Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

If I love my husband I will...
Love to serve him.
Love to cook his meals.
Love to have a wholesome meal prepared for him when he arrives home in the evening.
Love to make and serve him breakfast.
Love to make his lunch to take to work.
Love him to come home to a clean and fresh smelling house.
Love to keep an orderly home for him.
Love to make sure he always has clean laundry.
Love to make him coffee.
Love to encourage him and affirm him.
Love to purchase special goodies for him that he loves.
Love to buy him his favorite dark chocolate.
Love to do extra nice things for him.
Love to smile at him.
Love to ravish him and satisfy him sexually.
Love to follow him even though I may not agree with him.
Love to praise him instead of criticize him.
Love to wake up and cuddle with him.
Love to greet him passionately when he comes home from work.
Love to run a bath for him.
Love to encourage and compliment him with my words.
Love to make him smile and laugh.
Love to tell him that he is the best.
Love to text him during the day to remind him how much I love and appreciate him.
Love to speak well of him to my friends and to praise him in front of others.
Love to be his BEST and closest friend.
Love to be his only confidante.
Love to pray with him.
Love to respect him and his decisions.
Love to pay attention to him when he talks to me.
Love to look at him adoringly.
Love to help the children do special things for him.
Love to give him massages.
Love to softly tickle him.
Love to rub his back, shoulders, legs, and feet.
Love to be with him while he works.
Love to do what he asks me with a smile and cheerful attitude.
Love to listen to his dreams and ideas and support them.
Love to raise the children in the way that pleases him.
Love to take an interest in his passions.
Love to do everything I can to keep him healthy.
Love to kiss him when he comes near me during the day.
Love to blow him kisses.
Love to give him surprises.
Love to appreciate him for working hard so I can stay home with our children.
Love to hold hands with him at every opportunity.
Love to admire and adore him.
Love to be faithful to him until death or we meet the Lord face to face.

Love from Nancy Campbell

But we know that Satan is the robber. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy and he wants to rob you and your home of all these beautiful treasures. In 2 Chronicles 12:9 we read how the king of Egypt came against Jerusalem and “took away ALL the treasures of the house of the Lord; he took all.” This included the shields which were all made of gold.

What did king Rehoboam of Jerusalem do? He made brass shields. Instead of gold, he now had brass! Dear wives and mothers, be on the alert against the robber of your home. Sometimes we can be so apathetic that we don’t even notice we are being robbed. The treasures of love, kindness, peace and joy creep out the door and we settle for the inferior. We get used to the status quo of how we are living.

We can become so deceived that we are satisfied with counterfeits. We put up with the brass instead of the gold. Instead of pursuing a loving, serving, and intimate relationship with our husband, we settle for “just living together.” Instead of seeking forgiveness and peace, we settle for arguments, bickerings, and moods amongst family members. Instead of embracing and nurturing our children in our home, we take the enemy’s counterfeit of daycares. And so it goes on.

Let’s go for the treasures of gold, not the counterfeit of brass.

Don’t settle for the status quo.

Nancy Campbell.

Get ready now. Get your family ready now. Seek after God’s ways and His truths now and you will have light to go through the hard times and the dark times when they come.

Isaiah 50:10 (ESV): “Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.”

God bless you today, Nancy Campbell

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.”
~ Unknown

“Dear Father, please help me to remember to say a kind word to those who clean public places and toilets. They need to be encouraged in their work. Amen.”
~ Nancy

God is our Keeper. "Behold, he that keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Psalm 121:4, 5). We are also keepers of our home and children. The word is "shamar" and means "to hedge about, protect, guard." The instructions God gave for the first home were to work hard in it and to guard it (Genesis 2:15). It is a beautiful thing to be a keeper, guarding and protecting our marriage, home, and children. But above all, we reveal what God is like to our children and the world.

We constantly have to exercise justice to teach our children the way to live and to keep a sane and safe home. Once again we are showing who God is to our children, a God of true justice and mercy. Oh to be more like Him. We often find it difficult to know when to show mercy and when to show justice. But God is always just and His justice is perfect. God is always merciful and His mercy is perfect. The more we allow Him to teach us the more we will parent the way He wants us to (Genesis 18:18, 29).

God bless you today,

Nancy Campbell

It's this anointing God wants to flow down from you, right to where you meet life, right in your kitchen, dealing with your little ones and all the challenges of your day as a mother. I remember how my little ones used to love to hang on to my skirts. Where I walked, they walked. They played in my skirts. They hid in my skirts, especially when a stranger came.

The skirts speak of the getting down to the nitty-gritty. To the lowest. The menial day to day tasks of life. Dear mother, please don't seek to accomplish these in your own strength, but let God's anointing flow down to where you are at this moment! Whatever is happening now! Ask God to pour down His anointing to the bottom of your skirts. There is where He wants to come--to the very reality of your life (Psalm 113:4-8).

God bless you in your home today,

Nancy Campbell

I love Proverbs 14:19 which says: "The evil bow before the good; and the wicked at the gates of the righteous." Let's keep up the standard of righteousness in our own lives and in our homes. This Scripture tells us that when evil seeks to enter our homes, it comes to a screeching halt at the gates of the righteous! Evil and deception cannot get any further than the gates, because we are guarding and holing up the standard of righteousness! The Amplified Version says "at the gates of the UNCOMPROMISINGLY righteous."

We read the same theme in Psalm 127 were God describes the blessed family who raises a quiver full of arrows and trains them to contend and speak with their enemies in the gates. Not only do we push back the enemy at the gates, but we train our children to do the same!

Be encouraged today.

Nancy Campbell

Each one of these descriptions uses the Hebrew word "chayil" which is the same word that was used to describe David's brave soldiers who were also mighty men of valor. Chayil is used in the context of an army going out to battle and means strong, courageous, and valiant. Doorkeepers also had to be strong. They had to examine every person that came into the temple and be able to resist anyone who tried to come in by force. They couldn't be weaklings. They had to have the power of a "bouncer" if the need arose (if we could use that word in a positive way).

I remember when we were pioneering a church on the Gold Coast of Australia, a place of many nightclubs. Our church was opposite the casino. One of the first converts who came into our church was a bouncer. He was a big black guy and one punch from him and the recipient would be knocked out flat! He didn't know any other work apart from being a "bouncer" and would come to us every night before he went to work and ask us to pray for him! I trust he did his job with a little more restraint! The wonderful thing is that God worked in this man and today, thirty years down the track, he is still preaching the gospel.

However, dear ladies, did you know that this same Hebrew word, "chayil" is also used about us women? It is the same word that is used in Proverbs 31:10: "Who can find a virtuous (chayil) woman: for her price is far above rubies." To be a mother and homemaker we also need to be strong and courageous--especially strong in truth, strong in our convictions, and strong to resist the enemy.

As gatekeepers of our home, we must daily put on the armor of God and "bounce" out of our home all deception, evil, and anything that rises up "against the knowledge of God" (2 Corinthians 5:10). We guard carefully over our gates and examine everyone and everything that could defile our home. Our home is a holy temple and we have the responsibility to keep it holy.

You cannot do it in your own strength, but call upon God. Use the power of the name of Jesus as you resist the enemy. Don't be a weakling, but stand strong against all insidious plans of the enemy to defile and destroy your home.

Blessings to you today,

Nancy Campbell

There must have been times when she got angry, became frustrated, and gave into the flesh, but I am sure she had a more beautiful nature than I was ever born with. I am sure she was sweet-spirited and filled with compassion, patience, and longsuffering. We know she was humble and that is the most precious attribute God looks for (Luke 1:48 52, Psalm 34:18; 51:17; Isaiah 66:2; and 1 Peter 5:5).

She was a busy mother like us with many children. No, she was not a virgin all her life. She bore the weight of raising an average large family of at least seven children, could have been ten or more (Matthew 1:25 and Mark 6:3).

I cannot say "in exactly the same way" as Mary, but it is a truth that God has also chosen you to be the mother of your children. Our Omniscient God who knows the beginning from the end, who knows not only what you are thinking right now, but what you will be thinking this time next year, and who has known from eternity every child He has given you and will give you CHOSE YOU to be their mother. Yes, even the mother of that "difficult" one.

Because God chose YOU, you are blessed by God. Because God chose YOU, your children are blessed.

Mother your children today with the awesome understanding that you have chosen by God for this greatest of all works. And because you have been chosen, God is backing you all the way. He will never leave you or forsake you.

God bless you, "chosen one."

Nancy Campbell

A GIFT FOR YOU TODAY
After reading my post above, YOU ARE CHOSEN, I am sure you will love to listen to Serene and Pearl sing their song, CHOSEN. I know you will be blessed. For a free listen, go to:http://tinyurl.com/Chosenmp3

It comes from their album, PEACE ALL OVER ME. You can download the whole album by going to:http://tinyurl.com/PeaceAllOverMeMp3

But even though He longs to dwell with us and commune with us, He is grieved when we allow sin in our lives for He cannot fellowship with sin. We must keep short accounts with God (1 John 1:7, 9).

A. W. Tozer writes again: "I think that repentance is called for. We need to repent of unlikeness (to Him); of unholiness in the presence of the holy; of self-indulgence in the presence of the selfless Christ; of harshness in the presence of the kind Christ; of hardness in the presence of the forgiving Christ; of lukewarmness in the presence of the zealous Christ, burning like a fiery flame; of worldliness and earthliness in the presence of the heavenly Christ."

What a difference it makes in our homes and all our relationships as we allow the Holy Spirit to conform us to His image (Romans 8: 29).

May God pour out His blessings upon you in your home today, Nancy Campbell

It puts a frown upon the face and sharpness to the tone;
We’re unfit to live with others and unfit to live alone.
Worry? Why worry? What can worry do?
It never keeps a trouble from overtaking you.

Pray? Why pray? What can praying do?
Praying really changes things, arranges life anew,
It’s good for your digestion, gives peaceful sleep at night,
And fills the grayest, gloomiest day with rays of glowing light.

It puts a smile upon your face, the love note in your tone;
Makes you fit to live with others and fit to live alone.
Pray? Why pray? It brings God down from heaven
To live and work with you.

~Unknown

I wonder who gave this advice to this mother? It certainly does not come from God, or His Word. It is humanistic reasoning. Why do we who are God's people listen to man rather than God? Why do we think man's word is to be obeyed rather than God? I think it is because man uses human logic, whereas God's ways require faith. There is only one way we can please God and that is by faith. Hebrews 11:6 says: "Without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God."

Of course it is true that every husband must be faithful to God's calling upon his life to be the provider of the home. He is to work hard to provide. And he always has a job. For if he currently doesn't have a job, he still has a full-time job of looking for a job. If he does his full time looking for a job, not just waiting for one to fall in his lap, he will soon have one.

However, if a husband is faithful to work, he can then trust God to provide far beyond what he is able to in his own ability and strength. God always provides for His children. Throughout our whole life we have lived beyond our lowly income and God has always miraculously provided. David said, "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging bread" (Psalm 37:25).

God's Word is filled with promises about providing for children. To check them out, go to this link: http://tinyurl.com/CanGodProvideforBaby

God bless you today,

Nancy Campbell

But more than that. There are still so many more to come from this one baby we gave birth to 38 years ago. As her children grow they will marry and have children and their children will have grandchildren. There are so many more godly children yet to come from this one birth many years ago.

We would be deprived. The world would be deprived. God would be deprived. Eternity would be deprived. We often forget that when we say No to one baby, we actually say No to many more people who God wants to come to earth to bless this world. We say No to a whole dynasty.

And I'm only talking about one of our children. The same applies to all of them. I don't think we truly realize the enormity of our deception about refusing the children God wants us to have. Just think of the godly dynasties that have been lost to this world because even God's people have been educated to limit their family size.

God bless you today, Nancy Campbell
P.S. The picture is of Sam and Serene with their new baby and Haven (3).

Acts 15:18 says: "Known unto God are ALL his works from the beginning of the world." You are one of His divine works. Your children are His creation. Colossians 1:16 says: "ALL things were created BY HIM and FOR HIM."

This poses a question we must face. What about children whom God planned to come into this world and fulfill a certain destiny, but we have said No to them coming? How many children have been denied existence whom God intended to be born into this world and for eternity?

"Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders" (Isaiah 8:18).

We who are finite and earthly must beware that we do not hinder the plans our infinite and sovereign God.

God bless you today, Nancy Campbell

The trying days, the flying days– the clock goes twice its pace,
But when you start to feel you are competing in a race–
Slow down for a moment, let your tangled thoughts unwind.
You’ll get through in half the time if you’ve a quiet mind.

~ Patience Strong

Where is the Scripture that says that we should no longer bring forth children, but only spiritual children? Of course, it is nowhere to be found. We cannot make up our own doctrines. We must keep to God's infallible and eternal Word. And yes, He wants us to be witnesses, proclaiming God's truth of salvation and leading as many people as we can to Jesus, but this is not instead of having children. We do this as we continue God's first commandment of having children. In fact, we accomplish it more by having children. And we bring into the world more people to be revealers of God's image in the earth.

If we were to only birth spiritual children, we would soon have no spiritual children to birth, as we can only bring spiritual birth to children who have first been naturally born. The more children born into the world, the more can receive spiritual birth. And the more children God's people embrace from Him (for He only is the Giver of life), the more witnesses, preachers, and proclaimers of the truth we raise to bring people to Jesus in this world.

At this moment, we are destitute of the godly seed, so much so that we don't even have enough godly people to vote in righteous politicians and a godly president. This would not be our experience in this country if Christians had not stopped having the children God wanted them to have. Instead of filling the land with godly children, we have purposely limited them. This is far from God plan.

Love from Nancy