Not only is it the best thing for this life but also for eternity.
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Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
Through the weekly and daily devotionals you can be constantly encouraged in your great role of parenting, the highest career in the nation. You can also stay updated on what's happening with the Above Rubies ministry.
I notice more words in this passage about marriage in Malachi 2: 14-16. Verse 14 says: “The LORD hath been WITNESS between thee and the wife of thy youth . . .” We often move along in our marriages without ever realizing how much God is involved. Yes, He is involved even if we don’t want Him to be.Do we realize that God is witnessing all our words and interactions with another in our marriage? When we are aware of this, it certainly makes a difference to how we act and speak to one another.
God was witnessing as we spoke our marriage vows, maybe similar to these words: “I take you to be my lawfully wedded husband, and forsaking all others, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, according to God’ s Holy Ordinance.”
We spoke our vows before God. We made a covenant. That’s why God uses the word “treacherous” because when we break covenant with our marriage vows, we also break covenant with God.
Proverbs 2:17 talks about the wife who “forsakes the guide of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.” Her marriage vows are called the “covenant of God.” The word “covenant” is “berit” and means “a compact (made by passing between pieces of flesh as God did with Abram in Genesis 15:17-21), a contract accompanied by signs, sacrifices, and a solemn oath which sealed the relationship with promises of blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience.”
Do you notice the words, “FORSAKING ALL OTHERS”? These words are part of our marriage vows. When we marry, we no longer have a “personal” male friend. Of course, we’ll have loads of male friends as couples and families with whom we enjoy fellowship. But never again will we go out for lunch or a cup of coffee on our own with another man. The covenant of marriage makes us “glued” to our spouse. We are one. No longer two. If we don’t understand this concept, we don’t understand God’s concept of marriage.
And remember, God is WITNESSING.
Blessings to you today from Nancy Campbell
Painting by Marjansart
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Sharing more thoughts from yesterday’s post. The Message paraphrase of Malachi 2:15 says: “’I hate divorce,’ says the GOD of Israel. GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies says, ‘I hate the VIOLENT DISMEMBERING of the ‘one flesh’ of marriage.’ So watch yourselves. Don’t let your guard down. Don’t cheat.”Let’s get it straight. God loves divorced people, but He hates the spirit of divorce. Why? Because it tears apart what God has made one. God loves making two things into one. How did each one of us begin? The sperm from our father fused with the egg of our mother and immediately we were conceived. A new person. No longer two but one. The devil hates new life. The destroyer who comes to steal, kill, and destroy seeks to eliminate this new life. Precious new babies, conceived through God’s wondrous working are dismembered limb by limb in the womb.
The devil also hates God’s plan for marriage where God brings two people together and makes them one. In Matthew 19:4-6 (NET) which is repeated from Genesis 2:24, Jesus said: “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be united with his wife, and the two will become one Flesh’? So they are NO LONGER TWO, BUT ONE FLESH.”
God’s plan for our marriage is oneness. This is the very first principle that is mentioned about marriage. He wants us to come together as one flesh, but He also wants us to be one soul, one spirit, and with one vision and purpose. The devil loves destroying God’s plan of oneness. He wants to dismember marriages. Mutilate them. In the same way he is behind the dismembering of precious babies in the womb, he determines the same for marriages. He wants to dismember them little by little and piece by piece.
No marriage suddenly falls apart. It happens gradually. It happens little by little. That’s why we must guard our marriage in every part—physically, spiritually, emotionally, and our thought life. This is perhaps the biggest area of all. Everything begins with our thoughts.
The enemy of our souls tries to bring negative thoughts to you about your husband. Guard your thought life. Cast out every negative, self-pitying, destroying thought in the name of Jesus.
1 Peter 5:8, 9: “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring line, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom RESIST steadfast in the faith.” Don’t become a victim. Instead, RESIST.
We must not only watch our thoughts but our spirits. Husbands are not perfect. There will be times when they may say and do things that hurt and wound the soul. This is where we must reach beyond our feelings. Instead of allowing our hearts to become hard, we soften our hearts to forgive, to forbear, and to love. We stand strong and will not allow the devil to have the victory. We will not allow him to dismember our oneness. NOT EVEN ONE LITTLE BIT!
When God talks about a man cleaving to his wife in Genesis 2;24 it is the Hebrew word “dabaq” and literally means “to cling, to be glued to, stick fast.” When God made you and your husband one, He glued you together. Satan will try to unglue you and slowly dismember you. Do not let him.
In the strength of the Lord you can stand against his temptations!
Love from Nancy Campbell
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It’s good to remind ourselves how God looks upon marriage, isn’t it? The passage in Malachi 2:13-16 gives powerful words to every marriage: Verse 14 says: “. . . Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt TREACHEROUSLY: yet she is thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant."The word TREACHEROUS is used five times in this passage about marriage. It’s not a light word. The word is “bagad” and means “pillage, to deal deceitfully, treacherously, unfaithfully, to offend, to transgress.”
God created marriage to be a complete oneness of body, mind, soul, and spirit (Genesis 2;24). Marriage is the strongest metaphor in the Bible to reveal God’s relationship with His people. Firstly, with Himself and His chosen people, Israel. God looked upon Israel as His bride. When the Israelites turned away from Him and served other gods, God said they were like a wife turning away from her husband. He uses the word TREACHEROUS again. Read the following Scripture.
Jeremiah 3:20: “Surely as a wife TREACHEROUSLY departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt TREACHEROUSLY with me, O house Of Israel, saith the LORD.” Therefore, this word, TREACHEROUSLY is used of both the wife and the husband who depart from the marriage.
The Bible also reveals that marriage is a revelation of the relationship between Christ and His bride, the church. This is why marriage is so powerful. God is the originator of marriage. Not us. He designed it. He planned it. It’s the glorious way He wants us to live on this earth.
The Holy Spirit wants to inhabit even the smallest details of our marriage. If we could only be aware that God witnesses every moment of our marriage. He wants to be in EVERY LITTLE DETAIL of our marriage—in our sexual union, our daily living, our attitudes, and our interactions with one another.
What could happen if we allowed the Holy Spirit to come into every detail? Every situation we face together. Every word we say to one another. Every disagreeing moment? Yes, it would certainly make all the difference.
I am challenged to do this. Are you? Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to come into every little detail and moment of our marriages. He will show us how to react to one another. As we yield to Him instead of our ugly flesh, He will make our union more and more beautiful and wonderful.
More about this tomorrow.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Painting by William Henry Gore
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When do you begin reading the Bible to your children? We don’t need to wait until they are able to understand the Scriptures. God’s Word is “alive and active.” It goes beyond the mind. Hebrews 4:12 (NET) says that His word goes beyond the intellect and pierces “even to the point of the dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow.” It ministers to the soul, the spirit, and the body.This means we start at the beginning of life, even in the womb. Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:15 and says: “From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
I love the Message which says: “You took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother’s milk!” Don’t you love that? You can read the Word aloud to your baby as you nurse him or her at the breast. As your husband reads God’s Word to your family at our daily devotions, your baby imbibes the Scriptures even as he nurses from the breast.
The word for “child” in 2 Timothy 3:15 is revealing. It’s the Greek word “brephos” and from other Scriptures we see that it means:
a) a child in the womb (Luke 1:41, 44),
b) a newborn babe (Luke 2:12, 16), and
c) a little child as in 2 Timothy 3:15.
God’s word leads us to salvation. A child growing up in a godly home where the Word is read daily will come to salvation at an early age. Some are ready for salvation at three or four years of age. And the sooner your children receive God’s salvation the better it is. Satan wants the souls of your children. He subtly woos them from an early age.
Is your baby hearing the Word? Are your little toddlers being filled with God’s Word? And of course, are your older children being daily and richly filled with God’s Word? If you are not filling them with God’s Word, they will be filled with the influences and spirit of this world.
How can it be that little six-year-olds from Christian homes can know the words to worldly songs and yet not know the Scriptures? Let’s fill them with the powerful, living, and eternal Word of God from their earliest moments.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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One of the most beautiful things in life is to keep a soft heart—
A soft heart toward God.
A soft heart in responding to God’s word.
A soft heart to people who speak against us.
A soft and tender heart toward our husbands.
Jesus said in Matthew 19:8 that “hardness of heart” leads to divorce. Those are very strong words, but everything begins with our heart attitude.
The only way we can keep a soft attitude is by the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. Our fleshly nature gets offended, hurt, bitter, and then hard. We must guard against these evils.
Instead, we must yield to the Holy Spirit to flood our hearts with His forgiveness and love. But what do you do when your love flies out the window and there is none left? You still have God’s love—His agape love that loves in the face of opposition and hatred.
Romans 5:5 says: “The love of God is shed abroad (poured into) our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
Offense leads to bitterness, bitterness leads to hardness, and hardness leads to divorce.
Stop the downward path to destruction now. Dear lovely wife, if you are offended by your husband, get on your knees before the Lord. Forgive—there is no other option. Unforgiveness not only hurts your husband, but you, and your family—but mostly YOU.
Every time your husband sends another arrow into your soul, retaliate with a blessing. That’s God’s way. Of course, it is the opposite to our way. But our way doesn’t work; God’s way does.
1 Peter 38 (NLT): ‘Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, PAY THEM BACK WITH A BLESSING. This is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing.”
The Knox translation says: “Not repaying . . . hard words with hard words, but blessing those who curse you,”
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).
Love to you today,
Nancy Campbell
Painting: Brian Kershisnik
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This is my husband’s message to fathers today which he posted on MEAT FOR MEN, his Facebook page. I thought you may like to share it with your husband.HAPPY FATHER’S DAY
Last week a good friend of mine told me of a TV questionnaire panel where the first of three contestants to push the button in front of them would win the point.
The question was asked, “What are the missing words in the Lord’s prayer. “Our Father which art in Heaven . . . . . . . Thy kingdom come.” Not one contestant knew the answer of “Hallowed by thy name.” How sad that they did not know the most hallowed name in the universe. This is indicative of a nation that does not know the value of fatherhood. The more this hallowed name is lost in our nation, the more we will suffer.
Where, oh, where are the true fathers? This world is desperate for men to take up the mantle of biblical fatherhood. We are desperately in need of a great revival of true biblical fatherhood.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers” (1 Corinthians 4:15).
True fathers are the desperate need of the anchorless age in which we live. Without fatherhood flying high on the flag poles of this nation we will flounder around like a rudderless ship and eventually become ship-wrecked on the rocks of liberal values. These liberal values regard the state (government) as the modern-day parents of the nation.
When I woke up this morning the Lord’ s prayer rose up from my spirit. The first words of the Lord’s prayer, “Our Father which art in Heaven,” hold the keys to understanding the value of fatherhood. Jesus Christ introduces God in Heaven as “our Father.”
Our God, who is in Heaven, is our ultimate Father, the greatest Father of all. Fatherhood is not just an earthly title given to men of the earth. It is exalted to a high, “far above all,” heavenly title.
Above all other names, God wants to be known as Father and He wants the name of Father to be hallowed (venerated, highly regarded, and greatly esteemed). Unfortunately today’s world has lost the true understanding and value of fatherhood. The further we drift away from God being our Father the more depraved we become of all the great blessings that this amazing name implies.
True fatherhood contains a very loving, intimate, and personal relationship with his children and family. This is exactly the way God wants us all to view Him. Jesus spoke more about God being a Father than all the other writers of the Holy Scriptures.
Let’s be encouraged, men, to be the fathers God wants us to be, fathering in His image.
Blessings to you and your family from COLIN CAMPBELL
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1 Corinthians 15:58 tells us to ABOUND in the work of the Lord. Motherhood is the great work God has given us to do, so why not do it with right attitude?What kind of attitude? The Bible tells us to have an abounding attitude. The word in the Greek is “perisseuo” and literally means “"to excel, to super-abound, to be excessive, abundant, enough and to spare, over and above.”
Now that’s “over the top” living, isn’t it? Is it possible live this way? In our daily life in our homes? Well, this is what God asks of us because He does not want us to live our lives according to our fleshly nature but to allow Him to live His victorious life in us. The life of Jesus is not normal. It is over and above, more than enough, superabundant.
So, let’s get started. This is what we do.
You don’t smile on the odd occasion. You smile constantly. Whenever you look at your husband, you smile at him. Do you like to do this? When you look at your children, you smile at them. When you come out of your bedroom in the morning, you come with a happy face and a cheery “Good morning” to each one. You won’t believe what a difference this makes in your home.
When you encourage your children to do their chores, instead of nagging, you find ways to make it exciting for them. Inspire them. Teach them how to work with a smile. To do it with all their hearts. That won’t be hard for them because they see you doing everything in your home with all your heart.
They don’t see you groaning, complaining, and going around with a sour face. They see you smiling and getting “stuck in” to every task. You teach them the same way.
Whatever task you do, you do it enthusiastically. Happily. Excitedly.
Teach your children the little rhyme on page 16 in my nursery rhyme book, “Nanny’s Nursery Rhymes.” This book is currently on sale at www.aboverubies.org.
Here are the words:
When I have to do a chore,
I do it straight away,
I never grumble or complain,
There’s always time to play.
I put a smile upon my face,
Because I know it’s right.
I put my shoulder to the task,
And do it with my might.
Get your children to memorize the words and say them while they work. Make up a tune for it so you can all sing it as you work.
When it’s time to prepare meals, don’t sigh because there’s another meal to cook. Do it with a joyful heart. Make every meal a love affair. Go beyond the normal and make it special. Praise the Lord you have the opportunity to make nourishing healthy meals for your husband and children.
Throw yourself into your great calling. Don't do it half-heartedly, or half-time. Don't do it grumblingly, grudgingly, or grouchily.
Never the status quo, but more than is necessary.
Have a fun day,
NANCY CAMPBELL
Painting: Roger Wilkinson, “The Suburban Legend.”
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I hope they’ll say she looked straight in our eyes,
She listened to us through our lows and highs,
She encouraged us, prayed for us, helped us do more
Than we ever thought we could have done before.
I hope they‘ll say she laughed and smiled,
She worked hard, but all the while
She whistled and sang, and you can be sure
The most mundane job was an adventure.
I hope that’s what they will say
When they have their own children someday
And they tell them about their mom,
The mommy I am now.
I hope they’ll say she loved braiding hair,
Playing outside and catching toads there,
She planned picnics, tea parties, and wooded tree forts,
Expeditions, outings, games of all sorts.
She said our giggles were her favorite sound,
We’d tickle each other ‘till we rolled on the ground,
And when she read a story, the book came alive,
We could hear all the voices if we tried.
I hope that’s what they will say
When they have their own children someday
And they tell them about their mom,
The mommy I am now.
When Mommy taught us something new,
Hearts mattered more than how much we could do.
And now as we look back and see,
Because of the helpers she let us be . . .
Her jobs took longer and made more mess,
But she knew relationships were the best.
And she always would include us too,
In all the things she had to do.
I hope that’s what they will say
When they have their own children someday
And they tell them about their mom,
The mommy I am now.
Mommy always said, without a doubt,
We were the best friends she’d ever known about.
We knew she was our best friend too,
And felt quite certain it was true.
Whatever the day, the plan, the weather,
We were happy just to be together.
Side by side and hand in hand
We learned to grow and understand.
I hope that’s what they will say
When they have their own children someday
And they tell them about their mom,
The mommy I am now.
She would quickly say she that was sorry,
Ask forgiveness for when she got angry.
We often heard her pray and ask
For strength for this important task
Of raising us, for well she knew
It was far more than she could do.
But in His strength, she chose to rest,
Knowing His will was the very best,
And living it with all her might,
She embraced it all day, and also night!
I hope that’s what they will say
When they have their own children someday
And they tell them about their mom,
The mommy I am now.
ANNA FREY * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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My husband was talking with a young father yesterday. He commented on his lovely family around him and asked if he planned to have more children.“Oh no,” he replied. “We couldn’t afford it.” This is a typical answer. What is the bottom line that we don’t believe that God can provide? This is not the God we read of in the pages of the Bible.
He is El Shaddai, the God who is Enough.
He is Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides.
He is the one of whom David testified: “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging bread” (Psalm 37:25).
He is the God who pours out His blessing upon us to multiply us and give us children (Deuteronomy 7:11-15; 13:17; 28:1-12).
Do you remember how God provided for His people in the wilderness? When the provision of food ran out God sent manna from Heaven. Every single day (except the Sabbath) for 40 years! God never failed.
This was not a limited provision. God told the people that each day they were to go out in the morning and gather an omer of manna for each person in their family. I haven’t been able to determine the exact measurement of an omer. Different researchers give different answers such as it equaling 6 pints, 4 pints, 2 points, 9.30 cups. A couple did an extensive study and believed it was 3.4 US cups.
The Expositor’s Bible Study Guide gives this interesting information. To feed the three million people God would need to send down with the dew 18 million pints or about 13.5 million pounds each day! To get a better idea it would need a train pulling 45 cars with 15 tons of manna in each car to take care of one day’s supply. That means 1.5 million tons of manna gathered annually.
Has God changed? No, He is still the same God today. Do you believe in the God of the Bible? Or a god of your own imagination? A god who is only able to provide for two or three children? Sadly, this is the god that many believe in in the church today.
Let’s get to know the God of the Bible.
Love from Nancy Campbell
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God is the creator of the home, and it is meant to be the most beautiful place on earth. It is meant to be a replica of God’s home in heaven. Jesus asked us to pray: “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 5:10).
Of course, everything that God designed, the devil hates and seeks to destroy. He wants to steal from us every lovely thing God intends for us. God woos women to the home which He made for them and where we find true rest and joy. The devil woos women out of the home and into a life of deception.
Our God is a dwelling God. He loves to dwell. He dwells in His home in heaven. He dwelt amongst His people in the tabernacle and later in the temple in Jerusalem. He dwells in our hearts. He wants to dwell in our homes. And He will dwell with us for all eternity (Revelation 21:3).
He also wants us to be a dwelling people. The word dwell occurs 468 times in the Bible, translated by many different words. I found 26 different Hebrew words for the word “dwell” and five more that speak of a temporary dwelling.
Every Hebrew word gives a beautiful description of dwelling in our homes. Let me tell you about one. The word “mnuwchah” means “matrimony, repose, consolation, an abode, comfortable, quiet, resting place, still.” Although it means to dwell in a home, it also includes matrimony. When we marry, we make a home—a place of comfort and consolation, a repose, a resting place for God, ourselves, and our children.
Here ae a few Scriptures where it is used:
“My people shall dwell . . . in quiet resting places (mnuwchah)” (Isaiah 32:18).
“The ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them in the three days’ journey, to search out a resting place (mnuwchah) for them” (Numbers 10:33). God intends our homes to be resting places.
"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside still (mnuwchah) waters” (Psalm 23:2).
“The LORD grant you that you may find rest (mnuwhchah), each of you in the house of her husband.” God wants us to find rest in our marriage and our home.
And God Himself speaks and says: “This is my rest (mnuwhchah) forever; here will I dwell; for I have desired it” (Psalm 132:14).
God desires to live in rest. He wants to rest in your heart and in your home. Will you make your home a resting place?
Love from Nancy Campbell
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Does Jesus Christ have the preeminence “in all things” in your life and in your home? That means all the little things as well as the big things. I think that if we get into the habit of giving Jesus the preeminence in the little things it will be the norm to give him the preeminence in the big things, don’t you?
What are some of the things where we should give Him preeminence? I am sure you can think of many. I think we should learn to give Him preeminence in every attitude. When we decide to stay grumpy and mad, or bitter and hurt, or smoldering with self-pity, we are not giving the preeminence to Jesus but to our ugly fleshly nature! We must choose what we will do. We either yield to the flesh or yield to the life of Jesus that dwells within us.
When we retort and react negatively to our husband, we are not giving Jesus the preeminence. We are showing to our husband our “old man” and hiding the life of Jesus from Him.
When we would rather give time to outside functions and things we can get involved with rather than tending to the needs of our children and our home, we are not giving the preeminence to Jesus. For Jesus Himself said, “Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Luke 19:14). The kingdom of God belongs to the little children. When we are nurturing and caring for our little children, we are right in the center of God’s kingdom.
When we don’t have time to gather our family together for family devotions morning and evening, we show to our children that Jesus does not have the preeminence in our home. We reveal that all the other things in life (which are all fleeting) and vie for our attention are more important than Him! Oh, how easy it is for this to happen. I find that in our home I must make it happen. Everything else in our lives revolves around our times with God as a family each day. If other things don’t get done, too bad. But we dare not miss our time with Him—or He is not first place.
What about our commitment to the people of God? I am always challenged by David’s words in Psalm 16:2, 3: “Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee: but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.” David delighted in the people of God.
God loves His people and delights in them. They are the apple of His eye. If we don’t delight in them, we are not truly delighting in Him. For if we delight in Him, we will love what He loves. Therefore, we are committed to the gathering of God’s people each week. It is our delight. It is our love. It shows that He is preeminent in our lives. We don’t allow other things to cloud this weekly commitment.
“And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that IN ALL THINGS HE MIGHT HAVE THE PREEMINENCE” (Colossians 1:18).
Oh, yes, there are so many other areas. Let’s seek to give Jesus preeminence “in ALL things.”
Be blessed today,
Nancy Campbell
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The church is filled with tolerating people today, tolerating things that God hates, often because they do not know the truth.If we are a believer we have a responsibility to know what God says and if we are truly a disciple we will tremble at God’s word.
Isaiah 66:2: “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.”
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From J. R. Miller (written in 1882).Parents! You are fashioning the destinies of immortal souls!
What we want to do with our children is not merely to control them and keep them in order, but to implant true principles deep in their hearts which shall rule their whole lives; to shape their character from within into Christlike beauty, and to make of them noble men and women, strong for the battle of life.
They are to be TRAINED rather than governed. Growth of character, not merely good behavior, is the object of all home governing and teaching. Therefore, the home influence is far more important than the home laws; and the parents' lives are of more significance than their teachings.
Whatever may be done in the way of governing, teaching, or training—theories are not half as important as the parents' lives. They may teach the most beautiful things, but if the child does not see these things modeled in the life of the parent, he will not consider them important enough to be adopted in his own life.
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How is your soul today? Downcast? Reveling in self-pity? Or even dead? I have answer for you. It’s God’s living Word.Psalm 19:7 says: “The law of the LORD is perfect converting the soul.” Other translations say either:
“RESTORING the soul.”
“REFRESHING the soul,”
“REVIVING the soul,” or
“RENEWING the soul.”
I love Knox translation which says: “. . . it BRINGS THE SOUL BACK TO LIFE.”
Don’t you love that? Does your soul need to come back to life? Get back into God’s Word. You cannot expect to keep your soul alive when you don’t feed from it.
“But I don’t seem to get time to read the Bible,” you answer. I know it’s not easy when you have little ones around you. When my children were little, I used to keep a Bible beside the toilet, one on my windowsill in the kitchen where I was doing dishes and preparing meals, and one in the place where I nursed the baby. There are many moments when you can receive life and sustenance if you make them happen. Open your Bible to the Psalms or Proverbs where it is easy to read a few verses in context.
It’s the same message for our children. We would not dream of starving their bodies. We faithfully feed them three meals a day, and often in-between. And yet we let their souls and spirits starve! Make sure you gather together as a family morning and evening to read God’s Word together. You’ve got to keep their souls and spirits alive too.
Blessings to you home today,
Nancy Campbell
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I have often shared the following truth with mothers over the years. I believe that it is not enough to love our children; we must also love motherhood. Of course, all mothers love their children, but not every mother loves motherhood. Perhaps the majority don’t. Especially in our humanistic society young women have been brainwashed negatively about the career of motherhood and have been programmed instead for careers outside of the home.
However, it is not until we get the revelation that motherhood is the most powerful career in the nation and the career for which God has created us (physically and innately) and we embrace it with all our hearts that we will live in the joy of it—and walk in the fullness of it.
Lately I have been thinking that this same principle applies to marriage. Yes, we may love our husband, but if we don’t love marriage itself, we will not enjoy the fulness of marriage as God intends. I believe it is important to embrace and love marriage as God as designed it.
Many couples marry because they are in love, but they have no intention of living marriage according to God’s design. They believe they know best. Is this way so many marriages are falling apart today, even in the Christian church.
God is the One who designed marriage and therefore He know the way it works. Both husband and wife and equal in creation but created with different and very unique roles which enhance and bless the union. He designed the husband to be the provider, protector, and leader of the home. We see this even in creation when God created the male first. He did not even create the woman until there was a home ready for her and God had also given Adam a job (Genesis 2:7. He created the wife with a very special, physical body and a nurturing instinct, in the likeness of God, enabling her to bring forth children and to nurture and nourish them.
Of course, there is so much more in God’s word, plus the glorious revelation that our marriage relationship is to reveal the picture of Christ and His church. However, my main point today is that it’s not enough to just love your husband. To walk in the fullness and glory of married life, you must also love marriage. Meditate on this more. You’ll be amazed what a difference this will make.
Be blessed,
Nancy Campbell
Painting by James Coates
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Don’t you like these words? TWO OF YOU—that’s you and your husband. God gives a great promise to the two of you. It’s found in Matthew 18:19 where Jesus said: “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.”
I know that TWO OF YOU can relate to any two people who agree together. But it is tailor-made for marriage. As husband and wife, you have the privilege and opportunity to agree together, pray, and expect God to answer.
It is sad that many couples are not aware of the power they have as a married couple to see great answers to prayer. We all face many challenges as we raise our children, but God has given us the “two of you” power in prayer. Don’t waste this privilege.
Can I ask you: do you pray with your husband each day? Praying together is the foundation of marriage. And can I ask you another question: if you both don’t pray for your children together, who will? No one cares as much for your children as you and your husband. This is the greatest thing that you can do for them. Pray for them. Nothing is as powerful as praying for them. Nothing will accomplish as much as praying for them!
Instead of complaining about the difficulties and challenges of parenthood, pray together about them. You’ll be amazed at what happens.
Be blessed today,
NANCY CAMPBELL
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God’s word gets to the nitty gritty of life. It’s not only theological doctrine but that which pertains to life. To love our husband is sound, biblical doctrine. To not love them is not disobedience. Are you sowing love to your husband?
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What great advice from my friend Rosa Brandt. To hang on to hurts and bitterness will destroy your soul and those around you. Let them go! Yield to the life of Jesus who dwells in you to flow from you, His love and forgiveness.
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