Because God created you a woman, be a woman. Act, speak, dress, and nurture like a woman. In doing so, you will fulfill your destiny. How sad to live your life and not live as God intended you you live.
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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.
What kind of children are you raising? What kind of laborers does God want us to faithfully prepare for His service? The following is what I long for our children, grandchildren, and future generations. Wow, we certainly have a full-time career, don’t we? We will never have a moment to be bored!Baby lovers
Blessing imparters
Bible believers
Bible lovers
Bible obeyers
Committed laborers in God’s harvest
Courageous overcomers
Demon destroyers
Diligent workers
Evil haters
Faithful servers
Fearless soldiers
Family lovers
Freedom fighters
Fruit bearers
God fearers
God lovers
God pleasers
God worshippers
Gospel preachers
Holy Spirit empowered witnesses
Home lovers
Israel supporters
Jesus fanatics
Justice keepers
Life choosers
Light shiners
Liberal threateners
Obedient listeners
Overcoming conquerors
Parent honorers
Persecution endurers
Prayer warriors
Responsible citizens
Sharp arrows
Tomorrow’s leaders
Truth bearers
Truth keepers
Truth lovers
Truth preservers
Truth seekers
Truth speakers
Righteousness lovers
Uncompromising disciples
Valiant warriors
Wisdom getters and
Zealous servants of the Living God!
Have a wonderful day as you raise godly children for His kingdom,
Nancy Campbell
P.S. You may have some other goals to add to the list. Please share.
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(A testimony from Joyce Graves, Tennessee).I have three children. When we started homeschooling my youngest son was in second grade, my daughter in 5th grade, and my oldest son in 7th grade.
My oldest son graduated from high school with a 4.0 grade point average. One thing I found interesting was that there were times when he would get a different answer in his math than the score key.
When I called the school to speak to the very sophisticated-sounding gentleman whom I always spoke to when I called about this, I told him about the different answer that my son had gotten. Of course, I also had to tell him the grade, the subject, the page number, and the problem number. He looked it up and worked out the problem.
Then he would ask me the answer my son got for this problem. I told him, then he replied, “He is right. The score key is wrong.” This happened several times. In effect, my son was editing their score key, although the curriculum was excellent.
After graduation, one evening this same son took the ASVAB, which is the military entrance exam. The next morning, since he was going to flip hamburgers at McDonalds, he gave me the slip of paper with the phone number on it to call and find out his score. I called and was able to get his recruiter. I told him who I was and why I called. He looked it up and told me that my son could have only scored a 99, the highest score, and he scored a 98 putting him into the upper 2 percentile in the country. My son attributes this high score to the curriculum that we homeschooled with which was ABEKA.
My daughter was very studious during our home-schooling years in her studies at home, in her private piano lessons, and in her private French lessons. After she graduated, she attended two different colleges. At each one she attended she received letters of commendation for her high academy achievement. When attending Lipscomb University, her high-grade point average made her eligible to participate in their “Lipscomb in Vienna” program. At that young age, she was in Europe, enjoying swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, visiting Paris, etc.
My youngest son who also excelled at his private piano lessons and private French lessons decided that he wanted to join the Boy Scouts. We took him to talk to the Scout Masters to enroll him. He told them that he wanted to make Eagle. Knowing he was already 16 years, they responded: “Well son, we will bend over backwards to help you, but we have never had a 16-year old make Eagle by their 18th birthday and you have to make it by the age of 18.”
Well, long story short, due to our flexible schedule and by the grace of JESUS, he made it. It took a lot of trips, hard work, camping out, etc. to earn all those badges. We were really proud of him not only for making Eagle but also for what he did for his Eagle Project, which was a beautiful musical concert along with some other highly talented homeschoolers with their stringed instruments. The concert went beautifully without a hitch and was free to those who brought food for those in need.
All I can say is, “To JESUS be the glory for helping us to achieve all of this, for it is He from Whom all blessing flow and may He be honored in all things forever and ever, for HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is His Name!”
JOYCE GRAVES
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PAINTING: SIMON GLUCKLICH
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Keep being faithful, dear mother!
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Amos 3:3 asks the question: “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” I have always thought of this in the context of two people, specifically a married couple. However, it is really in the context of God and me. Can God walk with me if I don’t agree with what He says in His Word? That’s not going to work very well, is it?I immediately think of Isaiah 55:8, 9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Our job is to come up to God’s thoughts and ways. We cannot bring Him down to puny thinking.
We must also think about motherhood the way God thinks about it. When God says His ways and thoughts are higher than our ways, the word in the Hebrew is “gabah” which means “to be high, exalted, to soar, to raise up to a great height.”
God also uses this word in describing motherhood. In Ezekiel 19:10-14 we read an allegory about motherhood. God is actually talking about Judah but likens her to a mother. He likens Judah to a fruitful mother planted by the waters, similar to the description in Psalm 128:3. Verse 11 says: “her stature was exalted” and "higher than all the other trees around.” The words “exalted” and “higher” are also “gabah” meaning to soar to a great height.
God sees motherhood higher than every other career for women. Every other career is only for this life. It will be left behind. But motherhood is an eternal career. It impacts eternity as we bring forth eternal souls into this world to reveal His image and to prepare them for the eternal world.
Motherhood is more influential than any other career in that we determine the destiny of the nation. The nation is strong or weak according to the mothers in the home who raise godly or worldly children. We have the power to turn the nation to righteousness or to evil.
Dear mother, don’t listen to the lies of this world who seek to push motherhood into the mud. Those are the lies of the enemy. God states that our career is “exalted.” This is how He sees it. This is how He planned it. Think like God thinks.
You can’t walk with Him if you don’t agree with Him.
Blessings to you today,
Nancy Campbell
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The apostle John loved to call his readers his “little children.” The Greek word is “teknion” which means “a little child.” It is also used of a tender term for a "teacher towards his disciples.” He calls them “little children” seven times in this book.However, in 1 John 2:13, John changes the word. He wrote to the fathers because they knew God, the One who was from the beginning. He wrote to the young men because they had overcome the wicked one. But then I noticed with new alertness these words: “I write unto you, little children, because ye have KNOWN THE FATHER.”
This time he uses a different word, “paideion” which means “a little boy or little girl, infant, a young child.” I was arrested by these words. God wants our little children to know Him. Sometimes we don’t expect our children to know the Father until they are older, but this Scripture shows that God wants our little ones to know Him as Father too.
He wants them to experience the Father’s love and protection from their earthly fathers so they will understand His love. He also wants them to come to know Him through the hearing of the Scriptures.
We see this in 2 Timothy 3:15: “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.” Here a different Greek word is used for child. This time it is “brephos” which speaks of “a babe in the womb, a babe that is newly born, a little child.” Check out Luke 1:4, 44 and 2:16. Once again, God is not limiting the understanding of knowing Him to older people. He wants little ones to know His Word.
How can this happen? It happens at our Family Bible times where father reads the Scriptures to the family morning and evening. Little by little the word goes into the hearts of these little ones (even when they are in the womb). In a godly home, even young children can be ready for salvation, because they are daily filled with God’s word. They can receive Christ Jesus into their lives at the ages of three and four because it is the Scriptures that prepare them for salvation. We are saved through the Word of Truth. Most of our children had a definite encounter with the Lord at the age of four years and it is still as real to them today although they are now in their late fifties!
Dear mothers, please be aware that your little ones can begin to KNOW God at an early age. Did you notice that word KNOW? Paul said to Timothy that he had KNOWN the Holy Scriptures since a little child. John wrote to the little children because they KNEW the Father.
Be faithful in reading the Scriptures daily to your children. Watch over their souls. Speak to them much of the Father and of His character and of His great salvation. Expect your little ones to desire to KNOW Him.
I am amazed and so utterly blessed as I watch little ones in our prayer meetings with their hands raised to God and looking up in adoring worship to God. Sometimes these little ones are more into worship than the older ones. They already KNOW something of the awe of their Father God.
Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 19:14 (NLY): “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them. For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.”
Have a lovely day with your children,
Nancy Campbell
Picture: Selah Hartman. Selah was part of the wedding party of Vision and Eden’s wedding on Saturday. I took this picture of her as everyone was singing the hymn: “Worthy of every son we could ever sing, Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring.”
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Hope you have enjoyed a wonderful Mother’s Day!
Dear mother, never forget that you are in the most influential career in the nation. Your children will be the next generation! Be encouraged in your great work!
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Such a beautiful thing. But to be loved we must first love. The more we speak love, show love, and give love to our spouse, the more it boomerangs back upon us. Just like we love God because He first loved us.
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“When God lays a new-born babe in the arms of a mother, he says to her heart, "Take this child and nurse it for me and I will give you your wages." The answer of maternal love should be, ‘Oh God, you have put your noblest workmanship into my hands. I accept the precious trust. I will shelter this young life under your mercy-seat. I will be truthful that it may never learn falsehood. I will nurse this soul in its infancy with the sincere milk of love, that in after years it may bear strong meat for strong service of God and righteousness.“Oh, Heavenly Father, make my life in harmony with yourself, that this young life may reflect your blessed image in following my example!’”
To such pious fidelity—God offers the highest wages; he pays the heart's claim, in the heart's own coin.”
~ Theodore Cuyler, 1896
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Dear mother, Sometimes you think you are not accomplishing very much in your home! But be encouraged, you are doing a great work. Great things are a combination little things. Every day you are doing little things that are adding up to big things. Every smile and cuddle you give to your children is filling up their tank of security. Every encouragement and affirmation you give them each day is preparing them for their future. Every seed of truth from God’s word that you speak into them throughout the day is a seed that will grow into a full tree as you keep watering it. Every prayer you pray for your children is going up before the throne of God as incense!Keep faithful in the little things. They are all adding up! Amen!
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Tomorrow Colin and I drive to Pensacola along with loads of other members of our family.
Once again it is a family wedding. Oh, how we love weddings. This Saturday Vision Allison (Serene and Sam’s son and our grandson) will marry Eden Hartman (Daniel and Allison Hartman’s daughter).
We are already blessed to have an Allison/Hartman couple. Cedar Allison is married to Halle Hartman, and they now have a precious little girl called Lael. Now another brother is marrying another sister! So exciting.
I’d love to share what Allison (the mother of the coming bride) wrote on her Facebook:
“It’s possible . . . to “rejoice in the wife of your youth” (Proverbs 5:18). To have love so sweet and pure as these two, go through a long-distance relationship for three years, all the while protecting your purity, even saving their first kiss for the wedding day!
It’s possible . . . to raise the standards for your children and not lower the bar to what the world is accepting. Don’t accept anything less than the best, and God’s ways are the best (1 Cor 7: 1, 2).
It’s possible . . . for young people to value modesty and purity and practice it and not give into their peers.
This amazing young man, Vision Allison (yes, he is Cedar’s brother) asked us to get to know Eden with the intentions of marriage about three years ago. In a few days those intentions will come true. We are so excited to see what God has planned for these two and we are so proud of them!”
Allison Frost Hartman * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
P. S. Let me encourage you mamas & daddies, and young singles. It is possible, and it is worth it. It saddens me so much to see these sweet girls wearing prom & even wedding dresses that I can’t even show my boys or husband because it’s showing so much flesh!
We can do better!
Let’s make modest hottest!
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Do you receive the daily newsletter from Rebecca Lavrenz, THE J6 PRAYING GRANDMA. I would encourage you to get this. Here is a little snippet from the other day:
“Leaving the hotel room this morning to watch my nine-year-old grandson's baseball game, I saw a family of geese. The little goslings followed closely beside their papa and mama. This visual hit me of how important family is to God since we see it even in nature. I was reminded of hearing David Barton's voice in the Constitution Alive classes with Rick Green: "The American Founders recognized the “Law of Nature and Nature's God." Even that family of ducks were teaching me God's laws today.
And then my mind went back to over 35 years ago when I had first started homeschooling . . . when it wasn't popular. I even had a truant officer knock on my door one day. Around that time, when my children were about the ages my youngest grandchildren are now, I was having a particularly trying time handling the negativity with homeschooling from someone close to me.
In the midst of the confusion in my head and offense in my heart, wondering if I could hear God at all, I was taking something out of the oven for lunch and the thought clearly came to me: "You're teaching your children that family is important." I never forgot those words from the Lord!
And now, all these years later, family truly HAS become a very important value to all of my children. My two sons are both married, have children of their own whom they are homeschooling and my two daughters are looking forward to the day they too will be married and have their own families to "train up in the way they should go" (Proverbs 22:6)
When I went into our U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, it was out of obedience to God. In the rotunda that day I was thinking of my grandchildren and the LIBERTIES and TRUTHS that I wanted to help retain for them to enjoy. I was thinking, generationally. I was thinking of wanting a godly nation. I was thinking of what was on God's heart for the families of this nation.
God is the one who designed family, and in restoring the family and teaching the rising generation as His word commands we will again enjoy the blessings He has promised. However, it is conditional in that we must love God with ALL of our hearts. We must give Him our ALL!
“Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep ALL His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your sons and your grandsons, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, with ALL your soul, and with ALL your strength. “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 6:1-7 NKJV).
When we love God with ALL our hearts, then we WILL follow His commands to teach the next generation His ways, we WILL raise up generations that know Him, and we WILL . . .
Make America Godly Again!
Building generationally,
Rebecca Lavrenz
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to keep up with what is happening with Rebecca Lavrenz. On this webpage you can sign up for her daily email.
You can also listen to the two podcasts I did with Rebecca to hear more of her story. Go to (LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell).
The transcripts are also available by going to www.aboverubies.org
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(A Testimony from an older grandmother).Thank you for the beautiful article, “Your Table is an Altar.” It is so amazing what a family "sit down" meal does. I am 88 years old. My husband of 63 years is in heaven with Jesus (for six years) but I am blessed to have one of our sons and a grandson here for "dinner" everyday (except Sunday).
I still SET the table with glass dishes, silverware in place, with a napkin etc., and we sit down together, join hands, pray, and eat and talk. It is such a wonderful blessing to me, and I believe for them also. I am not a "grab a paper plate with some food from the pan on the stove" meal).
I am blessed to be a "farm woman,” mother of four, grandma of 22, and "great" of 25 so far with MANY more to come.
I look forward to my Above Rubies magazine and read it from cover to cover the same day and pass along to others the "extras" that I receive. Thank you and God bless you and your family.
Ariel Ewing * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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In the city or in the country? I know there are many who would love to get out of the city, get some land, and have more opportunity for their children to do things, especially sons. And yet you are stuck in the city because this is where your husband needs to be for his career.
Dear ladies, can I tell you a little secret? If we are walking in the ways of the Lord, He has promised to bless you in either place. Deuteronomy 28:3 says: “You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.”
Therefore, if you think you are “stuck” in the city, you can stop complaining! If God has your husband in the city, this is where He will bless you. Start thanking Him for His blessings upon you in the city.
I have some dear friends who live in the city of Seattle. They have many sons and wondered how they could find opportunity for them in the city. But God opened up doors for them. As they were growing up and homeschooling the boys found work with all their rich neighbors around about, doing their lawns and yards and many projects that these people didn’t have time to do or didn’t even know how to do! Their daughter was even able to earn money cooking for some of these families!
Currently we live in the country (on our famous Hilltop), and this is where many of our over 50 grandchildren have grown up. It has certainly been the most wonderful experience for us all and a great blessing for the children.
However, we didn’t have the privilege of raising our children in the country. We raised them in the city. Not just in the city but right under the eye of the casino on the Gold Coast of Australia. Their bedrooms looked out on the huge Jupiter’s Casino. And there were nightclubs all around. Hands up those who would love to raise their teens in this environment.
I walked the beach every morning crying out to God for His keeping power and God was faithful and kept our teens even in this place. Instead of being on the defensive, they became on the offensive. Every week they all preached in the open-air Cavil Mall. This picture is of our son, Rocklyn, preaching at only 13 years as powerfully as Billy Graham! He’s 56 years old now! Also, a picture of the casino—our house was on the right of the casino. The church we pioneered on the Gold Coast was also opposite the casino! God blessed our lives even in the midst of worldliness and evil all around.
It was from here the Newsboys got started and our oldest son, Wes, brought them to America.
Wherever God has placed you, in the city or the country, begin praising and thanking God for His blessings to you. Look for the blessings He will give you because He has promised. And, BE CONTENT!
Many blessings from NANCY CAMPBELL
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This post reminds of the quote: “worrying is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do but gets you nowhere.”
Repost from Rosa.
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Don't despise preparing meals for your family. Wonderful things can happen at your meal table as you come with joy and expectancy!
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The other Sunday morning we were singing the worship song, “Glorify thy name in all the earth.”How do we glorify the name of the Lord? Of course, we magnify and glorify Him when we worship Him. The more we gather with the saints to glorify His name the better.
But God’s Word also tells us to glorify Him in our bodies and our spirits (1 Corinthians 6:20). How can we do this? I believe the greatest way we can do this is to embrace who God made us to be. God created male and female. Because we as women are created female, we should embrace our femaleness with all our being. Because we are female, it is through our femaleness that God will fulfil the destiny He has for our lives.
It is so sad that so many young girls, and even older women, do not understand this truth. They are brainwashed by our deceptive society. Instead of embracing their femaleness, they resist it. They resist being feminine. They refuse to dress femininely. They act and sit like men. They want careers like men.
They are blinded to the obvious fact that as females God has given us a womb and breasts for a specific function. This is the distinctive way He created females. We were created for childbearing. We were created to be nurturing beings. And yet so many married women today deny their womb. They stop the function of their womb so it cannot bring forth life. And yet they were created for this very purpose.
How sad to go through life and not fulfil the very purpose for which we were born. To deny our femaleness is therefore to deny our destiny! Instead, we glorify God when we embrace with joy the way He created our bodies.
Dear mother, you can glorify God every day and every moment in your home as you receive with joy your divine calling of motherhood, homemaking, and raising godly children for His glory.
What a blessed privilege.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
We glorify God when we praise Him: Psalm 22:23; 86:9, 12; Romans 15:6, 9, Revelation 15:4.
We glorify God when we call upon His name: Psalm 50:15.
We glorify God when embrace the way He created our bodies: 1 Corinthians 6:20.
We glorify God when we shine our light before others, and they see our good works: Matthew 5:16 and 1 Peter 2:12.
We glorify God by rejoicing in persecution: 1 Peter 4:12-16.
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Dear mothers, we must be truth seeking mothers. We must know the truth and impart the truth of God’s Word to our children. They must be children who know the truth in the midst of this deceived society. It is the truth that sets us free. It is only the truth that exposes deception. The truth will always win out. Don’t give up. Keep holding on to truth. Be a truth seeking, truth loving, truth keeping, truth upholding family.
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Serene Allison gave a powerful message to the ladies at the retreat on Passionate Marriage.Here’s a question from her?
“Are you your husband’s bride or his boss?”
“A bride identity draws a bridegroom identity.”
“A bossy maid creates a distant husband!”
Which one are you?
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