Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

The other day my husband was at the bank and got talking to the teller (he loves to talk to people). The lady asked what he did and he replied that we speak and write about strengthening families. She proceeded to tell him a little story.

Her daughter was putting a ham in the oven, but before she did, she cut a piece of both ends off the ham. A friend who was watching her asked, "Why do you do that?"

"Because my mother did it," she replied. She thought she would call her mother (the lady speaking to Colin) and ask why she did it.

"Because my mother did it!" her mother replied. The grandmother was still alive so the daughter called her grandmother and asked her why she cut a piece of the ham off at both ends.

"So it could fit in the pan," she replied! This unnecessary tradition was passing down the generations from one mother to the next! Such is the influence of motherhood. Ezekiel 16:44 says, "As is the mother, so is her daughter."

Dear mother, think how powerfully we can influence our daughters, practically and spiritually. They will take things into their future lives that we haven't sat down to teach them, but just by watching us day after day.

Love from Nancy

In discussing the modern trend of waiting to having children, one mother writes, "Children deserve to have fun and that requires money." I certainly believe that children deserve to have fun, but I don't believe that it takes money. Children don't have to be rich to have fun. Children don't have to be taken to all kinds of entertainment, or be entertained, to have fun. The poorest of children can have fun.

Children have fun when they play, and especially when they play creatively. Many modern children haven't a clue how to play creatively because they are given "things" to play with all the time. Or, they are taken to amusements where they can be entertained. When children are given opportunity to make their own games, they have the greatest fun. And it doesn't cost a penny!

Last night I attended a birthday party for our eight year old grand-daughter, Sahara Oasis (Evangeline's daughter). There were no elaborate birthday plans, special invitations sent out, or extra money spent. We enjoyed salad and home-made pizza for supper. She didn't even have a birthday cake, but we all lit candles and stood around Sahara and sang Happy Birthday which she loved just as much. Lots of her cousins came and with all her brothers and sisters the room was filled with people. The whole night was filled with fun, laughter, and creativity. I sat back and watched with joy at everyone laughing out loud, the antics of the little children, and everyone having the time of their lives.

Evangeline's husband, Howard is very creative and always comes up with some new exciting thing for every birthday. Tonight he had some white material which he cut up. Everyone had a piece to use as a mask. They cut holes for eyes and each one decorated their own mask the way wanted. With their masks on they all gave birthday speeches to Sahara (which is a tradition with all our birthday parties). Once again, it didn't cost a cent!

I find that the greatest fun that children have is with one another. It's not toys or entertainment. That gets boring. But, they never get bored playing with their brothers and sisters and all their cousins. The little girls laugh and giggle when they are together and make their own creative play. And the boys are never happier than when they are together--they are inseparable.

We have 39 grandchildren so far and 24 of them are here on the land. I never hear children crying or getting angry with one another. There is nothing but laughter, smiles, and fun! Forget "things"! Brothers and sisters and cousins are far more fun!

Love from Nancy

Tonight I was visiting with my daughter Evangeline. I read some Facebook posts she answered to mothers complaining that they don't get enough sleep. Isn't that a constant complaint of mothers with little children? What did Vange (mother of 10 children) have to say?

"It is amazing how much we need more sleep when we confess we are so tired and haven't slept in the last six months! I remember one time thinking, "Far out, I think I slept four to five hours straight! I feel like a million bucks!". You can actually can get adrenaline shots just by your frame of mind! When you tell yourself that you are just going to doze and get sleep when you can and that a few hours is AMAZING, your attitude changes.

It's a passion of mine to liberate mothers who are under the delusion that life should be as it was before they had children. Mothers can so easily allow their minds to get out of whack because they think that life, sleep, and noise should be the same as before they married. Of course it will not! It will be SO different, on many levels, sleep being one of them. Your world is no longer going to be "normal," but it is going to be better if you have the right attitude and understand how GREAT it is!

We need to get "on track," planting both feet in the Land of Motherhood with abandonment. It is only as we make this decision that we can be joyful in this season of our lives. All books you read should line up with God and His ways."

Love from Nancy

I was talking to a young mother recently and picked up on a phrase as she talked. She shared with me how that before marriage she and her husband were counseled by their church pastor to wait to have children and "ACQUIRE YOUR WEALTH before you think of having children."

I was astounded that in the name of God, a pastor would encourage a couple to accumulate material possessions and "transitory wealth" and to deny them the real truth of the wealth of children! Surely, children born in the image of God and who are eternal souls who will live forever are greater wealth than cars, houses, and "stuff" that will all be left behind.  

Which wealth are you accruing? Wealth that last forever, or "wealth" that will be left behind?

Love from Nancy

It is an incredible thing for us as human beings to know that we were born to reveal the likeness of God. God says of His people Israel, "This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise" (Isaiah 43:21). Although this Scripture is primarily speaking of Israel, it also relates to us as God's redeemed people. God did not create us to for our own pleasure, but for His pleasure (Revelation 4:11). He created us to show forth His praise and His glory in the earth (Isaiah 43:7).

We go to the New Testament and receive the same message (Ephesians 1:6-7; 13-14). We were created to "show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9). The NET translation says, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues (which is the correct word according to the Greek) of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

Each day when you wake up, your highest purpose is to reveal God's virtues (the excellencies of the life of Jesus Christ who lives in you) to your husband, your children, and the world around you. And you thought you had no purpose in life? What higher vision could you have?

And you can extend that vision? Seek to be a FAMILY that is a praise to God in the earth, in your neighborhood, and in your church fellowship. What a great vision!

Love from Nancy

Every mother loves her children, but not every mother loves motherhood! This is why many mothers feel frustrated and hemmed in. They spend years training for their career and now mothering is a threat to their plans. Of course they love their children, but they reject the career of motherhood!

Dear mother, can I share with you a secret? It's not enough to love your children; you have to love and embrace your career of mothering to enter into the fullness and anointing of all that God intends for you. It is your highest destiny. It is God's plan for you. Why not stop "kicking against the pricks" and enjoy it?

Start right now and say out loud, "I LOVE MY CAREER OF MOTHERHOOD!" Come on now, say it again! "I LOVE BEING A MOTHER!" The more you confess it the more it will become part of you. You are going to become a motherhood lover! You are going to start laughing instead of frowning.

Love from Nancy

Enoch was 65 years when he began Methuselah (Genesis 5:21-24). Something happened to him when Methuselah was born and he began to walk with God. He had such a walk with God that God took him home to himself without him dying.

How did he walk with God? He didn't go into a monastery. He didn't isolate himself from everyone around him. The Bible tells us that "he begat sons and daughters." He may have had hundreds of children over the next 300 years--children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and many more generations.

Enoch walked with God in his everyday life--feeding his chickens, tending to his livestock, fathering new babies and communicating and teaching his children and their generations. His life was full, but he didn't do it according to his own plans, but by listening to God and talking to Him about every detail of his life.

Dear mother, you can walk with God in your home, facing all the challenges of raising your little ones and teenagers. Oh I know that you thought you were perfect until you had children! Then you wondered what happened to your walk with God!

Don't despair. Constantly remember God is with you. Not only with you, but IN YOU! Talk to Him about everything. Talk to Him about your children all throughout the day. Walk with God in your kitchen and when you walk into your laundry and wherever you go. Walking with God is practical daily life.

You don't have to go to a mission field to walk with God. You are doing it right now in your home.

Love from Nancy

Did you know that all wisdom is not godly wisdom? The Bible talks about man's wisdom, vain wisdom, fleshly wisdom, wordy wisdom, foolish wisdom, worldly wisdom, perishing wisdom, crafty wisdom, conceited wisdom and Egyptian wisdom. This is an eye-opener! We can't trust all wisdom. We must seek God for discernment to cut through man's wisdom to understand God's wisdom. God's wisdom is revealed in His Word and therefore we must be filled with His Word to understand His wisdom. 

Egyptian wisdom is an interesting one. Acts 7:22 says that "Moses was learned (educated from a child) in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." Egyptian wisdom is humanistic wisdom. What did God do with Moses' Egyptian education? He took him out to the backside of the desert for 40 years to get rid of it! He couldn't use Moses to be a leader of His people when filled with Egyptian wisdom. And what did God do with the children of Israel when He brought them out of Egypt? He caused them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years to get rid of Egyptian wisdom out of their brains and hearts before He brought them into the promised land.

And yet what do many Christians do? They send their children to the public school each day to be educated in Egyptian wisdom (the vain wisdom of this world). Do they want their children to be used mightily by God? Well, God will have to allow their children to go through His dealings at some stage to get all that Egyptian wisdom out of their system before He can use them in His plan!

Why waste their time? Why waste years of our children's lives that will need to be eventually eliminated from their hearts?

Love from Nancy

Each morning at Family Devotions we read THE DAILY LIGHT ON THE DAILY PATH which is a compilation of Scriptures on a certain theme for morning and evening. Did anyone else read THE DAILY LIGHT this morning?

One of the Scriptures we read was Ephesians 3:10-11 telling us of God's amazing plan "that at the present time, by means of the church, the angelic rulers and powers in the heavenly world might learn of his wisdom in all its different forms. God did this according to his eternal purpose, which he achieved through Christ Jesus our Lord" (GNT).

How mind-boggling! God's plan for us as His redeemed people is to not only show forth His salvation and power in our daily lives, but to reveal God's wisdom and power to angelic rulers and powers! Such is the awesomeness of "CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

Remember today, dear mother, that as you yield to the anointed life of Christ in you, that you are not only revealing Jesus to your children as you nurture and train them in your home, you are not only influencing those you meet each day, but you are also ministering to principalities and powers in heavenly places! Are you awestruck too?

Let's live today in the breathtaking fullness of all that God intends for us.

Love from Nancy

Who is the originator of abortion? And yes, even the Birth Control Pill which has the possibility of aborting a newly conceived baby? We know that Margaret Sanger was the instigator of publicizing birth control and the originator of Planned Parenthood, but the desperation to eliminate life goes back Satan himself! Jesus stated, "He was a MURDERER FROM THE BEGINNING" (John 8:44) and he comes "to steal, and to kill, and to destroy" (John 10:10).

Of course, he couches his plans with niceties and makes it look "good, pleasant, and wise" just as he deceived Eve in the beginning (Genesis 3:6). But, he is also called the Deceiver and Jesus went on to say, "There is no truth in him, When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for HE IS A LIAR, AND THE FATHER OF IT."

Why do Christians side with the Murderer and the Liar?

Love from Nancy

I have been thinking lately of how easily we succumb to society around us. How easily we give in to what is put upon us without really thinking about it. We are told to immunize our children, so that's what we do. Everywhere we go we read posters reminding us to get the flu shot NOW! So off we go and do it. But, do we ever check out the implications first?

It is the same with education. Why is that some self-proclaimed educators decide what subjects, what textbooks, and what is written in the textbooks be the criteria for all the children of our nation to learn? Someone who we don't even know dictates the education of our children's brains! And we all say, Yes Sir!  How narrow and inhibiting.

And although homeschooling parents do not use the same humanistic textbooks as public schools, they are often still victims. They think their children must learn what everyone else is learning. They subject their children to making sure they finish every curriculum they purchase, whether it relates to the child or not. Children don't remember a thing they are not interested in.

Can you imagine what could happen if we thoroughly taught our children how to read well, write well, speak well and do basic math--and after that, let them go for it?

Every child is unique. Every child has some genius in him. And the world of knowledge is at his feet to explore. God is the one who teaches man knowledge (Psalm 94:10) and He intends the gifts He has divinely put in our children to make room fort them in life (Proverbs 18:16). Can you imagine children being able to research, investigate, dream, and think about the things that God has put in their mind and heart? We would produce geniuses, which God intends, but which the enemy does not want and curbs through our controlling and humanistic education.

Our children would never lose the wonder for learning which is one of the greatest joys of life. There is nothing more joyous to the soul to discover something new and learn more of what God is putting on your heart. This is God's gift to all our children.

Let's get out of the box and excited about the wonder of learning.

Love from Nancy

The Christian life is a MORE AND MORE life--a life that spills over into our daily life, our wifehood and motherhood.

Proverbs 45:18 says, "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth MORE AND MORE unto the perfect day."

Forget the survival mentality as you mother today. Put MORE joy into your mothering. Pour MORE love and encouragement into your children. Seek MORE creative ways to inspire and teach your children in the ways of God. Put MORE zeal into your homemaking. Never submit to the status quo.

What about your marriage? Is it a MORE AND MORE experience every day? Put MORE thought into loving and encouraging your husband. Smile MORE at your husband. Show MORE kindness to your husband. Think of MORE ways to bless and help your husband. Love and kiss your husband MORE passionately.

Enjoy a MORE AND MORE day today  in your home. Get out of the rut of endurance into exuberance. There is a higher realm God wants you to enjoy. Don't live sub-level.

Love from Nancy

What is my favorite marriage Scripture? We have no doubt as to how God wants us to live as wives, as God has made it plain to us in the Scriptures. However, I often say that if we had no other Scripture, the following one would be all we need for a successful marriage. It constantly challenges me.

Philippians 2:5-8 says, "Let his mind (or this attitude) be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

How is it that we hang on to our stubborn attitude (which is usually quite ridiculous) when Jesus was prepared to give up Heaven and His Godhead to die for our sins? How is it that we can't even humble ourselves when Jesus, who was used to the glory of heaven, was willing to humble himself to become a man for us?

Le's seek to have the same attitude as Jesus. This attitude will not fail to bring blessing to your marriage.

Love from Nancy

Sitting at breakfast at a recent Above Rubies retreat a mother shared with me how they were counseled to avoid having children when they first married. In the counseling session, the couple asked, "What do you think about us just trusting God?" God had been convicting them that if God was truly Lord of their lives, they should trust Him for children too. The pastors laughed with scorn at such a preposterous idea!  Siding with the devil's plan to eliminate life, they continued to provide them with information regarding all methods of birth control.

In spite of their "advice" they knew they had to obey God. They later moved on from this church. Many years later they met these pastors again at an airport as they traveled with their seven children to a family wedding. They greeted one another cordially as they all boarded the same plane together, However, these two pastors were very embarrassed and did not know where to look. In front of their eyes were seven delightful and beautifully behaved children--children who would not be alive if they had taken their advice!

Their counsel would have deprived them of these blessings, not only for the parents, but for the blessing of this world, and for eternity to come.

Love from Nancy

P.S. This mother is now joyfully expecting their ninth blessing.

The life God gives us in His kingdom is an abounding life. It is above the normal status quo. He wants us to abound in everything in our lives (2 Corinthians 8:7). That means abounding and overflowing as we face the challenges of motherhood each day. Yes, right in your kitchen, when a child is annoying you, one is crying, and everyone seems to want you at once!

"Please get real," you say. "This is a bit over the top. And you don't understand what I am going through." Dear wife and mother, did you know that the word "abounding" is Bible language. It's repeated over and over again, along with other words such as "abundantly, exceeding, increasing, multiplying" in every area of our lives. And they are written to believers who were suffering and going through persecution.

One of the "aboundings" is to abound in thanksgiving (Colossians 2:7). The actual Greek word means "overflowing, over and above, enough and to spare, superabounding, excelling and exceeding." Now, that's not  normal is it? It's over the top! So let's get with it.

Do you start the day thanking God for all His goodness and His great salvation. Are you thanking Him in your heart all day long for every little thing that happens? This overflowing thankfulness spills over to everyone around us. Do you continually thank and show gratitude to your husband? When he does something for you do you take it for granted, or spill over in thanks? Why don't you stop and give him a call right now and thank him for the wonderful husband and provider that he is? Thank him for marrying you!

And don't forget your children. Thank them when they do a task. We give loads of commands, but often forget the thanks, don't we? Let's live the overflowing life.

Love from Nancy

What are the very first words we hear God speak in the Bible? Genesis 1:3 says, "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."

God is light. He loves the light. He lights everything around Him. When He comes into our lives He fills them with light.

Because God has filled us with His light, this should also be our passion. Loving the light. Hating the darkness.

Is there a dark place in your life? Ask God to fill it with His light. Are their places of darkness in your home? Has darkness and evil subtly intruded through the media, computers, or literature? Ask God to expose all darkness and flood your home with His light. Don't let one corner go unnoticed. When you allow evil to hide in a little corner, it will soon encroach upon the rest of the home.

Be a darkness exposer and a light flooder!

"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Love from Nancy

"Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start," sang Julie Andrews. It's a good place for us to start too, in every situation in life.

The first words of the Bible state, "In the beginning God." He is the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." Everything began with God. Your life began with God, therefore everything in your life should begin with God. When you have a concern about something to whom do you turn? Do you call your friend? Do you call the doctor? Do you call a counselor? Or do you go to God first? That should always be the "beginning" thing that we do.

Psalm 119:160 tells us that God's word is "true from the beginning." To understand truth on any subject we must go back to the beginning. That means back to God and His Word.

We should begin our personal day with God. We should begin our family day with Family Devotions to acknowledge that He is preeminent in our home. 

Wouldn't this be a good habit to get into in our lives? To begin with God in every situation. That we we'll always be on the right track!

Love from Nancy

I was thinking this morning of the blessed life we have living here in the West.  However, did you know that while we live in comparative ease and comfort, that 200 million Christians across the world are currently suffering from some form of persecution? And did you know that over 100,000 Christians are murdered each year for their faith?

We dare not forget about these persecuted believers. I believe we have a responsibility to pray for them each day. If we were being persecuted, we would certainly like to know others were praying for us, wouldn't we? 

As you gather your family together for Family Devotions each morning and evening, remind one another to pray for the persecuted church. Google "The Persecuted Believers" and find out true stories to share with your children to give them a heart to pray for families who are suffering.

Hebrews 13:3 says, "Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body." To understand it more simply the NLT translates it, "Remember those in prison, AS IF YOU WERE THERE YOURSELF. Remember also those being mistreated, AS IF YOU FELT THEIR PAIN IN YOUR OWN BODIES." That's pretty clear, isn't it?

In our home we use, Praying Through the 100 Gateway Cities of the 10/40 Window at our Family Devotions (you can order this through the Above Rubies website). It gives information of the most needy cities in the world and how to pray for them. It is most enlightening and we find it a wonderful help to us in praying. We pray for one city for a week before we go on to the next one. The children love praying for these cities too, and also learn about countries and cities they have never heard of.

Praying families shake the world.

Love from Nancy

COUNTRIES WHERE CHRISTIANS ARE PERSECUTED

Further to my post, FEEL THEIR PAIN, here are some of the countries where believers are being persecuted. Pray for them.

Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Chiapas, Mexico, China, Colombia, Comoros, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gaza, and the West Bank, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mindanao, Philippines (Colin and I lived in Mindanao when we were first married doing missionary work--there are many Christians in Mindanao, but also Muslim areas where there is persecution), Mauritania (we have just been praying at Family Devotions for Nouakchott in Mauritania with a population of 99.0% Muslim, this poverty stricken desert country with only 0.4% Christian), Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tibet (China), Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Yemen.

Love from Nancy

I was inspired recently by reading again Psalm 104:24, ""O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in WISDOM hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches."

There are endless numbers of scientific books which tell us of the intricate wonders of God's creatures. We could go on and on, but what about the zebras? Did you know that no zebra has two stripes exactly alike? Everyone is different.

What about the Emperor Penguins? They live in the Antarctic, the coldest place on earth with winds as high as 100 mph. The female lays her egg at the beginning of winter and then the male cares for the baby-egg. He holds it on the top of his toes, keeping it off the ice so it won't freeze. Plus, God created a thick fold of skin on his belly which hangs down like a blanket to cover the egg to keep it warm in the freezing conditions. God thought of every tiny thing.

I can't resist reminding you about one more. Most caterpillars only live a few weeks before turning into moths. However, the Arctic woolly-bear caterpillar lives for 14 years as a caterpillar! Late in the summer the woolly-bear starts making antifreeze. As the temperature freezes, the caterpillar's gut freezes, then it completely freezes (not even a breath or beating heart) until it thaws out in the spring. God enables this little caterpillar to remember to make the antifreeze each year and then survive 13 winter freezes!

However, God's highest creation is the male and female. He also made us with His perfect wisdom. Every part of our body is planned by the Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Eternal Architect. It makes me wonder why we mortals think we know better than God. So many, even those who say they believe in God, reject the way God created them. They have tubal ligations and vasectomies to make sure God's perfect plan cannot work. If they don't have surgery, at least they'll use some form of birth control to make sure their fertility, designed by God, is ineffective. In doing so, they deny their Creator and His wisdom.

Love from Nancy

Scriptures to look up: Psalm 95:6; 100:3; 119:73; Isaiah 29:16; 45:9-10; 64:8; Romans 9:20-21; Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:10.