My lovely husband taking Family Devotions with us this morning. He is reading from The Daily Light on the Daily Path which we love to read each day. It has Bible readings for morning and evening for every day of the year. #dailybiblereading #thedailylight #familybiblereading #familydevotions #familyworship #ilovegodsword #aboverubies #nancycampbellagency
Who is the one who can make home the happiest? It is the mother. But it doesn’t just happen. You have to have a vision to make it happen. You have to think of lovely ideas and beautiful things you can do to make it a happy place for your husband and children. Can you think of something lovely you could do in your home today? Or perhaps at your meal table this evening? I’d love to hear about your idea. #lovelythings #beautifulthings #happyhome #makeyourhomeahappyhome #motherhood #ilovemotherhood #powerofmotherhood #joyfulmotherhood #sweetmotherhood #aboverubies #nancycampbell
A long-time Above Rubies reader writes her thoughts regarding the BABY BUST.
The article “Baby Bust” struck a chord with me for many reasons. As someone who grew up in and out of the church, I never heard that God had anything to say about children or family size. I was married young, had the average two children and said, like the culture, I'm done!
The only large family I knew in church had five children and they definitely stood out. As a teen I heard the “baby machine” jokes about the mother and saw the eye rolls of church people on hearing that she was “expecting again.” (Like, doesn't she know what causes that?)
I was in my mid-twenties when I started asking some questions about having children? My husband and I came up with a list of reasons for not having any more, but I wasn't convinced that these reasons were biblical. They all seemed to be selfish or fearfully motivated.
I prayed for months that God would show us what to do. After seeing all over the Bible that children were a gift, blessing, and inheritance, we stepped out in faith and asked God to give us the faith and provision we needed to have as many as He would provide.
It seemed fruitfulness was everywhere in creation, but we had fallen prey to the ideals of the sexual revolution, sex without fruitfulness or responsibility, i.e. the pill. Feminism taught me, even in church, that as a woman you should find your worth through education, sexual attractiveness, economic contribution, and living the feminist’s utopia.
After surrendering the hardest part of my life to God—at that time, my life and my womb, I saw with each baby how the church viewed fruitfulness. I wish I could say it was pretty. I cannot tell you how many times I was scolded, derided, and even mocked for being pregnant again. Many in the body of Christ are anti-abortion but not pro-life.
I learned that Margaret Sanger and the radical sixties feminists had convinced the church that homemaking and women who have many children should be pitied, deemed backwards, and seen as repressed. I wish I could say that through the joy, pain, and sacrifices of bearing nine children, which I've laid down my life to disciple, the church has supported me, but I can't.
I think in so many ways the church has followed the culture instead of leading it, particularly regarding family, roles, children, etc. This I suspect has less to do with a biblical inerrancy/infallibility issue but rather an authoritative one. This goes back all the way to the beginning in the garden, with the serpent’s seductive voice: “Hath God said?'
A great study on how the church shifted ,after hundreds of years on this issue,, and why is the documentary called “The Birth Control Movie.”
MOTHER HUBBARD
Valerie Hubbard *This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
P.S. The Birth Control Movies, No. 1 and No. 2 are available at the Above Rubies online bookstore.
There was a time in our history when we had a Baby Boom. The years from 1946 – 1964 were baby boom years which caused rises in the demand for homes, automobiles, roads, and services. The more births the more the country expands financially.
I recently read this article about how we now have a Baby Bust. It was published in the Wall Street Journal and taken from the book by Jonothan Last: "What to Expect When No One's Expecting: American's Coming Demographic Disaster." This book begins with a quote from Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary :
“Demography is the key factor. If you are not able to maintain yourself biologically, how do you expect to maintain yourself economically, politically, and militarily? It’s impossible. The answer of letting people from other countries come in … that could be an economic solution, but it’s not a solution of your real sickness, that you are not able to maintain your own civilization.”
The following article reveals that America is need of babies. God has already revealed this to us. Isaiah 45:18 says: “For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, HE FORMED IT TO BE INHABITED: I am the LORD; and there is none else.” This is God’s blessing. He created an earth which is capable of providing for all the inhabitants that He sends!
We know it is God’s heart to give children but it’s interesting to read this subject from s secular point of view.
~ Nancy
Go to: https://www.wsj.com/…/SB10001424127887323375204578270053387…
Where is your mind today? Dwelling in the past? Or even in the present as you mull over the difficulties you face? To dwell in the past or the present can be depressing unless you are doing it with joy and thankfulness.
Did you know that God wants us to LOOK AHEAD! To that which is BEFORE! Paul confessed in Philippians 3:13, 14: “This ONE THING I DO, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Things may look pretty bleak at the moment. But it’s not the end of the world. God has got so much more ahead for you. Look ahead to what God has. Forget the past and keep pressing forward to the prize.
We read this Scripture in Philippians in our Family Devotions the other day and my husband talked about how we can easily get stuck in an eddy. An eddy is where some flowing water gets sidetracked and stuck to the side of a river. Instead of flowing with the current it goes around and around in circles going nowhere.
If we don’t keep our eyes on what is ahead, we can be sucked into an eddy. Instead of looking up, keeping our eyes upon Jesus, and the hope of what is before, we can stay in a rut (or an eddy) going over and over our problems and never getting anywhere. Remember, that’s what happened to the children of Israel in the wilderness. Because they didn’t believe God was bigger than their enemies they ended up going around in circles in the wilderness for 40 years!
We’ll never find an answer to our problems while we keep worrying about them. We’ll only know the way out when we look to the Lord and trust Him. When our eyes are upon Him, He can show us the way He wants us to go. And it will always be FORWARD. GOING AHEAD. PRESSING ON TOWARD THE MARK.
Keep out of eddies and keep running your race. It’s not the end yet!
Love from Nancy Campbell
Love from Nancy
Amen. #mother #ilovemotherhood #faithfulmotherhood #joyfulmotherhood #powerofmotherhood #ilovemotherhood #prayingmother #aboverubies
Oh how blessed we are to serve a God who cannot lie. It is impossible for God to lie. He is the changeless One. His promises are immutable. We can trust them with our lives.
1 Thessalonians 5:24 says: “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also WILL DO IT.” I love these words.
Philippians 1:6 states: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you WILL PERFORM IT until the day of Jesus Christ.”
God will do it. You can count on it.
However, because God is a faithful God and He has made us to be His people, He wants us to be faithful too. As we are faithful, even in the very little things, we show forth the character of God.
There are many things we don’t feel like doing but WE DO THEM because we are faithful. Just like God does. Faithfulness is action. It takes doing things. Doing things we really can’t be bothered doing. Mundane things. Duty things. Yes, we will do them because we faithful and we are revealing His character to our children and to those around us.
We are faithful to keep our word. Our word is our bond. When we say something, WE WILL DO IT.
Amen?
Let’s cultivate a character of faithfulness. Faithfulness to God, our husbands, our homes, our motherhood, our daily duties, and what we say. And let’s impart this character to our children. We have a generation that don’t know the meaning of keeping their word. If we belong to God’s kingdom, we’ll be faithful to keep our word, just as God is faithful to Keep His Word.
Be blessed. Nancy Campbell
What is the thing you dislike doing most in your home? What is the "very little"? Jesus says that when you are faithful to do the VERY LITTLE you will be faithful in much.
Faithfulness in the very little things adds up to BIG things.
Be encouraged today, dear mother. As you do the mundane things and the little things that must be accomplished each day, know that as you do them with joy and thankfulness, they prepare you for bigger things.
Because God is a faithful God, He delights to see faithfulness in us
Be blessed. Nancy Campbell
Serene and Sam have four big window seats in their lounge and the children love them for reading nooks. Last night when we arrived for the weekly prayer meeting at their home Breeze was reading in one seat and four little ones were cozied up together in another one. The walls of their home are about two feet thick so they can have these gorgeous window seats. #windowseats #readbooks #readmorebooks #readingnooks #readingnooksarethebest #readingchildren #booksarebetterthaniphones #aboverubies
Do things seem all on top of you? You wonder how you can keep going? Can I encourage you dear, Mother, to keep plodding on? Take one step at a time. You can’t solve your problems in one moment. Your challenges won’t go away with one magic flick of your finger. Everything takes time. Instead, you keep plodding on.
But you don’t plod on in gloom and despair. You take one step at a time looking up to Jesus. When you take your eyes off your problems and look to Him, He will show you the way. He will give you strength. He will put His peace in your heart. The greatest thing you can do is put one step forward after another.
Even when it’s hard, keep taking the next step. What do you do when you are climbing a steep mountain? You get weary. You don’t know whether you can take another step. But you do. And another one. And eventually you get to the top! It’s the same with everything in life. You just keep going and you’ll get through. You will climb your mountain.
I was reading the book of James this morning and was arrested by James 5:10. I love the paraphrase of the Message Bible: “Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and NEVER ONCE QUIT, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those WHO STAY THE COURSE!”
Stay the course, dear lovely mother. God is with you. He will not let go of you Trust Him. His ways are higher than your ways and He is bigger than every problem you face.
Many blessings to you from Nancy Campbell
No career woman would think of going to her job in her pajamas. Why then do mothers and homemakers who have the most powerful career in the nation hang around in their pajamas? It’s important to dress for your job. When you dress appropriately, your brain acts accordingly.
Proverbs 31 (Msg) says: “First thing in the morning, she dresses for work, rolls up her sleeves, ready to get started. She senses the worth of your work, is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.”
Dear mothers, dress ready for the day the moment you wake and you’ll be more able to face your day and all its challenges. #dressfortheday #highestcareer #ilovemotherhood #mothering #powerofmotherhood #aintnohoodlikemotherhood #mother #homemaker #ilovehomemaking #aboverubies #nancycampbell
Do you sometimes feel like a servant in your home? You are at everyone’s beck and call. You have no time for yourself! You’d love to be out doing something really great. Instead you are stuck in your house serving everyone else. Well, praise the Lord! You are on your way to greatness. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 20 26, 27: “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, And whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave.” You are in the very right place for greatness! #loveslave #servewithjoy #servewithlove #ilovemotherhood #powerofmotherhood #mothering #homemaking #ilovehome #ilovehomemaking #aboverubies #nancycampbell
Yes, life is precious! Yesterday my lovely granddaughter-in-law gave birth to a stillborn baby at 28 weeks. The loss of a baby is unbearable. It’s soul shattering. And yet many discard life as though it was nothing. May the preciousness of life come back to our nation. #lifeisprecious #lifebeginsatconception #godisthegiveroflife #lifeiseternal #aboverubies
Today we talk about the last point in the Scriptures that speak to us about our duties and obligations.
12. IT’S PART OF LIFE
Do you remember the parable Jesus told of the hard-working servant? After ploughing in the field all day and tending to the sheep he comes in ready to sit down and relax. How nice! No, instead, without a word of thanks his master tells him to prepare his meal and put on his apron and serve him. “Then you can eat later,” he says. You can read the story in Luke 17:7-10.
With the “demanding our rights” and “entitlement” attitudes many people have today, this parable would make them very upset! Many folks would like to eliminate the word “duty” from their calendar. Very few know the meaning of “going the second mile.” Employees clock out the moment time is up. They couldn’t give their employer one minute more of their time!
But Jesus is sharing a very important discipleship truth. If we truly are a disciple of Jesus, He will be our Master. Conversely, if He is our Master, we will truly be an obedient and submissive servant. That’s the relationship of a master and slave. And this is the relationship of a disciple. There are many who confess they are Christians but how many are disciples?
Half the parables Jesus told were about servants, which the people understood, because servants and slaves were part of the culture at that time. Paul and other disciples of Christ confessed that they were slaves of Christ. It’s the Greek word “doulos” and means “one who is in a permanent relation of servitude to another, his will altogether consumed in the will of the other.”
How does this affect us in the home? Much of what we need to do in our homes each day are duties and obligations. To keep a home running smoothly and efficiently and to keep a family fed and nourished takes time, planning, and WORK. And often it is the same thing every day. Life is spiced with adventures and parties, but the foundation is duty. It’s how the world keeps going.
Can we accept our duties with joy? Let’s see them as what they really are—productive, powerful, and impacting lives and generations to come. It’s often the mundane, habitual things of life that add up to being powerful.
Can we say with Luke 17:10: “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.”’
Matthew 24:46: “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find SO DOING. Will the Lord find us “doing our duty” when He comes?
Love from Nancy Campbell
10. WE SHOULD BE TEACHERS
Hebrews 5:12 (NLT) says: “You have been believers so long now that you ought (opheilo—it is your duty) to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.”
How long are we meant to stay spiritual babies? We would be devastated if we were still spoon feeding our little babies and toddlers when they were four or five years old! And yet many adults still need to be spoon fed when they are adults! They still don’t feed from God’s Word each day for themselves. They wait for Sunday for the pastor to spoon feed it into their mouths.
As babies in Christ we soak up the m ilk as people teach us (1 Peter 2:2). But we don’t stay on milk. We’ve got to get into the meat and learn how to get food daily for ourselves and learn how to chew on it and digest meaty things. This Scripture doesn’t say it’s a good idea. It says we ought to be doing it. It’s time we were teachers. It’s our duty!
11. THE DAILY DUTY
Both 2 Chronicles 8:14 and Ezra 3:4 talk about the daily duties of the priests. Ezra 3:4 says they “offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required.” God ordained the morning and evening daily sacrifice. They also had to attend to the fire upon the altar every morning and evening, to light the lamps every morning and evening, and to light the sweet incense every morning and evening. Among other things these were their daily duties.
God ordained the morning and evening principle back in tabernacle days which is good for us to continue each day. We keep the fire burning in our homes as we attend to our family altar morning and evening (not a literal altar, but a gathering together as a family). Any less is not enough to keep the fire burning. Any less is not enough to keep the light shining. That’s why we need to come before the Lord as a family every morning and evening to read God’s Word and to cry out to Him. This is a duty, but if God is truly No. 1 in our lives, it will be our greatest delight and the “longed for” times of each day.
When we know what’s best for our lives and family’s lives, duty is always delight.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Our finite minds cannot fathom the heights and depths and breadth of our glorious redemption. I can never fail to thank God for His great salvation each morning as we pray together as a family. We can never thank Him enough, can we? And even eternity will not be enough to show our gratitude.
What a wonderful redemption,
Never can a mortal know
How my sins though red like crimson
Can be whiter than the snow!
#eternalsalvation #glorioussalvation #wonderfulredemption #bloodofjesus #whiterthanthesnow #aboverubies
We are currently looking at the Scriptures in the Bible which specifically mention a duty. Do you remember that the word for duty is “opheilo” and means “to owe, to be morally obligated, pay the debt, express human and ethical responsibility, to fall in duty, it’s a must”?
9. THANK GOD FOR ONE ANOTHER
Paul writes to the Thessalonians believers in 2 Thessalonians 1:3 and 2;13: “We are bound (we have a duty) to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”
I think this is something we often forget to do, isn’t it? feel guilty as I think how often I forget to do this. If we thanked God more often for specific brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, we’d be reminded more of special things to do for them to encourage and spur them on in the faith. May God save us from getting so taken up with our selfish lives that we forget to thank God for other believers who are part of our lives.
Years and years ago I remember God speaking to me very powerfully. I was walking over the doorstep into my home when I heard God speak strongly to my heart, “Nancy, how can I reveal to you the needs of others if you are always thinking about yourself?” What a powerful question. We need to give God room in our hearts and minds for others. If our minds are totally taken up with thinking about ourselves, how will we have room to think of other people –to thank God for them and bless and encourage them?
Wouldn’t it be great to take on the challenge of thinking of one extra person each day? To thank God for them and to think of something special we could do to encourage them. Either give them a call, send them a card, write them a loving message, or listen closely to the Holy Spirit for some specific thing He would want us to do for them.
What do we want? To be selfish or selfless?
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
More tomorrow.
Today we continue to check out more Scriptures where duty is mentioned:
6. HUSBANDS MUST LOVE THEIR WIVES AS THEIR OWN BODIES
Ephesians 5:28 (AMP): “Even so (read verses 25-27) husbands should and are morally obligated (it is their duty) to love their own wives as (being in a sense) their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. “
This is God’s vision for marriage. His ways are wondrous. But there are two sad things about this Scripture. Firstly, the feminist movement are foundationally against men, especially in marriage. They’d rather eliminate them. How sad that they don’t understand God’s wondrous plan that a husband is to be as concerned about his wife as he is about his own body.
Secondly, it is sad that so many husbands have not been taught their duty and moral obligation from God. When they know it and embrace it, they not only gloriously bless their wives, but their own lives also! Their duty turns into glorious delight!
7. BEAR WITH THE FAILINGS OF THE WEAK
Romans 15:1: ‘We then that are strong ought ( it is our duty) to bear the infirmities of the weak, and NOT TO PLEASE OURSELVES.”
It’s easy to pass by those who are weak and struggling as we get on with our own lives with all our visions and projects But God wants us to take time for the weak and fainthearted—to invite them to our homes, to bear them up, to encourage them, and to hold them up. 1 Thessalonians 5:14 exhorts us to “comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.”
8. WASH ONE ANOTHER’S FEET
You know the incident of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet which is a picture of servanthood and willingly choosing the lowly place. Although Jesus was God and had come from the glory of eternity, He was always willing to take the humble positron. He reminded His disciples that the one who serves is the greatest in the kingdom of God. Therefore, after He washed their feet, He says to them, and to you and me: “Ye call me Master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet: ye also ought (it is your duty) to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:13-15).
These things I have been writing about in the last three posts are all so challenging, aren’t they? We know them but are we living them in our daily lives?
More tomorrow.
Be blessed, Nancy Campbell
P.S. Scriptures to look up about being a servant: (Matthew 20:26-28; 23:11; Mark 10:43-45; Luke 7:28; 22:24-27; and Philippians 2:5-8).
Here are some more biblical “duties” for you today:
3. WALK AS JESUS WALKED
This is a tall order isn’t it? 1 John 2:6 says: “He that saith he abideth in him ought to walk, even as he walked.” The word “ought” means “it is our duty.” Our life must match our confession. If we confess that Jesus is Lord and abides in us, His life should be revealed through us—in our homes and in our family lives.
4. LAY DOWN OUR LIVES FOR OUR FELLOW BELIEVERS
1 John 3:16 says: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought (it is our duty) to lay down our lives for the brethren.” The NLT says it very clearly: “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.” Do you think we must be a long way off the true picture of Christianity?
5. SHOW HOSPITALITY AND PROVIDE FOR TRAVELING MISSIONARIES
3 John 1:5-8: “We therefore ought (it is our duty) to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.” As we show hospitality and financially support those who are preaching and teaching the gospel of truth, we will be co-workers with them and with the Holy Spirit. We will be companions with them for spreading the truth.
Romans 15:27 (NLT): “Indeed they are indebted to the Jerusalem saints. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are obligated also to minister to them in material things.” The KJV states that it is their “duty.”
Is this enough for you to take in today? I certainly think it is enough for us to put into practice, don’t you?
More tomorrow.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
In reply to my podcast about TABLE TIPS Virginia Caron wrote:AboveRubies
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