PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | Episode 30 – Should We Make New Year Resolutions?

Episode 30: Should We Make New Year Resolutions?

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Introducing Pam Fields from Oregon, mother of nine children who has organized many Above Rubies retreats. Pam shares her wonderful idea of PRAYER BRACELETS, and how they help her to pray for each of her children each day. You can check out how to make them at this link: https://tinyurl.com/PrayerBracelets

We also talk about the POWER OF PLODDING. Much of life consists of plodding on each day but plodding brings rewards. Proverbs 21:5 (TLB) says: “STEADY PLODDING brings prosperity. We don’t plod around in circles. We plod purposefully—understanding who God created us to be and walking in God’s divine purpose for us. When we know our purpose, we can make drudgery into delight and the mundane into miracles. We turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. We change grumbling to glory.

Here is A MOTHER’S CREED for you to begin the New Year:

“I am not languishing.

I am not deceived.

I have a vision.

I know who I am, and who God created me to be.

I know my purpose.

I am walking in the perfect will of God.

I know it’s not easy, but I’ve counted the cost.

My goal is set.

How could my career be easy when I am influencing a nation for God, generations to come--and eternity?

How can it be easy when I am destroying the plans of the devil?

Such is the power of my God-mandated career, the highest calling ever given to women—motherhood.

I have embraced my calling. I am not intimidated by my antagonists.

I will not be moved.

My heart is fixed.

I may be hidden in my home but look out world!

I am sharpening my arrows. I am getting them ready to shoot forth and destroy the adversary.

In the power and anointing of God, I am advancing God’s Kingdom.”

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

Nancy Campbell: Happy New Year to you today, ladies! I trust it's going to be a wonderful New Year for you. Of course, we don't know what's ahead, do we? None of us do. None of us know what we're going to face. But the wonderful thing is that we know we're going to start this New Year with God, and know that He is with us, in the good times, and in the challenges that we face.

Now I have with me today, a very dear friend, Pam Fields. She and her husband are staying with us at the moment, so we are enjoying their company. Now I've known Pam for many years. She's actually been reading Above Rubies for 22 years, isn't it now? Yes, here she is! Say Hi.

Pam Fields: Hello everybody! I'm so excited to be in Nancy's living room and get this opportunity to enjoy their company. First off, it's amazing.

NC: So, this is where we are. We're just in our living room, and we've only got one mike, so we're just sitting close together here, between one mike.

Now Pam has, goodness, how many, eight? Nine? Nine children, and I have got to know them over the years, because Pam has also been to about 16 Above Rubies retreats. I wonder if you have been to an Above Rubies retreat yet?

And then she began to organize the retreats herself in her state of Oregon. So, at the Oregon retreat, when I flew out to Oregon from Tennessee, I could never get home on a Sunday evening. I'd have to wait till Monday morning. So, I had the privilege of staying with Pam, and her husband Andrew, and all their wonderful children. I have watched them grow from little ones to big ones. And they are amazing children.

Now I've got to tell you their names, because I love names! I just love different names, and I think it's so wonderful to hear the names that people choose for their children. Their oldest is Caleb, nearly 23 isn't he?

PF: Yes, nearly 23.

NC: Then they've got twins. They went and did exactly what we did!

PF: We snuck Emma in before the twins.

NC: Oh, so you did! You had Emma, so you had two before you had twins! I had one, and then I had twins. You would have had, how many under what?

PF: It was four under four.

NC: Yes, that's what I had.

PF: It was four under four, but . . .

NC: I had three under 17 months, and four under four.

PF: Yes, yes!

NC: Yes, we had the same thing. Well, you know, you look back on those days, and for me, they were overwhelming, but wonderful. How would you describe yours?

PF: It was busy! It was busy, and you know, as long as I didn't plan to go anywhere, or set my expectations really high for myself, then it was very doable. You know, I'd pack the diaper bag the night before, do anything I could do to prepare the night before.

I lived by lists. I'd think of something I needed to do, and I'd go write it down on a list. Then, when I got a moment, when everything was quiet, I'd just tell myself, go back to the list. Maybe, when I had a moment of quiet, I couldn't think of what I needed to do. My functioning was . . . I had a moment, but my functioning was turned off in my brain, so I'd use my list. Any time I had a moment, all I had to tell myself was, go back to the list, and it will tell me what to do.

NC: You were more organized than me. I don't think I had any lists in those days. I just got through those days. But they were wonderful days.

But they didn't stop at four. So, then they had Ruthie, Sarah, Clarity, don't you like that name? I love names that have meaning!

PF: Yeah, everybody needs a little Clarity in their lives!

NC: I think it's so great. It's a beautiful name, too. And then Valor. I love that name too. And then they had Eli.

Also, Pam has written in Above Rubies. So, if you happen to have Above Rubies, # 91, you can look it up! She wrote an article called, “A Generational Impact,” of the generations in her husband's family, how it has grown, and it's such a godly family. That's what God's all about, building godly generations.

But then she wrote another article, which I think was so wonderful, and it was called, “Prayer Bracelets.” Now, you haven't got your prayer bracelet on this morning!

PF: I put them in my suitcase, and I packed them because I didn't want to get flagged in the security at the airport, and then I forgot! I forgot to take them out of the Ziplock! It was my first time to fly in almost 20 years, so I just wasn't sure. I do have them with me, I just haven't put them on.

NC: It's the first time I've seen you without your prayer bracelets!

PF: I know! It's uncommon.

NC: Pam got this great idea. You've got to read it. If you've got Above Rubies, # 93, now I hope you've got one, because, if you do, treasure it with all your heart, because we've got none left!

I think we found two or three old tattered and torn ones, but this is what happens with Above Rubies. We have thousands of them lying around as we're sending them out into the nations. They gradually dwindle, until one day, hey! There's none left of that issue! So, if you happen to have that issue, do treasure it. In fact, treasure them all, because they run out, and there's no more left.

If you don't have Above Rubies, Number 93, it's a beautiful issue, the one with the picture of Arden and Esther's wedding on the front cover, you can go to Above Rubies website, https://aboverubies.org. Then go to “Articles and Stories,” and look up under the subject, “Prayer in the Home.”

We've got loads of subjects about all the aspects of family life and home life. You could go there, and, oh goodness, you could go there, and just be blessed for weeks! Anyway, her article is there, called “Prayer Bracelets,” which will tell you how to make them.

But today, just give us a little, because we've got so many things to talk about! Just give a little of your vision for your prayer bracelets, because I think they're so wonderful.

 

PF: Well, I'm really tangible. I learn things real kinetically, I think. I have to have a visual for some things. At one of the retreats, I was listening to you talk about . . . I have to refresh my memory about the ephod, and the names being inscribed. You brought up the idea of these names being inscribed to bring them to our memory.

NC: Because the high priest, he had all the names of the children of Israel on the breastplate. They were not only listed on the breastplate, each one inscribed on a beautiful gem, but also on the shoulders of the ephod. They had six of the names on one side, and six on the other. The Word of God tells us how the high priest took those names into the Presence of the Lord (Exodus 28:9-12, 29, 30).

How powerful it is, to take names of our children, into His Presence, to pray for them. So that was the idea, and then you got this practical idea!

PF: I thought to myself . . . you also talked about prayer being sustenance for our children, and for our families, and for their futures, and how powerful prayer was. I started to think to myself, I don't pray for my children all that much. I don't remember. I kind of get busy in my day, and I completely forget.

I could honestly be a week, and then I'd go, oh, I need to pray for them! I knew I needed something tangible in my face to tell me, go pray for them! So, I thought about it for a long time.

You also said, if you're relying on other people to pray for your children, to give them that covering, I mean, that's our duty as a parent. Yes, other people can pray for them, but our duty as a parent is to bring them before the Lord, and to pray for them in all sorts of ways.

So, I thought about it for a long time. My mother-in-law creates beautiful jewelry, so I asked her, I know you have an amazing way to make jewelry. How can we . . . and really what we settled on was the simplest thing. I went to Walmart, and I got an elastic cord. Then I went onto Oriental Trading Company and ordered these alphabet beads. I put each of my children's names, with alphabetical beads, on the elastic cord, and tied it shut, and put a little glue on it to keep it.

In the morning, I'd start all my bracelets on my left wrist, and as I'd go about the day, they're in front of me. If I'm washing dishes, I'd notice, here are my bracelets on my left, and the goal is, once I prayed for each child, I'd move the bracelet onto my right. With nine, I'd lose track! Start at the top and move down. I'd get distracted, or I'd start at the bottom and go up. I'd get lost somewhere, and the ones in the middle never get prayed for, because I'd get so forgetful.

So, it really changed my attitude on prayer. Even when I was driving, I used to listen to talk shows, or listen to radio. But as my hands wrap on my steering wheel, I'd see my bracelets. It helps me keep track of the time and be intentional with my minutes. Sometimes you only have one or two minutes.

Sometimes, if a certain child was on my mind to pray for, they were heading out for something for the day, I would pray for that one, and move it over to the other wrist. My goal, by the end of the day, was that all bracelets would be moved from the left to the right. If they weren't, I knew I had my work to do before bed.

NC: How wonderful. I love it! I love these practical ideas. God just loves us to be practical. That's why He didn't just say to Moses, “Now I want you to take the names of the children of Israel into My Presence.” No, He was so tangible and practical that He wanted them engraved on precious jewels, on his breast, over his heart. And then on his shoulders, because it's on our shoulders we take burdens, how we take the burden of our children into the Presence of the Lord.

So, I know you'll love this idea of Pam's. Go to the website, and look up “Prayer Bracelets,” and you'll see how she does them. They're just simple, and it could be a beautiful thing in your life.

Also, I think it's so important for husbands and wives to pray for their children together. I think that is so powerful, because the Bible says: “That if two of you, IF TWO OF YOU, shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father, which is in Heaven” (Matthew 18:19). I think a lot of couples miss out on this powerful weapon that God gives to marriage.

Because that's what marriage is about, dear ladies. It's about the strengthening of the family. God puts a man and a woman together to make it strong for the raising of the children. That's why there's a husband and a wife, a father and a mother. There are different roles, and both are needed for children.

Both are needed, and this is God's plan. Also, we have this benefit of, wow, when two, when the husband and wife pray together, there is power.

Are you concerned about one of your children? Maybe there's some area you're so concerned about, you don't what to do? Well, the greatest thing you can do is pray, but not just pray on your own. Pray with your husband.

But you say, “Well, you know, my husband is not that interested in prayer. What should I do?” Well, just ask. It's amazing what husbands will do if you ask them. You don't tell them, because husbands never do what you tell them to do! If they're a real man, like my husband, they will do the opposite.

If you ask them, it's amazing what they'll do, because they always want to have the answer to your question. They want to be able to fix every problem. So, ask them. Find a little moment, and say, “Darling, you know how concerned we are about Billy. Oh, do you think we could find a time in the day to pray for all our children? Now, I know you're so busy, but you tell me the time. We could do it maybe in the morning, or maybe in the evening, but you decide the time. Let's just bring our children by name before the Lord. When could we do this?”

OK, when can we do it? Now he's got to give you some kind of an answer. So, hopefully, he'll tell you which the best time is. Because that is a powerful thing you can do.

Well, we said Happy New Year to you, didn't we? So, what do you do? Do you make New Year's resolutions? Well, that’s something, actually, I don't do. Because maybe I did in my younger years, but they never worked. I mean, you could make a great resolution, and a few weeks go by, and you find you're not even doing it! What about you? Did you ever make them?

PF: Maybe when I was a teenager, because that's what I was told you're supposed to do, is to make a resolution. And I found it went nowhere. So, if I make a plan to do something, and it goes nowhere, I feel defeated and upset with myself.

I also realized that I could spend a lot of time spinning my wheels, chasing after new things. It's really more beneficial for my family and my life if I just stay steady with what's in front of me. I've got a plan and a program, and as I just keep doing that, it's so much more rewarding than just jumping in something new, something new, just for the sake of it. That would throw me off track. I don't have time for a new . . .

NC: That is so good, Pam. I'd like to encourage all you lovely ladies listening today, don't feel as  though, oh, “I've got to make my New Year resolutions.” No. Do you find any Scripture in the Bible where it tells you, you must make your New Year's resolutions? No, there is not one Scripture at all.

But the Bible does say the same words you said. It reminds us to keep steady. You said that word, and that's how I feel too. I feel, yes, I've just got to keep steady, keep faithful, keep steadfast, keep unmovable. As it says in 1 Corinthians 15:58, it says: “Be ye steadfast, be unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

I believe the greatest thing that we can do to go into the New Year, ladies, is to know who we are, to understand who God created us to be as women, as mothers, as wives, and the beautiful role that He has given to us, which is an anointed role, a powerful role. We need to know it and embrace it!

As we go into the New Year, not to think, “Oh, I've got to do this, or I've got to do that. No, I've got to be who God created me to be. I know who I am, and I'm going to be it with all my heart.”

I think that is the greatest thing. Just keep steadfast. There's such a powerful thing in keeping steadfast. I love that Scripture, I've always loved that Scripture in Psalm 57: 7. It's David speaking, and David confesses . . . Oh, doesn't he make so many amazing confessions in the Psalms? David was always confessing. Ladies, oh, it's so powerful to confess with your mouth. The things you confess, that's what you will work out in your life.

David said: “My heart is fixed. My heart is fixed.” He said it twice. Three times you find that Scripture in the Bible. This morning, I looked up the word, “fixed.” What does it mean? We don't use it so much in our language today. “My heart is fixed.” We would more likely say, well, I'm steadfast or something.

But this is the exciting thing. As I have mentioned to you before, is that we read a word in the Bible, but then, when we go and check out that Hebrew word, we find there's not one word to describe it. They have many, many words to give the fullness of the meaning.

So here it is: here is what this word means: “To stand fast, to be established, be steadfast, be faithful, be reliable, be ready, be determined.” That's what it means to be fixed. I know who God created me to be. And no matter what society says, no matter what my mother or mother-in-law says, I know who God has created me to be. I know my purpose. I know that I am here in the home. God has given me children. God has not given me children to give away to someone else. God gave me these children to pour my life into these children, and to bring God into them, and to teach them in His ways.

That is so powerful! Its generation impacting! Its eternity impacting. So be steadfast, dear ladies. Don't let anybody move you. You know, it's a very powerful thing to be unmovable. Well, I don't mean that in a negative way, because we don't want to be those who are unmovable in stubbornness or wanting our own way. No, no, no! There are some wives who are like this, “Well, my way or the highway!” No, we keep soft hearts before the Lord.

But being unmovable in knowing truth, knowing who I am, and knowing my purpose. We’re not going to be swayed. Now that word in the Hebrew is koon, and it's used 25 times to refer to the establishment of a dynasty. Isn't that amazing? That's what we are doing. We are establishing, along with our husbands, a dynasty.

PF: That's amazing.

NC: Dear lovely ladies! You've got little ones around you, and you think, oh, all that I'm doing is just getting through this day, trying to look after these little ones! Oh no, you're doing far more than that. You are establishing a dynasty! Because every one of these children, they're going to grow up according to how you have trained them. They're going to marry, they're going to have children, and it's going to be another generation beginning.

And then another generation. That happens so quickly. I mean, I can't believe it. Now I am up, not to the grandmother stage, I'm already now in the great-grandmother stage! And there's going to be more to come. I'm establishing, with my husband, a godly dynasty! It is so powerful!

I was thinking, perhaps, what could I say . . . people say, “What is your vision?” I often say, “I just keep plodding on in what I know I am to be, and what God wants me to do.” I just plod on. We sometimes think plodding on, that sounds a little boring. But plodding on is a very powerful thing. To plod on, to just keep going, what would you say about that?

PF: I was going to pop back up to your “fixed,” and standing steadfast, because I'm visual. I have to see it. And I imagine my little boys at their karate class. They have this stance that keeps them unmovable. They don't just stand there passively. If you stand there just passively, you're going to get knocked over. So, they spread out their feet, and they have their center of gravity, and they're prepared. They do that—they always go back to that. They always go back, between each little, you know, each little thing they do. They go back to this stance.

Because it's powerful. I think about that, in relation to how we need to be steadfast, and it's not something that accidentally happens. We move to it with intentionality, and need to be standing and have that stable, firm, we’re prepared. It's intentional. It's not an accidental thing. And we need to go back every time we make it hit. You make it push. You're going to recover, and you're going to go back, and you're going to stand in that stance. And hold onto the truth. To take that stance. So, if they hit me again, that's OK. I'm getting right back into that stance.

NC: I love that. And that's really the picture, isn't it, of Ephesians 6:13 where it says: “Stand, and having done all, stand.” Yes, that's all in the context of war and fighting. When you are standing against the enemy, as you say, you can't just lean against the wall. As you say, they put their feet apart, and they are using all their strength to stand. Not to just stand up, but to stand against, to stand against the onslaught.

And we all have onslaughts, don't we? Yes, we're all going to have things that people say, and challenges, and difficulties, and that onslaught that comes at us. But we've got to stand, stand.

I think of Ruth and Naomi. We all love that story, don't we? When Naomi brought her daughter-in-law Ruth back to Israel, they were so poor, and Ruth had to just go out and try to get some food. So, she stayed behind the gleaners who were gathering the harvest. She had to pick up the dregs, you know, what was left over, just what they'd leave to rot on the ground. She went behind the gleaners, and every day, every day, in the hot burning sun, picked up the gleanings to take back to her mother-in-law.

She didn't complain, and she didn't get into self-pity. No, she did what was at hand to do, even to just survive. She was thankful. Can you imagine, in the hot sun, this beautiful young woman is plodding after the harvesters. Just plodding on every day.

But God saw her, plodding on, being thankful. And what happened? How did she end up? She ended up marrying a wealthy land owner, Boaz himself, a prince in Israel. And she became the great-grand-mother of King David, and in the ancestry of Jesus the Messiah, who is going to establish a Kingdom that will never die, an everlasting kingdom. What an amazing thing for a young woman who just kept plodding on and being faithful!

PF: We aren't meant to see the whole picture. We aren't meant to see all that's down the road. We're called to be obedient. When we walk in the obedience, the Lord directs us. He has the big picture.

NC: I know. We're going to talk about that later, too. I know you've got some stories about that. I love that story too...You've most probably read about it, about how people were traveling in the desert of Saudi Arabia, and they came across these bones. They realized, oh well, someone has died here in the desert. But then they found a note. On this note, there was a word that somehow they could still read it, even though it had been there for a long time. It said, “I can't go on.”

The sad thing is, that this traveler just felt he couldn't go, and he obviously built a little shelter, and just waited to die. But, just over the sand dune was an oasis. If he'd just kept plodding on that little bit more, there was the reward!

That's the wonderful thing. I'd love to give you 1 Corinthians. I mentioned it before. 1 Corinthians 15:58 is a Scripture you can take into the New Year. It's not a New Year's resolution, it's just an encouragement to stand strong, be steady, be thankful, keep plodding on in what God has given you to do.

Let's read it again. I love this Scripture and have memorized it: “Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Your work will be rewarded, dear precious mother! It will be rewarded eternally.

But even before you get to eternity, God promises rewards. I am so blessed to be in this glorious reward time. I can remember as a young mum. Pam and I were talking about it, and we both had four children under four years of age. Oh my, they can be hair-raising times! You think, what on earth am I doing?

But now, I'm in this new time. And here I am. I have not only my children around me, who are my best friends in life, but my grandchildren, and now, great-grandchildren. I just enjoy the glory of them all. You have that ahead too. Your labor is not in vain in the Lord!

I was just thinking too, about this plodding on business, and how that can seem drudgery. But, dear mothers, we can make drudgery into delight! It's all in our attitude. We can make the mundane into miracles. Yes, even every precious child that God has given us are miracles, every one of them!

We can take the ordinary into the extraordinary, although sometimes I like to say extra-ordinary, because in God, why do we have to be ordinary? I often think to myself, now Nancy, you dare not be ordinary.

How can we? Because if we are born again, and we have Christ dwelling within us,” Christ in you, the hope of glory,” Christ Who is filled with love and joy...not just that, but the fullness of joy, the fullness of long-suffering, the fullness of rest, the fullness of victory, because He is the fullness of everything. He dwells within us. How can I be a normal, ordinary person?

I mean, I'm either walking in the flesh, or I'm allowing Christ to walk with me, in my home, doing the most mundane, boring things. But they're no longer mundane or boring! If Christ is with you, they can become miracles! And we can change our grumbling to glory! Can you really? Yes, to glory.

Oh my, did you know, and we'd better finish with this, and then you can say something too, because our time is going. But in Hosea, God speaks about motherhood being a glory. In fact, it itemizes it into sections.

It's in this passage where God is actually bringing judgment to Israel because of their sin. He says to them, “I'm going to take away your glory.” Check it out in Hosea 9:11. Then He tells them what that glory is. He said: “There will be no more conception, no more pregnancies, no more births.” That is the glory of the nation. It's the glory God wants to see, and what He looks for.

Now sometimes, we think, “Pregnancy! Oh, help! I can hardly walk around, and I've just got all these things that sort of happen to me when I'm pregnant.” Well, the Bible calls it a “glory.” We either see it how God sees it, or we see it how we see it.

And then birth, and this little baby, oh yes, these sleepless nights, the work. But it's glory! Let's see things how God sees them! So, when we're changing diapers, and nursing babies, and cleaning the house, and scrubbing the floors, and going through all the discomforts of pregnancy and labor and childbirth, it's all glory.

Well, it may not feel like it, but we've got to see the bigger picture! What do you say, Pam?

PF: Well, I was thinking, just a little back here, you said something that made me think, just something that spoke to me so much when I was in such busy years, and I really felt overwhelmed. You have people who say, “Oh, no, you've had another child?! Why are you doing this to yourself? I'm overwhelmed for you!”

These kinds of things, and we hear them so commonly . . . I remember there was a song that came out on the radio about that time, “The Voice of Truth,” I think it was Casting Crowns. The Voice of Truth tells me a different story. All of these voices are calling out to me, but I hear, I'm going to hear the Voice. “I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth.”

That was my anthem for years. Every time it came on the radio, it just encouraged me so much. I think we need to learn to sort out those voices so that we're not overwhelmed. By listening to the Lord and remembering that He truly is the Voice of Truth, that is what gives us the strength to continue, and the strength to continue joyfully as well.

NC: Amen! Well, let me finish with this little creed. It's a mother's creed that I wrote. I think it will encourage you as you go into the New Year. Stand strong, stand steady, stand faithful to your calling.

Here it goes:

“I am not languishing.

I am not deceived.

I have a vision.

I know who I am, and who God created me to be.

I know my purpose.

I am walking in the perfect will of God.

I know it’s not easy, but I’ve counted the cost.

My goal is set.

How could my career be easy when I am influencing a nation for God, generations to come--and eternity?

How can it be easy when I am destroying the plans of the devil?

Such is the power of my God-mandated career, the highest calling ever given to women—motherhood.

I have embraced my calling. I am not intimidated by my antagonists.

I will not be moved.

My heart is fixed.

I may be hidden in my home but look out world!

I am sharpening my arrows. I am getting them ready to shoot forth and destroy the adversary.

In the power and anointing of God, I am advancing God’s Kingdom.”

“Dear Father, we thank You for this New Year that's ahead of us. I bring before You every mother, grandmother, and daughter listening today, and pray that You will pour out Your Holy Spirit upon them, that You will encourage them in their souls, that You will strengthen them in their souls, that You will give them courage.

Lord, as we face the New Year unknown, and we don't know what lies ahead, we thank You that You are with us. I pray that You will make each one so strong, not in themselves, but strong in You, in trusting You, knowing, Oh God, that we cannot do anything of ourselves. But with You, all things are possible.

Bless them, and encourage them, and pour out Your blessing on their whole families, husbands, and on them, and on each one of their precious children. In the Name of Jesus, Amen!