FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 102: SHOULD CHURCHES BE MEETING TOGETHER? Part 1

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies. 

Nancy Campbell: Good morning. Well it may be “Good evening” where you are. Actually it is “Good afternoon” here.

Anyway, ladies, today I would like to jump on my little soapbox. Would you let me do that? I don’t think it’s a very popular soapbox but it’s a burden on my heart at the moment. I want to talk to you about it. You may not agree with me but that doesn’t matter. My husband always says, “We don’t have to agree with one another, but we do have to love one another.”

Even if you don’t agree, keep listening because I am going to bring a lot of the Word of God into what I’m saying.

Now what’s my current little soapbox? My burden at the moment is that people get back to church to worship together. It really grieves my heart that the body of Christ are not getting back together.

Some of you may say, “Nancy, aren’t you thinking of our dear older people? Those who are immune compromised and those how have diseases with heart problems and diabetes and high blood pressure and all these things who can be susceptible to COVID-19. Aren’t you thinking of them?”

Well, yes, I am. Actually, I guess I would have to put myself in the category of the older people, but I never think of myself like that.

Oh goodness me, Colin and I think we belong to the young people. When we hear about the older people we’re thinking about some other section of society, even though my husband is eighty and I’ll be eighty next year. But we’re in the young people’s section.

But okay, these precious people, if they are not well or they have some compromise in their health, we would not expect them to attend church. That’s just common sense. That’s common sense for any time of life, not only when there is a pandemic in our world. No! That’s common sense at any time. People just don’t go out when they are sick, and we wouldn’t encourage anyone to go out when they are sick.

But healthy people! Why are healthy people compromised? Why are healthy people quarantined? Why are healthy people kept at home? It doesn’t make sense.

Even in Bible times they had quarantine. They had to quarantine the leapers. They were infectious. They couldn’t come near healthy people and that is right. It’s always the same. You just don’t go out amongst healthy people if you are infectious.

Also, I believe that we as the people of God, don’t we really realize who we are? The Bible says in Romans 8:11 that the Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us.

If people are getting together to worship God and they have indwelling in them the Spirit of God with the power that raised Jesus from the dead, how can we all be getting sick?

No! We have living within us the One Who is our Healer, our Savior, and our Deliverer!

Let me just share a few things on my heart.

I would like to go to Hebrews 10:24, 25. You know the Scriptures: “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”

Now that word was written to the Hebrews. The book of Hebrews was written prior to A.D. 70,  the full of Jerusalem. They were tumultuous times. They were not easy times. Yet the Word of God tells us to not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

That’s the King James. I love the King James, but I also love to look at other translations, too.

The Moffat translation says: “Not ceasing to meet together.”

The Knox translation says: “Not abandoning, as some do, our common assembly.”

The Amplified Classic says: “Not forsaking, nor neglecting, to assemble together.”

The Common Jerusalem Bible: “Not neglecting our congregational meetings.”

The J. B. Phillips says: “Let us not hold aloof from our church meetings.”

It’s pretty plain, isn’t it? It doesn’t say that you are not to neglect them in “good times.” No, it just says not to neglect them whatever the time because this is part of our Christianity to meet together.

We are a together people. Yes, we have individual salvation, but we have been brought together to be one body. We are the body of Christ upon the earth. Jesus is our head. We are His body, not one individual but all of us collectively together.

God loves us to all meet together. It’s always been part of the church.

I was reading the other day about Daniel. It’s a Sunday School story of how Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den. It’s more than a Sunday School story, isn’t it? Let’s read it over in Daniel chapter 6. We read the story there and it’s a story that’s worth reading to your children. I believe this is a time to read it to your children; not just as a little Bible story but as principles for how we are to live.

Daniel of course was a very intelligent, faithful, and diligent man. King Darius decided to appoint three presidents over all his specific counties.

He had to appoint three presidents over all his specific counties. He had 120 divisions of his land and a prince over each one and three presidents over that. The head president was Daniel.

Because Daniel was the one who was made to be the head, all of the others got very jealous of him, and they decided they wanted to come against him.

They couldn’t find one bit of fault with his whole life. But they found one fault and that was that he didn’t pray to their gods but to the God of all gods, King of kings and Lord of lords.

He prayed every day and they thought, “Wow, we’ll get him on that.”

You know the story of how they went to King Darius and said, “Oh king, will you establish that law that anybody who asks of any god or man a petition apart from you, oh king, for the next thirty days, will be thrown into a lion’s den” (Daniel 6:7). The king, I guess being the king and thinking he was so important, he signed the decree.”

Now listen, he signed it, yes. It was signed and sealed, obviously with his signet ring or however they made it absolute.

It says here in verse 8 that he signed it according to the law of the Medes and Persians, “ . . . which altereth not.” In other words, it could not be changed. There was no way to change it once the king had signed it.

Verse 10 says: “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, [and he knew that it could not be changed and that he would have to face the consequences] he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.”

Daniel didn’t change his habit. His habit was to go before the Lord three times a day. Now there are a few others in the Bible who went before the Lord three times a day. Do you remember who they were?

There was David who came before the Lord, morning, noon, and night.

Of course, there was Daniel; he came three times. It was his habit.

It was the habit also of Jesus to attend the synagogue and go into the house of God. In Luke 4:16 it says: “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was . . ..” Or in other words, as was His habit. It wasn’t something He did every now and then or whenever He felt like it. It was a habit, ingrained in Him from an early child.

Also Paul had this same habit. It says in Acts 17:2 that Paul went into the synagogue as was his habit to do every week.

Let’s go back to Daniel. He did not change. Ladies, I have been challenged by that in realizing here we are facing this situation where churches are no longer meeting together. In some states they are told that they will not be allowed for many months and yet there is no signed decree.

Did you know that? Nothing has been signed. We’ve just been told to do this. Daniel faced something that had been signed and could not be changed and yet he did not compromise.

What has happened that we have compromised?

Why am I talking about this, dear ladies, when all my podcasts are to encourage you as wives and as mothers. Well this is very much part of who we are as wives and mothers because, dear precious wives and mothers, churches are made up of families.

That is what church is. It is an extension of the family. The first institute that God ordained was the family; that came before church; that came before government. Then as the church was established and born in Acts chapter 2, from that very moment in Acts chapter 2 believers have met every week.

It has become a part of who we are: the togetherness of the body. It’s made up of families. We as families have to make the decision of what we are going to do.

Along with our husbands, we have to have strong, biblical convictions.

Are we going to go according to what man says? To what ungodly men say? What liberal socialists and very pro-communist men are saying?

Or are we going to go along with the Bible?

Mothers, we have to have strong convictions. We have got to have biblical convictions because if we don’t, where is this world going to go? If we as the mothers don’t have Biblical convictions and don’t pass them on to our children, where are the convictions going to be?

They’re going to fade. They’re going to be lost.  We are the ones who carry on the biblical convictions and we have got to be strong in our convictions and not just wimpy, not just tossed to and fro, not just going along because this is what everyone else is doing.

No, we have got to be strong in the Word of God.

So I have been very challenged to read this because every Word of God is for our learning. Every story in the Word is not just a story. It’s God showing us the way as it tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:11 how every word was “written for our learning on whom the ends of the world have come.”

They are for our learning and so we learn from this. What do we learn? What is biblical and what are our godly convictions. We don’t just give them up because somebody said we can’t do it.

The Bible says we ARE to do it. Who do we obey?

We don’t even have an edict saying that we’re going be thrown into the lion’s den and yet we are still compromising.

But even though Daniel knew the consequences, he did not change. He could have still done it in hiding. He could have gone into his house and hid it behind closed doors. He didn’t have to kneel at his open window as he had always done. He did that because he was looking towards Jerusalem.

He could have compromised there perhaps. Isn’t that what they tell us to do today? “Oh yes, now you can still just have online worship and zoom worship and all this.”

That’s all good and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m sure many people are being blessed out of that.

But is that what we were doing before? No and Daniel didn’t compromise. He didn’t just go into hiding and pray before his God. He could have easily said, “I’m still praying three times a day to worship my God” and done it in hiding.

No, he didn’t hide. He honored God.

I think of that Scripture: “Them that honor me I will honor” (1 Samuel 2:30).

I am thinking of the words of Jesus: “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32).

Now of course we know the story and how Daniel was thrown into the den of lions and God was faithful to him.

I love verse 23. This was after that long night. The King, who loved Daniel and did not want to throw him into the lion’s den, he hardly slept that night as he waited to see if God would save this man.

God did and so “ . . . Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he trusted in his God.”

What a principle we learn here, precious mothers: he trusted in his God. Who are we trusting in at this time?

Are we trusting in man? Are we trusting in all these numbers and projections that are given to us, which have all turned out to be wrong? If you’re keeping up with the numbers on this corona virus, you will know that they keep coming down in numbers all the time. It has been nothing like they have projected. It was fear mongering. It was to bring this whole world into fear.

Oh when are we, the people of God, going to be people of faith and trust God instead of living in fear?

And so Daniel trusted his God.

I wonder what we are prepared to do?

Of course, remember when Daniel’s friends, the three men would not bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar’s image.

That was a different king, but they were still in Babylon. They said, “NO! We will NOT bow down! We will only bow to our God. We believe God can deliver us. But even if He doesn’t deliver, we will not bow down” (Daniel 3:16-18).

They were prepared to be thrown into the fiery flames. But once again, God DID deliver them. Of course our trust is even if we’re not delivered.

Go over to Daniel 11:32. It is a wonderful Scripture. I have quoted this Scripture all my life. But I was reading it again the other day and noticed that I had forgotten a very big word.

Any way, it says: “ . . . the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.”

That’s King James again but when you go to the Hebrew you find the word exploits is not actually in the original. They have put it in there but it’s a great word. There is nothing wrong with it because we want the people of God to do exploits.

But this is how it really goes. Let me look at another translation here.

The ESV says: “ . . . but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.” Many translations say, “Take action.”

But really, in the original it should be: “The people who know their God take action and do.”

I like that: “And DO.”

Then again, I was reading it and I noticed that there was a “but” in the Scripture, “BUT.”

There’s a word but: “BUT the people who know their God.” Do you notice that? But do know their God. In times like these, ladies, we have to be people who know our God; not know about Him but KNOW Him and know His Word.

We get to know Him by knowing His Word. As we know His Word, we know Him.

The whole context of this Scripture is that the king of the North was coming down and bringing great persecution on the people of God.

It says Daniel 11:28 (NLT): “He will set himself against the people of the holy covenant, doing much damage.”

Verse 30: “He will vent His anger against the people of the holy covenant and reward those who forsake the covenant.” I believe that these times are coming when people, even Christians, will be rewarded when they go along with the deception and forsake the Word of God.

Verse 31: “His army will take over the Temple fortress, pollute the sanctuary, put a stop to the daily sacrifices.” Now that’s interesting. The king of the North was going to come down. This is all prophetic, this word in Daniel. “And put a stop to the daily sacrifices.”

Of course that’s talking about the Jewish sacrifices, but we can relate that to what we are going through now. They have put a stop to our weekly sacrifice when we go to meet with one another and assemble together as a body of believers.

They have been putting a stop to this.

It’s the same thing here. It goes on to say, ladies, after telling us all about all that is going to happen and how they will put a stop to the daily sacrifices. We could even say, in our day, putting a stop to weekly worship.

BUT. “ . . . BUT the people who know their God.”

BUT. Did you get it? It’s the BUT. There it is: “ . . . but the people who know their God shall be strong and resist him.”

A number of translations put that in because that is in the context. That is why they are rising up: to be strong.  They are resisting the enemy as he comes against the people of God.

We go on to verse 33. This is the remnant because it was really a remnant that stood up. ”But these teachers will die by fire and sword, or they will be jailed and robbed. During these persecutions, little help will arrive, and many who join them will not be sincere. And some of the wise will fall victim to persecution. In this way, they will be refined and cleansed and made pure until the time of the end, for the appointed time is still to come.”

That was all back in Daniel, but it relates to us today, precious mothers.

There are people who are putting a stop to what is Biblically mandated and not only biblically mandated but also where we are given a mandate in our constitution.

A couple of podcasts ago I read to you our first amendment. As I close this session, I want to read it to you again because we have to know. We have to know the WORD.

I think I am going to do another session, ladies, because I’ve got so many more Scriptures, I want to give you. We have got to know the Word and we’ve got to know the First Amendment because this is what this country is based on.

“We the people.” Of course that’s how it starts, then . . . “The First Amendment (then it goes on) “to the United States Constitution prevents . . ..”

Did you hear that? PREVENTS.

“ . . . Prevents the government from making laws which regulate an establishment of religion, prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right to peaceably assemble, or the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.”

Dear ladies, there it is in black and white: the right to PEACEABLY ASSEMBLY. We’ve got it in the Word, and we’ve got it in the Constitution.

It also says here in Title 18 U.S.C. Section 242, talking about the First Amendment: “Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, … shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both . . ..”

Then it goes on to say more.

So we hear, lovely ladies, in black in white, that the imprisonment or just going after people who are doing wrong is to the people who are stopping God’s people from peaceably assembling.

That’s the Constitution. Look it up, know it, and teach it to your children.

Here’s something else. This was a ruling of the United States Supreme Court shortly after the Civil War which still stands to this day. Let me read it.

Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866): “Neither the legislator nor any executive or judicial officer may disregard the provisions of the constitution in the case of emergency.”

Section 98: “Therefore anyone who declares the suspension of constitutionally guaranteed rights to freely travel [that has been stopped in many states], peaceably assemble [that is where churches are free to gather together], earn a living [people have been stopped from carrying on their business and going to work], freely worship, etc., or attempts to enforce such suspension within fifty independent sovereign continental United States of America is making war against our constitution and therefore we the people.

“They violate their constitutional oath and thus immediately forfeit their office and authority and their proclamations be disregarded with impunity and that means anyone, even the governor and President.”

That still stands today, ladies.

And so why as families are we not going back to church? Why are pastors not drawing their people back?

I don’t dream in the night. I wish I did. I would love to have amazing dreams like lots of people have but I don’t. I just go to sleep and wake up.

Anyway, I have a dream in the day. It’s a vision, really, a burden. It’s more a burden.

My burden is that the people of God will obey His Word, who will live by their rights they have been given according to the Constitution and get back to church. I would love to see the whole of God’s people, millions of believers, getting back on one day.

The first day, all together, just all go! Every believer just filling the churches!

Oh, can you imagine? Can you just imagine what would happen to this nation? Can you imagine if believers got out of their homes with joy on their faces and their families with them in their cars and drove to church, whatever church they go to, and fill them like they’ve never filled them before?

Wow. It would cause revival in the nation.

Oh, can you make that dream? Let’s pass it on to make it happen.

Let’s pray:

“Dearest Father, We thank You for Your precious Word. Every little word is showing the way to live, not just in good times but in challenging times

“Oh God, I pray that You would help us to be people of the Book, people of the Word, people who not only read it but people who believe it and people who act on it..

“Oh God, I pray that You will stir Your people up, Father, and Lord, that You would bring a mighty revival to this nation. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

 

Transcribed by Morgan Roth.

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 101: CONNECTING OLDER MOMS AND YOUNG MOMS

Pam Fields joins me today as we talk about young women who long for a mentor, and many older women who don't know how to connect with young mothers. Pam has a vision to bring them together. Join in to hear her vision. She also speaks about the powerful BLESSING PRAYER they have prayed over their children throughout their lives, and it now continues to the next generation.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell:  Another podcast comes to you. And today I have a dear friend, Pam Fields, with me. Pam comes from Oregon. She's a mother of nine children, and a grandmother.

Actually, Pam has done two podcasts with me before. This podcast is number 101, but she did podcasts 31 and 32, so if you didn't hear then, you can go back and find out more about Pam and her wonderful family of nine children. And I notice, Pam, you're wearing your prayer bracelet.

Pam Fields: I have them on today.

Nancy: Good on you. And in one of those podcasts, she tells about how to make prayer bracelets, and how she has one for each child. Actually she  could quickly tell it again, because although you heard about it before, it's such a marvelous idea. I'd love you to share it again.

Pam: Sure. At one of the retreats, Nancy spoke about how important it is to be praying for our children. If we're not praying for our children, then who'll do it? And that we really can't be leaving the covering of prayer to other people to do for our children, but we need to be bringing forth them.

But I get distracted, I get busy, I have so many to take care of, and things that are pulling me. Sometimes I'd start at the top and work my way down through their ages. Halfway through somebody would pull me aside, and I'd forget where I was.

Sometimes I'd start at the bottom and work my way up. Or just pray for the squeakiest wheel. I felt like I just wasn't doing full duty to cover my children, all of them, in prayer. And my husband too.

I thought I had to figure out a way to keep track of what I was doing. So I came up with the idea of a little stretchy nylon, simple, from Walmart, plastic. And I put on alphabet beads with the names of each of my children.

I'd start out in the morning with them on my left wrist, and as I remember to pray for them throughout the day, either in a concerted effort, or randomly, when I finished praying for one, I moved their bracelet with their name to my right arm. Then I don't lose track. And by the end of the day, then I know, if I still have names on my left arm, then my work, true work, for the day is not completed.

Nancy: Yes!

Pam: If the laundry's done, the dishes are done, but if I still have names on my wrist, the real work isn't done. So it's just a good visual reminder for me.

Nancy: And if you want to know a little more, how to make them, well, you can go back to the earlier podcast. I think it's wonderful.

And Pam, whenever I'm with you, you're always coming up with new visions, and new ideas, and new thoughts. That's why I just love to talk with you. Lately you've had another burden, because now you're not really a younger mom, or a middling mom. You're an older mom, you're a grandmother now too.

There are seasons in life, aren't there? We go through seasons. If you're a young mom with your little ones all around you, this is the season. It will never be like this again. Even if you keep having children, because these little ones you have now, they will get bigger. Your next season, you will have helpers. And then the seasons continue to grow, and then you have older children. Then you get married children. It's so amazing. Motherhood is so incredible. It never stays the same.

If you’re bogged down now and say, “Oh, how can I ever keep doing it?” No! It's not going to stay the same. It's a season. It's going to be different. It just grows, and enlarges, and gets better all the time.

Pam: And easier! Easier all the time.

Nancy: Yes! Easier! The more children you have, the easier it gets! Because you have more helpers. That's the thing that so many young mothers don't realize, isn't it? Oh, they think they just can't get past these one, two, or three children, and they're doing everything for them.

But my, if you have more children, you're not doing everything for them, because they're playing with their brothers and sisters. They can help the little ones. Oh, it gets easier and easier, doesn't it? And more exciting all the time.

Well anyway, tell us about your latest burden that you have. You were telling me about how there's so many older moms that have so much to share. How do they connect with young moms?

Pam: Sure. I was thinking specifically. I'm very close to 48. I, myself, I feel like technology is such a challenge for me. It's a lot to navigate. But I'm learning it.

I was talking with my mother-in-law, who's in her mid-seventies. She has so many great ideas, and so much mentoring in her. I was thinking about her, and other grandmas, who just have this wealth of wisdom.

But I feel like there's a disconnect between this older generation like probably anybody like me, mid-forties up through the latter years, that they have so much to give to mentor the young moms. But they're having a hard time meeting the young moms. Maybe they don't feel permission to speak into the lives of young moms.

But on the other end, I see young moms who really have a burden on their hearts for, like, “Somebody teach me to mother. Show me what to do.” Like, when you're cooking, some just freestyle it. And they can just jump in and make things happen. Others need a recipe.

I was somebody, as a young mom, who needed a recipe. I needed to have point A, point B. This is first step, second step. I hadn't really caught a vision for what is a mom, besides diapering and feeding the child, until I got ahold of your book, The Power of Motherhood. It sat, and broke it down into some reasonable goals, and a greater vision for what is a mother.

Though I couldn't do every single thing of those things at one time, I could take, “OK, I'm having an issue with this,” or “I need to learn this, I need to understand this.” It gave a point to then grow from.

I think that a lot of times we just need to find a way to connect this younger generation that have the same questions that I do, with the older generation. But sometimes it's just so hard to do. So I think what we're going towards is what I was talking about. I have a blog that's been going for about a year.

Nancy: TendingFields.net?

Pam: Yes, TendingFields.net.

Nancy. So if you want to listen to Pam's blog, I mean, read it...

Pam: Yes, read it, read it.

Nancy: Yes, read her blog, TendingFields.net.

Pam: So anyway, I've been writing there for about a year. I'm new to it, and I'm learning, I'm thinking. What I found is, first you have the blog, but then you have to add an Instagram and a Facebook page. Through the Facebook and Instagram, you send people to the blog to read your teaching or your advice.

Sitting there talking to my mother-in-law, and I thought, she's got so much to give. She was just laying a bunch of things out. I finally said, “Stop. Don't tell me anymore. Go inside. Write it down. I don't want to forget! I don't want you to forget! Write down what you've got to say. Give me the verses.”

Because I know that the reason, she's made decisions in her parenting life was because it was based on Scripture. I thought, it's not just her, but so many women have so much to give. But learning the whole blog, Instagram, Facebook, all these things, is such a huge technology gap.

I was thinking, we need to bridge the gap between the older women and younger women, because we know that where are the younger women going? It's much Instagram, blogs, podcasts. We want to make sure that there's good content that leads them to the Lord, and to looking for the Bible for their wisdom.

Nancy: That's good. So, how are you doing it?

Pam: This is a new thing that I thought, “I am really looking forward to having some older mothers send me letters, send me paragraphs, send me lists, and Scriptures.” I gave you a list, and I was trying to remember it. Tell me!

Nancy: You were telling me, let's see, here were some ideas that you'd love to hear from older mothers. If you were an older woman and listening, or even middling to older, and you've got experience, and you've got . . . well, it's like Above Rubies in a way. I'd love you to share your testimony, so it can minister to some other mothers.

That's what Above Rubies is all about. It's one mother sharing her heart with another mother. And then of course, we have the Scriptural mandate of the older women teaching the younger women.

Pam, she's very happy, if you've got this, and you'd love to share these things. You can send to her. Can they get your, what's your email? Is that the same one?

Pam: It might be easier to just hit the Contact button on the blog itself.

Nancy: Yes, OK. Go to the blog, TendingFields.net. That's easy. And then you can contact her through there. You can send her just, you know, things that could be a help to young moms. She's happy to share them on your behalf. Isn't that great? I love that.

Pam: I was thinking, you know, some people may say, “Well, I don't have enough . . . we love what Nancy does. But I don't have the skills, or enough content, to make a whole podcast, or to do a whole blog, or to do a whole thing. But I have just one thing that God taught me.”

Nancy: Just one thing!

Pam: “I have this one thing that the Lord really brought me through that I would love to share with young moms. I would love to bless them, and to show them.” You know, I didn't feel prepared, I didn't feel, whatever, and say, “You know what, you can do it. You can do it and let me stand and show you how the Lord brought me through those things.”

I'm kind of looking for . . . if anybody wants to send me the raw ideas. You don't have to make it perfect. Because the way blogs go, you have to edit, and you have to have certain entries, and break them up into paragraphs. So if people just want to send me some ideas, I would love to take your stories and . . .

Nancy: And put them in a blog!

Pam: So they can share it.

Nancy: I think that is so wonderful. Thank you, Pam. I think that's lovely. So I do hope that some of you will do this. Even if it's one little thing. You know, we're always looking for great big stories and testimonies. Even one little thing that has been a real secret in your marriage, or a real secret in your mothering. Send it in to Pam and she'll be able to put in her blog.

You can either send it in anonymously, or say it's from you, and even give your email so people can be contacting you. The more that we can encourage one another . . .

I love this new statement. You shared it with me today. You said, let's see, I wrote it down, I thought it was so great. “The young women seek; the older women speak.” Now that's, I believe, how it's meant to be. The young women should be seeking to learn.

Now some aren't. They don't want to hear from older women. They think they know what they're doing. But there are many who are seeking, and they want to know the right way. That should be our hearts as younger women, to seek truths and wisdom from older mothers.

Then the older women speak. That's their mandate from God, to speak the words of truth, and to show them the way. So this vision that you have puts it all together. So that's wonderful. Get writing, ladies!

And, of course, you may have a testimony you want to send to me to put in Above Rubies. I'm now going to be thinking on the next issue. So I'm always open to testimonies. Now Pam's ready to get things from you too. So come on, get writing!

Pam: I think we always, there's always an awkward start to conversation, right? There's always, “Well, I have this question, but I'm not sure if she really has the time for me.” You know, as a younger mom, thinking, “I really could use some help and some insight and encouragement, but I don't know if . . . she's so busy, I don't know if she has time for me.”

As an older woman, I think a lot of older women feel like, “Well, she doesn't want my advice. What do I have to offer? I don't really know what I can give.” So we sit there, separated, and not communicating.

God created us for relationship, and not just a simple relationship, but a Titus 2 relationship, with the older women speaking into the lives of the younger women. I think it requires, especially as our society today is so separate and kind of age-segregated, it is going to take boldness, both on the part of the younger women to seek out.

Be bold. Walk up to that older woman and say, “Hey, could I spend some time with you? Do you ever have time for coffee?” Or something like that. So the younger women have to go seek out. In response, the older women . . .

Nancy: Just popping in a little thing here. I do know that many young women find it hard to find that person, because so many older women today, they've raised their children. They think, “OK, that's it. Done with that!” So now they're off cruising, or doing this, or doing that, or getting out into a career. And they're no longer available to the young women.

Nor do they have the right message. Because if they still haven't got that mothering heart, they're not taking that mandate God has given us as older women, to teach the younger women. What are they going to teach them?

“Oh well, ladies, as soon as you've got your children off your hands, well, you just leave the home and get out.” No, the older women are to show the way. So you know, of course, there's many beautiful older women like this out there. We need to hear from you. There's a little gap there too. I know that.

Pam: There is, but the older women also need to know when the younger women come to them, if you should have a younger woman come to you, then be prepared to speak.

Nancy: Be ready to have something. The right words! The truth! That's why I say that not only young women need to read The Power of Motherhood. Every older woman, every grandmother, needs a refresher course. It doesn't matter what career you are in. You have to have refresher courses.

Pam: Absolutely.

Nancy: And we need that as older mothers. I am an older mother. I'm not just a grandmother. I'm a great-grandmother. But I am every day saying, “Oh God, reveal to me Your truth. Please just show me Your total plan. Is there anything more I need to know about Your plan for mothers, for  us as wives, because, Lord, You have given me a mandate to give this truth to the young mothers. I need to hear from You.”

We, as older mothers, should all be praying this, so we're not forgetting about mothering just because our children have grown. I often like to speak about the four watches of motherhood. There's the first, the second, the third, the fourth. The fourth watch is when our children have grown.

But that's not the end of motherhood. It's a very, it's like a double anointing of motherhood, because we're now not only ministering just to our family, but to all the young mothers in our sphere of influence. It's a God-mandated thing. Yes!

Pam: I agree, absolutely.

Nancy: Some of the things . . . you sent this to me, and that you write here about ideas:

What’s some ways that I have built relationships with my children?

What are some strategies for building a strong marriage?

Some reasons to, and why and how, to live on a budget? What are some things that I would change, and I would do, if I had really known the truth at the time?

So those are some good suggestions. I like those.

Pam: You don't have to necessarily have led a perfect life. You know, who does? We make mistakes. We learn more from our mistakes often than we do from our successes. We learn from both.

But I think that sometimes it's the enemy talking to us, when we think, “Well, I didn't do everything right. Therefore, I don't have license to speak.” I think what the truth is, is that God has given us authority to speak. We haven't had to do anything perfect to be able to speak.

Nancy: No, sometimes, I think it's a powerful thing when you've done it one way, and now as you're older, you've seen, wow, that “I see the negatives of what I did. That wasn't the way to go.” So you now have all this, “Don't do it the way I did it.”

I think of my very dearest friend in Australia, Val, who, she is the director of Above Rubies in Australia. The most beautiful motherly woman you could ever meet. Val always had this most powerful mothering anointing, not just for her own children, but for everyone around her. People would just want to get near her. She was so motherly and beautiful.

But Val stopped at three children, not really because she wanted to. She was pressured into that by her husband, by her family, by people around her. You know, well, how so many are pressured today, to stop. “OK, you've got your two, your three children, that's it.”

And before she understood the revelation of truth that she knows today, she got a tubal ligation. Then when she came to the revelation of the truth of the blessing of children, who she already loved children, she’s a children lover.

It's so sad, when so many women like this, who are children lovers and have such nurturing hearts, and yet they're still pressured into stopping having children. Their husbands get a vasectomy, or they have a tubal ligation.

So, of course, when Val came to this, she just longed to have her ligation removed and reversed. But anyway, because of health problems and medical problems, she wasn't able to have it reversed, unfortunately.

But Val has risen up to be a mighty truth-speaker to women. She has touched thousands of lives while she holds the fort for Above Rubies back in Australia and has ministered to women all over the nation. She's been able to share her testimony and warn women to not go the way she did. “Don't give into that pressure, because you will always regret it.” She's taken that negative to a positive testimony and teaching of truth.

Pam: Right. And bringing them back to Scripture. I may have had some parts in my life that I've learned from. Let me take you to the Word. Let me show you now in my older wisdom what the Word says on this.

Nancy: Yes. And you, yourself, you didn't have a perfect upbringing, did you?

Pam: No, not at all.

Nancy: You know, you've had to learn how to be a wife and how to mother. Wow, by just seeking it out.

Pam: Right.

Nancy: You had to search for the truth, didn't you?

Pam: Right. Right. Yeah, I think that . . . and this is a really great time to be a mother, in that we have so many resources available. We have the podcasts we can listen to. It's not only encouraging, it's informative. You know, there's websites and blogs and some YouTubes or whatever.

So I think we need to be praying for discernment also, and that we would be able to discern. Because there is so much information out there, and so many people speaking, that we would learn to discern what God is saying, what is truth.

Nancy: Absolutely. And of course that comes back to the word of those who are speaking, taking what they are saying from the Word. I believe the Word of God is the greatest deterrent to deception. Because if you don't have the Word in your heart, you can hear things that sound pretty good and you can just go along with them.

But if you have the Word in your heart, in your mind, in your soul, and you're reading it daily, when you hear something false, goodness me, that Word is in you to give you that block, that checkmate. “Oh, I don't know, I'm not sure about that!” And so then you go into the Word and check it out to see if it is true.

I love to be a Berean, don't you? Remember the Bereans. What does it say? That the Bereans, they, when Paul came to preach to them, he preached the Word. They didn't just say, “Oh, yes sir!” No, the Bible says that they searched the Scriptures to see if what Paul was saying was true (Acts 17;11). Sometimes we have to do that, don't we?

Pam: So jumping now. We were kind of talking more towards that older women to jump to the younger women. Thinking about, I mean, don't think of your child as just . . . they're not going to be a toddler forever! They're going to grow up. These toddlers are going to grow up to be parents. So they will need that discernment someday.

The best way to get them to understand and to be able to divide the truth from a lie is to get the Word into them. To train them and teach them, how do they . . .

How do they do when they're training bank tellers? How do they teach them what is a counterfeit? There's always going to be somebody that comes up with a new way to make a counterfeit. So you don't train them on counterfeits. This feels like a counterfeit bill, this looks like it, because there'll be a new way to come down the pike for deception. The way you teach them is to recognize what the truth is. And they recognize, because there's always going to be somebody that invents something new, something new. So we have to teach so closely.

Nancy: They need to be so familiar with the real.

Pam: Yes. And we need to be so . . . have our children so familiar with what is truth. Let them know and just soak in the Word of God, so that when those deceptions come down the pike, and when they're . . . Not only when they're in our home with us, but when we release them, they have that knowledge that lets them go back to it. to let them know.

Nancy: I know, I've watched your own children. Because every . . . Pam has put on so many Above Rubies retreats for us in Oregon. Each time I have gone up there, I stay with you on Sunday night, because I have to wait for my plane the next morning.

I've watched your children grow from quite little ones to now, help, they're out there in their careers and getting married. It's amazing to see them grow up and so strong in their convictions. They're not going to be pushed over by anyone or any deception, are they? I love it!

Pam: You know, that was one of the things when I became a mom. I felt like, “I don't have the equipment to . . . I don't know that much about the Bible. I don't know the stories of the Bible. I don't know the maps and the archaeology type stuff of the Bible. I don't know any of it! How can I ever teach my child?”

And then I really kind of made it a goal too, that I thought, “For what I know, I want my children to know even more.”  And so, I want to, when they leave my home, as a goal, I want them to know more  of the Bible than I know.

So my husband is a scholar in all sorts of ways. A self-studied scholar. So I'm just so thankful. Sometimes even at family worship, he may ask a question of all the children, and I'm sitting here thinking, “Wow, I hope one of the children comes up with the answer, because I'm not sure I know that one!” And sure enough, they do!

And I can have a moment of embarrassment, and think, “How do my children know that answer, and I don't know it?” And then I think, “Thank You, Jesus, You've answered my prayer! That they might have a deeper knowledge, they know.” So anyway, I'm thankful for that.

Nancy: That's just so wonderful. Oh yes, oh, by the way, we will be having an Above Rubies Family Camp in Oregon again this year. When you arrived you said, “Oh, let's just check, when is the date?” I couldn't remember the date.

So we looked in the new magazine, and guess what ladies? It was the wrong date! Can you believe it? If you're looking at an Above Rubies magazine, the wrong date is in the magazine. It says that we're going to have the Above Rubies Family Retreat in Oregon from the 30^th of September to the first of November—for a whole month!

Pam: We're going to have a whole month-long family camp! (Laughter)

Nancy: A whole month! Isn't that amazing? But actually . . .

Pam: It's a little typo.

Nancy: So sorry, I don't even know how I overlooked that. But anyway, it is the 30^th of October to the first of November. And we've had lots of ladies' retreats up there in Oregon, but we have a family camp now. We're doing another family one this year.

It's a wonderful opportunity for you to bring your husband and the whole family. Oh, it's just so wonderful. My husband will speak to the men, I'll speak to the women. Your husbands, they will love my husband. They will be so blessed. So, keep that in mind too.

Pam: Yes, save the date. And start saving, because there's a campground. You can (??? 29:55) it, or you can stay in the campground.

Nancy: And isn't it a campground where you can even bring RVs and things?

Pam: I can't remember.

Nancy: Nor can I.

Pam: I think there might have been limited camping, but we are going to be meeting October 30^th to November 1^st, so some might want a cabin.

Nancy: Yes, that's right. It will still be quite cold, won't it?

I thought I would even ask you, Pam, just some of these things that you put down that will be so good for other middling and older women to share about. One of these is how do . . .  have you built relationships with your children? How have you done that?

Pam: OK, so you're going to give me my own question! (Laughter)

Nancy: Yes, I am!

Pam:  I said, “I don't have all the answers for all these questions!”

Nancy: Nor do any of us ever have all the answers! Even I don't have all the answers.

Pam: I think one way is first being a student of my children. They are all so different.

Nancy: Oh, yes!

Pam: You know, once I think I've got it all figured out, I'm like, “I know how to do this mothering thing, this is, I've got this down.” And then you watch one, and you think, “What's going on?” I'm thrown for a loop.

There is not . . . the things I have done have not worked out with this one. So I think sometimes we need to step back and observe them. Maybe even take notes. Observe them. How they interact with other people. What foods they eat? Or what things make them happy? What things fill their little love tank.  And what things motivate?

So I think for me, that obviously we're going to be seeking the Word, and we're going to be praying for our children. That's like, without even need to mention, right? But I think sometimes I just need to set back and watch them for a while.

There's sometimes a quest for equality in a family. “Well, you did this with this child, you know, but you didn't do this with me” or that type of thing. We've  really learned to say, you know, “Each one of you is unique.” Each one has really different needs. They aren't cookie cutters.

So we watch, and we say, “OK, I see you. This one, time spent is really important to you.” So I am going to take time to do something special, to go somewhere special. You know, somebody got . . . they just love treats. So within reason, and when able, let’s go do a treat.

So I think that that is a real basic, to be thinking of them. And not only, how do I want to run this relationship, but what are their needs?

Nancy: Yes, the things you say are so true. They're all so different, aren't they?

Pam: Right.

Nancy: And you've just got to go with each one really. I noticed, even with your twins, having watched them grow up, they're so different! Like my twins. I mean, oh! They're just night and day!

But I noticed how your son, Caleb . . . yes. No, it's Ben. Ben! Yeah. Even when he was young, oh, I used to just love to watch him walk. He would walk with such purpose! Oh, goodness me, he had purpose in life! Now he's just gone into the military. He's just that kind, type of guy. And then, Isaac, his twin, he's becoming a dentist. He's just so different, isn't he?

Pam: Yes, they're just totally different.

Nancy: Oh, it's amazing, I know. So . . .

Pam: And I think their relationship building too, is...oh now I'm going to lose my train of thought! (Laughter) So . . .

Nancy: Well, I think too, that's a . . . not sure where you were going, but even amongst our own , children too, because they are all so different, they also build their own relationships together. I found some of mine would be best friends with someone for a certain season of life. Then it would  become, oh, another two would sort of be more best friends together. They're all great friends together. But they also, amongst their own, they make their own relationships in the family too.

Pam: Which is wonderful, because someday we'll pass away, and our children will continue their relationships. If we passed away, and our children never saw each other, were never friends with each other anymore, how tragic!

Nancy: That would be.

Pam: So it's wonderful when they have the relationships with each other.

What I was going to say, is when they're adults, when they leave the home, the relationship changes. I think that was one, when you said, “How do I build relationships?” And again, it's so unique. You know, I have two adult sons that live in the same town as I do. They come over to eat. You know, they come over to eat. While they're there, we talk. We go over things. I might pick up something for them and send it home with them.

Then my daughter, who's married to a Coast Guard man, they live in another state. And they're the ones with children, so we Facetime. We stay connected with . . . if she needs something, she tells us. She tells us when she wants . . . if there's something we can pray for. But we have to seek in that relationship, even when they're beyond.

My son in the military, we text. This is a different age, and I don't know when he's ever available with military, so I send texts. Or I send pictures of the family and things. And it's really important to continue that, even while they're gone out of the home.

Nancy: Yes. Amen! And as we're closing this session, if you haven't read it already, Pam has written a testimony in this latest Above Rubies, and it's called “The Blessing.” You must read it! It's how, when the children were little, God gave a special blessing for Pam and her husband, Andrew to pray over their children every day. We have the blessing written in the magazine too.

But it's a beautiful testimony and a beautiful thing. Every single night, before they went to bed, Pam, Andrew, or both, you would pray this blessing over them. And now, your daughter and her husband are praying that same blessing over their children, aren't they?

Pam: Yeah, they are. Even this morning my granddaughter pushed the Facetime button to me. She's three. She called me, and she was sad because Daddy just left yesterday on a boat. He'll be on a boat for a while with the Coast Guard. So her heart's hurting for him. And I said, “???? (37:29), do you have a little bunny rabbit with Daddy's voice on it?”

And she said, “Yes.” I said, “Go get your bunny rabbit and push the button.” So she can go get her bunny rabbit and push the button, and it's her Daddy, praying the blessing over her.

Nancy: Oh, how beautiful! Can you remember the blessing?

Pam: Oh yeah!

Nancy: OK, say it!

Pam: Oh, OK. So we change the pronouns, depending on who we're saying it to:

“God bless you with grace and peace, power and protection, health and healing, holiness and godliness, abundance and prosperity, and all the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Watch over Your child, oh, Lord, as his days increase. Bless and guide him, wherever he may be, keeping him unspotted from the world. Strengthen him when he stands, comfort him when discouraged or sorrowful. And raise him up if he should fall.

And in his heart, may Your peace which passes understanding abide all the days of his life. In Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.”

Nancy: Amen! What a beautiful blessing! And that is printed in the magazine. If you don't have your own blessing that you're saying over your children, you can take that one.

Blessing, part of parenting is blessing. So thank you for sharing that, Pam, and thank you for being with us again.

Pam: I'm so happy to be here.

Nancy: We love you all.

Transcribed by Darlene Norris.

The following is the latest information from Pam:

“Join our interactive Facebook group, “LESS THAN PERFECT CHRISTIAN MAMAS” where we share tips and insights for the practical side of motherhood and management of our homes. We also have a day devoted to praying for each other as well as encouraging each other to grow in our walk with the Lord. Here’s the link to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/231087377942997/?ref=share

If you are a homeschooler, you may be interested in joining our similar group over at THE HOMESCHOOL HUB. The Homeschool Hub is a new network for you and your teens to take classes, keep up on homeschool news, and join groups. It is free of advertising and exclusively dedicated to be a resource for homeschooling. I lead a “Less Than Perfect Christian Mamas” group in The Homeschool Hub as well. There we cover some of the same topics as on our Facebook group but at a much more relaxed pace. Join me in The Homeschool HUB. You'll love it as much as I do.
https://www.homeschoolhub.org/share/uGda0XvjQum7b-nf  

Pam’s blogpost: www.tendingfields.net . 

Pam also has a Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages under the name “Tending Fields.”

If you have read the latest Above Rubies magazine, No. 97, you will have loved Pam’s story on pages 14 – 15 where she tells about the Family Blessings they pray over their children. Make sure you read it if you haven’t already. You can get this magazine from www.aboverubies.org.

 

Coming up!

30 OCTOBER – 1 NOVEMBER, OREGON

ABOVE RUBIES FAMILY RETREAT in Turner, Oregon

Husbands, Wives, and children.

Come and be blessed as a family!

Questions to: Charity Jenkins
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: 503-871-9535

Or Sonia Ramsay
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: 503-428-7345

Or Julia Hughes
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: 503-421-1669

THE POWER OF MOTHERHOOD

What the Bible Says About You as a Mother

You may have already purchased this book, which is a classic for mothers. If you haven’t, I hope you can get it. Every mother needs this book. At her side and beside her bed.

Young mothers desperately need the encouragement! Middling mothers need it! And even older mothers need it. Older mothers need a refresher course in God’s plan for mothering, so they can take their place as the older mothers who teach the next generation.

You will be amazed at what God has to say to you as a mother! You will receive wonderful understanding through the 245 pages of this manual. 

Mothers can use it as a study guide for their older daughters. Many women use this manual as a guide for their Motherhood Bible Study groups.

Go to: http://bit.ly/PowerOfMotherhoodUS

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 100: HOW CAN YOU ENJOY INTIMACY IN YOUR MARRIAGE WITH BABIES AND TODDLERS AROUND?

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Well, hello ladies, again. Today is so exciting for two reasons! One, this is our podcast number 100. I can’t believe it that we’ve got up to this. It’s amazing! And, because that’s special, I have my daughter, Serene, with me today. I’m so excited because she is such a busy mom with all her children, her older children and her little ones and Trim Healthy Mama. If I can get her here on a podcast it’s amazing because she’s always doing her own podcast.

I’m sure so many of you listen to the Trim Healthy Mama Poddy and the Unshow. So she’s just poddied out.

Serene Allison: Oh I love podcasts! I love talking and I love talking when I don’t have to get dressed up at all.

NC: Oh I know! I love podcasts for that reason. Oh goodness me, when I actually have to go and do a talk show and you actually have to go and get all dressed up and put on your makeup. It’s just so lovely to sit here and talk, isn’t it?

SA: Exactly. You don’t have to wash your hair. It’s awesome!

NC: While everything is sort of happening here today, we send this podcast out every Tuesday morning to you but it’s actually Sunday that we’re here doing this. We had church here this morning down in our basement. It is our big Above Rubies packaging room, but we use it for everything and all our social gatherings and for church.

SA: Weddings and baby showers!

NC: Oh absolutely, everything! So we had that this morning and then fellowship meal, which we do every Sunday. Then Nadia, she has been filming in another room.

SA: Do they know who Nadia is?

NC: Well Nadia Mutana. She does a YouTube called “Loving Mothering.”

SA: There you go. I wanted plug them in. That’s awesome, awesome.

NC: She likes to interview anybody she can. She’s just been interviewing Evangeline and our friend, Pam, who’s here from Oregon, and they’ve been talking about that in one room and we’re here podcasting in another room.

SA: A bunch of loudmouth talkers, we are!

NC: Here we are just out on the hilltop but sending out our messages to the world.

Anyway, a couple of podcasts ago was number 96. I was talking about the subject of how taste is a food discerner. It discerns the food we eat, physically, but the word that’s used in the Bible is the same word that’s not only used to taste food but to discern, to discern whether something is right or wrong. You will have to listen to that podcast if you didn’t get to.

But on that podcast, I remember telling you how that Serene has these very sharpened taste buds.

SA: Well I’m not blowing my own horn about that.

NC: Well I’m blowing it. You won’t be blowing it!

SA: Okay.

NC: But she can! I taste something and think, “Oh that’s lovely!”

SA: Well not everybody might agree with me. I might taste a Dunkin Doughnuts doughnut and think it’s repulsive! People will think, “That’s not very discerning of you.”

NC: I don’t know but you usually do know what’s in things. I was telling you about how she makes these ugly things at home for herself. She doesn’t put them in Trim Healthy Mama because they’re filled with super foods!

SA: I don’t call them ugly things; they’re my “Yuck-Yums.”

NC: But we call our chocolate ugly chocolate.

SA: You call it ugly chocolate, yes.

NC: I call it ugly chocolate.

SA: But “yuck-yum” is my term for anything that is so yucky it’s teetering on the side of yummy at the end.

NC: Actually the other night when we went over to your prayer meeting, there were all the little children, Solly, Havey, and Remmy. They were all trying to get into your yuck-yum.

SA: Oh it’s delicious! You should try it. It’s actually in the Trim Healthy Table book.

NC: Yes but I think you put more things in.

SA: Oh I do.

NC: What are some of the things you put in it that you wouldn’t put in for anybody else?

SA: I think I was pretty descriptive in the book. It’s always a base of my double fermented raw kefir, which is always so creamy and delicious and sour. I just fill it with baobab, whatever berries I have whether it’s cranberries, raspberries or wild blueberries. I add that and then I do maca or any kind of ashwagandha or matcha or any kind of super food. I throw in all the super foods. It’s just a hodge-podge of different things.

Moringa, I throw in that. Turmeric, I love turmeric. Even raw turmeric root, not the powder but the actual root. It’s just delicious! I’ve bought it like a paste.

NC: Yes, you’ve told me you’ve found the paste at Walmart. Tell me about it.

SA: I found it in the gluten free section, maybe. It’s a paste but it’s processed raw and it’s totally no preservatives, amazing stuff. So a plug for that but I forget what it was called. But it’s amazing. I throw it in my “yuck-yums” all the time now.

NC: So what isle is it in?

SA: I don’t remember!

NC: Oh well they change the isles all the time! Doesn’t that upset you? You go to get something, you know where it is, and then it’s not there. They’ve changed the isle. They like to go around and change it!

SA: They do it purposefully, Mum! Just for you!

NC: Yes, just so they can purposefully send us around to buy other things.

Anyway, we have a special thing we’re going to talk about today. It’s a question that has come in and I thought, “Oh I’ll wait till I can get Serene to talk about it.”

But before we do, I’d like to read you something. Sometimes I read you a poem but today I’d like to read to you words from one of Serene’s songs. I think it totally personifies who she is.

SA: That’s embarrassing doing it right next to me, though.

NC: Ha ha, anyway! It’s a beautiful description of motherhood. It’s one of her songs from way back on their album, Peace all over Me. That was the first CD you did for mothers. Serene and Pearl were signed to a record company but when they came home and began having all their children then they began to record songs especially for mothers.

Peace all over Me, well, that’s just out and you can’t get it now. But you can go to my webpage aboverubies.org and you can download it. It’s there for you. You would just so love it.

This song is called “El Shaddai.” Let me read a little bit of it because I love these words.

Serene writes here, and it’s speaking about God Himself:

“Deep within Your heart You hold a source

For everything that’s tender, soft and kind.

To caress the world with warm affection

You thought of a mother, beautiful design.

“As I hold this baby in my arms

I’m like a picture of You,

To nurture with Your love

Is what You made me to do.”

I love those words, don’t you?

SA: It’s so funny because it reminds me of the time, we had my baby shower for Solace. You played the game where people read out a stanza or a poem of a famous speech and we had to guess who it was that wrote it.

NC: We wrote them out on cards and read them and asked, “Who wrote this quote?”

SA: Yes and I thought, “Some president or something.” Because it was my baby shower you decided to pop in something of mine. We were all guessing and even I was guessing who it was, and I had no idea, because I had written it a long time ago, that it was me!

It was what you just read. I was like, “Oooh, I’ve heard that before. That sounds familiar. I’ve heard that before.” But I didn’t even realize that it was me!

NC: Yes, you didn’t even realize it was you! I remember even putting in a quote from Evangeline, too, and nobody could guess that. It was quite fun! That’s right.

But I love those words. You can go and download that song.

How true it is that when we are embracing our children and embracing motherhood we are like a picture of God. We picture Him because He is the Source.

Where does motherhood come from? We didn’t make it up. It comes from God. He’s put this innate anointing to nurture in us.

When we do this, we’re like a beautiful picture of Him. I love that.

Anyway, what is this question? This person wrote in and asked, “How do we keep the romance going in our marriage when we have a little baby and little toddlers all around? We feel so tired.”

Yes, I can remember those times. It can be very real.

But I thought, “Well I need to get a mother who’s in that position to help me answer that question.”

Although Serene is maybe what you could call a . . . well how could I ever in the whole of the world call you an older mother! You’re only forty-three! But some mothers think that they are older mothers when they are forty-three!

SA: They think that’s old, yeah.

NC: They think that’s old, goodness me!

SA: Nah. I think I’m seventeen.

 

NC: I know. You only look like it.

SA: No I don’t, ha ha.

NC: But she already has children who are married, and she is a grandmother. But she still has little toddlers around. Her little baby, Solly, is now two but she’s her baby and you’re still hoping for more, aren’t you?

SA: Oh yeah, bring it on God!

NC: Yes.

SA: I love presents so it’s hard to not want a present when you’re a present lover.

Every time I have another baby it’s like opening up another gift like, “What’s it going to be? What personality will it be like?” It’s just so fun!

NC: Oh I know! And that’s the amazing thing when you look at your children and how they are all different. Some of them, you know, are very dark and have black hair and are dark.

Then you have different ones pop out!

SA: Red heads and blue-eyed babies.

NC: Little Vision popped out! Oh goodness me, I couldn’t believe it when he was born because he is redheaded and freckled like me.

Then Solly popped out with her blue eyes, little round face, and her personality that she has!

How can people not want another baby? How can they deprive themselves of the most awesome gift you could ever give?

SA: It’s like depriving themselves of a gift of love. It’s like love is born every time. It’s a best friend for you.

NC: And haven’t you said every time that when you have a new baby, not only are you filled with love for this new little baby but you are renewed in love for all your children, even your older ones.

SA: The whole household gets blessed, I believe. Your maternal instincts get renewed. I start to remember those older children when they were the babies.

I don’t know, I feel like everybody gets a dose of that new, fresh love I have for the little baby. They have that as well.

NC: Exactly, because you have those hormones of prolactin and oxytocin flowing. They not only flow out on the baby but on the whole family.

SA: Yes.

NC: Yes, it’s just God’s wonderful, wonderful way.

Well, we need to perhaps look at this question.

SA: And this goes into the question. It can flow out on your husband as well. You can let that love flow out on your husband as well.

NC: I’ve already actually asked the question; how can you have romance when you have toddlers and babies around you.

I think one of the things, and I can remember because I’m trying to remember now because I don’t have toddlers around now. But I can remember when I had my first three. I had my first three in seventeen months. Wesley was only 17 months when the twins were born, unexpectedly. Back then we didn’t have ultrasounds or anything like that.

I didn’t have a clue and out popped twins!

SA: Well let me just tell you this, I just had a little thought. You can still imagine it in your head, too, even though you don’t have the business of little babies all throughout your house anymore.

NC: But I do quite often!

SA: Oh I know, I know but through the night and everything. See, we fill our lives with something, unless we’re people who want to spend our lives painting our nails and staying in the bath all day, but rarely can people afford that.

We’re going to fill our lives with something. We’re always going to “can’t have that” excuse, “Well, I’m just so exhausted.”

Mum, you don’t have the babies to get up for but you’re up at four or five in the morning for other reasons.

So I’ve noticed, if I’ve had a little natural break between babies, which just so happens, I’m filling my life with a new hobby. I’m going to take up painting again or out comes the guitar. I’m up in the morning coming up with something.

You fill your life with something.

NC: Exactly.

SA: I’m looking at my older, now twenties, daughters that live in the home. They’re not married with children yet but they’re filling they’re lives.

One of my daughters works super hard. She has to be up at four in the morning. She is so busy and she’s exhausted. She doesn’t have children.

Hear my heart, I say this with compassion because I’m right there with you. I’m not even a scheduled person so my babies are right there in my room, so I understand, I’m right there with you.

But I feel like we have to take a step back and ask ourselves, am I, could I, be using this as an excuse?

As humans we busy ourselves. Maybe we’re exhausted with the children but maybe others are exhausted with their job. Other people are exhausted with huge projects or whatever, so maybe it’s not necessarily motherhood that’s exhausting us.

Maybe there’s practical things that maybe we can do to preserve energy. Mum and I can look at that as we go along but I just wanted to hit that nail on the head in the beginning.

Let’s not blame motherhood because it’s like my daughter blaming the factory job she’s working with. Hey, it’s something that she’s earning money and saving money for missions and there are blessings to motherhood.

It’s not necessarily motherhood.

I look at Pearl, my sister; she’s not necessarily in that season of having babies. In her season she’s older now. But she is such a productive woman. She’s not as busy with little ones but she’s doing so many incredible things because you just want to fill your life. You don’t want to be bored.

NC: No! You do, you fill your life. Who wants to be bored? So you do: you fill your life.

I think a lot of it is our attitude. I do remember those times feeling very tired. But then I had to think of ways, “How can I still be fresh for my husband?”

I didn’t always manage to do it very well. But I would try. I would get the children ready for a little nap after lunch and I would try and maybe have a little nap with them. You can do that if you take your baby to bed with you and just let your baby nurse.

SA: I think that’s the key. That was the key for me. I want people to hear me. I’m not saying everybody is the same. My babies love to just nurse anywhere and lay down with me and nurse.

But I’ve just started to realize, even in our family, not mine personally but just young mothers that I know, that there can be some babies who are just not the comfort kind of nursers.

They are just so enthralled and stimulated by distractions and things versus babies that just want to be held in an ergo.

But I feel like if your baby is prone to wanting to have that laying down and going to take a nap with you, that was my key, just using that time to rest. I’m not making my baby sleep by itself so I can go and get a bunch of stuff done. No, go lay down with the baby.

NC: That’s a temptation. Oh goodness me, when you’ve got these little ones around you, and really, to get things done in the day is well-nigh impossible. That’s all your doing.

You think, “Oh they’re having a nap! I can go and do those other things that I want to!” But you do them and you’re going to be exhausted later in the evening.

SA: I feel like there’s seasons that we need to realize and not push ourselves to be the supermom.

I think communication is a big key. Communicating with your husband and saying, “Listen, I would love to have a gorgeous dinner on the table for you and I would love to have a clean house but I need to have energy for you.”

Put priorities down. Maybe your husband would rather have a simple dinner and maybe the laundry not folded, and you have energy for him.

You can’t do everything. Maybe when you have older children and then they can start helping out you can start more bringing on the amazing meals and having the house a little bit more perfect.

Maybe your husband would not prefer a house that’s not always perfectly picked up but a woman who’s super excited that her husband is home and that she has preserved energy for him.

NC: Yes, I think that’s right. It’s your mindset and having the right priorities that we are wives. Yes, we’re mothers, but we are wives. God has created us to be one flesh. That’s what marriage is.

SA: And it was first. Marriage was first and then came the family. We’re not diminishing the children, but we don’t want that to be an idol in our lives to the point where husbands go by the wayside. Then on the other balance, where it’s all about dates with the husband, and you’re leaving the baby every second night.

NC: Yes, that’s wrong, too.

SA: Yes, there has got to be a balance.

NC: I think it’s amazing, too. Now you manage to have a good sex life.

SA: Yes, amazing!

NC: You have your two babies with you.

SA: Well, we just kicked out our four-year-old because it’s just a bit beyond. He tries to come in all night and we just walk him back to bed. He had a little bit of issues that we had to deal with, some emotional issues. He’s a special, beautiful individual and we just couldn’t train him like the others.

NC: No. And you still have Solly there at two years old.

SA: Yeah. She’s in a little crib there beside our bed but she’s totally connected and she’s escaping it all night and coming into bed. But it wasn’t that long ago that she was totally with us in bed.

NC: Right, but you still don’t use that as an excuse.

SA: No, exactly, I mean children sleep.

I feel like you said, Mum, its priorities. For me it’s preserving energy. It’s saying, “Okay, I’m going to put a particular worth on the intimacy in my marriage.”

It’s more important than the laundry. This may sound terrible, but sometimes my babies will just get a rag bath and they won’t have the full bath that night.

If I’m that exhausted I’m like, “If excellently perfecting the whole night time routine is going to take every skeric  of my energy where I can’t have night time routine with my husband, then they’re going to just get a rag bath tonight and an extra kiss on the forehead.”

Maybe they go to bed and it’s not their perfectly matching pajamas, but they got tucked in, they’re healthy and happy.

NC: I don’t think I’ve ever seen your children in matching pajamas!

SA: No, they don’t ever get in pajamas! I’m trying to put a good face on it. But I preserve energy for my husband.

NC: I love that. I think that’s the key, ladies, those three words: Preserving energy for your husband. If you don’t think about it during the day, you’re going to let your energy be taken up in so many ways.

SA: That’s the other thing: thinking about it. It’s not a worldly thing. That is not an ungodly thing. It is a beautiful thing.

That’s how a woman’s whole body was designed. Well that’s how every human being is designed. Our body follows our mind.

But because women are a bit more “crock-pottish” than a man, we need to think about things more. If we’re just thinking about laundry and to-do lists and errands and homeschooling all day and we don’t take one skeric to think about our gorgeous husband and how much he means to us, then when he comes home we just aren’t in the right frame of mind.

NC: No and thinking about how he is most probably going to be wanting you.

That’s another thing. We keep thinking of things, that is not only trying to have that little nap in the afternoon but going to bed with your husband.

There is another temptation because you’ve been so busy with the little ones and everything throughout the day, you get them to bed and then you’ve got “me time.”

You think, “Oh now I can do this and that” and your poor husband has gone to bed by himself!

SA: And not realizing that that “me time” really would be time with your husband.

Maybe it would be great to look into the fact of how healthy it is for you and how healthy it is for your immune system and how healthy it is for you physiologically and emotionally.

In so many ways, physical intimacy inside of marriage is actually an incredible immune booster. It actually takes away headaches. It’s a dopamine rush. It takes away depression.

I don’t think it’s exhausting at all when you have been thinking about it during the day and you have preserved energy. I think it’s a godly thing and you’re all geared up for it. It’s fantastic because you’re ready and excited.

But say you weren’t there, and you weren’t geared up. I think it’s more exhausting to say, “Oh not tonight” and push him away and start going through all those little uncomfortable conversations where you’re trying to move your foot over so it doesn’t begin anything.

I feel like that’s more exhausting because when I’ve done that, I go to bed feeling guilty and feeling awful. I don’t go to bed feeling relaxed or close to my husband. I go to bed knowing that I have deprived my husband.

I don’t go to bed feeling rested and so I don’t have a good sleep. That’s more exhausting. It’s better to just give to your husband and serve him.

It doesn’t have to be a big old lipstick and high heels. It doesn’t have to take a million years, you know! I think it’s beautiful to have celebration times, but it doesn’t have to be a big ordeal every time.

NC: I think that’s another thing, too. There are times that are lengthy times and celebration times where you put aside especially. But there are so many other times when you just say, “Okay, this is just part of life. Yes this is just part of our lives together because we are one.”

SA: Exactly.

I feel like that was a big thing in my life, realizing that it does not have to be this big thing where I have to be perfectly prepared like Esther in the Bible, soaked in milk and honey all day.

 I don’t have my hair washed or put on my mascara. Oops, I’ve got a little bit of baby spew on my nightgown or something.

I think sometimes in our culture we feel like we have to be Miss Perfect or Miss Beautiful. I just feel like WILLINGNESS IS BEAUTIFUL. Offering your body is beautiful.

A willingness to serve and love is an act of selflessness but it’s actually an act of giving back to you, like I said.

NC: It is because if you’re depriving your husband, you’re also depriving yourself of oxytocin, and that beautiful glory that you’re going to receive yourself.

SA: Exactly.

I put on a huge meal for my family on Friday nights. It’s a beautiful meal, like I pull out all the stops. I just cook all day and I’m so excited.

But for the most part during the week, it’s just soups and I’m throwing things together. It’s all hearty food but it’s quick. I think that’s like my married life. I don’t always feel like, “Oh I have to preserve energy for this big ordeal.”

You know, like the dance and I have to be like some Egyptian belly dancer there. No, it’s like Mum said: it’s part of life.

NC: Well you might do that on the odd occasion.

SA: Oh more than an odd occasion but that’s because I’m into this whole thing! It’s exciting! You see, the more that you do the more that you get an appetite for it.

I feel like as women, especially as nursing mothers, because nursing mothers have a different hormonal profile with the oxytocin and the prolactin. Oxytocin is a love hormone. Its released in marital intimacy and nursing. It’s a connection hormone. It’s wonderful.

But the sex hormones, the estrogens, they are dropped during that time. But I’ve noticed, when you think about your husband in a way, knowing it’s so godly and so beautiful, when you think about your husband, those hormones start turning on.

It doesn’t matter how many times you nurse. I have totally changed my brain just by my thought patterns in the day, not by thinking about my to-do list and all that I have to get done but by thinking about my husband.

I have beautiful dreamy days about it and the nights are gorgeous. I have all kinds of amazing energy because the hormones are where they should be. But it all starts in the mind.

NC: Absolutely.

SA: I’ve been nursing pretty much my whole married life. I could have used that as an excuse.

They’ve actually done scientific studies now where they’ve actually taken women who have lower hormones because of their season of life but with their thought patterns there were detectible changes. It was detectible changes even in blood tests.

NC: So ladies, so far, we’ve got two points that you’ve just got to get hold of:

One: Preserve energy.

Two: Think about your husband during the day.  Think of intimacy with him. Dream about it, yes!

SA: And communication. Ask your husband, “Would you prefer the roast dinner every night or would you prefer more simple meals because I am preserving energy for you?”

I think he might be all about it!

Maybe it’s like, “Would you like me to have all the laundry folded or do you not care? Would you just rather me be available for you? I can’t do everything.”

I feel like we as women just try to do everything, but we have to set worth on intimacy I feel like more than anything.

It’s exercise. I don’t know about everybody, but I feel like to me, exercise has always been important, and I like to tick that box.

But I’ve had to realize that if I’m going to have energy to make my body beautiful for my husband but I’m not going to be willing to give it away, that’s just wrong. There’s something perverted and weird about that.

Rather, just give your body away and spend that energy for that, than just making something beautiful andI’m denying my husband.

Preserve energy even if it means you don’t go for your walk. Use energy with him because that actually is exercise.

NC: Yes it actually helps you lose weight anyway, so they have found with studies.

SA: And remember this point because this was a huge one for me: Remembering it does not have to be a huge, big ordeal every time.

NC: That’s another one, yes, exactly.

SA: That really is what released me. I don’t have to save energy for this hour long, big Romeo and Juliet thing. It doesn’t have to be this huge thing. Maybe it’s just the simplicity of marriage.

NC: Yes, if only we could get that.

I love this quote that I read the other day by Matthew Henry, a commentator of the Bible. I hadn’t read it before.

He says: “A man’s children are pieces of himself, but his wife is himself.”

Don’t you just love that?

SA: That is beautiful.

NC: We are one. That’s the fact. God created us to be one. I’m his and he’s mine. We’re one together. If we’re one together how can we be depriving one another?

Maybe before we move on, I should read that Scripture. You most probably all know it but it’s good to read again. It’s good to bring in a Scripture.

First Corinthians 7:2, 3: “Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence . . ..”

Doesn’t that sound so unromantic? That’s the King James Version of it!

SA: Yeah. You need to get The Passion Translation on that one!

NC: We should yes! We better look that one up. Look it up in The Passion Translation.

First Corinthians 7:3-5: “ . . . and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.”

Incontinency—another big word from King James! That just means that you’re not coming together.

The only excuse that it gives there for not coming together is if we’re in a season of prayer and fasting. Do you notice it doesn’t say, “Except for when you have a baby or little ones”?

It doesn’t say that. It only gives that one thing.

I would love to just tell you what that word “defraud” actually means. Now listen, precious ladies, because we need to be reminded. It’s the Greek word apostereo and it means “to deprive, to despoil, to make destitute, to keep back by fraud, to steal, to rob, to bereave.”

Now that’s pretty powerful.

SA: It’s powerful because I feel like maybe some of us women in the church might think, “Oh my husband’s desire is a little bit yucky. Why are they thinking about that all the time?”

But it’s a godly thing. It’s an awesome thing. It’s a beautiful thing. His desire for his wife is beautiful. A good healthy desire should be there. It’s not a weird thing. It’s not, “Oh what’s wrong with my husband’s brain?”

No, what’s wrong with your husband’s brain when it’s not that way? That situation is sad, and some wives have to deal with it. They need to have compassion on their husbands for that and get them help with some hormones or something. It can be switched around.

NC: Yes, because as women get older or men get older, they can be lacking in hormones and sometimes that can be the problem. For both husband and wife, if we’re not thinking or dreaming about it, there’s something wrong with us. It’s not normal.

SA: The devil has tried to make us as Christians think, “Oh well, it’s not good to think about. It’s not very holy to think about it. It’s not very redeemed.”

Well it very much is! Yes!

NC: Do you remember a dear friend of ours, Sally Ott?

SA: Oh yes, that’s right, she was the mother of 16 children or something like that. She couldn’t nurse properly or something, do you remember? She had 16 children back to back. She was such a peaceful, amazing mum.

I remember being at a wedding shower that she had come to. I think I had three children at the time. All of us young mums were just sitting in a circle talking and having tea or something. We were all there for a wedding shower, so we were all about marriage and everything.

She came up to us or maybe we asked her advice on what she thought, but she said, “If I could give you advice, it would be: ‘Never be too tired for your husband. I made it my goal from the onset of my marriage that I would never say, ‘Oh darling, I’m too tired tonight.’”

She said, “I preserved my energy and I never turned him away.”

And this is the lady who had many, many, many children. It is such an inspiration.

NC: That’s beautiful.

That is another point you can make: never say no. That’s a point that I’ve made in our marriage is “Never say no” because you are depriving.

You think, “Oh I’m looking after myself. I’m too tired or I’m this or I’m that.” But really, you’re not blessing yourself because in the end you always get blessed yourself.

SA: Yes and it doesn’t take long even if you are exhausted and haven’t been thinking about it and haven’t been promoting the atmosphere in your brain.

It doesn’t take long for things to usually catch up if you’re very involved in your brain and not thinking about the laundry.

NC: One more question: What do you think about if people should make it certain times or just rely on the spontaneousness?

SA: Well you know, I think that’s involved with the personality. My personality is free spirit, so I feel like throwing up when I hear the word “Scheduling.” I don’t even know about the word schedule for anything in my life.

So if you’re the scheduled type, wonderful, it sounds fantastic. I just feel like whatever works.

My encouragement as a mom with children still in my bedroom and young children still getting up through the night is that there is always a possibility.

NC: I love that word: Always a possibility.

For me, we do have one special day of the week that we do schedule. Of course we make that a point no matter what. It’s our special time. But that’s just kind of like a foundation because we are always open to spontaneity.

Goodness me, it would be disgusting if we had a week where there was not more of our coming together. We just love it. We have that beautiful, special time that we put aside. That is just there but we are always open to spontaneity.

That’s why I believe it is important always to go to bed with your husband because you never know what’s going to happen.

SA: Well that doesn’t happen with my husband and me. I believe it’s a beautiful thing to go to bed at the same time, but I go to bed early, but my husband loves to stay up. He has such an exhausting job and so he has to kind of depressurize all the responsibilities that he has to do during the day.

And we have all the teens in the house and they’re all whoo- hawing and heeing and he loves to whoo-haw all around and I’m like, “I’m out of here! I’m going to bed with the babies!”

So I think everybody’s different but that doesn’t mean it’s an impossibility either.

It’s either like, “Come, put me to bed, darling” and then you can go up.

Or it’s like, “Come, be prepared to wake me up” and then be prepared if you don’t want him to put you to bed first then you can wake up. It’s always to be able to be available I feel like. We don’t usually go to bed at the same time.

NC: Well I feel like we don’t always either, but I like to. Then again, I think it’s good popping in that other thing for many wives who will use that time just to do other things.

SA: The worth of being together in intimacy has so much more value than ticking off another list than folding the laundry or checking homeschooling math tests.

Let them go by the way.

Women sometimes, they might be like, “Oh time for me. I’ll go get a massage or whatever.” You can think of that as your time, but you can go get your personal masseuse.

NC: I know, exactly! You get more than having a massage. Goodness me, it’s far more exciting!

SA: You can see that just as your time because you get somebody adoring you.

NC: That’s how it’s meant to be, absolutely. Anyway, thank you, because I think you’ve just shared so much wonderful blessing.

SA: If it can happen in my marriage it can happen in anyone’s because, like I said, we are just the total non-schedule type.

I can put my baby to bed now because she’s two. Up until then I was so gung-ho with my first set, train them all and all so wonderful; but I’m kind of like a grandmother now and they’re all a bit naughty and untrained.

I’m a bit relaxed and I’m like, “I’m sure they won’t be doing that when they’re twenty. They’ll be fine.”

I haven’t even started even potty-training my two-year-old!

The point is that if I can still have a rocking marriage, you guys who are more scheduled . . .

NC: With fourteen children!

SA: Yes! Then it can happen for you. My point is that there are no impossibilities.

NC: No, and we’ve been talking about mothers with little ones but then there’s another whole realm of women who are getting older, into their sixties or seventies or maybe eighties.

SA: That’s where you can talk!

NC: I remember reading when I was a young mom how this mother asked this eighty-year-old woman, “When will you be too old to have sex with your husband?”

She said these amazing words and I never forgot them: “Well dear, you will have to ask someone older than me.”

I love that. I thought, “Oh my, I wonder if that could be my testimony when I get older.”

Well, I haven’t got too long till eighty, so I think I’ll have that testimony!

Maybe I’ll have to say, when I’m in my nineties and you ask me, “Well my dear, I think you will have to ask someone older than me.”

SA: That’s fantastic. I say to my husband all the time, it’s a famous saying, I love this saying, “Grow old with me, darling, the best is yet to come.”

NC: I think that’s what we would say in our marriage. When Jesus made the water into wine, He kept the best wine until last. That’s what they said, “Wow, they kept the best wine until last!”

But that’s what God always does. In every marriage there’s challenges, there’s issues, there’s things you’ve got to work through. So many give up today, even in this area of intimacy in your marriage. But never give up. Keep going because as you do and you’re faithful, God always brings out the best wine at the last.

You think, “It couldn’t get better than what I’ve got.”

Yes it can. It gets better and better and better. Amen?

SA: Yes, amen.

NC: Let’s pray.

“Dear Father, We thank You, we praise You for the way You created us. Your plan, even for marriage, it’s beyond anything we could ever even dream about. That You could even think it up to bring such glorious blessing into our oneness together. Lord, You designed it. We can only say that You are so amazing.

“I pray for every precious married woman today, young marrieds with their babies and little ones around them. Even older women who kind of think they’re getting old, Lord God, I pray that You will just keep them, Father, in Your perfect plan. Help them to see this is Your perfect plan for marriage. While they’re married, this is what is meant to be happening.

“Lord, that You will bless them. Bless their marriages. Lord God, that You would come into their marriages and do beautiful things in both the wives and the husbands in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

SUMMARY OF POINTS FOR YOU:

One: PRESERVE YOUR ENERGY FOR SEX WITH YOUR HUSBAND

Two: THINK ABOUT YOUR HUSBAND SEXUALLY DURING THE DAY

Three: IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A HUGE BIG DEAL EVERY TIME (sometimes it’s a celebration; sometimes quick and simple)

Four: NEVER SAY NO

Five: GO TO BED WITH YOUR HUSBAND WHEN HE GOES TO BED (OR BE AVAILABLE WHEN HE NEEDS YOU).

Six: REMEMBER, GOD KEEPS THE BEST WINE UNTIL THE LAST

 

 

Transcribed by Morgan Roth

 

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 99: WHAT IS OUR REACTION TO THE LOCKDOWN?

I share my thoughts in answer to the question: ”What should we be doing during this time, apart from praying, and preparing our children to be spiritually strong?” There's lots you can do. Check it out.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Today I'm going to talk with you a little bit about this corona virus we have been going through. I haven't been speaking about it with you on the podcast, although I've been writing about it on my Facebook.

Actually, Serene, of Serene and Pearl with Trim and Healthy Mama, she did a very good podcast. It was called, you can go back and check it, ”The Eye of the Poddy.” It was nicknamed “Serene's Sermon.” Rather, instead of their bantering back and forth as they usually do, she got anointed, and she actually gave a sermon. It was very encouraging. That's something I think you would enjoy listening to.

After listening to her, I thought, “Oh, my, I don't think I need to do one myself.” But I had another question come in and I thought, “Yes, I'll just take one session on it.”

Now let me pull this up and give you this question here. “Nancy, can you please share what you believe we ought to be doing during this time? I've seen your posts about freedoms being taken away. But what are we supposed to be doing outside of praying and preparing our children to be spiritually strong?”

Well, I think that mother had a good answer herself. She mentions, what can we do, apart from praying? And she mentioned praying FIRST. That's where I would put prayer, NUMBER ONE on the list. And so I have a few points about things that I believe that we should be doing.

Now, of course, we are going into a different time. I believe this virus is easing. So many thousands of Christians have been praying, that by the end of the month of April, it would be just about over. And I believe that is happening.

I believe God has been answering our prayers  because God is a prayer-answering God. We don't come to Him not believing. We come in faith, believing. I do believe that prayer is the greatest thing we can do, as many of you have already been doing.

I'm sure you have been gathering together as a family, as we do every day. We've been praying for this end, praying for healing, and praying for this whole thing to be ended, in our nation, and in the world.

Also, praying for our President, who needs such prayer at this time, because he is bombarded with everything around him. He has people around him. I'm sure he has so many good people around him. But he also has the influence of very negative people. We're praying, as I'm sure you are, that he will have the mind of God, to know what this country should do.

I love that Scripture in the Word of God which speaks about the children of Issachar, one of the tribes of Israel. It says that the children of Issachar had “understanding of the times, to know what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). I've always loved that Scripture. I've prayed that Scripture, I pray it for ourselves, that we will have true understanding, and know what we should be doing. I pray it for our President, that he will have understanding, and know what we should be doing.

So yes, dear friend, who wrote in this question, number one is prayer, and should be for all of us. We should not be lessening in prayer. We should be intensifying because this is a very, very strategic time in the world.

I believe we should be praying as a family, morning and evening. We should also have extra time for prayer. We've always had a prayer meeting in our home. It's just been part of our lives, right throughout our married life.

Currently, we have a prayer meeting for everybody around this area, once a week. We usually have it at our home, but we are currently having it at Serene's house. Over the winter we do it at Serene’s, so she doesn't have to bring all her little ones out and carry them home in the cold. But gathering a few extra people and pray together.

My husband and I have also felt lately that we need to pray three times a day, just as David did, as Daniel did even in the face of persecution, and being thrown in the lions' den. The Bible says that he prayed and bowed his knees before the Lord three times a day, as he always did, even though the decree of the king said if he was to do that, that he would be thrown into the lions' den.

We noticed that he not only prayed three times a day, but he BOWED before the Lord. So we're now doing that. Instead of just praying, sitting on our chairs, we are getting down on our knees, and bowing before the Lord. Showing our earnestness before Him. You just might want to do that too. I think there's a very powerful thing in kneeling before the Lord.

The other thing this lovely mother said was, “What else do we do but pray and raise godly children?” Wow! That is NUMBER TWO point, yes! In this hour, we need to be raising children who know the truth. Raising children who have Godly and Biblical convictions.  And raising children who know the Constitution, for those of us who live in America. Many of you are listening in other parts of the world. And also raising children who know how to live without fear.

Now I think this has been one of the most drastic things that has happened because of this corona virus. To me, it has not been the virus that has been the most scary but the fear that has come upon people. And even the fear that has come upon Christian people. I have been grieved to see so many Christians in fear.

Dear precious wives and mothers, we are not meant to walk in fear! God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, and of power, and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Fear does not come from God! Fear is Satan's weapon. This is the weapon that he uses.

In fact, those in witchcraft say that this is their greatest weapon, the weapon of fear. I believe that whatever is the origin of this thing, there's so many ideas and we don't truly know. But the greatest origin of it is fear which comes from the enemy. I believe we have to rise up against fear.

We're talking about raising godly children. Look, dear parents, dear moms and dads, if we are in fear, what are we teaching our children? If we are believers, and we are in fear, we're walking hypocritically. I believe we teach our children far more by our own attitudes, by our lifestyles, than anything else.

Our children should not see us in fear of this virus because God is bigger than this virus! Even though it is now waning, even in the peak time, God was BIGGER!

The sad thing is, is that the fear, the fear was actually often lies, because we were programmed and brainwashed by the media with all these projections that were horrific. That millions were going to die. But they were only projections! They were not reality.

That's the thing about fear. Fear is NOT reality. Fear is believing something that just might happen. You see, faith is powerful—Both fear and faith are powerful. They both are putting our belief in someone, and in trusting someone or something.

When we have faith, we are putting our trust in God, Who is bigger than any situation and bigger than any virus and bigger than anything we face! We put our trust in Him, and we can trust Him!

When we fear, we're putting our trust in the enemy. And we're putting our trust in lies. We're putting our trust in something, well it just might happen. It is not reality!

Let me give you a few Scriptures here, because I believe this is something very important, that we should talk about. Let's see here . . . yes, I wanted to give you Job 3:25. I have it written down here, but let me go straight to the Word, and I'll read it to you from there. This is a powerful Scripture. Job 3:25: “And Job said, for the thing,” actually that is the word fear, pachad, there, “which I greatly feared,” pachad again, “is come upon me. That which I was afraid of has come unto me.”

See, there's the power of fear. What you fear will often happen. Therefore, we do not want to fear! This is the sad thing. Many have feared, and that's, it's not a healthy thing, to fear at all.

In Job 15:21 it says: “The sound of fear is in his ears.” Now isn't that interesting? The sound of fear. Did you know that fear has sound waves? Yes, and we have been hearing the sound waves of fear through the government, through the CDC, through the media, and through leftist governors. We've been receiving the sound of fear. They have been wanting to put fear in us. This has been the plan.

Isaiah 24:18 says: “Whoever flees at the sound of panic will fall into a pit.” Do you know that just the sound (no reality), it's just a sound!

Psalm 53:5 says: “There they were, in great fear, where no fear was.” Now, did you ever read that Scripture before? This Scripture is a picture of what's happened in our nation. There they were! In great fear! The whole of our nation, and the nations of the world, were put into fear and panic. They thought they were going to die! Even if they went outside!

But it goes on to say: “where no fear was.” And that is the truth of the matter, especially now that we come to the waning of this virus as all viruses wane, they mutate and weaken. That's what happens. It happens with the flu every year.  They are now finding out, with all the numbers, that this flu is less, there have been less than one percent deaths worldwide.

Now, we grieve at every death. No one wants anyone to die. No loved ones to die. We don't want to die. It's amazing how God has put this thing of life within us. We want to hold onto life! And you've seen this during this panic time. You've seen how people have been scared of death.

I remember my precious father, who when he passed away, throughout his life and as he got older . . . he just, he was so healthy all his life. He was the fittest man you could ever meet. I mean, he would run, because he lived in New Zealand. He was the entertainer at the Agrodome, the big shearing place where they show the sheep, and do the shearing demonstrations.

Where he lived, which was, I guess, a couple miles, maybe not quite that, he would run to work each day, and he would jump the fences, even as he got older. He was just so fit, and so healthy. He never went to a doctor, and never went to a hospital. Never took an aspirin in his whole life.

Then in his later life, he got prostate cancer, which turned to bone cancer, unfortunately. But he would always say, “Hey, if ever I get bedridden, just get me out of here!” He just wouldn't know how to be bedridden because he was so fit.

But when that time came, and he was bedridden, he wasn't saying, “Get me out of here.” No, he was still hanging onto life, until that very moment that God took him. Because that's what God has put in us, to hold onto life. That is good. That is a great thing.

But even so, even in that holding onto life, we dare not fear death, we dare not fear, because God is in control. He is bigger. Fear is not reality. Fear is something that might happen! It's not definite at all! And so why do we put our faith in fear? Because it's putting our faith in something that is negative, into that which is not reality.

Isaiah 8:11-14 says: “For the Lord spoke to me with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying 'Say ye not a confederacy. Neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of Hosts Himself and let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread.' And He shall be for a sanctuary.”

So I've just been so concerned about the fear. Well, I think I would have to say that I have not feared this virus at all, but I guess I do fear something. Because I'm talking about not fearing, so it's not that I'm in a state of panic about it. But I, what could I call it? I'm in a state of great concern about it.

That is, that this, there's more to this virus. I am concerned about the control that government, and even state governments, are wanting to take over their people, not only in this nation, but all over the world. There is a thing behind this of taking control of our God-given freedoms.

Precious ladies, I believe we have to watch that. You see, this virus is proof that yes, it was horrific for many people, but so is the flu, when people get very ill. The statistics are that there have not been more to die of this corona than have of the flu in the couple of past years.

So it's something we face in life. We never want to face these things. But never before has the world shut down because of a flu epidemic or pandemic. This time it happened. But there is more to it.

There is this wanting to take over and control our lives. This is what we must be concerned about. This is what we must stand up against. This is what we must teach our children to stand up against. And they must know what the Constitution says.

Now the First Amendment that we see, I can't say it from memory, so I'd better just look where I wrote it here. I have it right here! OK. We all know it, but let's read it so we get it straight.

“The first Amendment to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws which regulate an establishment of religion. Did you hear that? Which regulate an establishment of religion, that prohibits the free exercise of religion, or abridges the freedom of speech. The freedom of the press. The right to peaceably assemble, or the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.

So that's the First Amendment, which gives us great freedoms, which we must not let go. Because these freedoms are being taken from us. We already know, all of us, of how many crazy things are happening, you know, with governments taking control, more or less in different states.

We know the democrat in Michigan, Governor Whitmer, how she limited, people could only go like, say, to Lowe's, or places like that. They could only have four people per 1000 square foot of customer floor space. They were not allowed to buy flooring, furniture, garden, or have garden centers open with plants, or they could not buy paint.

Now that is, what is that? That's nothing to do with corona virus. Nothing! When people are told to stay home, can men, men who are not, they're not programmed to sit around home. “OK, if I'm home, well, let me do something in the house! Let me fix up the house that needs fixing. So let me just go and get some new flooring, and get some new tools, and fix up some . . . ” No, they weren't allowed to do that!

“Well, here I am, stuck at home. OK, let's do some painting!” No, not even allowed to buy paint. Now that is ridiculous. They weren't allowed to go and buy seeds to put in their garden.

Of course, she even stopped the use of hydroxychloroquine. Some other states have stopped that too. Some are even going, taking those states to court now, because our President, he is always wanting to find out that which will bless and help our nation. He found out about hydroxychloroquine, and he made it known, and got it passed, and got Bayer and other places manufacturing it.

It is a drug that is been around for 70 years. It is being proved to help with this corona virus. If they get it early enough, they get well so quickly. In fact, there were testimonies of people, even on TV. One guy, he was in the very last stages. He didn't even think he'd last the night. He pleaded with them that they would give him hydroxychloroquine. They did, and he revived in an hour and a half, and was so well. But there are some states that will not allow it. That's allowing people to die.

Then today I read, Birmingham, Alabama. OK, we're going into the new phase. OK, some people can start getting back to work! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!

But Birmingham city, Alabama, are now putting on more laws and overkill. Everyone from two years of age and up must wear a mask if they go outside their door, or outside their car. That is totally ridiculous!

Dear ladies, are we going to be victims to such petty little things as this? I mean, even the World Health Organization has revealed that masks don't help people. It's not going to stop you getting the virus if you were going to get it.

If you did get it, well, it wouldn't be too much of a worry anyway, if you're healthy. So many have been tested that didn't even know they had it. For many, they haven't had hardly any symptoms at all. It is good to get that herd mentality (laughing) Not mentality, but IMMUNITY!

That's important with a virus. The more people who are out and about, and the immunity, they gain their immunity by . . . they just sort of pick up things. Their immune system gets stronger. But hiding away in your house and hiding away behind a mask, you're breathing in your own carbon dioxide, and it's really not helping you at all. That's not helping. That's weakening your immune system.

I mean, yes, I think my husband and me. I think we've had the flu just about every year of our lives. When, you know, it's always at this time that it goes around, and you get it. Sometimes it's not so bad, and other times it's really bad. I've had it really bad. The amazing thing is, this year, neither of us have had even the flu or corona, because I think we have been on the offensive about it. I'll get on to that point in a moment, too.

Then I also heard today that California is now stating that churches cannot meet together for another three months! Now I don't agree with that. I never even agreed with it throughout this time of the lockdown.

Now I'm sorry, ladies. I guess some of you could not agree with me, and that's fine. We don't always have to agree. Like even my husband says often, I mean we have the most glorious marriage in the world, but we don't always agree on everything. But he always says, “Darling, we don't have to agree on everything, but we just have to love one another.” Isn't that wonderful? That's how it should be.

But you know, when I first heard that churches were giving in to this lockdown, I couldn't believe it! Oh yes, I know the motive of the many was that “Yes, we don't want to spread it and we want to care for our fellow believers.” But who are we? Are we the people of God or not?

Surely, if we are the people of God, can you imagine the people of God getting together, maybe not to have a normal service, but to cry out to God together in prayer! To cry out to Him to bring a hope to this thing, to bring healing! And the power of God is in our midst. Isn't that what we are meant to be as the people of God?

Of course, we are not going to expect the sick to come in, unless they come and ask to be healed. But those who would have infections or flu or corona, they would stay away. That's how it's meant to be.

Yes, there is quarantine. We quarantine the sick and the infectious. That is important. And that has always been what we do. Even in Bible times, they quarantined, they quarantined the lepers. But you know, they had lepers around them all the time. If they went near a leper, the leper was required to call out, “Unclean! Unclean!” so they would not come near. That was good. They had to stay that infection.

I think that would be a far worse thing to have lepers around than to have even the corona, which has been like a flu. Of course, when you have the flu, you're not going to go out and spread your germs! I don't want to get near anybody spreading their germs on me, thank you! And so that's etiquette. You will not spread your germs if you are even slightly sick, and think, “Oh, maybe I could spread them.” You'll stay home.

But if you are perfectly healthy, you should not have to be quarantined. Healthy people shouldn't be quarantined. Back in Bible times, they didn't stop society, or quarantine the healthy because there were lepers. No, they quarantined those who were infectious. And that is so important.

But can you imagine healthy believers coming together and praying? The power of God is there when we get together to pray. What did Jesus say? “When two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst” (Matthew 18:20).

And I often think of this Scripture in Romans chapter eight. Let me go, I just had my Bible upside down for a minute. Romans, chapter eight. It says here, in verse 11: “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal body by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.”

That is so powerful! If the Spirit of God that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in me, imagine a gathering of God's people who have indwelling in them the Spirit of the living God Who raised Jesus from the dead! How can they spread sickness to one another? Oh my, let's be who we are meant to be as the people of God!

Oh wow, yes, let me just give you this. Now where did that go? I had that piece of paper there, which was very important, about the Constitution. It's disappeared. You gave it to me before, and here it is. I've got it. Ha-ha. Too many pieces of paper here!

OK. Now, this is the United States Department of Justice. “Law enforcement may not arrest, threaten, or intimidate citizens exercising their rights to peaceably assemble.”  Title 18, Section 242 of the Constitution says, “It is a crime for a law enforcement officer acting under color of any law, to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitutional laws of the United States.”

The Constitution specifically names the right to peaceably assemble as a right given to all citizens by the Constitution. This offense, that is to, you know, come after people who are doing that, who are peaceably assembling to do that, the offense is punishable by a range of imprisonment up to life term, or the death penalty, depending upon the circumstances of the crime.

Wow! Goodness me. Well, here we have the First Amendment that we have the right to peaceably assemble. Churches peaceably assemble. They're not protesting. They're not rising up against the government. They are peaceably assembling to worship God and pray for their nation. Pray for their city. There is nothing that they are doing wrong. They have the right under the Constitution to peaceably assemble together. If there is an offense, it is on those who are stopping them doing it.

So we need to know our rights, don't we? And learn to, it's time to stand up. So we not only raise our children to live without fear, but instead to stand on their convictions and trust in God. We teach them to be those who trust God.

But we teach them to know what is right, and what is true. I think, you see, why I am talking to you today. Sadly, my yes, I'm running out of time. But anyway, it's because I think of my children, well, my children are grown now, but my grandchildren, and my great-grandchildren who are all coming along. What kind of, what kind of a nation, what kind of a situation are they going to live in if we are having all these rights taken from us?!

I mean, we dare not, ladies, we have got to stand up, precious ladies. Oh, I hope that you will do . . . I could go on and on with all the things that have been taking place, where people have been arrested for just, oh, being, walking alone at the beach, or walking alone at the park. I mean, this has got beyond a joke. And it's time we stood up.

Anyway, time is going, so I've got to just quickly talk about one or two other points. Yes, live in divine health. I believe this is what we should be doing. I mean, if we have, as I have just given you this Scripture, we have the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, living in us. So we can claim His health. Our God is Jehovah Jireh, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” We claim that promise. We live under the Power of the precious Blood of Jesus.

Right over this time, because it was Passover, but also it was . . . I had it as an emblem of protection. I had a beautiful red, sort of scarf, just flowing over my door, over the top and the sides, of course, where they put the Blood upon the door, as an emblem. We can do actual things like that. But I do believe.

OK, we do not fear, but we do live wisely. We live in divine health. We claim the healing that is available to us in God. And we boost our immune system. Now we should always be living healthily, and always casting out sugar from our homes. I hope you don't have any sugar in your pantry, or any foods filled with sugar. They weaken your immune system.

Now, we should do it any time, but if there is a pandemic, a virus that's serious, and it's going around, you're going to, if you are wise, you will boost your immune system, and the immune system of your children. And that's the greatest thing you can do.

Look, it's not wearing a mask. Did I tell you about how Birmingham, now Birmingham city wants everybody to wear a mask, from two years of age and upwards. I mean, that is totally ridiculous. Look, it's not wearing a mask. It's not hiding away in your home. No! IT IS LIVING FREE and boosting your immune system. In fact, your immune system will boost more by just getting out and about.

But eat a healthy diet and take extra supplements. At a time like this, you will take extra vitamin C. You can take 1000 milligrams in the morning and 1000 at night if you want to. And give extra to your children. This how to do it wisely.

I mean, I have seen precious mothers in the supermarket. Sadly, they are overweight, which is another thing to watch. So they're overweight, they don't look healthy, and they've got masks on, and all their little children have got masks on. They're putting into their shopping cart Coke, and packets of cereal filled with sugar, and all this refined junk! Oh, my heart wants to cry!

Now, if our governments were acting wisely, and our state governments, they would be telling people this. They wouldn't say, “Oh go around wearing a mask.” They would say, “Now people, this is the time to boost your immune system.”

Take extra vitamins, and the things that are so good to help you with coming against a virus. Vitamin C, and I listed a few others here that I want to tell you about. Yes, let me see here . . . goodness me, I've listed that down too because I wanted to list all the ones that I think are good. Here we go, all my pages . . . where did I put them all?

Yes, OK. Vitamin C. Now you don't have to take all of these, of course, but these are some that you could get. I would take at least two or three of some these that I'm listing for you. Vitamin C, yes, up to 2000 a day.

Vitamin D3, which is so important. Although now that we're moving into springtime, you're going to be getting out more, and in the sunlight. The sun will give you more vitamin D than you can get through a tablet.

And that's another thing. This hiding away in homes is not healthy. Get out in the light! Get out in the sunlight. The sunlight is healing. It kills germs! Oh yes, do you remember wonderful Florence Nightingale who ministered to the soldiers?

Oh, she found that the soldiers that they would put out in the sun healed much quicker than those who were in hospital. That was about the time where they were beginning to discover antibiotics. Then, of course, as we got onto antibiotics, well, sunlight got forgotten about. But sunlight is a great healer. It kills germs.

Anyway, garlic, olive leaf extract, elderberry tincture, L-lysine, zinc (zinc is really wonderful. oregano, Echinacea, all those things are marvelous for boosting your immune system. Decide which ones you want to take. Take at least two or three of them.

And of course, baobab. If you belong to Trim Healthy Mama, well, you don't belong, but you know about it. You may have already ordered baobab. That is the most highest form of vitamin C. It's marvelous if you can take that.

I think Serene and Pearl have just put out a new drink. Take every morning a cup of water with a tablespoon full of baobab and tablespoonful of whey protein. Whisk it around and drink it. Drink it three times a day. You will boost your immune system.

So, oh dear, time has gone, my precious ladies! But anyway, I didn't talk to you about half the things. I will just end with this one thing. Think positively. I have been, again, so grieved by all the doom and gloom, and people talking about death. Oh goodness, we've got to, we are the people of hope!

What does it say, Romans 15:13: “Now the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, that ye may ABOUND IN HOPE by the power of the Holy Ghost, who lives within you.” We are meant to be walking in hope. Hope means to believe that God is going to do good things. We believe that He is going to keep us in health as we do our part and live wisely and not on all the junk food that God didn't create, butut on the wholesome original food that God created.

We speak health, and we speak hope, and we speak faith, and we speak the Word of God. We get the promises of the Word of God, and even those Scriptures I was giving you at the beginning about fear, give them to your children. Make them memory verses.

And the Scriptures about hope and the wonderful promises of God. Make them memory verses for your children so they know them. That your home becomes a home of speaking health, speaking hope, speaking joy.

And even in the midst of this scary time, because I believe that even as we're now getting back to work, but so many governors are taking it so slowly, and wanting people to still have all these controls put on them, and wear masks, and all the vaccines. Oh, help!

That's one of the sinister things about this thing that those behind the scenes, the powers that be, have been wanting this to be something by which they can bring in a vaccination to vaccinate everybody. Bill Gates says there will be, and this is his exact quote, “There will be no mass gatherings until there are mass vaccinations.”

Although it's going to take about two years to get one. By that time, of course, and even now, the whole thing is mutating and weakening, and that's what it does. Maybe next year, there'll be a different strain.

So we have to be ready, in faith, and with a boosted immune system, to face these things. But we're going to do it in faith and not come under all the doom and gloom. And not give in to all these things they want to do.

Don't ever take that vaccination, even if it comes out. I think that would be the worst thing you could ever do. In fact, they found that people who take the flu vaccination, that many of them got corona. Even only 50% of people who take the flu vaccination, it helps them anyway.

But I do have to stop, ladies. I could go on for so long. But the Lord bless you. Let's pray.

Oh Father, we thank You so much that we can trust You wholly. Oh, we thank You for the words of that hymn, “Those who trust You wholly, find Your holy true.” And Lord, we thank You, we praise You. We thank You that You are in control. We thank You that You are bigger than anything we face.

And Lord, as we move on into these next few months, and as we seek in faith, and as our President seeks to get this nation back to work, we pray, Lord God, that this will happen. And that those who are trying to continue to control people, that, Lord, this power and authority that they are taking, which is not theirs, will be broken, Lord God, and they will not have that authority.

We pray that Your people will rise up into the freedoms that You have given them, and the freedoms we have in this nation, in our Constitution. And the freedom to peaceably assemble as the people of God.

Oh, Father, we ask You that Your people will not be victims, that they will not be afraid, but they will rise up in truth, and what is right. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Transcribed by Darlene Norris.