Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

I know. We come to our meal table with our weaknesses and failings. Our children are certainly not perfect. Sometimes they are fussy. Sometimes they don’t want to eat. They grumble and complain. They don’t want to eat their vegetables. They squabble and argue. Or even have a fist fight! Help!

Without God’s intervention, it can be total shambles! But did you know that God wants to come to your table and bring His presence?

Can I share a beautiful and biblical truth with you? The first mention of the table in the Bible is in Exodus 25:23-24, talking about the table of shewbread. In this passage God tells Moses to make a table from acacia wood and then to overlay it with pure gold. It is interesting that this table was to be made of both wood and gold, speaking of Christ’s humanity and His divinity. However, I believe it also relates to the tables we have in our homes.

In the Bible wood always speaks of humanity. That reminds us of our earthly table that can be very earthy! But God covered this wooden table with pure gold which speaks of the divinity of Christ.

Dear frustrated mother, God wants to bring His presence to your table. He wants to cover your humanity with His divinity.

This is what He did at the beginning of creation with Adam and Eve, and He wants to continue this practice throughout all generations. (Genesis 3:8-9) Every day He came to talk with Adam and Eve. He did not come to them in the heat of the day or during their hours of work (for God established the principle of work before sin entered the Garden of Eden). He came to them in the cool of the day, in the evening time—the time of the day when we gather around the meal table to eat together, fellowship, and relax.

God wants to join you at this time of each day too. Realize that you don’t have to survive this time on your own. God wants to come. He wants to be part of your family mealtime.

INVITE HIM TO COME. This Is the secret. It makes all the difference when you invite Him to come. Let the children be part of inviting Him to come. Help them to realize that God is present with you. Acknowledge His presence. His presence will bring the atmosphere of Heaven to you and it will cover your earthy humanity.

I can’t do without Him at my table. I don’t think you can either.

Be blessed today,

Nancy Campbell

Painting: Jessie Willcox Smith (September 6, 1863 – May 3, 1935).

I think back of how I dreamed of being a single missionary and changing the world for God. Instead I got married and had children! And I have impacted the world in a far greater way than if I had served the Lord on my own. My service to the world is multiplied through our children.

“For what is service but the life of Jesus,
Lived through a vessel of earth’s fragile clay,
Loving and giving and poured forth for others,
A living sacrifice from day to day.”

~ Freda Hanbury Allen

This is a picture of motherhood. Pouring out your life for your husband and children. Living a life of sacrifice each day.

But this is not only a picture of motherhood, it is the revelation of Jesus. Jesus came to serve and give His life (Matthew 20:8). And the greatest service you can do each day is to allow the life of Jesus to live through you which is loving, serving, and pouring out for others.

How blessed you are.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Another painting by Robert Coombs.

“Oh, more is easier,” she replied.

“Truly?” they gasped in surprise.

She then shared with them her testimony of that very morning: “I hadn’t slept well last night and because I’m pregnant, I slept in a little later. When I got up, I noticed my 13-year-old daughter preparing breakfast and getting all the clothes ready for the other children to wear to church. Another daughter was looking after the baby. All was well.

“So I leisurely took a shower and then spent some time reading the Word. When I came out to the kitchen the breakfast was all waiting on the table and we sat down together.”

It is true that when you have many children, they are not all little toddlers! Each child grows every year. And each child you train to take a little more responsibility and do their specific tasks.

Each time a new baby comes along there are more and more arms wanting to hold the baby and play with him. There are more helpers to help with meals and keep the home running smoothly.

I think the most overwhelming time of motherhood is when you have your first two or three children. You have no helpers. But as children come along, you have more and more helpers. And yes, it’s true, more noise! But also more love, more cuddles, more joy and laughter, more entertainment, more playmates for your children, and more blessings.

It’s God’s way for family life.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Picture: Eric and Meriwyn with their children in order of age: Jessie, Leah, Dwight, Haddie, Robert, Rosie, John, Rachel, and Stephen and new baby coming. They live in Hemet, California.
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P.S. Don't you love family pictures?

But God not only owns us when we invite Him to be Lord f our lives. He owned us since conception. The first statement in the beautiful description of God creating the baby in the womb in Psalm 139:13 states: “Thou hast possessed my reins.” The word “possessed” is the Hebrew word “qanah” and means “to create, to procure by purchase, to own, to possess.”

God begins with ownership. He is our Creator and therefore the Owner of our lives.

Why do we want to take control of our own lives? Do we really think we can do a better job than the One who designed us and created us? And the One who not only created us, but because we were lost in our sin, purchased us back again with the price of the precious of blood of Christ.

We are twice owned!

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small,
Love so amazing, so divine,
Shall have my life, my soul, my all.

Many blessings to you today,

Nancy Campbell

And yet today we allow our children to drink from the fast waters of their Internet games that are not reality. I think there is a big difference between something fast that is real and the flashing images our children constantly watch. These flashing images are not intended for our little lambs and growing sheep who we are to lead to still and refreshing waters. I believe they are disturbing their brains.

The KJV says: “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.” The word “green “ in the Hebrews means “tender grass. It doesn’t give them brain indigestion. The word ‘pastures” is “na’ah” which is one of the words for the home. It means a dwelling place, a house, a pleasant place.” We lead our children to pleasant places and quiet waters.

Isaiah 32:18 is a beautiful description of home life: “And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” This is the atmosphere for learning and development rather than the constant stimulation of video games that are taking over the lives of so many young people.

It is the task of the shepherd to find the best food and environment for his sheep. It is also the job of the shepherdess mother to create the right environment for her children to learn and grow in knowledge and the ways of the Lord.

And as I always keep saying, “It doesn’t just happen; you have to make it happen.”

Where are you leading them today?

Love from Nancy Campbell

There is hardly a person who doesn’t know Psalm 23, the shepherd’s psalm and we invariably read it to receive comfort from our Good Shepherd. However, we can also learn from this beloved psalm how to mother own little, or big flock. Mothering is very similar to shepherding and encompasses all the aspects of shepherding and tending to a flock.

Shall we look at it again today? I’m reading the New English Translation this time:

“The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.”

Mothing is not a little task. It is HUGE. It is ministering to our children body soul, and spirit. They can confess that they lack nothing, not only in being clothed and fed bodily, but spiritually and mentally. We not only tend to the bodily needs of our children but to the inner man. That’s even more important than the outer man.

Many mothers feel they can manage motherhood doing the necessity of providing food and clothing for their children. But oh, there is far more to mothering that this. It is feeding the soul, the mind, and the spirit. This takes far more time than the bodily needs. Many children are adequately provided with food and clothing (most probably far more than they need), but who are starving spiritually.

“He takes me to lush pastures.”

Where are you taking your children today dearest mother? The true shepherd leads his sheep to “good and lush pastures.” Do you notice that He leads them? He doesn’t let them go where they want to go for the sheep don’t know what is best for them.

Are you leading your children? Are you taking them to what is best for them? So many children and teens today are left to the devices of the Internet and Social Media. They feed on them. Their iPhones are hardly out of their hands. The sad thing is that they get so full on all this junk that they have no appetite for what is good.

In the natural, if we feed up on junk foods, sweet foods, and fast foods, we’ll fill up and have no desire to have some good wholesome food of vegetables, fruit, and home-cooked meals.

We must watch that our children don’t get filled up on all the junk that is available today. They are so filled up on the junk, they have no appetite for the spiritual. They need to be starved from the junk, so they’ll get a thirst for the good food again. We must re-awaken in ourselves and in our children a hunger and thirst for the good and the spiritual. Jesus said in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:6: “Blessed are they which do HUNGER AND THIRST after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”

God promises in Isaiah 44:3: “I will pour water upon him that is THIRSTY, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”

But this promise is to the THIRSTY! If they are not thirsty and instead are filled with all the junk of this world, they will not be ready to receive the blessings.

Dear mothers, it is our responsibility to keep them thirsty for the good food of wholesome truth and lead them to the lush food God wants to pour into them.

Talking about God’s way Isaiah 35:6, 7 says: “And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the THIRSTY land springs of water . . . And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness: the unclean shall not pass over it.” God’s way is not the way of the world; it’s the way of holiness, cleanness, and wholesomeness.

The Shepherd chapter in Ezekiel 34: 14, 15 says: “I will feed them in a GOOD pasture, and upon HIGH MOUNTAINS of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a GOOD fold, and in a FAT pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.”

As the shepherdess of your home, where are your leading your children today? What are you doing to feed their minds, souls, and spirits as well as their bodies?

Love from Nancy Campbell

Painting: Springtime (also known as Le Printemps), Charles-Émile Jacque – 1859.

But at home a different story is told,
How we treat our loved ones, young and old.
Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My son stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked him down.
"Move out of the way," I said with a frown,
He walked away, his little heart broken,
I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

While I lay awake in bed,
God's still small voice came to me and said,
"While dealing with a stranger, common
courtesy you use,
But the family you love, you seem to abuse.

“Go and look on the kitchen floor,
You'll find some flowers there by the door.
Those are the flowers he brought for you,
He picked them himself, pink, yellow,
and blue.

“He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise,
You never saw the tears that filled his little eyes."
By this time, I felt very small,
And now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed;
"Wake up, little one, wake up," I said.
"Are these the flowers you picked for me?"
He smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree.

I picked 'em because they're pretty like you,
I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue."
I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today,
I shouldn't have yelled at you that way."

He said, "Oh, Mom, that's okay.
I love you anyway."
I said, "Son, I love you too,
And I do like the flowers, especially the blue."

` Unknown.

Bringing a soul into the world is not a fluke or chance thing,
It takes a cooperation between God and human beings,
A man and woman cannot decide whether or not life will begin,
God is the only one who can set life into motion.

If I asked anyone—secular, conservative, any background or color
How much is my baby worth? Can you set a value in dollars?
Each and every one, without any hesitation or delay
Will emphatically proclaim she is priceless, no price could be named!

It is therefore quite perplexing and contrary to common sense
That these same people would chase after checks loaded with dollars and cents
While consciously fleeing away from what is determined a gift
beyond valuation,
A priceless treasure, straight from Heaven, a blessing, the future of the
nation!

If you have never possessed a priceless treasure,
If you have never looked into your baby’s eyes and experienced joy beyond measure
Go now, young pilgrim, and pioneer this path,
Worthless things are not worth your time; you do the math.

Your treasures are waiting for you to take action!
So go now, don’t delay to begin this heavenly transaction!

~ By Zac Waller

Zac and Becca Waller are blessed with Asaph (7), Shlomo (6), Nechemyah (4 ), Elkanah (2), Emunah (1) and they are looking forward to receiving their sixth treasure this coming December. Their children have Hebrew names because they live and work in the Heartland of Israel with HaYovel.
Check out www.hayovel.com