Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

I am continuing to answer comments from I LOVE HOME. Another dear mother writes, “I'm with you to a point, but I miss working as a nurse and I feel locked up like Rapunzel while constantly at home.” This mother is obviously a very caring and nurturing person as this is what nursing is all about it. Nursing is only an extension of mothering. So why not be the greatest nurse and mother in your own home? Not only to your children, but to the hurting and needy around?

The home is primarily a nurturing center, a sanctuary to nurture and raise our children. But it is also the hub where everything happens from birth to the grave.

Dear mother, you are the one who determines the status of your home. You can keep it boring where nothing much happens, or you can make it the most exciting place in the world where so much is happening that you no longer have any time to think about yourself.

Ask God to give you a vision for your home? Which mother would He like you to invite for lunch, to bless her and her children and bring encouragement into their lives? Which family would He like you to ask for an evening meal or Sunday dinner after church to encourage and enrich their lives? Perhaps you feel you cannot afford to have extra people in your home. Let me give you a secret. You’ll eat better when you reach out in hospitality than when you keep to yourself. Try it and see.

Have you thought of inviting a few widows to your home and giving them a special meal and evening, and arrange a concert where your children entertain them with all their gifts. What about a club for children in your neighborhood to tell them about Jesus?

Why not start a weekly prayer meeting in your home? A prayer meeting for Israel, for your community, or for the nation. This nation is languishing because of lack of prayer. You can turn that around!

We live out in the woods of Tennessee, but we are never lonely. There is hardly a moment when the house is not filled with people and folks coming and going. I believe the

What is your gift, your passion, and your vision? Make it happen in your home. This is where God wants it to take place, because remember; the home is where everything is meant to happen!

Love from Nancy

Dear lovely wives and mothers, Thank you for your lovely comments regarding yesterday’s post, I LOVE HOME. Would you mind if I took the next few days to comment on some of the comments? I think it will be encouraging for all.

One precious mother writes, “I’m struggling with this as my home doesn't feel like home. I’m so grateful that God has given this place but it needs so much work doing to it and money spent that we don't have.”

Dear mother, and so many other mothers in similar circumstances, can I encourage you to not get bogged down with all the problems and what needs fixing and repairing, and instead enjoy what you do have? You are so blessed to have a roof over your head, a place of shelter for you and your children, and a place to raise them for the glory of God. You don’t have to have everything perfect to do the great job of raising godly and effective children for the kingdom of God. You just have to have the right attitude.

It all comes back to our attitude. It’s certainly not hard to get depressed when things are not as they should be. I know. But, it is amazing what you can do even in the most primitive and imperfect situations. I could even complain myself. My fridge is falling to pieces and the drawers fall out every time I open the fridge. The stove is ready for the dump! But, hallelujah, I can still cook, and I can still put some things in the fridge! So I keep praising the Lord until we can one day afford new appliances.

I think of my daughter, Serene. Currently, her husband is fulfilling contracts in different states in the country. Serene and the children go to be with him as they are able. His last contract was in Mississippi and he and his brother rented a tiny home for them to sleep when not working—no homely things for a woman! But, Serene couldn’t be parted and she and the eight children spent a few months with him in this little home. The children had to keep quiet all day while the men slept as they worked night shift. She couldn’t let them outside because it was next to a quarry with sheer cliffs a few feet from the house! And she was at the end of her pregnancy!

We arrived to bring her and the children home so she could have her new baby in Tennessee. Instead, she had the baby on the day we arrived in Mississippi. That night Colin and I slept on their blow-up mattress and it was so uncomfortable we couldn’t sleep all night! Serene slept on it every night in her last weeks of pregnancy.

I asked her, “How on earth did you do it?” With a big smile, she said, “God gave me grace. I loved our time in that place.” You see, it’s not the circumstances, but our attitude!

I think of my daughter, Evangeline. They live in their tiny home with their 10 children. They are building on bedrooms, but they are still not completed. The children have never had beds and have slept on the floor all their lives! But, no one complains. They all love their life and you couldn’t find happier children. The boys all want to be tough and train for the Delta Force anyway!

How does Evangeline homeschool and run a home in such tiny circumstances? It’s her attitude! Ask her how she is doing today. She’ll reply, “I’m great. In fact, I’m God’s pet! God is so good and I have a wonderful life.” Evangeline also loves to say, “I’m caring for children, not stuff!”

Please, dear mothers, get your eyes off your circumstances and put your eyes upon the Lord. Thank the Lord for what you do have. Rejoice in what He has given you. Make the most of what He has given you and make it the most beautiful place in the world even if everything is half-finished and falling down around you.

One of the challenges of homemaking is to make something that maybe ugly into something that is beautiful. Isn’t that exciting? As another mother commented, “I used to live in a basement apartment where pipes were coming out of the ceiling, but it was our home at the time and I loved being there with my growing family.” If you have pipes coming out of the roof, decorate the pipes and make them an amazing feature! Who wants to have a boring house anyway? Make every negative into a creative and beautiful thing.

It’s the atmosphere of your home that counts. You can have joy, fun, laughter, and most of all, the presence of the Lord in a tiny unfinished home. You can have coldness and complaining and discontented children in a large and beautiful home.

It’s not the building, it’s the atmosphere. Have you got it?

Love you. NANCY

Paul asked the question in 1 Corinthians 4:7, “What do you have that you were not given? And if it was given to you, how can you brag?” (CEV). How we need to be reminded of this question. Truly, everything we have and everything we are as a person has been given to us by God. We cannot lay claim to one thing! We have no room for boasting.

What a difference this truth makes to our lives. We are cast upon God for our every breath. He is our Source, our Life, our Hope, and our Salvation. Every gift and talent we have has been given to us by God and therefore we are responsible to Him to use it for His glory (Matthew 25:14-30).

What about our children? We cannot claim them as our own, either. They are gifts from God, and therefore, once again, we are responsible to God for the way we train them and prepare their hearts to receive God’s direction for their lives. We cannot plan their path, or even bend them in a certain way, apart from God’s way. God has already put His chosen gifts and talents in them and planned their destiny before the foundation of the world. We can’t take any credit for their gifts. They are all given by God.

I look at my grown children (and some of them already have grown children of their own) and I see more than ever that God created each one uniquely. I cannot boast of their gifts and talents because they were indelibly placed within them by the hand of God.

You can trust God for your children because He has planned their lives.

Love from Nancy

It’s our attitude that counts, isn’t it? What kind of an attitude did you wake up with this morning?

Don’t let your feelings control your attitude. Determine your attitude and your feelings will follow! That’s the victorious way to live!

I was challenged today by the attitude of Jesus. When He came from the glory of heaven to this earth to accomplish the Father’s will, He didn’t do it grudgingly, but He delighted to do the Father’s will, even though it meant giving His life. Psalm 40: 8 says, “I DELIGHT to do thy will, O my God.” His was the ultimate sacrifice, and yet He DELIGHTED to do His Father’s will.

You are in the Father’s will as you create a godly home and tenderly nurture the children God has given you. He is the One who has given you this task. What’s your attitude? Do you complain and groan? Or do you DELIGHT to do His will?

Change your attitude to DELIGHT today. Check out Deuteronomy 28:46-47 which tells us that God takes His blessing from us when we do not serve Him with “joyfulness, and with gladness of heart.”

Love from Nancy

In my last post, we talked about the first thing God did after creating man—He blessed them.

Do you remember what He did next? I’ll give you a minute to think about it.

Yes, I’m sure you got it right. He spoke. What did He say? Genesis 1:28 says, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.” The very first words that man ever heard from the mouth of God were to be fruitful and fill the earth. These words followed His blessing.

It is interesting that when God talks about being fruitful, or children coming, that He first blesses the couple. Blessing always comes before fruitfulness. You can’t even have a child without the blessing of God. Isn’t it amazing that God’s blessing is always fruitfulness, and yet so many don’t want to receive it?

Let’s keep under the fount of God’s blessing.

Love, Nancy

P.S. I have given a whole chapter of my book, BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY to the Scriptures that speak of God’s blessing before He sends fruitfulness. You can check them out by ordering the book from

What was the first thing God did after He created man? I'll give you a little moment to think about it?

He blessed them. Did you get the right answer?

God is a BLESSER. He wants to bless you. He wants to bless your family.

And because we are created in His image, we should be blessers, too. It should be second nature to us. More correctly, it is God's nature in us.

Did you bless your husband this morning? Have you blessed your children today? If not, there's still more time in the day.

Let's make it a habitual part of life to speak life, blessing, and encouragement to each one in our family each day, and to all we meet.

Love from Nancy

God told His people of old, and I am sure we need to be constantly reminded today, “Do not learn the way of the nations… for the customs of the peoples are delusion” (Jeremiah 10:1-3). Read also Leviticus 18:3 and 20:23). And yet, we assimilate. When we look into the mirror of God’s Word we can be surprised at how much we are like the world rather than the standard of God’s Word.

That’s why it is so important to daily fill our minds and hearts with God’s truths and impart these truths to our children. Otherwise, we have no standard, except what we see around us, and often it is contrary to God’s way.

Why is it that Christian parents limit their families, and sometimes even scoff at having more children? Why do Christian parents want to send their children to state schools where the Bible and prayer (which are foundations of our nation) have been banned? What do Christian parents run their children around to every sport and extracurricular activity? Isn’t it because they have assimilated?

In many cases, the Christian’s standard of dress, movies, literature, and divorce, etc. lines up more with the world than God’s Word. And they think it’s normal!

Isn’t it time for a turning back? Isn’t it time for “normal” to be God’s normal, rather than the world’s normal?

What’s your “normal”?

Love from Nancy

Some extra Scriptures to check out if you have time!
Isaiah 60:1-2; Jeremiah 6:16; 18:15; Matthew 5:13-16; James 4:4; 1 John 2:19-21.

Unless we have been successfully indoctrinated by humanist and feminist dogma, it is inherent within us to love being at home. God created the first home, the Garden of Eden, to be ready for Eve when He created her. He placed her in her home, in the environment He intended for her destiny. The Hebrew for Eden means “delight.” We should delight in working in our garden and our home. It is our sanctuary to raise our children in this dark world.

We read in Micah 2:9 that God was indignant about women being taken from their “pleasant homes.” Most translations read, “The homes they love.” It is feminine to love being at home. The Hebrew word means “delicate and delightful.” The mother brings softness and sweetness to the home. She creates the warm and loving atmosphere. Without the mother in the home, it is stark and cold. And once again, we have the word “delightful” relating to the home.

Take joy in delighting in your home today. Delight in nurturing your children. Delight in spoiling your husband. Delight in making your home a delightful place to live—for your husband, your children, yourself, and everyone who comes in your doors!

Love from Nancy

Horace Greeley said these words, “It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom.” It is hard to believe that in this great land, “the land of the free,” that our freedoms are slowly eroding away from us. Is it because we are no longer a people of the Book?

As I talk with Christian young people I find they are more familiar with the names of movies, actors, and singing stars than they are with God’s Word. In fact, they are not very familiar with God’s Word at all.

Dear mother, we are accountable before God to fill our children with God’s Word. We must not only get it into their hearts, but into their mouths (Isaiah 59:21). How can God’s Word be their guiding light if they don’t know it? How can it become their world view if they don’t know it? How can it affect their lives to change them into the image of Christ if they don’t know it?

It won’t just happen. As mother we have the responsibility to make it happen (Proverbs 6:20-24).

John Quincy Adams said, “So great is my veneration of the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable members of society.”

As you impart the principles of God’s Word deep into the hearts of your children, you become a nation-impacting mother, defending the freedoms of your nation.

Love from Nancy

With one little member of your body you can change the atmosphere in your home, melt your husband to pieces, determine the destiny of your children, and influence your world around you. You know what it is, of course. Your tongue.

Ask God to fill your tongue with loving, joyful, positive, and healing words today. Proverbs 15:4 says, “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life.” The Hebrew word for “wholesome” is marpe and means, “a medicine, curative, therapeutic and healing, and a source of vitality.”

God wants your tongue to be a healing tongue—healing wounds, hurts, insecurities, resentments, and estrangements. Again, Proverbs 12:18 reminds us, “The tongue of the wise is health.”

Speak life and healing into your home today.

Love from Nancy

David confessed in Psalm 26:3, “Thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes.” David did not forget God’s love to him. He continually meditated on it and acknowledged it.

May God save us from forgetting all His goodness to us. We only have to look out the window to see God’s wonderful creation. But, more than that, how can we forget His great salvation?

Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan!
Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary!

How can we go for one day without thanking and praising Him for His sacrifice upon the cross for our sins and for the eternal redemption we have received? I think this is one reason why it is so important to have Family Devotions morning and evening with our families. At least two times in the day we can remember His lovingkindness to us and His great salvation. And isn’t this the least we can do?

David made sure that he declared out loud the lovingkindness of the Lord every morning and every evening. Psalm 92:1-2 says, “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: to show forth (declare, tell, proclaim) thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night.”

Did you notice this is a good thing? Better than a lot of other things that compete for our time.

Love from Nancy

Have moments of prayer been part of your daily mothering? Whatever need arises, you don’t have to think what to do. You already know. Pray.

We need to constantly be ready to give thanks, too. Whenever something good happens, thank the Lord. Thank Him out loud. I don’t want to be like the nine lepers who never bothered to thank Jesus for their healing, do you? Only one took the time.

It’s so good to get into the habit of thankfulness. Establish this habit in your children. There are so many little things that happen throughout the day for which we can thank the Lord. Remind your children to thank the Lord, too.

This last week we had two big opportunities for praise. We have had no rain for so long and everything is parched and dry. The bans were on throughout Tennessee for no grilling and no fire works on July 4th. You can imagine how the children were praying for rain?

God was good. Two days before July 4th we had a huge downpour of rain which only came down on our county. We praised and thanked the Lord for the rain.

But, it was more than rain. It was a thunderstorm too. Jireh, Evangeline’s son came running in from the storm, slid, and hurt his knee. He stopped to recover on their deck and was hit with the lightning. Evangeline and the girls were even stunned inside their home. But, once again, God did a miracle and he is totally fine. And, we had our huge fireworks as usual on July 4th. Praise the Lord.

Love from Nancy

Do you have a busy day planned? Of course you do. Every moment is filled when we have precious children to care for isn’t it?

How about fitting in some prayer? Romans 12:12 tells us to be “instant in prayer.” Many other Scriptures exhort us to “continue in prayer.”

“Help,” you cry out! “My whole day is filled with cooking, caring for my baby, teaching my children, cleaning the house, and a thousand other interruptions—and you expect me to pray all day too? Impossible!”

I know. My day is filled to the max, too. So, how do we do it? How can we continue in prayer throughout the day? I believe it is having an attitude of response toward God. We turn every frustration and problem into prayer. We turn every sigh into a Hallelujah!

The children are squabbling; hold their hands and pray with them. It sure works better than screaming at them. One of the children is having a problem with his lesson; pray together about it. One of them falls over and scratches his knee; pray for him.

Perhaps a friend calls to ask prayer for a specific need or to share that a friend is in labor. Don’t say, “I’ll be praying.” Instead, pray together immediately over the phone right at the moment.

My, we as mothers can be continuing in prayer all day long as we constantly and instantly bring every matter to God. Don’t forget the “Thank You” prayers, too. Whenever something good happens, even a little thing, praise and thank the Lord.

Have a great day continuing in prayer.

Love from Nancy

Do you feel like you are in a prison and you can’t break your way out?

Look to your Breaker. In Micah 2:12-13 we are given a picture of the Lord, the Messiah as the Breaker of Israel, the One who breaks open a way for His scattered people to come back to their land.

But, He is also your Breaker. Where you can’t see an opening, He will make the breech and lead you forth. He has already done this in His death upon the cross. He defied the power of death. He broke forth, carrying away the gates of sin, hell, and death and is gone before us into the eternal kingdom.

You think there is no way out of your bondage? That’s a lie. There is nothing in your life that God can’t break open. Put your hand in His. He will lead you forth from your darkness into His glorious light.

Then your mouth will be filled with laughter and your tongue with singing (Psalm 126:1-2).

Love from Nancy

Isn’t it amazing that many people would rather stake their lives on the temporary rather than the enduring? Many believers conduct their lives on the contemporary values of our modern society.

Jeremiah 6:16 says, “Thus saith the Lord, Stand in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” What are these old paths we are to seek after? Doesn’t it seem rather old fashioned to ask after “old” ways?

But what does this word really mean. The word “old” is olam in the Hebrew. It means “from time immemorial, without end.” In most places in the Bible this word is translated as “everlasting.” God’s ways for us are everlasting ways. They stand the test of time from the beginning of time to the end. They were refined in the courts of heaven before they were given to us on earth. They are divine, they are eternal, and they work!

Forget the modern humanistic trend. They are going down the wrong track. Dare to stand up and be counted. Go after God’s everlasting plan, no matter what relatives or friends have to say. Rejoice when God gives you another baby. You are walking in the everlasting plan.

Love from Nancy

Philippians 1:1 enjoins to be “filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ.” Isn’t it wonderful that every word that God gives us in His living word relates to us in our daily life? That means right now, in our kitchen with our children, and whatever is happening. And that could mean challenging, or even overwhelming!

What does it mean to be a righteous mother? What does it mean to establish a righteous home?

Let’s get it straight. Righteousness is not legality. Righteousness is not stuffiness. Righteousness is not religiosity. Righteousness is not going around with a long boring face!

Righteousness is the life of Jesus shining through our lives. It is His life shining through our smile, our words, and our actions. It comes forth from our hands and feet as we serve with joy in our home. Righteousness is equated with joy. Speaking of Jesus, Hebrews 1:9 says, “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”

You are not called to create a “religious” home, filled with laws and regulations. You are called to establish a righteous home, filled with the joy and peace of the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17).

Love from Nancy

Jeremiah confessed, “The Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one” (Jeremiah 20:11).

Some time back Evangeline’s husband, Howard had a dream or a vision (he is not sure what)--something that rarely happens to him. He saw three black lines that looked like steel bars but they were slightly arched. He wondered what on earth he was seeing when God came to him in a powerful way and his whole body trembled through and through.

The Holy Spirit spoke to his heart, “These are the eyebrows of the Lion. He is much bigger and much nearer than you think!”

We often fail to realize with our puny minds the awesomeness and terribleness of our God. And, dear mother, this is the God who is with you to help you in your divine task of raising your children. He gave you this powerful career and He will not forsake you. He is your great and mighty God. Nothing is too hard for Him. Nothing takes him by surprise.

And, He is with you in your home, right now!

Love from Nancy

We don’t have to do one thing to drift with the current, do we? It happens without our doing anything. We can lay back and relax and watch the world go by.

Hebrews 2:1 Weymouth says, “For this reason we ought to pay the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, for fear we should drift away from them.” He also comments, “Drifting is an unconscious process. Often it is not until we are actually on the rocks that we know that we were in danger.” And Westcott comments, “We are all continually exposed to the action of currents of opinion, habit, action, which tend to carry us away insensibly from the position which we ought to maintain.”

Conversely, it takes concerted effort and untiring strength, conviction and purpose to go in the right direction, which most times is against the current of this world.

I am sure you are living against the grain of this society. Keep standing strong. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t cave in to the easy way. You may receive scoffing and contempt from family members and people around you, but put your shoulders back and lift up your head. You are on God’s course! Your end is “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Your disdainers are deceived and deliriously drifting on dangerous currents.

And please, do everything in your power to keep you children from drifting in the current of this world.

Love from Nancy

Micah 4:5 says, “Though all the peoples walk each in the name of his god (whatever captivates their attention), as for us, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.”

Do you want this confession to be the testimony of your family? I want it to be our affirmation, “As for the Campbell family, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.”

What a great affirmation for you and your children to speak out loud each morning, “As for us (put in your family name), we will walk in the name of the Lord our God.” Perhaps you could all say it together at breakfast time. At least, find the most appropriate time of each day to say it together, especially when daddy is with the family.

What a privilege to walk in the name of the Lord God. And what a responsibility to take His name upon our lives and our family, and all that His holy and awesome name represents. As we make this a family confession and testimony, it will remind us to conduct our lives in a way that will not bring dishonor to His glorious name.

How long are we to walk in His name? Forever and ever. This is my prayer for our family and the generations to come, that they will all continue to walk in the power of His name.

Pray daily, not only for your children, but for the generations to come. Your mothering is not only for today but to influence future generations.

Love from Nancy

Micah 4:5 says, “Though all the peoples walk each in the name of his god (whatever captivates their attention), as for us, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.”

Do you want this confession to be the testimony of your family? I want it to be our affirmation, “As for the Campbell family, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.”

What a great affirmation for you and your children to speak out loud each morning, “As for us (put in your family name), we will walk in the name of the Lord our God.” Perhaps you could all say it together at breakfast time. At least, find the most appropriate time of each day to say it together, especially when daddy is with the family.

What a privilege to walk in the name of the Lord God. And what a responsibility to take His name upon our lives and our family, and all that His holy and awesome name represents. As we make this a family confession and testimony, it will remind us to conduct our lives in a way that will not bring dishonor to His glorious name.

How long are we to walk in His name? Forever and ever. This is my prayer for our family and the generations to come, that they will all continue to walk in the power of His name.

Pray daily, not only for your children, but for the generations to come. Your mothering is not only for today but to influence future generations.

Love from Nancy