Joshua 1:8, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” 

I receive responses from each email devotion I send out, but this time I received more than most. I thought I would share with you a few of the responses so you can be blessed further about this subject.

One mother shared that she was glad I mentioned that I found it hard to have special times with the Lord when my children were little and how I had to learn to do it in the midst of mothering. I answered, “I could not leave my children to go off to have a Quiet Time. I had to do it in the midst of noise and everything happening around me.

But it’s amazing what we can do with little ones all around us, isn’t it? It also trains us to be able to cope. I started Above Rubies with children all around me. I now do it with everyone coming in and out and talking at once, grandchildren coming in and out, my new adopted teenagers needing me every minute and the phone going non-stop.

Most people wouldn’t even be able to concentrate on one line but this is how I edit Above Rubies. If I didn’t do it this way, you’d never get it. If I waited to find one quiet moment, you’d never see a magazine!”

“I had been having a very rough week and had actually found my self in tears for two or three days, each of my six children asking mommy, “What is wrong?” The only explanation I had was nothing and yet everything! I am expecting my seventh little blessing and am a little over half way through my pregnancy. I am definitely adrenal fatigued, exhausted and find myself actually needing to sit down during the day. I know this is normal for many women but very unusual for me. I was on the road to a pity party.  

I felt I needed to share with my husband what was happening  As I broke down and the tears started flowing he held me in his arms and quoted, "Great peace have they that love thy law and NOTHING shall offend them.” Nothing shall offend them!" He asked me to say it every time I felt upset with the children, at wit’s end exhausted, hurt by a friend or starting a pity party. He said it may not seem soothing the first or second time but the Word of Yahweh is powerful and will bring the peace. Every time (many times this week) that I have recognized my flesh taking over I have quoted it and then found time to be with Him. It has definitely made all the difference in me and my attitude. I even woke my older girls up early one morning just to have tea time and bible study with me alone...What a difference.

When I finally got a chance to open your e-mail today I was so blessed. It was such a confirmation and testimony to me when I saw the verse from Psalm 119:165, "Great peace have they who love thy law: and nothing shall offend them." I knew it was just for me and am planning on using many of your suggestions.”

 “This was just what I needed. I’ll start my Meditation Basket tomorrow. January has been the most trying month of our lives—our house flooded, we’ve had terrible weather and some shocking news that has changed our lives… I was having a hard time finding the time to read the Word like I should, thinking I had to set down at intervals. I’ll continue that, but now I will put Scriptures over my sink at my window, on my fridge, in my bathroom and wherever I can. And I will stop grumbling over what I can’t do!”

“Your devotion reminded me of what I read this morning in Matthew 14:13-14. Just as you had little time to spend in quiet alone when your children were small, so did the Lord Jesus. After He heard the news of John the Baptist's death, he wanted to go to a place alone but then the needy crowd came. So He put aside His own desires and attended to their needs. This happens to us at all stages of our lives, doesn't it?”

“Thank you for this word today. So much of what you shared in is what the Lord has been speaking to me in the last year. My children are five, three and 18 months and my husband and I are on staff with Youth With A Mission. We lead busy lives and I miss the time alone with the Lord that I experienced before I became a mother. The Lord has been showing me exactly what you wrote--that I don't have to be condemned but to take my "quiet time" throughout the day.”

“One way I found to get our children to eat spiritual food for themselves is to have them copy entire books from the Bible (a little bit every day) in their best handwriting, for their handwriting practice. The amount depends on their maturity. It may take all school year to finish a book but they are proud to show off an entire handwritten copy of a certain book! And it is a precious keepsake! And, hopefully, they think about what they are writing. 
 
It is our goal for Japheth, our last one who is 15, to read through the whole Bible together before he graduates from high school. I want to do it chronologically so he gets the BIG PICTURE. For Christmas I got us copies of The Daily Bible: 365 readings in chronological order. A HUGE blessing! I was having a hard time figuring out which books to read when. Now it's easy as pie and we have great discussions as we do it together first thing every morning. If he's in the chair by 8.00 am ready to read, he gets a dollar. It works!”

Hope you were blessed by these writings from other readers.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Lord, please help me to be creative in finding ways to spend time with you and in your precious Word. I thank you that I can make a sanctuary even in the midst of noise and happenings.  Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?

To do the will of Jesus—this is rest!

Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week.

If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To unsubscribe from the Above Rubies Devotional, send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Psalm 119:165, “Great peace have they who love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.”

The other week I talked about how important it is to teach our children to feed from the Word of God for themselves, rather than spoon-feed them. “How can I do this?” you respond. “I have all these little children to care for. It’s hard enough for me to find time for my own Quiet Time without having to teach my children to do it.”

As a young mother I also faced this dilemma. Before children came along I would rise at 5.00 am and spend three hours reading the Word and praying before I started each day. I would write pages of revelation as God showed me wondrous things in His precious word. I still have these hard-covered notebooks. But when I entered the new adventure of motherhood, I could no longer find that time. What could I do now?

Grabbing

At first I lamented that I couldn’t spend hours alone with God, but grumbling over what I couldn’t do didn’t help. I came to realize that God was not limited to my quiet hours with Him, but He wanted to be very much part of my life as a mother.

He wanted me to abide in Him and live in His presence as I cooked meals, changed diapers and cleaned toilets etc. I found that I could still get desperately needed nourishment from God’s living Word by grabbing little bits here and there throughout the day. I could read when I nursed the baby (if I wasn’t reading stories to the other children). I could snatch a verse from Psalms when visiting the bathroom.

I remember one time feeling such a need to grab some nourishment for my soul. I took a few toys and the little ones with me into my bedroom and knelt by my bed with the Bible. I was hardly aware of the children climbing all over me when I got a loud knock on my bedroom door with the words, “Can you keep those children quiet?”

Our boarder was home from work as he was sick. He couldn’t sleep because of the noise of the children in the bedroom and yet I wasn’t even aware of it! Your “Quiet Time” may not always be quiet, but we, as mothers, can learn to hear from God even in the midst of children and noise all around us.

Looking Up

I used to put one of my Bibles on the windowsill above my kitchen sink, where I spent many hours preparing meals and doing dishes. I would turn the Bible to the Psalms or the Proverbs. From time to time I could look up for a moment, read a verse and meditate upon it.

I remember one moment in my mothering days in New Zealand. As I washed the dishes at the kitchen sink, I sunk into a self-pity trip. The tears rolled down my cheeks! Suddenly, I looked up. My Bible was open to Psalm 103 and I read, “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies…”

I was convicted and immediately confessed my sin. “I’m sorry, Lord. I repent of these deceptive self-pitying thoughts. I resist them in the name of Jesus. I thank you for all my blessings. Thank you for my salvation. Thank you for my home. Thank you for my husband. Thank you for these wonderful children you have given me. I am a blessed woman.”

As I praised and thanked the Lord my negativity disappeared. It wasn’t my circumstances after all! It was my deceptive thoughts! What delivered me? The powerful Word of God!

Writing

As I mentioned, I no longer had time to write pages of revelation--but I could find time to write one verse! This became a life-saver for me and I still continue the practice today. Each new year I purchase a diary that has one page for every day (or two days for a page). You need enough space to write at least one Scripture.

I do not use this diary to write my schedules, but to write one Scripture from the Word of God. When I was in my busiest mothering years, I only got time to write the verse. Now, I am back to writing what it says to me and a prayer of response to the Lord.

At the end of the year I have a full year of Scriptures that God has given to me personally! I love to go back and re-read these Scriptures from previous years. This personal nourishment is more life-giving than listening to sermons.

Dear busy mother, you can find time to write ONE VERSE! It will help you to remember what you read. If you were to ask me at the end of the day what God told me in the morning, I may have forgotten, but I can always check my journal.

I purchased hard-covered journals with a page for each day of the year for our four adopted teenagers for Christmas this year. Every morning we open the wondrous Word together, read, listen to the Lord, write the Scripture God gives to us personally and write what it means to us.

Meditation Basket

Here’s another great idea. Place in a suitable basket all the things that will inspire you when you have a quiet moment (or not so quiet if the children are around you).

Put in one of your Bibles, a Daily Devotional of your choice, an old hymn book and, of course, your hard-covered diary in which you will write the Scripture God gives you for the day. Don’t forget to put in two or three pens so there is always one when you are ready to write.

Keep your Meditation Basket in the place where you most love to sit with the Lord, or nurse the baby. Pick it up and take it with you anywhere in the house, or outside under a tree while you are watching the children play, or wherever you want to go. It’s all in the basket. You don’t have to run around finding everything when you find another cozy nook somewhere.

May you be sustained by the Lord each new day. 

NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Father, I thank you for your Word which is life-sustaining. You know I don’t have hours of time to read, but I ask that you will speak to me in the moments I grab to read your Word. Thank you, Lord. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I will make time to write down what God says to me each day.

If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To unsubscribe from the Above Rubies Devotional, send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Hebrews 5:12-14, “You are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat, for every one that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their sense exercised to discern both good and evil.”

When a baby starts to eat solid food around nine months, it is a joy to feed them. As they continue to grow, and yet do not want their food, we play all kinds of games to make them want to eat it. The spoonful of food becomes an airplane, or the poor little kitchen out in the cold waiting to come into the warm home and so on.

However, the time comes when they grab the spoon away from us and want to feed themselves. They want their independence. It is normal. We anticipate the time when they will eat on their own. We teach them to eat on their own. If we were still spoon feeding our children at five or ten years old, we would be in despair.

Yet, isn’t it amazing that we often still spoon feed our older children their spiritual food. Some are still being spoon fed in their teens. Many adults are still being spoonfed.

Just as a little baby is nursed at the breast and then begins to receive food from the spoon by the parent, so a newborn babe in Christ needs to be nurtured with food. They cannot feed themselves. But growth is part of God’s plan, for physical babies and spiritual babies.

As parents, we love seeing the physical growth of our children. It is exciting to see them take their first steps, to say their first word, and then to grow and develop into adolescents, then teens and then adults, filled with all the wonderful talents God has given them. We should have this same excitement about growth in their spiritual lives.

If they are going to grow, we must teach them to feed themselves. They will stay babies if we keep spoon feeding them.

Many children in Christian homes are taken to Sunday School or Children’s Church every Sunday or perhaps a Bible club during the week and the parents feel they are catering for them spiritually. These are good things, but they are spoon feeding. We have a responsibility to teach our children how to feed for themselves, how to read the Word of God themselves, how to listen for God to speak to them personally as they read.

I am so glad that I was taught this principle growing up in my home. We were taught that it was the normal daily feeding pattern to start the day with a Quiet Time—to read the Word of God and pray. We went to church, Sunday School and Bible clubs, but that didn’t suffice. We learned to read the Word of God personally, to feed ourselves.

At first the Bible seemed dull and boring, but as I learned how to read it, it became the delight of my life. I could not do without my daily nourishment.

When in my teens, I began to read the Word in faith. As I read with expectancy for God to speak to my heart and for revelation to flood my soul, and because I did not want to forget what God said to me, I wrote it down. I wrote the Scripture that spoke to my heart, what I felt it meant, what God spoke to me personally through it, and then I would write a prayer to the Lord.

I still continue this habit to this day. It is true that “Thoughts tend to disentangle themselves when they flow through lips or cross pencil tips.” As I write the Scripture, I see more revelation than when I first read it. As I write what God is saying, more understanding and revelation floods my soul. My spirit is filled up and nourished.

We have recently adopted four teenagers from Liberia, West Africa. I am now teaching them to feed for themselves. As we commence our homeschooling each morning, we start by all opening up the Word of God and reading a certain passage. I teach them to look for God to speak to them.

They then do as I have always done, write the Scripture, write what it means to them and then write a prayer to the Lord. We then go around the table and each one then shares their Scripture and what they have written. They are learning to feed for themselves. We have daily devotions as a family morning and evening, but I inspire the children that this personal time is the most important time of the day.

Don’t let your children be spiritual dwarfs with stunted growth. Teach them how to independently hear from God each new day. If you can encourage them to establish this habit they will keep growing all through their lives.

NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Oh Lord, help me to have a healthy appetite for your precious Word. Help me to teach my children how to feed from your Word so that they will grow strong in the Lord. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

More about Jesus let me learn,

More of His holy will discern;

Hearing His voice in every line,

Making each faithful saying mine.

Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week.

If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank Email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To unsubscribe from the Above Rubies Devotional, send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Matthew 10: 8, “Freely ye have received, freely give.”

Last week we discussed how God pours His grace upon us and wants us to respond by pouring it out on others.

Let’s read Ephesians 2:8-9 as we think more about this, “For by grace are ye saved though faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” God’s grace of salvation is free. It is a gift. No matter how many good works we do, we can never earn it. God gave His only Son freely. Jesus gave His life freely. He endured pain, persecution, suffering and death to pay for our sins. 

Was it the nails, 0 Saviour,
That bound Thee to the tree?
Nay, ‘twas Thine everlasting love,
Thy love for me, for me.

But what happens after we receive this grace of salvation? Although we do not need works to earn our salvation, we find that our salvation propels us into a life of good works. Ephesians 2:10, the Scripture following the truth of free salvation, tells us, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” There is nothing we can do before the cross. After the cross we find that we have been actually re-created to do good works. These works do not earn our salvation but they show our thankfulness for our salvation. This is the life God has planned for us.

Were the whole realm of nature mine?

That were an offering far too small,

Love so amazing, so divine,

Shall have my soul, my life, my all.

We received the grace of God freely. Now we freely give it to others. We did not receive salvation because we deserved it. The opposite. Therefore, we pour out grace and blessing on those around us, even when they don’t deserve it. We prove that we have received the free grace of God by freely giving it to others. What an opportunity we have to serve, give and love freely in our home as we raise our children! This is our sphere to fulfill good works. Way’s translation of Titus 2:5 says that the older women are to teach the younger women “to recognize that their sphere is home.”

Serve freely in your home today. Pour out God’s grace freely. Give lavishly. 

He might have doled His blossoms out quite grudgingly,

He might have used His sunset gold so sparingly,

He might have put but one wee star in all the sky,

But since He gave so lavishly, why should not I?

Why should not I?

NANCY CAMPBELL

 PRAYER:

“Oh God, please save me from being so mean and stingy. Enlarge my heart to give freely, to pour out your grace moment by moment. Help me to be a lavish giver. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

Jesus first

Others second

"Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week. 

If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank Email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To unsubscribe from the Above Rubies Devotional, send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.