PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 193: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, PT 4
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 193: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 4
Christy Ireland joins me again today. We are still discussing the GOOD land of motherhood and the good things God wants us to do in our land. Can you believe that cooking and preparing meals is a good thing? Yes, God says it is GOOD! Even submission is a GOOD thing. Help, is this really true? Listen to Christy's testimony on this subject.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. We are still on point number one: MOTHERHOOD IS A GOOD LAND. And at the end of last session, we were talking on 1 Timothy 5:10 and all the wonderful, good works of a woman in the home.
The first one the Bible talks about is that she brought up children. Do you remember how I told you that word means “to nurture and to feed”? So, feeding and cooking is so much part of motherhood. Now, ladies, I know cooking meals can often be like an interruption in your day. But I don’t want you to look upon it as an interruption. I want you to look upon it as such a blessing! This is part of your anointing of motherhood.
I have always found, raising our children, and even still today, I keep to the same format; that I stop whatever I am doing at a certain time, usually no later than 5 o’clock. I will go to the kitchen to start preparing. And if I’m having company, people over for a meal, and perhaps needing to do more preparation, I will start at 4 o’clock.
WHY NOT MAKE IT LOVELY?
We often don’t eat until 6:30. It takes me a good, at least, hour and a half to prepare a meal, longer if I’m having a lot of people. Because I do love to cook lovely meals. Not just for visitors but for my family. I love to cook lovely meals. Don’t you think, ladies, that everything we do should be lovely? Why just throw some stuff on the table? Why not make it lovely?
I think you may have heard me say this before, but it changed my life, after years and years ago, I was watching that movie called “Babette’s Feast.” In that movie, there is a line of this woman who was a great chef. What was happening in the movie, she wasn’t in her restaurant, she’s a great chef but she was away from her country, and she was working for these people. But she put on this amazing meal.
There was this guy who’d been in the army. He was high up in the army and he’d been to her restaurant in France. This amazing meal reminded him of this restaurant. And he got up, and he was giving a speech, and he said, “There was a woman who knew how to make every meal into a love affair.” Wow!
I heard those words. I’ve never forgotten them. And I thought, “That is my aim. I WANT TO MAKE EVERY MEAL A LOVE AFFAIR.” So, I want to make every meal lovely. Not just the food. I want to make the table lovely. I want to make the atmosphere lovely, so everybody who comes wants to come, and is going to feel the atmosphere of the table and of everyone sitting around together.
It doesn’t just happen, ladies. You have to make it happen. And you’ll have to stop what you are doing. You have to do that. We can get onto projects, and oh, this is what I want to do. Forget the meal!
But there’s going to be a hungry husband and hungry children. If the meal’s not ready, you’re going to not have a very happy husband, and you’re not going to have very happy children! What do you think, Christy?
Christy Ireland: Yes, it can get a little chaotic if you don’t . . .
Nancy: Oh, by the way, Christy is with me again! [laughter]
Christy: Hello again! Yes, a household can get a bit chaotic if the meal isn’t ready when the hunger hits. That is a lesson that I have had to learn. My amazing husband has been so patient with me, as I love to sew, and I can be up in my sewing room all day, every day, if I wanted to be in. I do have my children up there with me, but sometimes I forget to stop. I myself, might even forget to eat.
AN IMPORTANT PRIORITY
But he has had to show me, yes, you are so good at sewing, at what you do. But you should probably learn how come down and make us some meals every once in a while. He just showed me that there needed to be order in our home and that there were priorities. Cooking meals was a much greater priority than sewing. He taught me how to make priorities in the home.
I do have to stop what I’m doing. I do have purposely . . . I like what you said though, about having a specific time. I probably should do that when I get home. Set an alarm, 4 o’clock. It’s time to go down and start the meal.
But we do have pretty specific eating times in our home, because like I said, we do like order. We like things to run smoothly so we do our breakfast at a certain time. And we’ll have a snack before lunch usually, just to get them over. But they all sit at the table when they eat. That makes things easier. Everybody has the same snack, everybody’s done. Nobody will be ready for food until lunch. I won’t have some children fed and some not fed, and who ate what? That makes things a little hard in our house. Then we have lunch. It’s the dinnertime that sometimes slips my mind but I’m learning.
It’s been pretty cool, living in our camper, because we’re in such a tight space. It’s been really fun, just getting to cook in this teeny, tiny, little kitchen with all my children around, and my girls help. Things are still going very smoothly. So, yes, we do love to give them good food and make sure everybody’s fed, because when everybody’s fed, they’re happy.
Nancy: That’s definitely a way to keep everybody happy, isn’t it? It’s amazing how food keeps everybody happy.
We continue looking at this description of this woman in the home, and the good works that she did. So, “If she has brought up children.”
The next thing: “If she has lodged strangers.” If she has shown hospitality. This was another criterion of a woman that they were going to support. Now Paul said, if this woman has lived this lifestyle, I want you to look after her in the church and provide for her. But she has had to have lived this lifestyle, which reveals that this is the lifestyle that God has for His women.
So, it starts off in the home. Then it’s reaching out in hospitality. Do you notice that it also involves cooking and food? So much a part of our lives. You can’t show hospitality without preparing a meal! I think that’s why some people, maybe, don’t show as much hospitality as they could. But this is what God says here. He’s showing that this is the lifestyle that we’re meant to live.
Hospitality is not something that, “You know, well, maybe I might do it someday.” Or “Yeah, I know those people. They’re so good at hospitality. That’s their gift, but it’s not my gift.” No, the Bible talks about it in His Word. It says that we are all to be “given to hospitality.” We are to love hospitality. The early church met together daily in each other’s homes. I think we need to come back, little by little, to that lifestyle. It’s a beautiful lifestyle. It makes life so exciting. You can never be bored if you have hospitality.
Then it goes on: “If she has washed the saints’ feet.” What they’re talking about, back in Bible days, when people came to your home, they’d been walking the dusty roads. Usually, it was the task of the servants to wash their feet before they came into the rest of the house. But here it says that she washed their feet.
Once again, it’s talking about people coming into your home. If people are coming into your home, you’re not going to sit them down in a chair to look at the walls. You’re going to get them something to drink. You’re going to feed them. So, once again, we’re talking about food and cooking!
God says, “It’s a good work.” Then it goes on, and it says: “And if she has relieved the afflicted.” She’s reached out to the poor, and the needy, either bringing them into her home, or going out to take provision to them, which will usually be food. So, once again, it’s food! Yes! Preparing food!
Not just for your family but those who are in need. There are families, the mother is sick, or maybe the child is sick. So, you’re going to make a meal for them and take it over to them. You’re relieving, and nurturing, and helping the afflicted. You can’t do that without making food! So, there it is again! Just food, food, food! So, you might as well get with it, ladies, OK?
Then it says: “If she has diligently followed every GOOD work.” All these things are called “good works.” Amen!
Christy, we were talking in our last session about that word “submission,” because that’s another one of the good things that the young women are to do, to be submissive to their husbands. You said, “Oh, I’ve got something to share about that, so you must tell us in this session.
Christy: Yes, I had to learn some hard lessons in submission. I did learn in the end that it is amazing and freeing. But to get there was a very, very, very rough road. I was not being submissive to my husband as he wanted to move away from our hometown, our home state, to a totally different state. This was after we had five children at the time.
I basically was just saying, “No, I’m not going to go there.” He wanted to move, and I was not going to go there. So, our family fell into some pretty bad hardships at that time, He ended up having to go through some surgeries. Afterwards he was placed on pain medication.
He became addicted. I don’t know what other word to use. I mean, he became dependent and addicted to these pain medications to where he was getting them illegally, and all this without me knowing. So, when it came to light, our family was being torn apart, completely torn apart.
That’s the enemy. I wasn’t living a life sold out for the Lord. He wasn’t living a life sold out for the Lord. We weren’t recognizing the things that were going on, even in our own household.
This all, the Lord has showed me, came from my insubmission, even to the point where I would be laying in bed with him next to me. He’d be asleep, and I knew he needed prayer and healing from this addiction that he had. I did not want to pray. The Lord wanted me to pray over him, put my hands on him, pray out loud for his healing.
The Lord’s voice was so loud in my head, and I so did not want to pray out loud over my husband, that I would go out to my balcony so that I would plug my ears. I didn’t want to hear the Lord telling me to do this anymore, because I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t. But now I’m not even submitting to the Lord. He’s telling me to pray for my husband and I’m running outside to plug my ears.
It ended up with my husband being gone from our family. He was away. I ended up having to move out of our big, lovely house into a camper with four of our children. We had had five, but our little Andrew was in heaven already. We lived in our camper. My husband lived three-and-a-half hours away from us.
Praise the Lord for this ministry. It's called U-TURN FOR CHRIST. It’s in California. He was able to go to this ministry where they cold-turkey you. They don’t try to get you off of medication by using medication. They get you off of your addiction by sharing the Word of God with you, and praying over you, and making you work very hard.
In all of that, the Lord healed my husband. During that time of not having my husband at my side with me, all I could do was to lean on the Lord and His Word. Now I have this new, new hunger and thirst for the Lord and His Word and prayer. I was a new woman because I wasn’t anywhere without my Bible and my journal. I prayed out loud on every drive I went on. This is how I would pray like I’m speaking to you now. I would just pray, pray, pray.
I saw the Lord heal my husband. Praise the Lord, because like we talked about before, there are a lot of people who go into that and don’t come out of it. It is a miracle that the Lord healed him from that, and that the Lord has continued to bless our family. We’ve been able to go on in our marriage, and be able to go on, continuing to have children. The rest has been such a blessing.
From that, after he finished with his rehabilitation, the Lord just threw blessings in our path. I mean, “Here you go! You’re going to work at the conference center and be the groundskeeper at this amazing Christian retreat!"
From there, the Lord moved us to Montana in a very miraculous way. This time, I went, very willingly. Wherever the Lord directed my husband. I was right behind him. I knew that that consequence came from insubmission, and my insubmission to the Lord, to pray for him. So, yes, I realized, thankfully, that submission was a good thing.
Nancy: That’s beautiful. Thank you, Christy. Now you and Chad are the parents of 12 amazing children. You could never have dreamed that at the beginning, could you?
Christy: Oh, no! No, no. I would have never ever imagined just seeing my life. I’m glad that it is this way, because what I might not have planned for myself.
Another submission is the Lord opened our eyes after we were already pregnant with baby number four. The womb was to be submitted to the Lord. Just as our lives we submit to the Lord, we can’t hold this back. This is to be submitted to the Lord. He showed us that through His Word.
And, oh my, are we thankful, because that is one of the things, when I’m sitting in our tiny, little camper right now, we’re all around their table. I see all of their faces, so close together. I see their faces, and it just melts my heart. These are my children! I am so blessed!
Nancy: So wonderful! You are so rich. All these beautiful children, there are no greater riches, are there? Last night, we had a wedding rehearsal for Ben and Cherish who are getting married on Saturday. She’s marrying Ben, who is one of, not 12 children, but 12 sons!
I did a podcast a few months back with Cassie. It was “The Mom of 11 Sons.” But now she is “The Mom of 12 Sons”! Isn’t that amazing? Twelve sons. It’s so great, and they’re all such beautiful young men, too, right down to the little ones.
The land of motherhood, it is such a good thing. God wants us to be doing good things in our home. Acts 10:38: “Jesus went about, doing good, and healing all those that were sick.” Well, many of us, we just go about doing. But He wants us to go about doing good!
Even when we’re in the kitchen and preparing meals and doing the mundane things around the home, they’re such good things because they’re establishing a strong family life. You’re building into making your family strong and great.
Let’s just finish with a few Scriptures about good works again. And then I must finish this point! I don’t think I’ll take so many sessions on all the next points. So, don’t worry, ladies!
Ephesians 2:10: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.” The previous verses tell us that we’re not saved by good works, but when we’re saved and born again, we are then saved “unto good works, which God has before ordained, that we should walk in them.”
God knows your story. He knows everything that’s happening. He’s brought you to your husband. I love that. You know, I love going back to the beginning, because it’s in the beginning where we see the principles.
I love it when God created Eve. Then the next thing it says: “And God brought the woman to the man.” Such a beautiful thing! God brings the woman to the man. I look back, and I think, “I never thought of this at the time, when Colin and I came together. I thought I saw this guy and fell in love.”
But I look back and see, wow! It was God! How did I work it out? Colin lived a long, long way from where I lived and yet we miraculously met. God brought us together. You don’t feel like that about every Tom, Dick, and Harry. He makes it special for two people who come together.
He knows their destiny and what’s going to happen. He knows the destiny of how He brought you and your husband together, and the children He’s given you. He’s ordained this before the foundation of the world. He knew everything. He knew the names of your children, children that you’re yet to have! He knows their names and you haven’t even decided them yet.
But He knows! He knows, because He is omniscient. He has planned everything from before the foundation of the world. He says, “I’ve planned this for you to walk in it.” So, embrace it, lovely ladies! Walk in it.
Philippians 2:13: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
Colossians 3:17: “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”
So, everything you do, you get up in the morning, you make your bed. Do you do that? Even a busy mother? Yes, it’s an important thing to do the little things, ladies. The little things. Even making your bed.
You know, when you make your bed when you get up, it’s a wonderful start to the day. You have already accomplished something. If you leave your bed open, and a mess, it’s left unfinished. So, the first thing in the day you’ve left unfinished. You’re making a habit for the rest of the day.
Now, you make your bed and you’ve finished the job. You’re making a habit for the rest of the day which you are teaching your children. You’re teaching them to make their beds before they even come out of their rooms. Such little things, but they help to keep a home managed and in working order.
And you’re training your children from very tiny. As soon as they’re able to do it, how to finish a job. First job they start in the morning, they finish it! Otherwise, they learn to leave unfinished tasks.
We do it, every little thing, in the Name of the Lord Jesus. And giving thanks! “Oh, just some boring thing I have to do!” No! We give thanks! Yes! We’ve got to get living by the Word, don’t we? Because we usually live by our feelings and how we feel, instead of living by how the Word wants us to live.
James 2:26: “Faith without works is dead.”
James 4:17: “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” My, that’s been a challenge to me so many times. When the Lord has put on my heart something I should do, or something I should do for someone, or maybe even to go and talk to someone about something, and you don’t. Ooh. You don’t really want to, or you’re a little scared they may be offended, or whatever. But when we don’t do those things, it’s actually sin, which is a challenge to me.
Galatians 6:9: “And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Be encouraged, lovely, weary mother. I know you do get weary at times. But keep on, be encouraged, be faithful, and be glad that the end of the day will come, and you’ll have a good sleep.
Isn’t it wonderful? God gives us sleep! It is so wonderful. There are times at the end of the day that I can hardly keep my eyes open. But it’s amazing. You have a good sleep, and you wake up in the morning, and you’re ready to go again! It’s just so amazing, isn’t it? So, even if we get weary, we have renewing of sleep during the night to prepare us for another day.
LOVE IS WORK AND WORK IS LOVE
1 John 3:18: “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” Not just loving in words, but in deeds. Do you know that often we show our love by our work? And in working, we show our love, because love is not just a feeling. It’s actually work.
And even in the home, to love our husbands, to love our children, it takes work. Work to keep the home in order. Work to keep the meals going. Work to keep on top of everything. Work to just serve our husband and care for all our children. It’s work!
But love is work. If we love them, we are not complaining, “I’ve got all this do, and help me, and poor me.” No! We’re loving it! The more work we have, the more we’re going to be showing our love! Yes!
EVERY GOOD WORK
2 Thessalonians 2:17 says we are to be “established in EVERY good word and work.” I won’t give you all the references to these. I’ll put them in the transcription. We do transcribe every podcast.
But the Word of God says that we are to be “prepared unto EVERY good work” (2 Timothy 2:21).
We’re to be “equipped for EVERY good work” (2 Timothy 3:17).
We’re to show ourselves a “pattern of good works” (Titus 2:7).
We are to be “zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). That’s a good one, isn’t it? “Zealous.” Yes. We are to be excited about it.
We are to be “ready to every good work” (Titus 3:1).
We’re to “provoke one another to good works” (Hebrews 10:24).
We must “not neglect doing good” (Hebrews 13:16).
We must be “careful to maintain good works” (Titus 3:8).
Wow! Did you know there was so much about that in the Word? We’re just continually exhorted and encouraged about doing good works. It’s really quite amazing!
Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
1 Peter 2:12 says that they may see your “good works, which they shall behold, and glorify God in the day of visitation.”
Matthew 5:44: “Do good to them that hate you.”
Matthew 12:35-37 talks about speaking good words out of your heart.
Luke 6:35: “Do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again.”
Romans 12:21: “Overcome evil with good.”
Romans 15:2 encourages us to do good to build up others.
Ephesians 4:28: “Work with your hands” to specifically, I think to the fathers of the home, that they’re to work with their hands to do good things, to have enough to eat, and give to others.
God is really into work, isn’t He? He’s got some good words to the husbands, too, which we didn’t talk about today. “If a man does not work or provide for his family, neither should he even eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10 and 1 Timothy 5:8). God is very specific about working.
So, lovely mother, don’t despair when you feel that all you’re doing is working around the home. You know, you will love it when you change your attitude. If we look upon it negatively, oh, goodness me! Life’s terrible.
But when we look upon it as, “I am doing this because I love my husband and I love my children. I love the Lord, and I just want to serve Him. I’m going to do it with joy and thanksgiving!” Wow! Well, your whole attitude has changed, and every moment is exciting and wonderful! What do you say, Christy?
Christy: Yes, I agree.
Nancy: And you found that worked out in your home?
Christy: Yes, the attitude was a huge factor. If I have a stinky attitude, it’s going to follow, and my children are all going to be that way to each other. If I wake up, I like to wake my children up by saying, “Rise and shine, and give God the glory! Open up the windows! Let the sun shine in!” I’m really like that. It helps to help my children to have a good, fun attitude.
Nancy: Amen! That is a great way to start the day! I love that!
OK, ladies, I think we’ll finish now on this point number one, that the land of motherhood is a good land! Not only good. Remember, I told you the Word of God says it is “an exceeding good land.” Aren’t you blessed to be part of the good land? Do you love it? Oh, yes, begin to confess:
“I belong to the good land of motherhood!”
Next week, we will start on another description of the land. You’re going to be so excited to find out all these wonderful descriptions. So, let’s pray.
“Dear Father, we thank You that You have given us a good land, an exceeding good land. Lord, You’ve told us specifically the good things you want us to do in our land. We pray that You will help us to be faithful, and Lord, to do them with joy, to do them with thanksgiving, because we are doing everything unto You. We ask it in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”
P.S. Forgot to add these Scriptures:
2 Corinthians 9:8: We are to “abound to EVERY good work.”
1 Corinthians 15:58: “Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, ALWAYS abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
Colossians 1:10: We are to be “fruitful in EVERY good work.”
SCRIPTURES WHERE GOD SAYS HIS LAND IS GOOD
Exodus 3:8; Numbers 14:7; Deuteronomy 1:25, 35; 3:25; 4:21-22; 6:18; 8:7, 10; 9:6; 11:17; 30:5; Joshua 23:13-16; Judges 18:9 (very good); 1 Kings 14:15; 1 Chronicles 4:40; 28:8; Ezra 9:12; Psalm 85:12; Isaiah 1:19; Jeremiah 2:7 and Ezekiel 34:14.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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