Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

As we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us.

Many blessings, Nancy Campbell

Proverbs 13:7 was one of my favorite Scriptures in raising our children: “He that walks with wise men will be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” Many wonderful parents cannot understand how their teenagers go astray. Most times it is because they have got in with the wrong crowd.

Guard your children’s souls and minds. Guard their friends. That’s why so many concerned parents homeschool their children today. They do not want to put their children into an environment where they can be led astray by ungodly children.

Of course many will immediately respond with the comment that they send their children to school to be a witness. Dear young parents, our young children are not ready to be sent among the wolves. They are only lambs. Many teenagers are still not strong enough.

I certainly don’t believe in keeping our children at home forever. We train them to send out into this sinful and dark world to bring God’s light and truth. But we don’t send them out . . .
Until they are ready.
Until they are strong.
Until they are ready to face the wolves.
Until they can “withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” against the foe that comes against them (Ephesians 6:13).
Until they come to that place in their hearts where they love righteousness and hate evil and therefore will say No to all temptation.
Until they are established in the truth of God’s Word and can therefore discern all the deceptive garbage that fills our society.

Until then we have a big job getting them ready. This is our responsibility as parents which we cannot take lightly.

Blessings to you and your children,

Nancy Campbell

While they rummaged through drawers to find red clothes, I set the table with a red tablecloth, adding red candles, napkins, and centerpiece (red flowers if I could find them). I prepared red foods. There are plenty of foods from which to choose, e.g. beets, radishes, red beans, red hot dogs with tomato sauce, tomato soup, potatoes or rice colored with red food coloring, etc.

For dessert you can choose red fruits such as pomegranates (when in season), blood oranges, cherries, strawberries, watermelon, or red grapes, etc.

You can also purchase red paper plates and knives and forks, etc. I would often wrap a little gift (something inexpensive) in red paper and put it beside their plate. The children loved these nights and over the years we tried every color of the rainbow!

Have fun with your family,

Nancy Campbell

Christianity makes a home a Heaven! A Christian home where all is love and tenderness and devotion is the sweetest and most sacred spot on earth! A home where Christianity is crowned a queen in every heart is an Eden. The heart of God is filled with delight as He looks down upon such a home! His presence dwells there, and causes this home to be a beautiful oasis in this wilderness world of sin.

Alas, that such homes are so few! Sin destroys the happiness of man, and makes many a home a hotbed of contention, strife, and confusion!

When the husband and wife are kind, loving, and gentle toward each other; when she in her weakness feels her dependence upon him, and lovingly, trustingly looks unto him as her defense; and he in his strength and delight enfolds her in his strong arms of protection with a feeling of responsibility to nourish and cherish her then they can testify that they have a Heaven in their home!

Unless we have attained unto such a life we have not attained to Bible Christianity, nor to domestic joy and happiness.

~ Charles Orr from "Christianity in Home Life."

Her hands fashion its beauty.

Her heart makes its love.

And the end is so worthy, so noble, so divine, that no woman who has been called to be a wife, and has listened to the call, should consider any price too great to pay, to be the light, the joy, the blessing, the inspiration of a home.

The woman who makes a sweet, beautiful home, filling it with love and prayer and purity, is doing something better than anything else her hands could find to do beneath the skies.

A true mother is one of the holiest secrets of home happiness. God sends many beautiful things to this world, many noble gifts; but no blessing is richer than that which He bestows in a mother who has learned love's lessons well, and has realized something of the meaning of her sacred calling.

~ James Russell Miller (1840 - 1912)

I must now get upstairs and start peeling the potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Blessings and love from Nancy Campbell

Blessings from Nancy

How can we ever comprehend such a plan? God’s ways are certainly far above our ways. And yet it also reveals how God thinks about the womb and birth. Do we see them the way God does?

Imagine if Mary was not willing to embrace Jesus in her womb? She knew she would face persecution and ridicule. She could not even image what lay ahead for her. And yet she responded with total submission: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38).

As we think about the miraculous conception and birth of Jesus, let’s ask God to give us soft and tender hearts like Mary. Let’s be willing to say, no matter what the cost: “Be it unto me according to thy word.”

May you have a blessed Christmas.

Nancy Campbell

They had no room for the Light of the World in Bethlehem. Do we make room for Him in our lives? Do we allow Him to expose the darkness and flood our lives with His light? Every time we respond to the moving of the Holy Spirit in our lives and say Yes to God we open up to His light. When we are stubborn, want our own way, and say No to the convicting of the Holy Spirit, we choose darkness.

Dear mother, we must teach our children this powerful principle, too. Every time they say Yes to you and Yes to the Holy Spirit they receive more and more light into their lives. When they are disobedient and say No to you, and No to the voice of their conscience they allow darkness into their lives.

May we open up MORE AND MORE to the Light and less and less to the darkness. Proverbs 4:18: "But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth MORE AND MORE unto the perfect day." Each new day, individually and as a family, ask God to FLOOD YOU WITH HIS LIGHT.

Love from Nancy

Maybe one of my grandchildren will recite this poem on Christmas night. After our big Christmas Dinner at midday and speeches and toasts, we will wait until the later in the day to have dessert. After this we’ll have a family concert where adults and children will sing or recite poems. Then we’ll have Quizz time--children against the adults! The competition will be fierce!

Love from Nancy Campbell

So keep trusting, dear one.

Psalm 4:1: “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast ENLARGED ME when I was in distress; have mercy upon me , and hear my prayer.”

Blessings from Nancy

Parents! You are fashioning the destinies of immortal souls!

~ James Russell Miller 1882

You may think, “How on earth could I ever cope with another child? My hands are full already.” Dear mother, God is your Strength. He promises to give you strength for each new day. He doesn’t give you strength for tomorrow, but for TODAY. And He doesn’t give you strength and energy for a baby that has not arrived yet. But if God sends you another blessing from Heaven, He will give you the strength when that baby comes. What a wonderful God we have.

Look to Him for His strength for today.

Love from Nancy Campbell

In a lesser and yet still powerful way, God does GREAT THINGS through every baby that is conceived in a mother’s womb. Every new baby is born in the image of God. Each one is a fresh revelation of God to the world. Each one has the possibility of accomplishing marvelous things.

Let’s think for a moment of all the amazing things that have happened, are happening, and will happen in this world--the remarkable inventions, the amazing feats both intellectually and physically, the astounding advancements, and the brilliant discoveries. None of this happens on its own. Every single thing happens through a person. And that person comes through the womb. Without the womb NOTHING happens in this world. It all comes to a halt.

All the GREAT THINGS that take place in the world happen because of a mother’s womb. The womb is a place of destiny.

Can we grasp the fullness of this truth? God privileges women with the gift of a womb, a sanctuary from where God brings forth GREAT THINGS to fulfill His purposes and glorify His name. And not only for this world, but for eternity, for every child who is conceived is an eternal soul that lives forever.

Dear precious mother, don’t hold back your womb from God. Your finite mind cannot even fathom what great things God has ordained to happen in this world through creating a God-destined life in your womb (1 Corinthians 2:9). We are privileged and blessed beyond measure.

Be blessed today,

Nancy Campbell

And there is one more! You'll never guess!

It is found in Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." The word "train" is "hanuk," the verb of hanukkah, meaning "to initiate, dedicate, consecrate." It is not enough to celebrate Hanukkah for eight days. As parents, we are FULL TIME HANUKKAH CELEBRATORS!

When we realize that training our children means to dedicate them to the Lord, it gives us a much larger and loftier vision. Everything we do and plan for our children is now in the light of dedicating our them to the Lord and setting them apart for His service. It's not a one-time dedication. It is a verb which requires daily action.

When our children are disobedient or don't complete what we have asked them to, we can sometimes be lazy and let it go. But not if we understand we are daily dedicating them to the Lord. How can we let things go when we consecrating them to God's holy service. We have the responsibility to train them to obedient so they will be obedient to the Lord!

As children get older, they can become more worldly and want to do what other more worldly teens are doing. We could think, "Oh that's the stage they are going through." But not if we understand that we are daily consecrating them to the Lord. We will pray up a storm. We will fight the devil. We will work with our children to keep them on the narrow road that leads to life. We will do everything to save them from the broad road that leads to destruction. WE ARE PROVERBS 22:6 HANUKKAH PARENTS!

When we "hanuk" our children, it determines how we educate our children. It would be ludicrous to send our children into a an ungodly education system each day if we are daily consecrating them for God's purposes.

As we consecrate our children to the Lord, we recognize that they totally belong to the Lord for whatever time God has for them on this earth. Above everything else, we know that we are ultimately preparing them for eternity.

Blessings from NANCY CAMPBELL

Proverbs 20:27 says "The spirit of man is the candle (light) of the Lord." Have you noticed that when a new baby is born into a family that a heavenly atmosphere fills the home? There is an "awe" that we only experience with a new babe. I believe we are experiencing a new light from heaven. I think this is why little children are so open to God. Recently I watched my little three-year old grand-daughter sing all day about how Jesus is in her heart and how she loves God.

Why then do many walk in darkness? The answer is in John 3:19-21. We are all born with a light from God, but we can either push back the light or open up more and more to the light. It is a privilege for children to be born into a home where parents love God. These children have an opportunity to open up more and more to the light. In an ungodly home, the light with which they are born can be gradually extinguished or often smothered completely.

I believe that every time we say Yes to God and obey the prompting of His Holy Spirit within our hearts, we experience more light in our lives. Every time we say No to God and are disobedient to the Word, we accept darkness. Teach your children this principle, dear mother. Teach them that saying Yes to you and Yes to God will bring them to more and more light (Proverbs 4:18). Teach them that when they say No to you and No to God's ways, their minds and hearts will cloud with darkness.

Job 18:5-56 says, "Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine. The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him." I don't want it to be dark in my home, naturally and spiritually. I hate to have curtains and blinds pulled over and everything looking dark. My curtains are always open (just as well I live in the country!). I love the light and the more the better. And it’s the same spiritually. I want more and more spiritual light in my home and less and less of darkness. I'm sure you don't want it to be dark in your home either.

Let's open our hearts and minds MORE AND MORE to the light of God. Begin each day by praying, "Oh Lord God, please flood my mind, my heart, and my home with your light, today. Amen."

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

The Israelites also had to face enemies far bigger than them. Deuteronomy 9:1-3 says: “Hear O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations GREATER AND MIGHTIER than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, a people great and tall, the children of the Anakims (giants), whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak! Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.”

I know that you, too, often face dilemmas that loom much bigger than you can handle. Don't focus on your difficulty. Look to God. He is your Strength. He is your Source. He is your Sufficiency. He will always do what you cannot do. When we try to handle our problems we usually make a mess of the job. Put them in God's hands for He knows what is best to do.

Victory does not come by intelligence or fleshly strength. It only comes from God. Just as God delivered the Maccabees over and over again as they faced insurmountable armies, so God will deliver you as you trust in Him. Make sure you have the right confession. Don't confess your problems; confess your trust in God. It's the way to victory.

Love from Nancy Campbell