LET’S GET BACK THE GLORY!

Why don’t women live in their glory?
Because they’ve been told a different story!

We’ve got to get the correct story.

Did you know that God wants us to live in glory? He has invited us to enjoy His eternal glory, but He wants us to live in glory here on this earth too. Jesus prayed to His Father in John 17:22 (NET): “The glory you gave to me I have given to them . . .  so that the world will know that you sent me . . .”

This is amazing. We know that God is filled with glory, but we forget that He wants to also fill us with His glory. One of the Hebrew words for glory is hadar and it means “glory, magnificence, splendor, beauty from above, beyond honor, majesty, and dignity.” We know that God is all these adjectives but Proverbs 31:25 tells us that women are to live in glory as well: “Strength and honor (hadar) are her clothing.” We are to be inwardly and outwardly clothed in glory.

Another Hebrew word for glory is kabod and it has a similar meaning: “to be weighty and heavy with glory, honor, esteem, and majesty.” This word is used to describe God but also the woman.

Proverbs 11:16 says: “A gracious woman retains honor (kabod).” We already have glory because we are created in the image and likeness of God. We have been blessed with a female glory. We must retain it. We must hold on to it. It’s easy to let it go in the midst of this humanistic and anti-God culture that surrounds us.

Womanhood and motherhood are belittled in our society today, but this is the opposite of God’s plan. He has a glory life waiting for us. It’s time to embrace it.

Lamentations 1:6 says: “From the daughter of Zion all her beauty (hadar) is departed.” In many cases, glory had departed from God’s female creation. The glory has departed from motherhood and the home today. From kindergarten to college, young girls are indoctrinated to believe that motherhood is inferior, and they must set their vision on a career outside of the home.

But what does the Bible have to say?

Motherhood is Glory

It is the glory of the nation. In Hosea 9:11-17 we read about Ephraim who had turned away from the Lord. God was sending judgment upon them for their sin and His judgment was to take away their glory. What was the glory that He would take away? Verse 11 says: “Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!”

God looked upon motherhood as the glory of the nation. Even Ephraim (which means double fruitfulness) considered conception, pregnancy, and birth to be their glory. The diminishing of children is a curse; the increasing of children in the land is glory.

Isaiah 26:15 (ESV) says: “You have increased the nation O LORD, you have increased the nation; you are glorified, you have enlarged all the borders of the land.” It is God’s glory to give the blessing and increase of children. This is the opposite to liberal ideology which is man’s wisdom. But who do we listen to? Man’s wisdom or God’s infallible wisdom? Read Isaiah 55:7, 8 and 45:18.

Motherhood is the glory of womanhood. This statement is true for not only women to whom God has given children but for every woman. God has innately put within every female a nurturing anointing to nourish and cherish life. If a woman rejects children, she will purchase an animal to pet instead.

“But it doesn’t feel like glory in my home,” I hear you say. Often, we don’t live in the glory because we don’t have the right mind set. Although we love our children, we have not truly embraced motherhood. We think we should be doing something more important. That mindset keeps you confused.

To live in the glory, you must know God’s plan for you, know that you are in the perfect will of God, and know without any doubt that you are in the greatest and most influential career in the nation. Of course, you’ll have difficult and challenging days, but you face these things in every job, every career, and anything you do in life. The only difference is that motherhood is the most powerful career given to women. The devil does not want you to know this and keeps you in the dark. He wants to keep you from your glory.

Raising Children in the Home is Glory

Mothers are the glory of the home. Home and motherhood are synonymous. God created Adam before He created the first home, the Garden of Eden. But before God created His female creation, He made sure the home was ready. When Eve woke up to life, she found herself in the home God created for her. She was created for the home and to make her home a delight, which is the meaning of the word Eden.

Isaiah 63:15 tells us that God’s home is a dwelling place of holiness and glory, and He wants our homes to be the same.

Sadly, the home is degraded by the liberals today. In doing so, they are cutting off their feet and chipping away at the strength of the nation. Mothers in the home are the hidden strength of the nation.

In Micah 2:9 it says: “The women of My people You cast out from their pleasant houses: from their children You have taken away My glory (hadar) forever.” God clearly states here that when children are taken out of the home that they are taken away from their glory. In other words, it is their glory to be raised in the home. It is God’s plan. He provides the home for the blessing, security, safety, teaching, and training of children.

The New English Translation says: “You defraud their children of their prized inheritance.”

The Amplified version says: “From her children you take away My splendor and blessing forever (by putting them among the pagans, away from Me).” God wants His children to grow up in His presence in the home and to be taught His ways. He does not want them to be taught by pagans. He does not want them to be influenced by humanism, feminism, and extreme socialism. He does not want them to be taught transgenderism and all the other isms that are against God and His eternal truths. That takes away their glory.

Nursing a Baby is Glory

We read the beautiful allegory in Isaiah 66:10-13 which describes Jerusalem as a nursing mother. As we read this passage, we understand how God sees the glory of a nursing mother—the breasts bringing comfort, consolation, delight, peace, and glory. Verse 11 of the Berean Study Bible says: “So that you may nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you may drink deeply and delight yourselves in her glorious (kabod) abundance.”

Are you breastfeeding your baby, dear mother? You are doing a glorious work. Not only is your baby blessed but you are blessed with the wonderful anti-stress hormones of oxytocin and prolactin. God provides adequately for the nursing mother.

Preparing Children for Eternity is Glory

Dear mother, you are not wasting your time as you nurture, teach, and train your precious children. Motherhood is not a fading career but lasts for eternity. All other careers will be left behind but pouring out your life to prepare your children for their destiny is an eternal career. You are pouring into eternal souls.

I think of the apostle Paul who poured out his soul for the new believers. When he wrote to the young Thessalonian Christians, he said: “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at this coming? For ye are our glory and joy” (1 Thessalonians 2:19, 20).

A career outside your home will not be your glory on the day you stand before the Lord. Your glory will be your children that you have faithfully raised for Him. As I raised our children, I constantly prayed the same prayer Paul prayed for these believers in 5:23: “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Motherhood is not only caring for the physical bodies of our children but their souls and their spirits. That takes full-time motherhood.

Dressing Femininely is Glory

I believe this is another area where women have lost their glory. Because God created us as his female creation, we should glory in our femininity. We live in a genderless society where the roles of male and female are not emphasized. The more we embrace our femininity in every department of our lives, the more we bring glory to God for He is the One who created us this way.

This also means to dress femininely and beautifully.

The Bible talks about how God dresses gloriously. Isaiah 63:1 talks of God being “glorious (hadar) in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength.” Can I share some other translations?

Complete Jewish Bible: “magnificently dressed.”

New English Translation: “wearing royal attire.”

If God dresses gloriously and honorably, shouldn’t we? He wants us to be the revealers of His glory on the earth. Because He is dressed in royal attire, shouldn’t we dress more regally and royally?

Psalm 104:1 (CEV) describes God: “You are glorious and majestic (hadar), dressed in royal robes and surrounded by light.” And do you remember that Proverbs 31:25 states that the virtuous woman is also clothed with glory (hadar)? Nineteen different translations of the Bible translate it with the word dignity. Do you dress with dignity or according to the fashion of this age?

God loves beautiful clothing. When he designed the clothing for the high priest, he stated that his clothing was to be “for glory and for beauty.” (Exodus 28:2). We who have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus have now been made priests unto God. Shouldn’t we wear clothing according to our status?

We do not owe the spirit of the world the honor of dressing according to its fashion but surely, we owe honor to the God who created us female. When we dress or act masculinely, we detract from our God-given femininity and therefore our glory.

NANCY CAMPBELL

LISTEN TO MORE!

The Bible is filled with the awesome glory of God. This article is only a little glimpse of the glory God talks about in the Bible. I have shared 17 podcasts on this subject and still have not exhausted the subject. You can check out the following podcasts if you would like to listen to more of the glory God has for you as a woman.

Go to the home page of www.aboverbies.org and click on LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

Or go to: http://ARPoddy.buzzsprout.com or your favorite poddy app.

THE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD, Parts 1 – 10 (Nos. 68 – 77).

LET’S GET BACK THE GLORY, Parts 1 – 6 (Nos. 159 – 164).

LIFE TO THE FULL, Part 6 – GOD WANTS US TO BE FILLED WITH HIS GLORY (No. 171).

IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE

How far have we degenerated from God’s original plan?

Recently a new mother mentioned to me that before her post-partum checkup, the hospital called to check if she was suffering from depression.

“Why would they ask you this question? I asked.

“Oh, don’t you know it’s a standard question?” she replied. “Most mothers have depression after a baby. Didn’t you hear about the new mother who recently committed suicide because she was so depressed because of her new baby?”

I was appalled. What is their purpose? To get them started on anti-depressants? Make them victims? Give them a pill to counteract our deceived society?

Yes, I concede that there are some mothers who suffer severe hormonal PPD, but this is not normal motherhood. This is not what God intended.

Again, I can see how many young mothers today feel depressed as they begin motherhood. But a pill is not the answer. The reason is that we live in an environment where motherhood, originated by God, is not the vogue. Most mothers having their first baby are not conditioned for this role.

It’s time to come back to God’s original plan. It’s time for change. Let’s think about some of the reasons:

1. THEY ARE NOT PREPARED EXPERIENTIALLY

Many young mothers grow up in two-child families. They don’t grow up in homes where new babies keep arriving, the joy and delight of the home. As they grow older, they don’t have the opportunity to care for a baby, to see their mother nursing the baby as a natural part of life, or to experience the responsibilities of daily motherhood.

Friends and family don’t have babies in their homes either. Some never hold a baby until they hold their own baby in their arms. No wonder they feel overwhelmed. Their depression is not due to a clinical state, but because they don’t know what to do. They feel inadequate! Unprepared!

2. THEY ARE NOT PREPARED EDUCATIONALLY

Most young women today are not educated for motherhood. In fact, they are educated against motherhood. They’re educated and trained for whatever career they want to pursue in this world. Anything except motherhood.

They are brainwashed to think motherhood is an inferior career. Even when they prepare for marriage, counselors (even Christian counselors) tell them to delay motherhood and continue pursuing their career. Motherhood is always delegated to the lowest item on the list.

3. THEY ARE NOT PREPARED EMOTIONALLY

They are not encouraged toward motherhood. Because they don’t live in an environment of motherhood, it is unfamiliar to them. They don’t feel comfortable with being at home, cooking meals, or looking after a baby.

4. THEY ARE NOT PREPARED PSYCHOLOGICALLY

When the new baby comes along, they feel it is an interference to their career, college, or their plans for life. Although they love their baby because it is their own flesh and blood, they are thrown into confusion. This baby is a “wrench in the machinery.” How do they fit this baby into their lifestyle or well laid-out plans? No wonder they feel depressed.

5. THEY ARE NOT PREPARED FOR RESPONSIBILITY

It is true that motherhood is not easy. It is not for wimps. It is a life of selflessness rather than selfishness. Most young people today grow up with an entitlement attitude. They think everything revolves around them and nothing should get in the way of their plans. A baby arrives. Suddenly, they can no longer live their own life. Or do what they want when they want to. They must sacrifice for another person. They can’t even have a full night’s sleep. A little baby arrives to change their life forever.

But no matter what we do in life, nothing will always be perfect. Everyone who wants to do something great will face challenges, hardship, and sacrifice. A businessman has setbacks, trials, and disappointments. But he doesn’t give up and go into depression. He faces them head on, understanding they are part of life.

A missionary often faces hardship and persecution. Does he or she get into depression because life is not a bed of roses? No. They face the battles head on because they’re doing a great work.

It’s the same with motherhood. It is the most important career in the world. It is the highest career God gave to women. He equates it with joy. But every mother faces challenges. She will face laying down her own life for her baby. Sacrifice . . . yes. Selfless love . . . yes. But isn’t this what grows us into maturity? It takes us from the selfish and ugly to beauty and joy?

6. THEY ARE NOT PREPARED BIBLICALLY

Most young women have no idea of God’s plan for them as a woman. They don’t know what God’s Word says. Even young mothers in the church are often as ignorant as those in the secular world. Where are the older women who teach the younger women about being a wife and mother (Titus 2:3-5)? They are nonexistent in our churches today. Will they be responsible for a nation of mothers who have no idea of God’s plan for motherhood?

I am saddened when I hear older women saying, “I don’t need to hear about motherhood any more. I’m well past that time of life.” I beg your pardon. We are never “past that time of life.” When the time comes that we can physically have no more children, we don’t abdicate motherhood. We were created to be mothers and nurturers until we go into eternity. We begin enjoying grandbabies. And then we move into the responsibility of teaching the young mothers of the next generation how God wants them to mother. How can we do that if we say “we are past that kind of thing”? I think many older mothers desperately need to hear God’s truth for mothers so they can pass on the truth to the next generation, rather than leading them astray.

Our humanistic society puts mothering at the bottom of the list. When God gives a description of the attributes of a godly woman in 1 Timothy 5:10 He puts mothering at the top of the list!

God did not create haphazardly. He created each female with a womb to conceive life and breasts to nurture life. He reminds us we will be preserved through embracing motherhood. Many scientific studies now reveal that the more children a mother has and the more babies she nurses at the breast the more protection she has against female cancers.

1 Timothy 2:15 (NASB) says: “But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.”

The Greek word for “saved” or “preserved” is sozo, pronounced sode’-zo. It is a powerful, multi-encompassing word meaning “to save, deliver, protect, heal, cure, preserve, keep safe, and make whole.” That means that through embracing motherhood a woman is saved, delivered, protected, preserved, healed, and made whole--physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. You can’t beat that!

The reason many young mothers (and older mothers) feel depressed and confused is because they have not embraced their role of motherhood. They love their baby. They love their children. But they don’t love the career of motherhood because they think it interferes with their life.

The true joy of motherhood comes when a mother not only loves her baby, but loves and embraces her role of motherhood. A mother who embraces mothering WILL NOT BE DEPERESSED. She experiences the joy, delight, and glory of motherhood that God intends for her.

7. THEY ARE PROPAGANDIZED TO DENY MOTHERHOOD

Liberal teachers and professors teach the students of this generation to despise motherhood. They direct them toward alternative lifestyles and that to murder the unborn babe is accepted behavior. They are heading them down a path of destruction. To get back to normality their brains must be reprogrammed again in God’s infallible truth.

8. THEY ARE NOT PREPARED FINANCIALLY

Rather than not have enough income, many young mothers entering motherhood may already be receiving a big pay check. They are used to their own independent financial security. They are not mentally prepared to rely on their husband, to learn to economize, make ends meet, and be “content with such things they have” (Hebrews 13:5, 6). They expect to go into a home with all the things their parents have taken years to accumulate.

Young people have not been taught to start little and gradually build their lives together. They want it all at once. They haven’t learned to do without, to sacrifice, to cook from scratch, plant a garden, and start with a tiny house. They don’t need a huge home when they first begin their marriage. That comes with time as the Lord adds more blessings to their family.

9. THEY ARE ISOLATED

Another reason many young mothers feel depressed is because they are isolated. They don’t know many other mothers living around them. Their own mother is often working and not available. Or, even if she is, it is so long since she had babies that the is not confident herself.

Why do we have this scenario? Because mothering is not accepted as an important career in our society. I believe that when motherhood becomes the norm in society that depression will disappear (except for the genuine clinical PPD).

Mothers need one another. It is fun to have babies when family members, friends, and neighbors have babies at the same time. This is how God intends it to be.

When I was mothering my children I always had a Ladies’ Bible Study in my home. Every week, mothers, babies, and children filled my home. The children broke things and messed up my home, but we had great fellowship together. It was what kept us going through the difficult times.

I would encourage every young mother to find an encouraging Ladies’ Bible Study group where she can learn more about motherhood and find strength from being with other mothers. Make sure you find a group that encourages biblical mothering and not the opposite which is counter-productive!

Go to: http://bit.ly/PowertOfMotherhoodUS and order the manual, THE POWER OF MOTHERHOOD. Every mother in the world needs this manual which takes you into the Bible to see what God says about you as a mother. It is a great manual to use at Ladies’ Bible Study Groups to share and discuss together.

LET’S WORK TOGETHER TO BRING CHANGE

We cannot let things carry on the way they are. Unless we rise up and make known the truth, the next generation will degenerate further away from God’s plan. You may not feel you can do this in a big way. But you don’t have to. Be faithful in the little opportunities. Start with your family, filling them daily with God’s truth and His plan for family life. Give them a love and awe for embracing life from God and an understanding of the horrors of abortion. Give them strong convictions to live by.

When you and your children see things wrong in society, don’t let it go without speaking about it. Teach your children what is wrong. Help them to have discernment between the right and the wrong, the clean and the unclean. Ephesians 5:11 says: “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather REPROVE them.” Some translations say “expose” them. I don’t think there is anything sadder that seeing a young person grow up in a Christian home without godly convictions and without courage to stand up for truth.

As you go out of your home, always be prepared to drop seeds of truth wherever you go. Take a few Above Rubies magazines with you. Put them in a plastic bag in your purse so they don’t get mutilated. Give them to people and to mothers when you meet them. You may not have a chance to say a lot, but you’ll never know how the Holy Spirit can speak to them through the pages of the magazine. We need to get this magazine out in greater and greater ways. I’m tired of being bombarded with liberal and progressive jargon. The feminists and liberals do not keep quiet. Why do we when we have the truth?

For more ideas of how to spread Above Rubies, go to:
http://aboverubies.org/magazine/ideas-for-distributing-above-rubies

Encourage friends to go to the Above Rubies Facebook, Above Rubies Instagram, and Above Rubies Twitter where they can be constantly encouraged in motherhood.

Most of all, live the plan. As we embrace God’s plan for family life with joy and positivity, we are a testimony to all around us. Happy, united, loving, and God-fearing families are the biggest blessing of the nation. When motherhood returns to normality in our society, we will see happy mothers instead of depressed mothers.

Many blessings from NANCY CAMPBELL

www.aboverubies.org

Amazing Mothering Hormones

Seven years of infertility were difficult for me. However, God used this hiatus to nurture many spiritual babies that came to live with us while they got their lives back together. We even adopted Katie (now 24) as our own. As the years rolled on, I trusted the Lord would bless us again with another little one.

By the time our three biological children were nine, seven, and six years I no longer had my "Momma Hormones" that come with babies and small toddlers. My children, (Alyssa, Josiah, and Emma), were now much more independent and with this freedom I took on more rolls in our community. I facilitated home school events, became more active in our home church, and involved our children in extracurricular activities.

But soon I began to feel desperate. I prayed, "Dear Lord, Emma will be seven years old soon. Please God give us another baby!" Our loving heavenly Father heard my cry, and a month later we conceived our fourth biological child.

On October 8th, 2015 we welcomed a bouncing baby boy named Jeremiah David Welch into our lives and I was determined to breastfeed my child this time. My last three children were bottle-fed due to lack of breast milk on my part, lack of council, and lack of understanding that there are alternate ways of breast feeding.

Sadly, a small percentage of women cannot produce enough milk to satisfy their baby's appetite, and I was one of those women. I attribute this to underdeveloped milk ducts in adolescence. However, this time I had amazing, godly, nursing women around me for encouragement! This made a huge difference in my determination to nurse and helped with any discouragement.

When Jeremiah latched onto my breast for the first time, I felt a little milk leaving my breast. It may work this time, I thought. But as time went on Jeremiah was not fully satisfied.

My friends encouraged me saying, "You just need to feed him more." So, I did. I nursed him literally around the clock, but he still cried and cried as though he had received nothing at all. Then I would cry and cry, feeling like a failure. It was hard watching all my girlfriends bursting at the seams with enough mommy milk to feed an army of babies.

I began extensively researching natural ways of encouraging milk production in my body. The best book I read was The Breast Feeding Mother's Guide to Making More Milk by Diana West. I began taking a barrage of natural organic herbs that many midwives around the world recommend for milk production. I found a concoction that really worked for me (see below for list).

With the herbs, my body produced a little more milk, enough for him to get some natural antibodies, but it was still just not enough to satisfy my little boy. He was not gaining weight.

Our midwife suggested we supplement my milk with some formula. Being determined to breastfeed exclusively, I began using a supplemental nursing system that allowed me to breastfeed and give my son formula at the same time he latched onto my breast. I fed him all the milk I had then filled a syringe with formula and attached a small feeding tube to it. I inserted the end of the feeding tube into the side of Jeremiah's mouth while he nursed. It was such a blessing to keep the intimacy of breastfeeding even though the formula was his major food source. As he grew older and needed more, I used a bottle with an inverted nipple and feeding tube instead.

In the early days of Jeremiah's life, I was alarmed by the terrible ingredients in his formula. Each North American brand of formula read like a grocery list of unhealthy fillers and chemicals. Through much research, I found a formula called Holle that is very close to breast milk. It is made in Germany where chemicals and genetically modified foods are banned. I order it from E-bay or http://www.biologisch24.com.

Did all this take extra work? A resounding YES! But it was worth it for the changes it brought to me as a woman. While expecting our son, I read an article entitled More than Milk, written from La Leche League which talked about the nursing relationship being much more than your milk supply. The article suggested that through nursing you provide comfort and emotional bonding for you and your baby. I decided at once, that no matter what, I was going to have a nursing relationship with my baby.

I can safely say that at 15 months, my son LOVES to nurse. He nurses about four times a day, not just for food, but for comfort. I nurse Jeremiah to lull him to sleep and when he has an accident. When he cries at night I pull him into bed with me to nurse and we both go back to sleep.

Nursing gave me amazing mothering hormones. I do not recall having such a strong intimate bond with my three bottle-fed children as I enjoy with my son. That is not to say I did not have a special bond with each of my children during their baby stages, but it is much more intimate with Jeremiah.

With nursing and these amazing mothering hormones, something beautiful happened. It gave me my "mothering love" back for my older children. With the hustle and bustle of life, I had lost that close intimate love. Nursing made me slow down and proverbially smell the sweet roses--my children.

As I have been forced to sit still with my nursing son, God has given me a fresh vision for our home again. I had gotten so busy doing things outside of the home, that my family had become a side project instead of my main focus. Even though I planned events that involved my children, I was not directly involved with them. Having my little man refocused me onto my calling and what I am meant to be doing. God has given me back the passion to pour into my children for the few short years they are living in our home. My older children have embraced their little brother and he has brought so much joy into our home. My life has come full circle back to where my focus was when I began having children almost twelve years ago.

One thing I have come to realize is that God the Father has a perfect timing for each of our children to make their way into this world. God has a destiny for each one on earth and it is not our right to interfere with God's timing. I am reminded of Genesis 1:28: “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Did God ever rescind this command?

I was taught all my life to trust God with everything except conception. I was taught to be the family planner in my marriage, not God. Thankfully, I didn't follow this plan, but I have seen many fall into this deception. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NASB) reads: "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body] and in your spirit, which are God’s. "

Don’t be afraid to do what God has called you to do. Don’t listen to what the world tells you concerning your life, family, and body--listen to what God’s Word says about you and your family.

BRIDGET WELCH
Chilliwack, British Colombia, Canada
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Herbs to Help Breastfeeding:
3x a day I take:
X4 Fenugreek
X2 Blessed Thistle
X1 Goats Rue- This herb helps to build back the milk glands that are sometimes underdeveloped in childhood, like mine were. The beautiful thing is that as they restore, it means more milk for your next baby.
X1 Shatavari
I purchase all of my herbs on Amazon.com

Printed in Above Rubies #92.

Grandchildren are Love Multipliers

We have been blessed with four children--24, 19, nine and one.

“What big gaps you say!” We started when I was a teen mom at 17. We were blessed again a few years later with our daughter. Sadly, we decided my husband should get a vasectomy. A year later we began our homeschool journey and I quickly became convicted that we had made a mistake about stopping children. It took seven years for my husband's heart to change and have a reversal. We waited two years after that to conceive and another eight years before God sent our youngest, little Ruby Jean.

We have loved our children and relished being parents. Last year God brought a wonderful young man for our daughter to marry. I wasn't ready. I wanted to enjoy her in my home for a few more years, but we knew this was God's will for our sweet Renee.

God blessed them with a baby right away. She suffers with migraines which made her pregnancy very hard and I spent a lot of time by her side. Renee and Jacob agreed for me to be in the delivery room with them. As the time approached I became nervous. I thought I would not be able to handle seeing my baby suffer, but God gave me courage.

At 10:30 pm on the 24th of May, Renee told me she felt extreme pressure in her back. I told my husband that they will call in two hours. At 12:30 am Renee and Jacob headed to the hospital with me right behind them. Renee was 6 cm. when we arrived, and she had a beautiful labor and delivery. She was able to labor almost the entire time in the water.

This was a surreal time for me. What a gift they gave to me. I cannot even find words to express how special it was. Watching Renee and Jacob go through it with such love and tenderness and trust in God was beautiful beyond measure. Jackson Harrison Lingo was born at 5:34 am. on May 25th. Memorial Day. What a glorious day!

I have always heard that you love your grandchildren more than your own children. I could not even fathom I could love someone more than my own children, but in one moment my world changed. I did not love him more than Renee. No. But my love knew no bounds. I love this baby and, yet I loved my daughter more than I ever had. She was never more beautiful to me than in that moment. My love for my sweet son-in-love grew as well. He became mine. He is the daddy to this baby and part of us now.

In the hours and days that followed my love grew for Jacob’s parents and grandparents. Watching them love this baby that I loved so much made my heart full. Seeing them in Jackson, and how God makes the two one flesh, left an indelible mark on my soul. All of us love this child so much and this makes us all love one another more.

When you marry someone, you chose that person. When your children marry God brings two families together. Then you love people just because you all love the same two people who came together. I do not know how to describe this except to say that grandchildren are love multipliers. They cause you to love everyone more. They bring love between two families as they make two families one.

I am so thankful, and my heart is so full of gratitude to a sovereign God who knew from the beginning of time that Michael and I would marry and have Renee. He knew that Philip Lingo would marry Trish and have Jacob. He knew that Jacob would marry Renee and we would all have Jackson Harrison Lingo. I love God’s ways.

RACHAEL STOKES
Centerville, Tennessee, USA
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