end. He remained faithful. He fought the good fight, number one, he finished the race, number two, and three, he was faithful to the end. Three F's in one Scripture, but time has come to the end again, so we will pray.

 

“Dear Father, we pray that You will help us to be those who don't give up halfway through or even three quarters of the way through or even nearing the finishing tape. Help us to be those who last the journey, who keep plodding on. Give us that tenacity, give us that enduring spirit, give us that plodding spirit to keep on, knowing we are walking in Your will.

Lord God, I pray for precious wives and mothers who've had difficult starts, Lord who've had a difficult time in their early years of marriage, in their starting motherhood. Dear Father, I thank You that You never leave us where we are. Give them hope today, to know, Lord, that You will lead them on. You want to take them to all Your blessings. You want them to end the race a victor. Oh God, I pray that You will, Lord, cause everyone who started in failure to end in victory. Those, Lord, who maybe feel overwhelmed, but Lord, you will help them to end overcomers. Lord, I ask this in the name of Jesus’ Amen.”