PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | Episode 55 – How Can We Change The World? - Part 21
FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell
Podcast 55 - How Can We Change the World- Part 21
Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy: Hello again, ladies, so good to be with you again. Well, you'll never believe it, I have been talking to you for forty minutes, and we got to the end and found it hadn't recorded! We are starting again. I do hope I remember some of the things I told you. Often, when I'm speaking, I know the Lord anoints me to say things to minster to you and to bless you, and I don't think of them again, so let's pray.
“Father, I pray that You will anoint me in this session as I speak to these precious ladies. I pray that You will bless them. I pray that You will give me the words to speak into their lives. I pray that You will give them ears to hear, eyes to see beyond what they have ever seen before. I ask Your blessing on them in the name of Jesus. Amen.”
Well, it's just as well we've got a quiet day here in our house on the hilltop, here in Primm Springs. That's an unusual thing in this home, especially now that we've got to record again. We've still got some time when there is quietness. Even last week when I was talking to you, there was a commotion downstairs. Grandchildren arrived, and we couldn't even hear ourselves think up here. We had to get that all sorted out, but today, it's quietness. I have three Above Rubies' girls at the moment, and one goes back to Canada tomorrow. They're all going out with some of the cousins to rock climbing, not a real mountain but rock climbing down in the city of Nashville.
They actually went to do it last week. They were all excited. About three carloads were going into the city but sadly, on the way, one of the cars had an accident. It had been raining for three days, and one of the cars aquaplaned on the wet road, and the car got out of control, began to swerve to one side, banged into the median, and then over to the other side and back to the other side and in between semis and traffic pouring into the city.
It was miraculous. The car was totaled, but they came out alive, five beautiful girls, and they are alive. They are safe, and they are unhurt. We have been thanking and are still thanking the Lord for His goodness and for His protection, His angels that He sent. It had to be divine, angelic protection that this car careening from side to side with semis and cars coming down that highway. How they didn't miss fifty cars, I don't even know. It had to be God. It shows how we need to be praying for the safety of our family, doesn't it?
We pray for safety for our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren every morning as we begin the day. As we have family devotions after breakfast time, we always pray for their safety. We bring them before the Lord, and we have a little pattern prayer. Sometimes, we pray it, but of course even if we pray this pattern prayer, we will still pray what God is putting on our hearts. We pray that God will watch over them and keep them safe, and I've forgotten the rest at the moment . . . I'll tell you later if I think of it.
It's a good thing, ladies, to pray for your family and your children every day because our trust is in God, isn't it? I think of all our family, and they are traveling in cars, motor bikes, planes, all over the world, and in and out of the cities, and it's God's divine protection that He keeps them, so we praise the Lord for that blessing too.
Anyway, today, they've all gone into the city, and the children who are often around here have gone down to the creek. Serene and Sam have a little creek river down at the bottom of their property. It's a beautiful little creek and now it's summertime vacation. She loves to take the little ones down each day. It's a long walk down to the bottom. Down, down, down. It's a long walk back up. Serene pushes little Solly, who is 15 months, and Remy, who's four. She pushes them up this steep hill. She loves it. If I'm going with her and I say, “Can I help push?” She says, “Nope, nope.” She will not even let me help push because she wants the exercise. She loves it. Of course, all the other little children, any child from five on, are walking themselves, and they are pretty fit because they can run down those hills and run up those hills, and they get really fit. Of course, they have a beautiful time at the creek too where it is so lovely and shady.
Anyway, this unusual moment has happened in our home. Everybody and all the extras, the comers and the goers, and we are here quietly talking to you. I am still talking about these work adjectives. God doesn't leave us without knowing what to do. I have found 25 different adjectives about how God wants us to work in our homes. We are up to . . .
No. 18 WILLINGLY
In Proverbs 31, which is the Proverbs 31 chapter, of course, about the virtuous woman. This woman is more than virtuous. That's what we read, but the Hebrew word is chayil, and that actually means “valiant, brave, courageous, wealthy. “This woman is not only virtuous, she is a courageous woman, she is a strong woman, she is actually a woman of war. This word is usually used in the context of war.
It's amazing that this same Hebrew word is translated in the Old Testament as valiant when it's speaking about men. It's speaking of the valiant men ready to go to war. When it comes to the woman, they translated it virtuous. Actually ladies, valiant to face the fight. It is what we do as mothers in the home—we are facing the fight. We are facing the fight to raise our families for God in the midst of a deceived generation. The enemy is always seeking to come into our home subtly, but we are there. We are the guardian. We are the valiant women. We are the one who is ready to fight against the enemy because we are guarding the gates of our home.
It says this woman in verse 13: “She seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands.” Willingly. There we see that adjective. She doesn't work lazily or because “I just have to this job.” No, she works willingly.
Friday evenings my husband and I like to keep the Shabbat meal. Shabbat is the Hebrew word for Sabbath. Now, we are not Sabbath keepers as such in a religious way nor are we Saturday worshipers. We have our church fellowship on Sunday. But we love this meal. It is so beautiful. It's a very family-orientated meal, so we love to enjoy it. It's a time when the husband blesses his wife, and as a father, he blesses each of his children, and we love to do that. We love to do it with our grandchildren when they come over, and we love to do it with visitors. We usually have visitors for our Shabbat meal on Friday night, and it's a beautiful thing for them too, as they learn this blessing meal. That's what it really is.
At the beginning of the meal, the husband reads Proverbs 31 because the whole meal is about extolling the wife and blessing her in the home. One night, when he was reading verse 13, he said, “And she worketh willingly, willingly, willingly,” and he kept saying the word, and I really got it. Sometimes, we have to really emphasize a word to really get it, don't we?
That's meant to be the attitude we have in our homes, ladies. Everything we have to do, we do it willingly with this beautiful, willing attitude.
No. 19. WITH A GOOD ATTITUDE
We go over to Ephesians 6:7, and we read: “Rendering service,” (that means to serve, to work),“readily with good will.” We do it readily with a good heart. Now, I looked up some other translations of this Scripture, and I found eight different words that are used in different translations to describe this “working readily with good will.” I'm going to read them to you. As you listen, just imbibe these adjectives, which is the way God wants us to work in our homes.
Readily, enthusiastically, wholeheartedly, heartily, cheerfully, eagerly, with pleasure, and willingly. There we have the word willingly again. The Fenton translation says: “Working willingly from your soul.” Isn't that beautiful? Proverbs 31:13 says that we are to work willing with our hands, but I don't think we can work willingly with our hands until we first get it into our souls. We have to get it into our souls first. We have a willing attitude, Amen? When we've got a willing attitude in our souls, then we can work willingly with our hands, even if it's mundane stuff, even if it's servile, menial stuff.
Sometimes we do have to work with our hands. It's actual work with our hands. Sometimes, we've got to work hard with our hands. We've got to use elbow grease. I often have to remind my grandchildren about using elbow grease. I often have to teach my Above Rubies helpers about what it means to work using elbow grease. Do you know what elbow grease is? It's bending your elbow to really scrub hard.
Once a week, we usually scrub all the spots off our carpets. Our carpets are getting a bit old. We've been in this home for 20 years plus, and it's time we threw out these carpets. I simply can't wait to throw out these carpets and get some wooden floors. I hate carpets because they hold the dust and the germs, and they really aren't healthy things, especially when you've had them so long. We are praying and believing for some money, as soon as we can, like you are. You're most probably praying and believing for something. As soon as that happens, we are going to throw out these carpets. In the meantime, because they are getting older, every week, every Friday, which is our cleaning day, our Preparation Day, we clean the house from top to bottom.
We have to scrub any spots. Goodness me, I don't know how spots get on the carpet because I am a great believer in keeping food to the kitchen. I have lots of children running in and out of my home, and I have to remind them, you only eat in the kitchen. You can eat at the servery, you can eat at the table, but you don't take your food into the lounge, and you don't take your food into the bedrooms because that only spreads dropping of crumbs and food, and that makes more work. I like to confine food to the kitchen, but somehow, I don't think it always happens because I find spots on the carpet. I find people have obviously carried their coffees and carried this and carried that, and they've spilled it, and there are marks, so we have to scrub them off.
I find that sometimes some girls haven't actually learned elbow grease. They wipe it off, and they are doing it as best they can, but you don't even notice the dirt move. I have to show them, “C'mon, this is how you do it. Elbow grease. You’ve got to scrub. Yes, c'mon.” I'm often having to tell people how to get stuck in and work hard. I grew up with the words, “you get stuck in” and trained my children you get stuck in and you do jobs with all your might.
We are working willingly with our hands. We do have to do work with our hands, don't we? I think back when I was raising our children, especially at the beginning of my marriage, we didn't have a washing machine like we have today. I had one of those old wringer washing machines. You've most probably seen pictures of them, and they have the wringer. We would put all the clothes in the washing machine, and then I would have to do a nappy wash. What on earth is a nappy wash? Well, New Zealanders, you know, but Americans, nappies are what we call diapers down in New Zealand. My first three children in 17 months, I had Wesley, then twins were born when he was 17 months, and then I had four under four. I had lots and lots of diapers, or nappies as we called them, so we would put in a nappy wash, and then we would have to get them out and then put each one through the wringer, turning the handle on the wringer to make it go through and you have to watch because sometimes you can even get caught with things going through the wringer so you have to be careful.
Once you've done that and put them all in the basket, you have to go out and hang them on the line. Back in those days, we never had such things as dryers. Goodness me, we didn't know what such things were. Now, it's just normal. Every person puts their clothes in the dryer. Anyway, we would go out and hang our clothes out. That was one of my favorite jobs because you could get outside, and you could exercise because when you hang your clothes up, you have to lift your hands up to hang them on the line. It's such good exercise.
Now, here, in the States, I actually don't have a clothesline. Although, I do because Serene and Pearl, knowing my love of clotheslines, they bought me one a few years ago. But guess what? My lovely, darling, gorgeous husband still hasn't put it up for me, so I still have to hang my clothes out because I love the fresh air. I hang them over my deck. It's not as good as being hung up on the line, but at least they are out in the beautiful sun. I cannot even bear to wear underwear that I haven't had out in the sun. It deodorizes and disinfects and freshens, and the sun is so beautiful, and it bleaches and it's glorious.
I love my towels and clothes out in the sun. When I bring them in, unless it’s been a windy day, they come in quite stiff and hard. Well, some people may not like that because they may like to have it all soft and fluffy as they get it out of the dryer, but I love this hard towel because when you dry yourself, it's really hard, and you get a nice brisk rub. I really like that for my skin, so I love having my towels out on the deck.
I love my sheets too. I sleep in linen sheets. My husband and I haven't been doing that for long but now that we have linen sheets, we would never use any other. I would wait for a sunny day, and I wash my sheets and put them out, and it's so glorious. I bring them in in the evening and put them on the bed after being in the sun all day, freshened and made so beautiful. It's so wonderful to sleep in them. We adore it. I love getting clothes out.
I don't use my dryer unless it’s been raining for a week, I don't use the dryer, but everybody else in the house does. I have my Above Rubies' girls, and they all use the dryer. I say to them, “Girls, look at this beautiful, sunny day. Wouldn't you love to hang your clothes out on the line and get them deodorized? It's so beautiful, and they freshen, and the smell is glorious. You put your clothes in the dryer, and it wears them out. Look at all that fluff you take out every time you use the dryer, and it uses my power, thank you very much.” I don't say it like that, of course, but I would hope that they might like to do it. But nobody ever does. They put them all in the dryer because they are used to doing it. That's most probably not something you do with your hands these days, but maybe some of you do. It really is fun to do that. All right, that was the good attitude and working willingly
The next one . . .
No. 20. WITHOUT BEING SIDETRACKED
It's easy to get sidetracked, isn't it? Of course, my lovely mothers, you get sidetracked all day being a mother, don't you? Every moment someone is needing you for something. You're doing something here, and you're focused and suddenly, you have to give up the focus because you've got to attend to another little one here. I think mothering is the ANOINTING OF INTERRUPTIONS, and we have to learn how to handle them, don't we? To handle them with patience and peace and knowing part of mothering is interruptions. Though my children have grown, I still have lots of interruptions. I have lots of little grandchildren around still, so I have lots of interruptions, and we have to learn how to handle them, don't we?
We also need to learn to be focused on our ultimate goal of what we are doing, especially as a wife and mother. I think of Nehemiah. Nehemiah came back from Babylon to help build and repair the gates and walls of Jerusalem. As he came back to do that, he had lots of enemies. Now ladies, you are actually female Nehemiahs because you are building the walls of your home. You are a builder. Proverbs 14:1 says: “Every wise women buildeth her home, but the foolish plucketh down with her hands.” You are building every day. We are building into our marriage; we are building into our children; we are building into our home to make it strong and secure in God.
We are building in the midst of enemies. We've got enemies all around us. We have enemies of the media. We have enemies of the education system, all trying to pull down the family. We have the enemies of feminism and humanism and socialism, all seeking to pull down the family. Even in the midst of this, we still have to keep building. Let's have a look at some of Nehemiah's enemies:
Nehemiah, chapter 6:
“Now it came to pass when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein. That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, 'Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono.' But they thought to do me mischief.” Notice, he didn't bother going himself. “And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I AM DOING A GREAT WORK, SO THAT I CANNOT COME DOWN: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you? Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner. Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand.” This time, they came with a letter to try and get him to come down.
Then, in verse 10, we find the sixth time. He came to a home to this guy and this guy said: “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay thee. And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in. And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me.” You see that Nehemiah, as he built the wall and built up the gates, had all these enemies attacking him continually, in different ways they came at him. They tried to put fear in him and tried to make up all these excuses of why he had to come down off that wall. But what did he say? I CANNOT COME DOWN. He didn't get off that wall, ladies. He sent messengers and told them, “I'm not coming. Say what you like, I'm too busy. I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?”
Ladies, you have enemies. You have those saying all these different things to you. “Oh, why are you having so many children? Why are you homeschooling? You could be popping your children in school and getting out and doing what you want to do.” They have all these things they are saying to you, and maybe they even come from your parents or your in-laws. You've got them all around you. What are you going to do? Do you get into a state of self-pity? Do you get fears in your heart? Do you listen to them? Or do you say, “I'm doing a great work. I can't come down. I haven't got time to come down to your excuses. I know what I'm doing. I know I'm in the will of God. I know this is God's purpose for me, and this is what I'm doing.” You're not going to be affected by all the words of your enemies and your antagonists that are around you.
In the whole of society, maybe you're the only one in your street, the only one in your community, but you're going to stand strong like Nehemiah did. You notice how they come to him and in verse two they said, “Come, come, come, Nehemiah. Come down into the plain of Ono.” That's where they wanted him to come. That's where the devil wants you to come, ladies. Yes, did you notice that they hired people? Tobiah and Sanballat hired messengers to come and to trick Nehemiah and to put fears in his mind and to put falsehood in his heart and to come and try and trick him to get off that wall. It's the enemy, the devil, who uses and hires all these deceivers to bring these words to you, especially to get you down to the plain of Ono.
“Oh no, I just can’t keep doing this. I'm too tired.”
“Oh no, I don't know whether I can keep homeschooling. It's too much of a challenge for me. I'm not very good at teaching.”
“Oh no, help, I'm having another baby. What are we going to do? How are we going to afford it? Oh no.”
Darling ladies, are you listening to the “Oh no's?” The hired messengers from Satan? Or are you listening to God? He's given you this work. You are in His perfect will. He has given you a great work. It's a good work, a great work. Yes, you haven't got time to come down. I'd encourage you to take that Scripture, go to it in your Bible, Nehemiah 6:3, and write down that confession from Nehemiah: “I am doing a great work that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and come down to you?” You're up, you're not coming down. Write it up or print it out from your computer and pin it up and put it on your kitchen wall so that it will encourage you. Amen?
Alright, let's go to . . .
NO. 21. WITHOUT EXPECTING ANYTHING IN RETURN
In Luke 17, Jesus tells a parable and in verse 20, He says to them: “When you have done all that is commanded of you, say we are unworthy servants, we have only done what was out duty.” Sometimes you can think, I'm having to do my duty. But dear ladies, I want to encourage you about duty. Duty is part of life. Duty is part of every field of work, even in the field of work that your husband is doing. Every field there is duty. There are the basic principles that have to be done, even done every day, to keep that work going, to keep that project, that work, it's got to keep going. It needs the daily duties to keep it going. Even in our homemaking and our mothering, we have daily duties. There are certain things that we have to do.
Now, sometimes I know you can look at them and think, oh, this drudgery again and you can think of your duties as a drudgery, or you can think of them as a DELIGHT. It all depends on your attitude. I want you to think of your basic duties that have to be done every day, often the same thing, but not see them as drudgery but see them as DELIGHT because they are the foundation of this great home and family and marriage that you are building. Without, these foundational duties, you can't build on them; you can't even do more creative things if you don't do the duties. If you see them as a very important thing, a wonderful thing, you can see them with delight. Everyone you face, you face it with delight. Hallelujah. This is part of this great home I'm building, and I'm going to do this with delight. Hallelujah. You do duties with delight. You teach your children how to do duties with delight. Amen? I'm always challenged by these words when it says, “We are unworthy servants. We have only done what is our duty.” Maybe that's all we've done, but it's still a blessing, and God is watching the way we do our duties, and we will have our reward. Let's pray, shall we?
“Father, we thank You so much again for Your Word and for showing us these attitudes You want us to have toward a work ethic. Father, I pray that You'll give us all these wonderful attitudes in our hearts as we work in our homes, as we do the great work You've given to us. I thank You that You've given every one of these precious mothers listening a great work to do. It is a great work in Your eyes, Lord God, and I pray that You'll help them not to come down but to stay right up there in this great work they are doing. Fill them with Your joy. In the precious name of Jesus, Amen.”