Psalm 33:13-15 RUV, “The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of his habitation He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.”
 

How amazing that God individually fashions each new inhabitant of the earth. There is not one who is the same.  Not only does this cause us to worship our awesome and creative God but also it liberates us to be the special person God created us to be.

I am different to everyone else in the world. Oh how I love this truth. I am free from all bondages of having to be like anyone else. You also are a unique and different person.  You are different to every other person on this planet! This means that you don’t have to measure up to anyone else’s standard for you. You don’t have to conform. You are free to be you! The world is waiting to see the “you” that God created you to be. Your family is waiting to see the true “you.”

My three daughters have my genes and my training but somehow I didn’t make them clones. They are all different. I would put each of them in the top ten of mothers, and yet each one of them mothers their children differently. They discipline differently. They run their homes differently. They express themselves and order (or non-order) their lives according the individual anointing that God created in their hearts.

Dear mother, you don’t have to try to be like someone else to find your identity. You don’t even have to mother the same as a particular mother you admire, or according to some rules in a book. All you have to do is to mother according to your own heart and your individual personality. This is how you will be the best mother and the best homemaker.

I remember as I watched our first child grow. I couldn’t wait for him to be like me. I expected him to love books and to love to study! But no! He wasn’t interested in reading books. He had a different personality. He had different interests. It took time for me to come to the realization that this was a person who was different to anyone else who had ever lived before and anyone else would ever live again. My responsibility was not to conform him to my individualistic tastes but to look for the divine giftings that God had given him and encourage him to grow into the person God had planned him to be. (I must pop in here that of course we teach our children to confirm to the rules of our home and the principles of God’s Word). 

I often think of Lamech in Genesis 4:20-22 who had three sons and yet each one was uniquely different. Jabal was a cattleman and loved the animals and the outdoor life. Jubal was a musician and invented the harp and the flute. Tubal-Cain opened the first foundry; He loved to work with his hands, forging instruments of bronze and iron. If I could have looked into the future when my children were little, I could never have imagined the things they are doing today. They are far more exciting, creative and far-reaching than I would have planned.

Think about it. You were born to reflect a special image of God in this earth. You were born to reveal the creative love of God from your heart in a way that no one else can. Pour yourself out to touch others with God’s love. Don’t hold back. Don’t deprive the world of seeing the unique hand of God upon your life.

Do the same for your husband. He doesn’t have to be like you! Can you believe it? He is unique too. Stop trying to conform him and let him be who God created him to be and let him do what God has put in him to do. It might be different to what you have planned but it will better than your idea.  And do it for your children too. This is the great challenge of parenting. You can’t parent them all the same. God has created each one of their hearts individually!

Would you like to enter into this liberating path for you and your family? It will be challenging, yes, but it will also take all the pressure off! You will start to enjoy yourself. But one word of caution – you won’t find who you are by looking into yourself. You will find your true identity as you pursue God and know Him and pour your life out for others. The more you know of God the more you’ll understand who He created you to be.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Oh Father, my God and my Creator, I thank you and worship you for how you made me totally individualistic. You created me to worship you in a way that no one else will ever do. You created me to touch other people’s hearts in a way that no one else ever will. You created me to bring glory to your wondrous name through the individuality that you divinely imparted in me. Oh Lord, I embrace how you made me. I accept it and I will no longer try to be like anyone else. I thank you for the way you made me! From this moment I will walk in this liberating path. Help me to see my husband as the distinct person that he is. Help me to release my children to be the special individuals you created them to be. Thank you again for your personal and individual love for me. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

Numbers 30:1-2, “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded. If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”

Last week we talked about how marriage is not only a covenant between the husband and wife but also a covenant with God. And God wants us to be covenant keepers. This makes the marriage contract far more serious than society looks upon it today.

“But you don’t know how difficult my marriage situation is,” you reply. Let’s look at another example in the Word of God which is given for our admonition.

It is the story of Jephthah, one of the judges of Israel. When he went out to war against the Ammonites he made a vow to the Lord that if God gave him the victory he would sacrifice to the Lord the first thing to come out of his house on his return. Tragically, the first one to come out of his home was his beloved daughter, his only child. Jephthah was devastated. “When he saw her, he tore his clothes in anguish. “My daughter!” he cried out. ‘My heart is breaking! What a tragedy that you came out to greet me. For I have made a vow to the Lord and cannot take it back.’” (Judges 11:34-35 NLT)

Oh what a distraught father! But he had made a vow and could not take it back. He could not annul it. The Israelites understood the solemnity of vows and covenants. In this situation, he did not sacrifice his daughter’s life as that was against God’s laws, but instead he sacrificed her to be a virgin all her life (which was as bad as death for an Israelite daughter).

It cost Jephthah unbelievable heartache to keep his vow. Psalm 15:1,4 also speaks about this issue. “Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle? Who may dwell in your holy hill? He who walks uprightly… who swears to his own hurt and does not change.” In other words, once he has made a covenant, an oath or a vow, he will not retract, even though it will be to his own hurt.  One translation says, “no matter how much it costs!”

Covenants are made to keep – through the good times and the hard and tough times. That’s why we make the covenant – we covenant to stick to our vows through thick and thin! That’s what marriage is all about it. It is covenant made before God to “have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse; for richer for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love, to cherish, and to obey, till death us depart, according to God’s holy ordinance, and thereto I pledge thee my troth.” (Original wedding vows)

Are you finding it hard to keep to your marriage vows? Let me encourage you with an inspiration that a woman of God once wrote in Above Rubies… “The tide always comes in again.” There are many times that the tide goes out in a marriage. You no longer feel loved. You don’t have any of your own love left yourself. You feel abused and rejected. You feel unappreciated. When the tide goes out you see all the ugly things that have been swept up on the beach and so you see all the ugly and detestable things in your husband. But just wait a minute. The tide always comes in again! It must happen. It is an eternal law. And when it does the waves of God’s love, forgiveness and grace will cover all the ugly things and you will be glad that you waited, hung on and were faithful to your vows.

I believe we need to be reminded of these Scriptures too:

Deuteronomy 23:21, “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you.”

Ecclesiastes 5:4-5, “When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed. It is better not to vow than to vow and not pay.”

Love from Nancy Campbell

PRAYER:

“Oh God, help me to see the solemnity of my marriage vows. Help me to keep the covenant I have made with you and with my husband. Help me to be faithful and true, even when the going is tough. Thank you for you grace and your strength, oh Lord. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

P.S. For those who would like to do further study, here are more Scriptures about keeping to our vows:

Job 22:27b; Psalm 22:25b; 50:14; 66:13-14; 116:14. 

Examples of others who kept their vows even when it was not easy:

Here are some promises:

Exodus 19:5, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people: for all the earth is mine.”

Psalm 103: 17-18, “But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, ad his righteousness unto children’s children; to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.”

Judges 2:1 “I have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.” Read also Joshua 21:45; 23:14; 2 Chronicles 6:14; Nehemiah 1:5 and Psalm 89:33-35.

God is a covenant-maker and a covenant-keeper. He makes everlasting covenants. Here are a few of many verses that tell about His everlasting covenants: Genesis 17:7,19; Deuteronomy 7:8-9; 2 Samuel 23:5, 1 Chronicles 16:15-18; Isaiah 55:3 and Jeremiah 32:40.

Every covenant He makes He keeps. God says that He would have to do away with the laws of nature – day and night would have to cease and the waves of the sea no longer roll before He would break His covenant. The mountains would have to depart and the hills be removed; in fact heaven and earth would have to disappear before His words could fail! Read these wonderful promises: Isaiah 54:10; Jeremiah 31:35-37; 33:20-21; 25-26 and Matthew 24:35.

Let’s read another utterance from the mouth of God – Psalm 89:34, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” Because we are His people, God expects us to have this same covenant-keeping attitude. Because covenant-keeping is part of God’s character, He notices when covenants are broken. We see an example of this during the reign of King David. 2 Samuel 21:1 tells us, “Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, ‘It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites.’”

Many years before, Joshua and the elders of Israel made a covenant with the Gibeonites. After the great victories of Jericho and Ai, the Gibeonites feared for their lives and so thought of a way of deceiving the Israelis. They sent ambassadors to Joshua wearing worn-out clothing and patched shoes, and carrying old cracked wineskins and dry moldy bread to make out they had come from a far distant country.  The trick worked. Joshua forgot to ask the Lord about it and they signed a peace treaty. Three days later Joshua and the elders of Israel found out that the Gibeonites were actually close neighbors! But they had made a covenant and it could not be changed.

Years and years later, when Saul became king, he slaughtered some of the Gibeonites. God took notice. He didn’t do anything about it then. God always does things in His own time. But the breaking of this covenant had to be avenged.  When David went to the Gibeonites, they demanded David give them seven descendents of Saul who they hung before the Lord. Only then did the famine cease.

We see another example of covenant-keeping in this same chapter of 2 Samuel 21. When David gave Saul’s descendents to the Gibeonites to be hung, he made sure that he spared “Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the Lord’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul.”

It is interesting that David and Jonathan’s oath was called “the Lord’s oath.” It not only belonged to David and Jonathan, it belonged to God. 1 Samuel 23:18 says that when David and Jonathan covenanted “they two made a covenant before the Lord.” (1 Samuel 18:3, 20:8,14-17,42) God aligns Himself with covenants.  When we break a covenant with people, we break the covenant with Him too. 

Marriage could also be called, “The Lord’s oath.” It is a covenant that we make before God and before witnesses “until death do us part.” It is made in the name of the Lord. God sees it, He hears it and He takes note. And He also takes note when it is broken.

In Malachi 2:13-16 God tells the husbands that He no longer regards their offerings. When they asked, “Why?” He replied, “Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, although she is your companion and your wife by covenant.”

Proverbs 2:17 talks about the wife “who forsakes the husband of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.”

God reminds the husband and the wife that marriage is a covenant. In Proverbs 2:17 He reminds the wife that her covenant is not just between her and her husband, but it is also a covenant with God, a God does not forget covenants.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“I thank you Lord, with all my heart, that you are a covenant-keeping God. You are true to all your promises. You never fail. Please give me your strength and enabling to also be a covenant-keeper. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION: 

I received some lovely responses from the devotion last week, WHERE ARE MY HELPERS? and so I thought that rather than writing a new devotion for you that I would post these responses so you can be blessed by this further insight.

Actually, I should give further testimony myself. Last night I as over at Evangeline’s saying goodbye to them and the children as we leave for England in the morning. Currently she has to rest as she has (or had – we are praying and believing for a miraculous healing) a subchorionic tear and has been hemorrhaging inwardly for a number of months.

While there last night I tasted some of Rashida’s beautiful homemade bread. Rashida is only six years old and makes the best bread in the world. I have been making bread for years and years but I have to concede that her texture is better than mine! Rashida grinds the wheat and makes the bread and makes all the meals for their family of six children and delights in doing it. She does as good a job as any adult! The older boys, Zadok 10 and Sharar 8 take charge of watching the children and the home runs as smoothly as ever with peace and order while Evangeline rests on the couch or the bed.

So once again dear young mothers, be encouraged. It doesn’t take long to be blessed if you train your children! And here are some more testimonies for you…

Dear Nancy, There is something that is sometimes overlooked by mothers of large families... Yes, it is hard when your children are young, and becomes easier when they get older and turn into wonderful helpers.... BUT there is even more benefit! I am the second of six children.  My three younger sisters are 10, 12 and 14 years younger than I am. I was a big help to my mom with the children until I married at age 24 (two years ago). Now that I have my first daughter, my sisters are helpers to me!  They are 11, 14 and 16 years old.  There are no more young babies in my mother’s home, but my younger sisters can learn how to care for children by helping me. Later, when my children are older and my sisters begin to have their first children, my older children can be helpers to them! It is a wonderful cycle of learning and helping that is often overlooked because in our society there aren’t many second-generation large families. Most of the women I know who have large families are the first to do so, and they don’t have the younger siblings to help them...so there is a time of exhaustion and discouragement until their first few children grow old enough to help...So there is so much more benefit from having a large family because not only will your older children help you, they will get help later from your younger children and so on and so forth.

Blessings,

Candi Summers, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dear Nancy, This is so true.  We have five little ones and it seem so much easier now then when we had just two.  Partly because they are getting older and they are heeding our training, but partly because when you die to yourself and decide to step out in faith to have more than the world's average number of children God removes some of the selfishness that was holding you back. Everything in me that doesn't want a big family is selfishness.

Peace Be With You,   

Patte White, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dear Nancy, I remember years ago when we had only three children, the oldest was four years and the youngest only one year. I remember vividly sitting on the back patio crying and waiting for my husband to come home, then crying and telling him, "Honey, I just can't do this, I'm failing and I'm going nuts". Well today I am 39+ weeks with our 8th child, we have a full time ministry, and there is no vacation from God's work, so we keep real busy. The children are homeschooled, and we have a farm which requires lots of chores. And the big miracle is, I not only still have my sanity, but things are pretty much in order at any given moment. So be encouraged, it will get easier.

The focus for those who now have all little ones is to stay focused. What has changed from that crying day? We really started praying and these are the answers we got. I have always been a list maker, even if the list doesn't get followed I feel like I have some direction. My husband is very spontaneous and I can accommodate that but I still must have some direction. In those days my list would be something like this:

  1. Seek God, spend some time in prayer, even if only while nursing

  2. Meals and diapers

  3. Serve husband

  4. Nurture and love children

  5. Clean house

  6. School

This would be my priority list. Of course there would be sub heading "do" lists under each topic. Serving my husband maybe shouldn't have been after meals and diapers but when you have little ones some things just have to be done when they have to be done. In those days if I never got half of the things on my "do" lists done, at least I knew I had started with the most important. School with my oldest who was 4 didn't get done many days. I for one can't focus on school if there is stuff everywhere, so for me cleaning or at least picking up is a priority. Even now we don't start school till chores are done, now usually by 10am. But we are all different so do what works for you.

It is VERY hard to take the time to teach your children how to clean up etc when you are already worn out, but if you will do it together with them it is really worth it. Plus if you do it together you get nurturing and cleaning all done in one shot. I remember we would do pick-up two or three times a day. I just had to know that the floor was under there somewhere. We would do it first thing in the morning, right before daddy got home, and before bedtime. It would only take about 15-20 minutes each time and everyone walking age and up was expected to help. We would make a game of it.

Now the fruit of it: just this morning my husband told me that he was meditating on the scripture about the centurion, he was a man under authority but he had men under him that he trusted and how he could tell one "do this" and another "do that" and know it would get done. My husband said I was like that centurion! Kind of a funny thing to say to your wife but it was a great compliment! When this next baby comes I plan on doing little else but sitting in a rocking chair, and holding and thanking the Lord every moment for this new child - probably for the first whole week! Yet the cooking will be done, the wash will be done, the floors will be swept, the little ones will all have clean faces as they gather around me to look at their newest sibling, the school will be done, and I have no doubt someone will even get out my clothes and lovingly hold the baby when I do get up for a shower! Also I won't have to wonder, I will know for sure that the horses, chickens, rabbits, dogs, and everything else outside is well tended to.

Now our oldest is 13 and she and the next youngest daughter can run a house better than most full-grown women I know. Our oldest son works harder than most men, and they still get their school done everyday, and meet daddy's top priority - they spend at least an hour in prayer and worship every day! So hold on sisters, every day is worth it. Pray and ask the Lord for your list, then enjoy your calling, knowing that He will give you what it takes to fulfill it. When people ask us if it is hard to have so many children, and they explain that they can't handle the two children they have. I tell them that this is why it is so hard.  I tell them when I only had two, I was pulling my hair out too, but when you finally give in to what the Lord has, be it 2 or 16, that is when peace comes!  

In His Service,

Penny Raine, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

May you have a wonderful week.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL