Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

This is something I rarely ask for and yet it is the greatest need. Nothing is accomplished without prayer. We pray much for Above Rubies in our home, but it would be such a blessing if other families could join us in prayer also.

 

As you know, I am great fan of PRAYER BOXES. I find that having PRAYER BOXES enlarges our prayer life. We would forget to pray about so many needy issues if we didn’t have the reminders of our prayer cards.

 

I currently have about nine PRAYER BOXES on different important subjects such as

PRAYING FOR ISRAEL,

PRAYING FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH,

PRAYING FOR THE NATION,

PRAYING FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP,

OUR WORLD CHANGING PRAYER BOX,

OUR SALVATION AND HEALING PRAYER BOX, and of course,

OUR ABOVE RUBIES PRAYER BOX, and others.

 

We usually choose two prayer boxes each morning and evening when we have our devotions together. We find it such a great blessing.

 

When asking for prayer for Above Rubies, you may say, “Well, what should we pray about?” Well, I have an ABOVE RUBIES PRAYER BOX filled with cards. If you would like to join us in praying for this ministry, I will be happy to send you what we have on our cards to give you an idea of what to pray for. Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

In fact, I am happy to send you what I have written on our cards for any of the PRAYER BOXES mentioned above.

 

The more families who pray together the more blessings we will see in the nation.

 

Don’t’ forget,

PRAYING FAMILIES ARE NATION CHANGING FAMILIES!

 

Love from Nancy Campbell

 

Check out this link:

Our God is a holy God. It’s good to be reminded, isn’t it? Sometimes we get caught up in our daily lives and forget that we belong to a holy God. Hebrews 13:14 says: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”

 

If we truly belong to God, we will seek to be holy in our personal lives and to make our homes a holy place for God. In fact, the whole section, plot, or land where we live is to be holy to the Lord.

 

We learn this from the time of Passover. God told His people that during that time (Passover is a picture of our being redeemed by the blood of Jesus) that there was to be no leaven (which speaks of sin) in their homes, and in their whole territory. In fact, God told them that there was to be no “yeast at all found within the borders of your land.”

 

Jesus didn’t suffer and die upon the cross to leave us in our sin, but to come and dwell within our hearts to give us victory over it. The Christian walk is a holy walk.

 

I believe that we should seek to keep “leaven” (sin) not only out of lives, but out of our homes, and out of the whole section or piece of land on which we live. God wants the whole environment around us to be holy.

 

I love the description of God’s house which should be the prototype for our homes. Ezekiel 43:12 (NASB) says: “This is the law of the house: its entire area on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.”

 

This is a wonderful vision to have for our homes and land. We are not only to keep it holy but “most holy.” As mothers who watch over our homes and our children’s lives, we observe not only what goes on in the home, but outside the home. We’ve got to keep it all holy.

 

Be blessed today,

 

Nancy Campbell

 

 

 

Painting by Joane Sloane.

I was arrested by this Scripture in Isaiah 26:18 (NET): “We cannot produce deliverance on the earth, people to populate the earth are not born.” The NLT says: “We have not given salvation to the earth, nor brought life into the world.”

 

Wow, these words are very powerful, and yet true. There are so many hurt and broken people in this world and all around us. There are so many who need salvation, deliverance, and healing. God is waiting to show them His salvation and deliver them from all their bondages. But how does it happen? God uses His people. We are His body on the earth, and He works through us.

 

The sad thing is that thousands of people are missing from the earth. Men and women who God wanted on this earth to bring His deliverance and salvation. But they are not here because for the last eight decades or so God’s people have thrown away God’s plan and decided they had a better plan.

 

Instead of receiving the children God planned from them, they limited their families to the average 1.6 member family in the nation today. Millions are missing. We have not populated the nation with the godly seed. We don’t even have a majority to vote for righteousness, let alone the army of God’s people who should be bringing salvation and deliverance the lost and hurting.

 

May the eyes of God’s people to be opened to God’s ultimate plan. The more children God chooses for us to bring into this world, the more impact we have for the kingdom of God. God wants His salvation and glory to fill the earth. He wants His people to be “more and mightier” than the heathen (Exodus 1:7-12).

 

Psalm 105:24 tells us that God “increased his people greatly: and made them stronger than their enemies.” We become weaker when we diminish. We become stronger when we multiply. These are plain facts. Plus they are Bible language.

 

I love the quote from Frank Boreham: "We fancy that God can only manage His world by big battalions abroad, when all the while He is doing it by beautiful babies at home. When a wrong wants righting, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants opening, GOD SENDS A BABY INTO THE WORLD TO DO IT. That is why long, long ago, a Babe was born in Bethlehem."

 

Spread the good news,

 

Nancy Campbell

The beautiful family table! “I beg your pardon?” you shout. “Our table is chaos! I don’t even know how to get order!”

 

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 “down to earth”! 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 with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8-9). Every day He came to talk with Adam and Eve. He didn’t come 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.

 

Be blessed today,

 

Nancy Campbell

A modern trend in parenting is to make our children happy. Whatever we can do to make them happy is the aim, even if it’s giving in to their whims and wants.

 

I don’t believe this is the kind of parenting that works. Of course, it’s easy parenting. It takes effort and disciplined parenting to train children to become mature adults who are ready for life and ready for marriage and raising a family.

 

Our purpose should not just be to make them happy (although of course we want them to be happy) but to train them to be responsible, hard-working, honorable, trustworthy, reliable, unselfish, evil-hating, and God-loving people.

 

Some parents think that easy parenting is loving parenting. I don’t think this is rue love. True love longs for our children to become all that God wants them to be. True love deals with the negative and selfish ways of our children. True love does not want our children to grow up taking these habits into their adult life. When we allow our children to get into the habits of disobedience, rebellion, and moods, it shows we don’t care about them at all. We are not thinking of what it will be like when they get married one day.

 

The Bible tells us that God corrects those He loves. Actually, it’s stronger than that.

Hebrews 12:6 says: “For whom the Lord LOVETH he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” That’s because He loves us and yearns over us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).

 

Of course there is balance. We ultimately want our children to live in a home of happiness, joy, fun, and laughter! But in reality, this doesn’t work if we constantly face rebellion and moods and disobedience. That’s miserable parenting. No wonder some parents don’t want any more children.

 

As I write this I am thinking about my dog and the need for some disciplined training. Sometimes when the phone rings it is someone needing encouragement or counseling and I will go outside to talk (where it’s private) and I can also get a little fresh air and sunshine. Of course, my dog is so happy to come outside with me. But now he thinks that I should come outside every time the phone rings. And so he has begun jumping up on me as soon as hears the phone. I’ve just purchased a device to use to train him not to do this because I’m not enjoying him when he does this all the time. It’s the same with our children. We can’t enjoy them when they continue to misbehave and are disobedient to us.

 

When we train our children, we can then relax and enjoy the atmosphere of a home of peace. Proverbs 29:17 states: “Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.”

 

How much do you love your children?

 

Love from Nancy Campbell

 

 

Painting from Etsy.

God cries out in anguish in Isaiah 1:1: “Hear, O heavens, give ear, O earth: FOR THE LORD HATH SPOKEN.” What is God’s cry? Verse 2 says: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.”

 

God is the ultimate Father. He is the Father of fathers. He is the ultimate Nourisher and Nurturer. He is the One who planned marriage and family and the raising of children. God is in the business of raising families. He gathered a family to Himself when He established the race of Israel. They were His children, and he poured out his heart of love and compassion upon them.

 

We see God’s nurturing heart as we read Isaiah 64:9, 10: “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the Angel of his Presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit.” Read also Isaiah 46:3, 4.

 

God says again in Isaiah 65:2: “I have spread out my hands all the day unto rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts.”

 

Have you poured out your heart and nourished and nurtured and yet a child has grown up and rebelled? Dearest mother, if you are facing this pain, I want you to know that God understands the grief and ache in your heart. He understands your burden. He has been through it, and He knows the anguish of your heart.

 

But God never gives up. And He will help you to keep fighting the forces of evil to win your child back into the kingdom.

 

Be encouraged today,

 

Nancy Campbell

 

 

“This is my Son” Painting by Elspeth Young (Al Young Studios)

Chatting with a couple recently, the husband said to me, “I’m concerned about our teenage daughter. When she gets up in the morning, she is very uncommunicative and miserable. The wife spoke up on her behalf and said, “Oh I think she’s just tired.”

 

I couldn’t let it pass. “Just a moment,” I replied. You don’t allow her to get up with this attitude, do you? And if you think it’s tiredness, it would be good to make sure she gets to bed earlier.”

 

There is no excuse for any member of the family to come to the family kitchen in the morning with a sour face and uncommunicative attitude. We must teach our children to come with a CHEERY GOOD MORNING. Of course, as parents, we set the example.

 

As each one comes into your kitchen each morning, greet them with a smile and a cheery welcome such as, “Good morning, welcome to the day.” If they don’t give a cheery reply, keep saying it until they do. Get them into the habit.

 

Dear mothers, family life is where we prepare our children for life.

 

For marriage. Your children should never have to go to a marriage seminar to prepare for marriage. You are preparing them each day of their lives. You are training them into the right habits for their future lives.

 

What a terrible thing for a husband to wake up to a wife with a sour face and grumpy spirit. And non-communicative. That doesn’t build a marriage. It slowly pulls it down. Don’t ever let your children get into this habit in your home.

 

Don’t let them get into entitlement habits either. They will destroy their future marriage too. Deal with every negative habit in your children’s lives that would be detrimental to their future marriage and the future success of their lives.

 

I cannot even believe how many parents allow their children to be a “wet rag” in the home, stay in their sour moods, or act selfishly.

 

Don’t allow it to continue for one minute! You are setting them up for heartache later on.

 

Cheerful blessings to you today from Nancy Campbell

Did you know that shepherding is talked about in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation? God chose two of the greatest leaders of all time from looking after sheep, Moses and King David (Exodus 3:1-10 and Psalm 78:70-72). It was the best training for leadership! Let’s read about David: “He chose David . . . and took him from the sheepfolds: From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.”

 

God continues to look for shepherds. He looks for mothers who will shepherd like his heart. Jeremiah 3:15 states: “I will give you pastors (shepherds) ACCORDING TO MINE HEART, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.”

 

And because your little flock is really His flock, He requires them at your hand (Ezekiel 34:10). He wants to diligently know the state of your little flock. He wants us to know what is going on in their hearts and minds as well as in their actions. He wants us to know the state of their souls. We cannot do this effectively unless we are with our children. Proverbs 27:23 says: “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks.”

 

How can we be the shepherdess He wants us to be? We certainly can't do it in our own strength and wisdom, but be encouraged, for Micah 5:4 tells us that Jesus Christ will "stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God." If that is how Jesus shepherds, that's the only way we can do it, too.

 

Dear mother, you can’t do it in your strength, but you can do it in the strength of the Lord.

 

Be encouraged today,

 

Nancy Campbell

 

 

Miracle of Love Art Print by Lara Morrison (visit site)

Do you sometimes wish you could forget about looking after littles ones, constantly doing dishes and laundry, and cooking meals day after day? You wish you could be out serving the Lord and really doing something great for God.

 

Dear mother, I want to remind you that you ARE serving the Lord. God gave you your precious children and He didn’t give them to you to give to someone else to care for. He gave them to YOU. This is your service to Him. You are nurturing and training these children for Him. It is more important than any service you could ever do.

 

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 (Mark 10:45). 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.

 

Blessings to you and your home from Nancy Campbell

 

 

"Joy of Children,” painting by the Danish artist, Marie Sandholt (1872-1942).

(From Psalm 128:3).

“Come to the table, supper’s ready to eat.”

All the children come running to find their seat,

At the head of the table father takes his place

And with all gathered round he says the grace.

 

He’s made an effort to be home from his busy work,

From his place at the table he will not shirk,

He affirms his commitment to his family and wife

And his presence at the table eliminates strife.

 

Mother has taken time to prepare a nice meal,

Full of nutrition, not a pre-packaged deal,

She delights to cook for her growing brood,

Knowing it’s a sacred task to prepare their food.

 

The table looks inviting – a clean tablecloth too,

The plates nicely set, perhaps a candle or two.

The children get involved and they do their part

To make the table look creative and very smart.

 

What joy to be together at the end of the day,

To laugh, and communicate, and each have a say,

To share the day’s happenings with one another

And tell what they’ve learned to father and mother.

 

The plates are now empty, tummies full to the top!

Is it time to leave the table? No! Stop, stop!

We’ve fed only the body and the soul so far,

The best part’s to come and it’s not out of a jar.

 

It’s time for Devotions; we must feed the spirit,

Of the blessing from this, there is no limit.

Father opens the Bible and to his family he reads

Sowing into their hearts God’s eternal seeds.

 

Now it’s time to pray, each one takes a turn,

They pray for needs as God’s will they discern,

They give thanks for their blessings with a grateful heart

And develop a spirit of gratitude right from the start.

 

God’s blessing is on this family we know,

As around the table their “olive plants” grow,

God’s smile is upon them as they follow His way,

And establish this principle for now and always.

 

Nancy Campbell

Did you notice I wrote the words, sacred AND secular, rather than sacred OR secular? God does not separate religious things with secular things. He wants everything in our lives to be touched with His divine presence. He wants everything in our homes—each person, each piece of furniture, and even all the pots and pans and utensils to be anointed with His presence (Zechariah 14:20, 21).

 

Everything that God created is holy. All His creation is holy. God doesn’t see a church building as holy and the trees and flowers as earthly. They are all holy to Him. They all praise Him.

 

In Exodus chapter 30:22-33 God tells Moses how to make the anointing oil and what to do with it. They had to use a gallon of olive and oil and four different spices—pure myrrh, sweet cinnamon, sweet calamus, and cassia. It was well-balanced—two sweet spices along with myrrh which is bitter tasting. Myrrh and Cassia speaking of the fragrance of Christ through His suffering.

 

But most importantly, this oil was to be holy! It was called the HOLY anointing oil. Verse 32 states: “It is holy, and it shall be holy unto you.” God commanded him to anoint every piece of furniture and every vessel in the whole place—and the high priest and his sons.

 

God has now made us “priests and kings unto God” (Revelation 1:6 and 5:10) and therefore He wants us to be anointed with this sweet and holy anointing oil which is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He also wants every material thing in our homes to be anointed with His presence. He wants our tables to be anointed with His sweet and holy anointing.

 

You most probably feel that your dinner table is the opposite to sweet and holy! You are in throes of raising and training children who are not robots. They don’t like their food. They complain. Some may argue. They cry. Sometimes it is bedlam!

 

Please don’t despair, dear mother. Keep training. Keep praying and asking God to pour out His sweet anointing on your family mealtimes. Pray for His holy anointing to come to you. You will reap what you sow. As you train your children little by little, as they grow older, you will move into such blessed and holy times together.

 

Without a vision nothing happens. But when we have a vision and understand that God wants to come to our tables and manifest His sweet and holy anointing, we will press toward this vision in our family lives.

Be blessed in Jesus’ name.

 

Love from Nancy Campbell

I love testimony time at our Above Rubies retreats when women share their stories. Recently a mother shared how she loves wearing her I LOVE MOTHERHOOD bracelet, but it went missing. Guess where she found it? In her toddler’s potty with the pee!

 

She washed it clean and it was all ready to wear again!

 

She shared how this can be a little bit like motherhood. It’s certainly not all perfect. It can even get pretty dirty. And we as mothers are not perfect either. We can get angry and shout! Oh help! That’s spoilt our lovely mothering day.

 

But praise the Lord, we have an advocate. We can repent and ask forgiveness and our Savior is always ready to forgive and wash us clean.

 

When you lose your temper and “blow it,” don’t give up. Come to Jesus. Ask His forgiveness and for His precious blood to wash you clean. 1 John 1:9 says: “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

 

Things may get dirty from time to time, but don’t stay dirty, dear mother. Keep washed and clean in the precious blood of Jesus.

 

Have a wonderful mothering day.

Yes, there is such a word. Check it in your dictionary. It means “to be morally pure in thought or conduct, modest, abstaining from unlawful sexual intercourse.”

 

And it’s also in the Bible. The Greek word “hagnos” means “clean, pure from every fault and carnality, modest, moral excellence,” This is one of the attributes that older women are to teach the younger women (Titus 2:5).

 

Do we as older women have this quality about us? Are we showing it and teaching it to our daughters and the next generation? It is one of beautiful attributes of a Christlike character.

 

Perhaps we should ask ourselves some questions?

 

Am I clean in my mind? Chasteness begins in the mind. You will remember that Philippians 4:8 tells us to think on the things that are “pure.” That is the same word that is translated chaste.

 

Am I sexually pure and faithful to my marriage?

 

Am I chaste in my conduct and how I dress? Morally pure? Modest? It is sad that you could not describe much of the clothing in the Christian church today as “chasteness.”

1 John 3:2, 3 says: “We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth (hagnizo – to keep clean and pure) himself, even as he is pure (hagnos).”

 

God has called us to chasteness and as mothers we have the responsibility to pass it on to the next generation. Are we true examples of this beautiful quality that God loves and longs to see in His daughters?

 

Love from Nancy Campbell

"Every child born into the world is a new incarnate thought of God, an ever fresh and radiant possibility."

~ Kate Douglas Wiggin

God gives us six principles in the Bible that give us the promise of a long life if we do them. However, there are three commands that have two promises: “that it may GO WELL WITH YOU and that you may PROLONG YOUR DAYS.” I know we all want to be blessed with these two promises, don’t we?

 

You know the first two: to honor your parents (Deuteronomy 5:16 and Ephesians 6:3) and to keep God’s commandments (Deuteronomy l4:40). I wonder if you know the third one. Let’s check it out, shall we?

 

Deuteronomy 22:6, 7 (BSB):” If you come across a bird’s nest with chicks or eggs, either in a tree or on the ground along the road, and the mother is sitting on the chicks or eggs, you must not take the mother along with the young. You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it MAY BE WELL WITH YOU and that you may PROIONG YOUR DAYS.”

 

Of all the 613 commandments in the Old Testament, why would God give two powerful promises to this one? It seems so insignificant. What’s so important about an unknown bird in a nest? This Scriptures shows us that the little things and the seemingly insignificant things are as important to God as the big things. The majestic and the minute are equal to God. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without Him knowing.

 

I was reading a commentary on these Scriptures and would love to share a few lines with you. James Wolfendale writes: “He who guards planets, guards bird’s nests.” I love that, don’t you? He continues: “Not enough to keep the law in great aspects which appeal to the public eye . . . but by attention to minute and hardly discernable features of character which indicate the real quality of the man.” What an important life principle to teach our children. God sees all the little things in our lives, and it is the little things that add up to our character.

 

Quoting again: “God is kind in little as well as great things. Love is one whether shown in redemption of the race, in numbering the hairs of our head, ordering our steps, or giving His beloved sleep . . . Man is to have dominion over fowls of the air, but dominion to be exercised in mercy. Power uncontrolled by kindness becomes despotism. . . . He who wantonly destroys a bird’s nest, may one day cruelly break up a child’s home. Little tyrannies of childhood explain the great despotisms of mature life.”

 

But to me the greatest and most powerful lesson is God’s concern for the mother bird. Even though God allowed the eggs or the chicks to be taken for food, He would not allow the destruction of the mother. Without the mother bird there would be no more eggs or chicks, therefore lack of food for the people. The mother bird must be protected for she continues the kingdom of bird life.

 

If God is so concerned about the mother bird, what about the mother in the home, the one who is nurturing the children God has given to her? She is mothering her children on behalf of God, not only for this life, but for eternity. These Scriptures are a powerful lesson regarding the care and protection of mothers in society. They must be defended. Men must rise up to guard them and save their lives in danger. They must never be seduced away from the home. They are God’s nest builders of the human race and without mothers all humanity would stop.

 

Another commentator, Thompson, agrees with me: “Perhaps reverence fore motherhood in general gave rise to this law.”

 

And because it is so close to the heart of God, He gives two promises to those who keep this law.

 

Be encouraged today,

 

Nancy Campbell