Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

Motherhood is the most powerful position I can hold!

Written by Christina Jones
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Did you hear about the recent research, “The Ties that Bind: Is faith a global force for good or ill in the family?”? It was conducted in 11 different countries by the World Values Survey and Family Gender Survey? The New York Times published it and received a violent backlash from feminists.

Why? Well, they found that “Fully 73 percent of wives who hold conservative gender values and attend religious services regularly with their husbands have high-quality marriages.” They found that highly religious couples enjoy higher-quality relationships and more sexual satisfaction compared to less/mixed religious couples and secular couples.

A graph also showed that religious couples have more children than couples who rarely or never attend worship services and parents with four or more children were happier and more satisfied with their lives.

The liberalists couldn’t take these statistics. They did not want to believe them. But of course, they are true. We will always be happiest when we follow God’s plans. God divinely ordained a one flesh marriage, glued together physically, spiritually, and purposefully. He planned home and motherhood. When we embrace His ways with all our hearts, we find rest, joy, and happiness. We find that we are in the very perfect will of God. We are in the place where God intends us to be.

And what could be more wonderful than that?

Why would anyone trade this joy for leaving precious children in day cares and the public education system which has now been hijacked by the liberalists and the homosexuals? Why would they trade a beautiful home life for running around the city dropping children off and going to a career (deprived of their precious children) that only has temporary value? It has no eternal reward.

Oh yes, it may give a little extra cash. But they spend so much more too. It’s amazing how much you save when you cook from scratch and do things from home. It’s amazing how much gas you save and how much less you purchase that you don’t need because you are out always out and about.

And the adrenaline to make it happen! And the tension. And the overwhelmingness.

And all the time God’s wants you to experience His rest in your home.

Jeremiah 6:6 says: “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the GOOD WAY, and walk therein, and ye shall find REST FOR YOUR SOULS.” To obey God’s way is the good way to walk and it always brings rest. More than physical rest. Rest deep down in our souls. Don’t you love that rest?

I was reading Deuteronomy chapter 11 again this morning. What a beautiful picture of home life. It’s a picture of the family in the home—the mother teaching her children in the home in every situation of daily life and filling herself and her home and her children with God’s Word. Placing great emphasis on God’s Word so that it is entwined in every part of our lives.

And what is the result? Deuteronomy 11:21-23 says: “That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children . . . as the days of HEAVEN UPON THE EARTH. For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; Then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. . . “

You and your family will do great things in God.

Be blessed today,

Nancy Campbell

Painting: Katie m. Berggren

Recently, I mentioned in my post, WHEN SHOULD OUR CHILDREN MARRY, that in all probability most of the disciples were teens. Why would I make that statement? Here are a few things to think about.

1. Jesus referred to His disciples as “little children.” E.g.
John 13:33: “Little children, yet a little while I am with you . . . “
John 21:5 (ESV): “Children, do you have any fish?” Read also Matthew 11:25 and Luke 10:21. Would older men like to be called “little children”?

Often Jesus said to His disciples: “How is it that ye do not understand?” (Mark 8:21). In Mark 4:13 we notice He is patient with His young students, but I am sure He would not talk like this to older men.

Do you remember the story in Matthew 20:20-28 of the mother of James and John who came to Jesus and asked: “Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.”? Can you imagine grown men allowing their mother to ask such a question of Jesus? And even more embarrassing, to let their mother be their spokeswoman? Impossible. Her sons were obviously young boys.
Many references to the disciples in the gospels reveal their immaturity. Remember how they were so afraid of the storm on Lake Galilee? Seasoned sailors would be used to these storms and not end up in such panic (Mark 4:35-41).

James, son of Alphaeus, was also called James the Less in the Bible. He was obviously shorter than the other disciples and most probably because he was the youngest and not yet had his growth spurt which often happens in the mid-teens.

2. Most young men finished their early education by 13 - 15 years. If the young man was intelligent and interested in pursuing a religious training, he would seek a rabbi to disciple him. A rabbi began his ministry at 30 years of age and gathered young men around him to teach and disciple. That was the culture at that time.

If a young man did not want to pursue religious studies, he would usually be apprenticed by his father in the family business and help toward the economic success of the family. All young men would follow either of these courses by 15 years of age. They would be married at age 17 or 18 years.

A rabbi did not become a rabbi until 30 years of age and would then begin to gather students to him. A rabbi simply means master or teacher and his disciples were his students or learners. The Jewish Encyclopedia says that some rabbis continued in their former trades (such as a laundryman, shoe maker, water carrier, or sandal maker) while they continued to teach. Students joined themselves to a rabbi usually between the ages of 13 and 15.

Even today a young Jewish boy celebrates his Bar Mitzvah at 13 years of age where he is expected to leave his childhood behind and begin the journey into adulthood. It is a time of purpose and mission, not a time to waste on entertainment, self-serving, laziness, and teenage mentality as they wait for adulthood. No, they press into manhood and adulthood.

3. Do you remember the story in Matthew 17:24-27? Jesus told Peter to go fishing. He told him that the first fish he caught would have a coin in its mouth, the exact amount to pay the temple tax for Jesus and Peter. In Exodus 30:14, 15 it states that every person 20 years and over must pay the temple tax which was half a shekel.

Jesus miraculously provided a shekel to pay the tax for Peter and Him. Peter was the only disciple who was married (Matthew 18:14, 15) and at the time of this story must have been at least 20 years of age. Jesus didn’t need to find money for any of His other students because they must have all been under the age of 20.

4. The Bible does not tell us, but I don’t think Peter had yet been blessed with children. He must have been newly married. This is another reason Jesus would not have chosen grown men to be His disciples. Older men already had the responsibility of their families to provide, protect, and care for. They would not be so free to leave their families and livelihood to travel around the country as Jesus did with His young disciples.

Jesus often sent forth His disciples around the country to preach and heal the sick (Matthew 10:1-25; Mark 3:13-15; 6:7-13; and Luke 9:1-6).

Why should we be concerned at the age of the disciples? To me it is very challenging. I must admit that I always imagined them around the same age as Jesus (mostly because of pictures and movies). It shows how we can believe something without really checking it out. I have changed my understanding after looking into history and the above Scriptures.

Now I realize that the disciples were young, it inspires me to inspire our young people. It grieves me to see young people becoming the victims of a teenage mentality. I believe young people are capable of doing great things and mighty things for God. And yet so many waste these years in a self-centered lifestyle when they could be changing the world. Instead of growing into men, they prolong their adolescence. Instead of being passionate for God, they are more interested in the entertainment of this world.

But these young disciples of Jesus changed the world. As young people, Luke 9:9 tells us that they “Went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing everywhere.”

That must have been exciting, but it would not have been a picnic. They would have suffered great hardships. Most likely dangers from bandits on the solitary mountain tracks and valleys. They preached this new radical message in a region controlled by Roman authorities who were always ready to snuff out political rebellions and messianic movements. They left the comfort of their families to hit the road, sleeping rough and relying on the hospitality of locals for food and shelter.

Are your teenage sons ready for this? Or are we still treating them as little boys?

Psalm 144:12 (Youngs): “Because our sons are as plants, BECOMING GREAT IN THEIR YOUTH.”

Be blessed today,

Nancy Campbell

Photo: An old picture of our son, Rocklyn, when he was 13 years. Preaching in the streets of Surfers Paradise, Australia. He was a powerful young preacher.

I notice another phrase in the Malachi 2:14-16 passage about marriage. This Scripture talks about the “wife of thy youth.” That’s a rather interesting phrase, especially in the light of society today.

The word youth is “na’uwr” and means “the state of juvenility, youthfulness.” That means they could have been married in their mid to late teens. That’s certainly a different concept than the average age for marriage in the United States which is nearly 30 years for men and nearly 28 years for women.

Although many couples may not meet the right one until they are older, there are some who meet when they are younger. I don’t think that should disqualify them from getting married if the parents believe that the one they have chosen is a godly young man or woman. The young man should have a good work ethic and be able to provide for his wife. The young couple should be ready for the responsibility of parenthood for that is part of being prepared for marriage.

I know many young couples who have married at 18 years of age. They have beautiful marriages. The young men are mature, providing well, and they are beginning their families with love and joy.

This maturity often depends on the way they were raised. Too many young people today are not raised for maturity. They are in a prolonged state of juvenility. When our children turn 13, we should be encouraging them and programming them into adulthood—to take responsibility, to work hard, and to prepare for marriage and parenthood. This training is even more important than the rest of their education.

Instead, many young people expect everything to be done for them. They have not been trained to work hard or to work for what they want. I don’t believe young people should be given everything they want. I believe that even while they are at home, they should seek extra jobs to earn money to pay for the extra things they need. This teaches them responsibility. Psalm 144:12 talks about our sons “grown up in their youth.”

This phrase in Malachi is not an isolated phrase.

Isaiah 54:4, 6 also speaks of the “wife of thy youth.”

Proverbs 2:17 speaks of the “husband of thy youth.”

Psalm 127:4 talks of the “children of the youth.” They not only married young but had their children young. Many young people waste the energetic and glorious years of their twenties, filling their lives with selfish pursuits that will be left behind, when their twenties are the greatest time to have their children.

I believe it is another ploy of the enemy to stop the “godly seed” coming into the world. Often it is more difficult to conceive with they marry later, and they miss the blessings of children God longs to give to them. We could even use a stronger word. They are often stolen from them by the enemy who deceives them into thinking that other things are more important than the eternal work of having children. And then sometimes it’s too late.

Before David went out to kill Goliath Saul called him a “youth” (1 Samuel 17:33). Most commentators say that David would have only been about 17 years when he killed Goliath. King Saul promised he would give his daughter to the man who killed Goliath so he must have married soon after.

King Solomon would have been no more than 20 years when he began to reign and began to make his kingdom the richest in the world at that time. Josephus puts his age at 14 years.

King Josiah became a king at eight years of age and was guided by the priest. However, when he was only 16 years of age “while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father” (2 Chronicles 34:3).

And did you know that the disciples were most probably all in their teenage years when Jesus called them? Peter would have been the oldest at 20 years and he was already married.

Let’s not settle for allowing our children to waste their adolescent teen years, but let’s prepare them for maturity and even for marriage if that should be God’s will for them.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

Picture: Bowen and Kahoru Barrett. Bowen was 18 years when he married. They have a beautiful marriage and God has blessed them with a darling baby boy, Finn. And Bowen is a great provider.

Thoughts today from Malachi 2:14-16. We understood something of God’s heart yesterday when we read that God’s longs to see godly children come from our marriage.

What were the words again? “Didn’t the LORD make you one with your wife? And what does he want? Godly children from your union.”

The King James says: “That he might seek a godly seed.” The word “seed” is the Hebrew word “zera.” Did you know that God uses this same Hebrew word for sperm as He does for people?

The word “zera” is used for sperm in Leviticus 14:16-18 and 22:4. And then we read multitudes of Scriptures where God uses the same word for people.

Genesis 46:6, 7 tells how Jacob and all his family came down from Canaan to Egypt: “And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed (zera)with him: His sons, and his son’s sons with him, his daughters, and his son’s daughters, and all his seed (zera) brought he with him into Egypt.”

Did Jacob come down from Canaan with lots of little sperms floating down with him? No. This Scripture is talking about sons and daughters of all ages, and grandsons and granddaughters of all ages—babies, little ones, teens, and adults! And they are all called zera, the same word for sperm!

In Numbers 14:24 God says that because Caleb “followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed (zera) shall possess it.” Imagine if Caleb lived in our society today. There would be many people who God intended to be born, but were not born, and would therefore miss the blessings of possessing the land.

Because Phinehas was zealous for the Lord and stood against the adultery that was happening among the people, God said: “Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: And he shall have it, and his seed (zera) after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God” (Numbers 25:12, 13). The blessing God gave him was also for his coming descendants. If they were contracepting as so many Christian parents are doing today, they would not have been born to inherit the blessings God gave to his future posterity.

Let’s go to the New Testament. Hebrews 7:9, 10 tells us how Levi paid tithes to Melchisedec while he “was yet in the loins” of Abraham who was his great-grandfather! He wouldn’t have even been a twinkle in Abraham’s eyes, and yet God knew him before he was conceived. The Bible states that he literally paid tithes as Abraham paid tithes (because he was already in his loins)! Wow, God’s understanding is far beyond ours, isn’t it?

We understand that life begins at conception, but God sees life coming from the sperm. He sees far ahead of our puny thinking.

Serene and I were talking about life on one of my podcasts. Her little one-year-old, Solly, was sitting on her knee, and she said, “Oh my goodness, imagine if I didn't have her! It's just too incredible and too amazing. And look at her personality! God had a vision of her. Imagine if I had said, ‘No, God, I don't want her, I don't care for Your desire to have her in eternity with You.’”

What a powerful revelation! This is something to think about. When we say No to a child that God has planned before the foundation of the world to spend eternity with Him, we deprive that child of life. Not only of life in this world, but of the opportunity to enjoy the glories of the eternal world forever—glories that are beyond the scope of our human minds to comprehend! How grieving to deprive someone of this glory.

Our minds are so puny. I constantly ask God to open my mind to think His thoughts and understand His ways. To save me from putting Him in a box, from bringing Him down to the level of my puny thinking, of making myself a god instead of allowing Him to be God!

If we belong to the kingdom of God, we better be on God’s side. God is a God of life and His kingdom is a kingdom of life. The devil hates life and his kingdom is a kingdom of death. John 10:10 says that he comes to “steal, kill, and destroy,” the anti-life trio. He does this through contraception, sterilization, and abortion. The devil wants to eliminate life before it is even conceived through contraception and sterilization. Abortion is his back-up plan!

Did you know we can be against abortion and yet not pro-life? If we are truly pro-life, we will not take the Pill or any of its associated methods which have the potential to abort babies. If we are truly pro-life, we will believe in life from the very moment of conception. And . . . even before!

Love to you today from Nancy Campbell

God ordained marriage for intimate companionship which every one of us need to truly enjoy life.

God ordained marriage to satisfy the sexual desires He put within His creation in this “holy estate” of marriage.

But ultimately God ordained marriage for the bringing forth and training of children. We see this in the very first words God spoke into the ears of man: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28).

Let’s look at some other translations.

God’s Word translation: “Didn’t God make you one? Your flesh and spirit belong to him. And what does the same God look for but godly descendants?”

New Living Translation: “Didn’t the LORD make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union.”

Therefore, a young couple are not ready to marry if they are not prepared to embrace children. To go into marriage with the plan to stop children for a certain length of time is not God’s will. To stop God visiting you with His gift of life for any human reason (even “spiritual sounding” reasons) is not God’s will.

I know more than one couple who stopped having children because they were in “the ministry” and wanted to serve God. These couples have the wrong concept of God and the Bible. The perfect will of God will never negate God’s existing commandments.

God desires and looks for children from the marriage union. If we don’t want children, we have a different mindset than God. We are not in step with Him.

And it is not just children He looks for. It is “godly” children. The word is “elohim.” This is one of the names of God. The very first name of God revealed to us in His Word in Genesis 1:1.

God looks for goodly couples who will bring forth His children and who will train them, righteousness, and justice and godliness (Genesis 18:19). Who will faithfully teach them God’s ways. Who will daily pray for them that they will be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29) and reveal His image in this earth.

This is the highest purpose for marriage. When we refuse this command, we deny God. We deny His image in the world. We deny our own blessings. And we deny filling eternity.

Blessings to you today,

Nancy Campbell

We spoke our vows before God. We made a covenant. That’s why God uses the word “treacherous” because when we break covenant with our marriage vows, we also break covenant with God.

Proverbs 2:17 talks about the wife who “forsakes the guide of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.” Her marriage vows are called the “covenant of God.” The word “covenant” is “berit” and means “a compact (made by passing between pieces of flesh as God did with Abram in Genesis 15:17-21), a contract accompanied by signs, sacrifices, and a solemn oath which sealed the relationship with promises of blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience.”

Do you notice the words again, “FORSAKING ALL OTHERS”? These words are part of our marriage vows. When we marry, we no longer have a “personal” male friend. Of course, we’ll have loads of male friends as couples and families whom we enjoy fellowship with. But never again will we go out for lunch or a cup of coffee or spend time away from our husbands in personal dialogue on our own with another man.

The covenant of marriage makes us “glued” to our spouse. We are one. No longer two. If we don’t understand this concept, we don’t understand God’s concept of marriage.

God makes us one, and remember, He is witnessing.

Blessings to you today from Nancy Campbell

Painting by Morgan Weistling.

Continuing today from my post on Friday, EVERY LITTLE DETAIL, we continue to talk about marriage. The Message translation of Malachi 2:15 says: “’I hate divorce,’ says the GOD of Israel. GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies says, ‘I hate the VIOLENT DISMEMBERING of the ‘one flesh’ of marriage.’ So watch yourselves. Don’t let your guard down. Don’t cheat.”

Let’s get it straight. God loves divorced people, but He hates the spirit of divorce. Why? Because it tears apart what God has made one. God loves making two things into one. How did each one of us begin? The sperm from our father fused with the egg of our mother and immediately we were conceived. A new person. No longer two but one. The devil hates new life. The destroyer who comes to steal, kill, and destroy seeks to eliminate this new life. Precious new babies, conceived through God’s wondrous working are dismembered limb by limb in the womb.

The devil also hates God’s plan for marriage where God brings two people together and makes them one. In Matthew 19:4-6 (NET) which is repeated from Genesis 2:24, Jesus said: “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be united with his wife, and the two will become one Flesh’? So they are NO LONGER TWO, BUT ONE FLESH.”

God’s plan for our marriage is oneness. This is the very first principle that is mentioned about marriage. He wants us to come together as one flesh, but He also wants us to be one soul, one spirit, and with one vision and purpose. Once again, the devil hates God’s plan of oneness. He wants to dismember marriages. Mutilate them. In the same way he is behind the dismembering of precious babies in the womb, he determines the same for marriages. He wants to dismember them little by little and piece by piece.

No marriage suddenly falls apart. It happens gradually. It happens little by little. That’s why we must guard our marriage in every part—physically, spiritually, emotionally, and our thought life. This is perhaps the biggest area of all. Every thing begins with our thoughts. The enemy of our souls will try to bring negative thoughts to us about our husbands. Guard your thought life. Cast out every negative, self-pitying, destroying thought in the name of Jesus.

1 Peter 5:8, 9: “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring line, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom RESIST steadfast in the faith.” Don’t become a victim. RESIST.

We must not only watch our thoughts, but our spirits. It is imperative in a marriage to keep a soft and tender heart toward the Lord and toward our husbands. Life is not perfect. Our husbands are not perfect. There will be times when they say and do things that hurt or even wound us. Or maybe they are totally annoying. This is where we must reach beyond our feelings. Instead of allowing our hearts to become hard, we soften our hearts to forgive, to forbear, and to love.

We stand strong and will not allow the devil to have the victory. We will not allow him to dismember our oneness. Not even one little bit.

When God talks about a man cleaving to his wife in Genesis 2;24 it is the Hebrew word “dabaq” and literally means “to cling, to be glued to, stick fast.” When God made you and your husband one, He glued you together. Satan will try to unglue you and slowly dismember you. Do not let him.

In the strength of the Lord you can stand against his temptations!

Love from Nancy Campbell

I want to encourage and bless every mother today. If you are yet unmarried, don’t wait until you are married with children to become a mother. Embrace your nurturing heart now and live your life to minister to others around you who need your help.

If you are not yet able to conceive, I know your grief can seem unbearable. However, as you wait in faith, don’t hide yourself in your grief, but open your heart to mother those whom God puts in your life. Maybe you will foster or adopt. Or reach out to needy children or widows or the poor around you. As you release your mothering anointing, you live in the fullness of God’s plan for you as a female.

And to all the precious mothers who are in the trenches of motherhood, I honor you today. You love your children. They are your life. But often you feel overwhelmed in the huge challenge of mothering. Be encouraged. You are in the perfect will of God. You are doing what God created you to do. Your career of mothering is greater than any other career in the nation. All other careers are temporary and will be left behind. You have an eternal career. You are mothering and training children who have eternal souls and as you lead them to Jesus, you will take them into the glories of the eternal kingdom with you.

You determine the destiny of this nation. You influence future generations. You are bringing sons and daughters into glory. Without mothers birthing babies and raising them for God, this world would come to an end! You keep the world going. Your greatest accomplishment in this life is your influence as a mother. It’s the greatest power you wield.

May you be blessed as your family gathers around and honors you today. But even if they do not honor you and you feel unappreciated (and you may feel as though you hate Mother’s Day), please know that God is watching. He notices your loving, serving heart. Your labor of love is not in vain.

Be encouraged as you do the greatest work God has given you to do, above everything else you will do in this life: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is NOT IN VAIN in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15;58).

Love from my home to yours today,

Nancy Campbell

Painting by Marci Oleszkiewicz

It’s good to remind ourselves how God looks upon marriage, isn’t it? The passage in Malachi 2:13-16 gives powerful words to every marriage: Verse 14 says: “. . . Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt TREACHEROUSLY: yet she is thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant..

The word TREACHEROUS is used five times in this passage about marriage. It’s not a light word. The word is “bagad” and means “pillage, to deal deceitfully, treacherously, unfaithfully, to offend, to transgress.”

God created marriage to be a complete oneness of body, mind, soul, and spirit (Genesis 2;24). Marriage is the strongest metaphor in the Bible to reveal God’s relationship with His people. Firstly, with Himself and His chosen people, Israel. God looked upon Israel has His bride. When the Israelites turned away from Him and served other gods, He said they were like a wife turning away from her husband. And He uses the word TREACHEROUS again.

God says in Jeremiah 3:20: “Surely as a wife TREACHEROUSLY departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt TREACHEROUSLY with me, O house Of Israel, saith the LORD.” Therefore, this word, TREACHEROUSLY is used of both the wife and the husband who depart from the marriage.

The Bible also reveals that marriage is a revelation of the relationship between Christ and His bride, the church. This is why marriage is so powerful. God is the originator of marriage. Not us. He designed it. He planned it. It’s the glorious way He wants us to live on this earth.

But Satan hates it. He hates everything that God ordained. Therefore, he seeks to destroy it every way he can

Recently, a friend of mine asked me if I had read the Message translation of Malachi 2:13 - 16. I hadn’t, so I looked it up. Let’s read it together: “God was there as a witness when you spoke your marriage vows to your young bride, and now you’ve broken those vows, broken the faith-bond with your vowed companion, your covenant wife. GOD, not you, made marriage. His Spirit inhabits even the smallest details of marriage. And what does he want from marriage? Children of God, that’s what. So guard the spirit of marriage within you. Don’t cheat on your spouse.”

I love the words: “His Spirit inhabits even the smallest details of marriage.” If we could only be aware that God is witnessing every moment of our marriage. He wants to be in every detail of our marriage—in our sexual union, our daily living, our attitudes, and our interactions with one another.

What could happen if we would allow the Holy Spirit to come into every detail? Every situation we face together? Every word we say to one another? Every disagreeing moment? Yes, it would certainly make all the difference.

I am challenged to do this. Are you? Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to come into every little detail and moment of our marriages. He will show us how to react to one another. As we yield to Him instead of our ugly flesh, He will make our union more and more beautiful and wonderful.

More next post.

Love from Nancy Campbell

This doesn’t happen automatically. We have the responsibility to impart God’s Word deeply and richly into their lives. We talk to them about biblical doctrines, making sure they understand them and embrace them.

We’ve not only got to get it into their hearts, but to get it coming out of their mouths (Isaiah 59:21). Is the Word of God coming out of your children’s mouths? If you begin a familiar Scripture, can they complete it? I find that few people in the church today can do this. Sadly, they don’t know the Scriptures.

It is the Scriptures that give us stability in our faith. Therefore, we not only impart the Word daily (morning and evening) to our children but are faithful to pray.

We pray together as husband and wife that they will not be fickle but fixed upon Christ. We pray they will not be vacillators, but valiant for the truth. We pray earnestly for them.

It saddens me when young people love to sit at the back in church. I believe we show what is in our hearts by our actions. When you see young people up the front, you know they have a passion for God. When you see them lagging around at the back (they are only there because they have to be), you wonder how passionate they are for God.

The Bible talks about what happens to those who lag behind at the back. Deuteronomy 25:18 tells us about how the Amalekites struck down all those who were “straggling behind.”

Numbers 11:1 tells us about how the Israelites began to complain about all their hardships. This displeased the Lord and He sent a fire which burned among those who were in the outskirts of the camp. It’s usually those on the outskirts who do the most complaining.

Sometimes it is not only young people, but a husband or a wife that walks away. But it all comes back to the same root. They are unstable. Why? Because the Word of God is not abiding in them. No one will walk away from the faith if the eternal, powerful, life-giving, Word of God is abiding in them.

Many blessings,

Nancy Campbell

P.S. Check out these Scriptures: Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:1-6; Psalm 119:9, 11; Isaiah 59:21; Jeremiah 17:8; Matthew 24:13; Ephesians 6:13-18; Colossians 2:6, 7; Hebrews 10:39; James 1:8; 2 Peter 1:3-11; 2:20, 21; 5:8; ;and 1 john 2:13, 14. Get these words into your own heart and mouth, and get them into the hearts and mouths of your children.

WHY STRIVE WHEN YOU CAN ABIDE?

We need to confess the words of the psalmist in Psalm 116:7: “Return unto thy rest, O my soul.” When you start to get agitated, speak these words out loud! Yes, OUT LOUD! Your spirit will hear and get in line.

You may like to print these words and pin them up in your kitchen as a constant reminder.

I love the words from John Greenleaf Whittier’s hymn . . .

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.

Be blessed today,

Nancy Campbell

I have always loved the lines from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “A Psalm of Life.”

“But to act that each tomorrow
Find us further than today.”

I love to learn something new every day, don’t you? Yesterday I learned the difference between a Shepherd’s Pie and a Cottage Pie. How come it has taken me so long to know the difference?

A Shepherd’s Pie is made with minced lamb whereas a Cottage Pie is made with ground beef. I guess the reason I didn’t know is that growing up in New Zealand we always called it a Shepherd’s Pie because we always cooked with lamb.

I also learned during the weekend that The American Life League estimates that “Using formulas based on the way the birth control pill works, pharmacy experts project that about 14 million chemical abortions occur in the United States each year.” Wow, that bit of information is just about too much to take in. More abortions through the Pill than Clinic abortions!

Anyway, I think it is a good thing to encourage your children to learn something new every day. I think this is more important than making sure your children get through all their lessons each day. They can do them and yet often not remember anything. But if they learn one specific new thing every day, they will become very knowledgeable.

A good idea is to check how everyone is learning in the family at your evening family meal table. When you have sharing time around the table and talk about different questions, every now and then give them this question: “Children, what is something new you learned today?”

Start with the first child and go around each one to ask them one new thing they learned. This is a good way to check if your homeschooling is effective. And don’t leave out you and your husband. Your children love to hear the new thing you have learned too.

We are all learning together. This is true education. It’s for life. It’s learning something new every day. It’s inspiring a joy for learning. An excitement for learning. When you give your children this challenge, they’ll start looking for things to really remember. And you will too.

And even more than learning something new every day is to have the vision to grow a little more in Christ every day. We should never stay the same, but each new day seek to be conformed to the image of God’s dear Son. 1 Timothy 4:15 tells us that we are to immerse ourselves in the teachings of Christ and the Scriptures “so that all may see your progress.” Our progress should be evident in our lives.

Our Christian walk is not a stay-at-the-same-place walk, but a MORE AND MORE walk.

Proverbs 4:18: “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth MORE AND MORE unto the perfect day.”

Be blessed to day as you learn something new today.

Love from Nancy Campbell

P.S. More Scriptures to check out: 1 Samuel 7:26; Psalm 92:12-14; Proverbs 4:18; Romans 5:2-6; 8:29; Ephesians 4;11-16; Colossians 2:6, 7; 1 Timothy 4;11-15; Hebrews 6:1; 5:12-14; 1 Peter 2:2, 3; 2 Peter 1:5-8; and 3:18.

Painting by Simon Glucklich (Polish).