Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

WHEN YOU RECEIVE A LITTLE CHILD INTO YOUR ARMS, YOU RECEIVE JESUS
Let me encourage you mothers who are feeling that your role is not significant. Remember that Jesus said that those who receive a little one in his name, receive Him (Matthew 18:1-5; Mark 9:33-37; and Luke 9:46-48).

WHEN YOU EMBRACE MOTHERHOOD, YOU ARE SEEKING FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD
When he told his disciples to seek first the kingdom of God in order that all their material needs be met, He later compared the kingdom of God to ministering to children when he said, “of such is the kingdom.” (Matthew 19:14; Mark 10:4; and Luke 18:16).

WHEN YOU NURTURE CHILDREN AND SERVE THE NEEDY, YOU ARE DOING GOD’S WORK
When widows were to be considered by churches for receiving financial help, the criteria was that the widow had been known for nurturing children and ministering to the saints, not for having had a lucrative career, or some other socially recognizable achievement (1 Timothy 5:10). This is not to disparage women who have ministered through a career, but it is to encourage those whom God has blessed with children to see their short time with them as a stewardship and eternally significant calling.

YOU ARE STORING UP TREASURE IN HEAVEN
It is not an insignificant thing to see the children with which God has blessed us as the highest treasure that we have been given. Jesus said to store up treasure in heaven, not earthly things that fade away (Matthew 6:19-21). Children are eternal souls and any investment we make into nurturing and teaching them of their highest calling in life, which is to know, love, and serve God, is storing up treasure in heaven.

YOU ARE DOING WHAT GOD PLANNED
Titus 2 tells older women to encourage the younger women to love their husbands and children. If this priority weren't at the heart of God for women, He would've encouraged women in all the other things that the world encourages.

YOU ARE DOING THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB IN THE WORLD
Mother, don't let the world lie to you about what's important! Keep on investing in those lives that will all too soon leave the nest. You are doing the most important job in the world!

~ Val Halloran (mother and grandmother).

Painting by Jessie Willcox Smith.

Dear folks, sorry this is a hard article to read, but it reveals one of the sources of the intentional breakdown of family today. We must read it so that we know the source of our enemy. ~ Nancy

You can read the whole article below, but the following is an important excerpt to read:

“It was 1969 and she took me to a meeting at her friend, Lila Karp’s place, in Greenwich Village,” Mallory explains. “At a consciousness raising (an idea imported from Mao’s China), twelve women gathered at a large table. They opened with a type of Litany from the Catholic Church. But this time it was Marxism, the church of the Left.”

“Why are we here today?” the chairwoman asked. “To make revolution,” they answered.

“What kind of revolution?” she replied. “The Cultural Revolution,” they chanted.

“And how do we make Cultural Revolution?” she demanded.

“By destroying the American family!” they answered.

“How do we destroy the family?” she came back.

“By destroying the American Patriarch,” they cried exuberantly.

“And how do we destroy the American Patriarch?” she probed.

“By taking away his power!” “How do we do that?”

“By destroying monogamy!” they shouted. “How can we destroy monogamy?”

“By promoting promiscuity, eroticism, prostitution, abortion and homosexuality!” they resounded.

Such antics might seem insignificant except for the fact that these women achieved all of their goals.

The full article:
THE DARKNESS AT THE HEART OF RADICAL FEMINISM
And how it's savaging western civilization.

In 1970, the academically successful but mentally unstable Kate Millett found herself on the cover of Time magazine with the title “The Politics of Sex: Kate Millett and Women’s Lib,” featuring her book Sexual Politics. Considered groundbreaking, Millett quickly became the intellectual force behind radical feminism. Time called her the “high priestess” of the movement and her book, its bible.

The New York Times also called her book “the Bible of Women’s Liberation” and “a remarkable document because it analyzes the need and nature of sexual liberation while itself displaying the virtues of intellectual and emotional openness and lovingness.” Time also called her “the Karl Marx of the Women’s Movement” because her book laid out a course in Marxism 101 for women. “Her thesis: The family is a den of slavery with the man as the Bourgeoisie and the woman and children as the Proletariat.”

A few months after Millett appeared on Time’s cover, the magazine ran a second article about her, this time less laudatory. The article, entitled “Women’s Lib: A Second Look,” attacked Millett for her bisexuality. The fame and the shame, many people say, destroyed her. Her personality wasn’t strong enough for the glowing limelight, followed by the dark scrutiny.

Dark and Demented

“Kate had a s***load of charm and, in the beginning, a commanding presence,” Phyllis Chesler recalls. “But she also had periods in which she didn’t sleep, raged at others, attempted suicide, and exploited her groupies — all the while feeling victimized by them (which she was). She couldn’t be counted on to remain lucid at a press conference. She also fell in love, and tried to have her way, quite aggressively, with woman after woman (including me).”

Millett died in 2017. But her sister, Mallory Millett, has started speaking up about the irreparable damage Kate did to Western culture through the popularization of her dark and demented work. Mallory attests to the fact that Kate’s mania wasn’t brought on by the Time articles. It had preexisted her fame since childhood. “She was the most disturbed, megalomaniacal, evil and dishonest person I have ever known,” Mallory said. “Kate tried to kill me so many times that it’s now an enormous blur of traumatizing horrors. She was a sadist, a torturer, a deeply-engrained bully who took immense pleasure in hurting others.”

“What the Time article did do,” Mallory says, “is it destroyed her marriage. Despite being seduced by a female professor in college, Kate had given up her lesbian lifestyle when she married Fumio Yoshimura, and for seventeen years, they had a happy marriage.”

After the Time article appeared Kate got ambushed at an evening church meeting by a cabal of lesbians, who felt left out of the movement’s limelight. “To defend herself against their charges, Kate confessed that she had once been a lesbian, unaware that two Time reporters were among the throng. This prompted the second Time article, but it also led Kate back to promiscuity as a lesbian and the ruin of her life with Fumio. It was something that she would regret for the rest of her life.”’

Relationships Destroyed

Kate’s relationship and the years of heartache and regret it brought to both spouses proved hardly an isolated case. The movement destroyed relationship after relationship with the promise of free love and liberation. Bodies were used for amusement and vows and promises were quickly tossed aside.
Mallory spent a period devoted to her sister Kate and her radical ideas before returning to the Catholic faith of their childhood. She eventually left Kate’s inner circle when things just got too weird. But she spent enough time with women in the movement to see its underbelly. Mallory has dark stories that make it clear these women were involved in the occult, with a Marxist twist.

A Litany of Evil

“It was 1969 and she took me to a meeting at her friend, Lila Karp’s place, in Greenwich Village,” Mallory explains. “At a consciousness raising (an idea imported from Mao’s China), twelve women gathered at a large table. They opened with a type of Litany from the Catholic Church. But this time it was Marxism, the church of the Left.”

“Why are we here today?” the chairwoman asked. “To make revolution,” they answered.

“What kind of revolution?” she replied. “The Cultural Revolution,” they chanted.

“And how do we make Cultural Revolution?” she demanded.
“By destroying the American family!” they answered.

“How do we destroy the family?” she came back.

“By destroying the American Patriarch,” they cried exuberantly.
“And how do we destroy the American Patriarch?” she probed.

“By taking away his power!” “How do we do that?”

“By destroying monogamy!” they shouted. “How can we destroy monogamy?”

“By promoting promiscuity, eroticism, prostitution, abortion and homosexuality!” they resounded.

Pregnancy Is “Barbaric.”

Such antics might seem insignificant except for the fact that these women achieved all of their goals. The rhetoric used to convince women to engage in these things seems ridiculous now, but somehow it was compelling then.

But the craziness didn’t stop with Kate. “Shulamith Firestone called pregnancy ‘barbaric,’ preferred artificial reproduction and imagined a utopia in which children, like Eros, would roam freely throughout the world.” Mallory adds, “Greer, with a PhD from Cambridge, encouraged women to taste their own menstrual blood and discouraged them from partnering monogamously. ‘Women,’ Greer claimed, ‘have very little idea of how much men hate them.’”

These ideas extended beyond their little troop of women through the women’s studies programs they helped establish across the country. In those women’s studies classes, a young impressionable girl, Mallory explains, “will be told, ‘Be an outlaw, be a damned outlaw Every law was concocted by dead white men. Be a sl*t and be proud of it.’”

Millett and her crew of eleven young women lived by this very philosophy. They started calling themselves “sl*ts” and engaged in orgies and every other sort of thing that captured the imagination.

Marxism and the Occult

Mallory marvels at how it happened, how this anti-apostolic crowd succeeded so wildly in their ragtag efforts from start to finish. “These twelve American women who were the most respectable types imaginable. Clean and privileged graduates of esteemed institutions: Columbia, Radcliffe, Smith, Wellesley, Vassar. The uncle of one was secretary of war under Franklin Roosevelt. How could they plot such a thing?” she asks.

“Most had advanced degrees and appeared cogent, bright, reasonable, and good. How did these girls rationally believe they could succeed with such vicious grandiosity? And why?” Clearly, there had to be more to their motivation and Kate’s mania. Their adherence to Marxism, and their engagement in the occult, made it a perfect storm of destruction. It was an anti-Marian bomb that is still exploding throughout Western culture.

This post is an excerpt from Carrie Gress’ new book:
THE ANTI-MARY EXPOSED: RESCUING THE CULTURE FROM TOXIC FEMININITY

It comes down to this! The majority of women today want to take the man’s role. They want to get out into the market place and be the provider. There is not one career they haven’t invaded. Even the military and fire-fighting. And, of course, the standard has dropped to allow them in.

Not only do they want to take the man’s role, but they want their man to think and be like them. They don’t want to accept him as a real man with leadership and the anointing of authority. They want a weaker man they can order around. They want him to think like them and fit in with their plans.

This is utter delusion. We are created differently! Male and female are not the same. Each are totally different—physically, emotionally, and mentally. And this is the fun part. We do not blur the roles, which never works. We are two different people who when we embrace our unique roles and free each other to fulfill the roles God intended we fit together. We accomplish God’s plan and purposes.

The female body is geared to motherhood right down to her elbows which are bent differently than men’s. Why? To perfectly cradle a baby. Men are created with 50 percent more brute strength than men to do stronger work.

When are women going to stop heading down the path the enemy has planned for them? It’s the opposite to the way God created us. It’s the opposite to the way He planned for women to function.

It is a denial of God, the Creator. He is the Potter and we are the clay. And yet today, His creation no longer want to be clay in His hands, but are hard and cracked and cannot be molded to God’s plan. They fight it tooth and nail.

Dear mothers, we do not have to be intimidated by the feminists and humanists. We can lift up our heads and rejoice that when we submit to our Potter that He will work in us all that he has planned, not only for now, but for eternity.

He uses the powerful role of motherhood to fashion and mold us into His image to make a beautiful vessel for His glory. And our husband can become the man God intends him to be.

Be encouraged today,

Nancy Campbell

Painting by Sandra Kuck.

Have you seen the movie, UNPLANNED yet? Please go. Take people with you. Be a voice for God and a voice for life.
~ Nancy

Here's the second half for you today:

QUINTESSENTIALLY FEMININE, Part 2

“Let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible,
even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit,
which is in the sight of God of great price”
(1 Peter 3:4).

"The ultimate quintessence of motherhood is the
revelation of God’s maternal heart to the world."

Nursing a baby is very much part of our femaleness. There are some mothers who deny themselves the privilege and joy of nursing their own baby, and yet this is primal and quintessential to being female. 1 The Bible tells us that “Even jackals offer the breast, they nurse their young; but the daughter of my people has become cruel like ostriches in the wilderness” (Lamentations 4:3).2

Our little daughters naturally behave femininely. They haven’t yet been conditioned by society. They love to mother. That’s all they want to be when they grow up until society re-programs their brains. They love babies. They love to dress like princesses, which is another area of our femininity we have lost.

As we look around today we see most women in the uniform of the day—jeans and top. I don’t say you should not wear the “uniform,” but does it really convey who we are? Nor do I say you can’t wear pants. The men in biblical days didn’t wear pants but wore long flowing robes. The important thing is to make whatever you wear look feminine.

When my little granddaughters go to my dress-up box, what do they want to wear? Each one of them wants to be a princess. They look for the princess dresses, and if there are not enough to go around, they create them out of sheets and old curtains! I have never noticed that they want to dress up in a business suit!

One of my Above Rubies helpers shared with me that she and her sister sewed civil war time dresses with hooped skirts for a historical fair they were attending. They had to run some errands, and rather than changing into street clothes, decided to wear their dresses. They were amazed that in every store, both workers and shoppers, stopped to exclaim, “Oh you look so beautiful!” or “What beautiful dresses!”

I was thinking about this when traveling some time back. Delayed in a long line at an airport, I decided to look around for beautiful women. Every woman wore the “uniform,” but I spotted one lady who stood out from everyone else. She was dressed in a flowing apricot-colored sari with scarves flowing around her. She looked gloriously feminine and I feasted my eyes upon her as I waited. How sad that we have degenerated so far from our intrinsic femininity that we can only wear a dress that makes us feel like a princess or a queen if we “dress up in a costume!”

I believe a woman also reveals her femininity in her home. This is the domain God planned for women—to make her home a restful place where God’s presence dwells, to raise and nurture her children, to create a delightful atmosphere her children will remember into the next generation, and to be a successful home-maker and gardener. Proverbs 24:15 calls the home a “resting place.” Hosea 11:11 (KNOX) says, “In their own home, says the Lord, I will give them rest.” When we lose the anointing of rest upon our lives, we need to get back into the home.

In the home a woman can bask in the provision and leadership of her husband. She loses her femininity, her grace, and her peace when she rules her husband. A truly feminine woman trusts in her husband’s provision and authority. This does not mean she is a doormat. God has given women a sphere of leadership, not to rule over her husband, but to govern the affairs of her home (1 Timothy 5:14). It is her prerogative to efficiently administrate her home and garden. This is not an insignificant task. It is a full-time career, especially as God blesses the couple with more children.

It is not just loving our children,
but loving and embracing the role of motherhood
that releases us into the joy and glory of our divine career.

Gentleness and meekness are also the inner essence of being female. 1 Peter 3:3-4 (Williams) says, “Your adornments . . . must be of an internal nature, the character concealed in the heart, in the imperishable quality of a quiet and gentle spirit, which is of great value in the sight of God.” These qualities in a female are very precious to the heart of God, and to husbands. In fact, they are a woman’s charm. They are called an “unfading charm” in the Amplified Version.

Is it weak to have a gentle and quiet spirit? No. It is a woman of strength who keeps a gentle spirit in the face of harshness and rebuke. It is a strong woman who keeps an even temper when she feels overwhelmed and angry. Have you tried being meek for a week?

The anointing of gentleness on a mother is beautiful to behold. Motherhood is equated with gentleness. And yet it is more. Just as Jesus was revealed as both a Lamb and a Lion, so too, God has put within the woman a gentle anointing, but also a “lion-like” spirit which rises up to protect her children, or to resist the enemy that comes to attack her marriage or home (Revelation 5:2-6).

This “quiet and gentle” spirit is also revealed in our speech. Soft and gentle words exemplify femininity. Sweet words are becoming to a woman. If I start to get on my “high horse” my husband says to me, “Nancy, you’ve got to be sweet to me.” Oh my! I don’t have a chance to get harsh! Sweet words endear us to our husband. Sweet words bless our children. Sweet words personify our femaleness. Shakespeare’s famous words are apt for us:

"Her voice was ever soft, gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman."

Solomon, speaking to his bride in Song of Songs 4:11 says: “Your lips, my bride, drip honey; honey and milk are under your tongue.” Could your husband testify that every time you open your mouth sweet words drip from your lips?

In Song of Songs chapter 7 (The Message), the Bridegroom is overcome as he admires every part of his bride. And then he exclaims that she is “quintessentially feminine.” He cannot think of greater praise.

We have come so far from God’s original intent for us, His female creation. Can we allow God to work in our lives to bring us back, little by little, to the original glory He planned for us? Let’s stop measuring our lives by the world around us but by God’s original design?

PRAYER:
“Dear Father, You have given so many amazing aspects to femininity. Help me to fully embrace each one of them. Help me to show to my family and to the world around me what it means to be female. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:
I’m tired of the “blur” in society today. I will seek to be truly feminine.

NANCY CAMPBELL
www.aboverubies.org

Footnotes:
1. To read more about the blessings of embracing motherhood and femininity go to: http://tinyurl.com/FullFemale
2. See also Job 39:14-17 and Isaiah 49:15.

Yesterday I posted Meadow's article about the misconceptions of non-feminist women. Today, I'd like to post about WHO WE ARE as feminine women.

QUINTESSENTIALLY FEMININE
Part 1

I read these beautiful words, “quintessentially feminine” in Song of Songs and was arrested by them. What does it mean to be feminine? I don’t mean feminine according to society’s standards, but rather what is quintessentially feminine. It means the perfect embodiment of who God originally created us to be. It is who we are in our purest form. Instead of looking around us to see what other women are doing to find our standard, we check the plumb line of God’s Word or even at our inherent inclinations which God has divinely put within us.

One of the most beautiful aspects of femininity is pregnancy. The pregnant figure is beautiful. In this awesome time of a woman’s life, she has the privilege of housing and growing a new life, a life that will not only be born into this world, but an eternal soul that will live forever. Absolutely nothing in this world is more powerful than nurturing an eternal soul. This season of a woman’s life is only for a certain time. It is her time of visitation which is only about 20 plus years of her whole life, not many years when you consider that most women live into their eighties and nineties today. It is the privileged time of a woman’s life when God can visit her to conceive life.

Every conception discloses a visitation of God. Mere man cannot give conception. After Hannah dedicated her firstborn Samuel to God and took him to live at the temple, God “visited” her five more times and gave her five more children (1 Samuel 2:21). Genesis 21:1 also tells us how God “visited” Sarah and she conceived.

There are only two kinds of human beings in this world—a man without a womb, the male; and a man with a womb, the woman. The womb is distinctive to God’s female creation.1 To embrace our womb is to embrace who we are; to reject the function of the womb is to not only reject the true essence of femaleness, but to reject our Creator who designed us.

Does the handicraft disown its Craftsman? Isaiah 29:16 (RSV) says: “You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay; and the thing made should say of its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?” Have we become so shaped by a godless society that we no longer understand who we are? What perversity! 2

TO REJECT MOTHERHOOD IS TO REJECT
THE TRANSCENDENCE OF OUR FEMALENESS.

Motherhood is also part of our innate femininity. Noah Webster’s 1928 dictionary describes quintessential as “the highest essence of power in a natural body.” Motherhood is primal, powerful, protecting and permeating—not only in our children’s lives but in all of society. Motherhood is not something we perform at a certain time of our life. Motherhood is who we are as a female. When we reject mothering, we reject who God created us to be. The desire to nurture is divinely inherent in every woman, even those who seemingly reject motherhood. Those who refuse to embrace children into their arms will usually have a cat or a dog, which they nurture like a human baby!

To embrace motherhood is to embrace quintessential femininity. Motherhood is the highest career in the nation. It is a divine mandate. It is the glory of the nation. We read in Hosea 9:11 how God told Ephraim that He would take away their “glory” as punishment for their sins. What was their glory? Conception, pregnancy, and birth!

Not only is motherhood innately within us, but it reveals the nature of God. One of the names of God is El Shaddai which reveals God as a nursing mother. Motherhood is not something we “have to do,” but it is the revelation of the nurturing heart of God.

Webster (1913) describes quintessence as “an extract from anything, containing its rarest virtue, or most subtle and essential constituent in a small quantity.” We are not El Shaddai, but a little “shad” revealing to the world the rarest virtue of motherhood. When we embrace, and live in the glory of motherhood, we show to the world what God is like. When we reject motherhood, we deprive the world of seeing this characteristic of God.

There are some women who cannot conceive naturally. Are they denied motherhood? No. When a woman expresses her nurturing instinct to mother the hurting and needy, the elderly, the orphans and widows, or even to adopt a child, she finds her fulfillment in mothering. The most renowned mother of our last century was Mother Theresa, a woman who never birthed children, but who was the greatest example of motherhood as she poured out her life for the downtrodden.

PRAYER:
“I thank You, dear Father God for the gift of femaleness. You chose to create me female. This is how I will fulfill my destiny on this earth. Help me to understand the fullness of Your plan for me as a female. Help me to walk in the glory of femaleness You created it to be. I ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:
I live in the fullness of my femininity to glorify God.

NANCY CAMPBELL
www.aboverubies.org

Footnotes:
1. Go to http://bit.ly/ProtectYourWomb * an important document which every woman should read.

2. The Hebrew word for “you turn things upside down” is hophek and means “perversity!” Read also Isaiah 45:9-10; 64:8 and Romans 9:19-21.

Painting: Lullaby by Holly Irwin

The following is an article from my granddaughter, Meadow Hall. Meadow is Pearl’s daughter (Trim Healthy Mama). I know you enjoy hearing from Meadow.

FIVE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT NON-FEMINIST WOMEN
Are we non-feminists oppressed, misguided, or just deluded?

In a recent poll from Refinery29 and CBS News, 54 percent of young women in the US said they do not consider themselves proponents of the movement for gender equality, while 46 percent said they identified as feminists. If feminism is supposed to be a cause for women, why would more than half of us not identity as feminists? Have half of us just not caught up with the times yet?

Or maybe half of us are not being properly represented.

Feminists tend to be the loudest in their opinions among women (take the Women’s March for example), but the rest of us can often feel vastly misunderstood. So, before they try to convince us non-feminists that we’re still in the dark ages, maybe there needs to be more understanding about why we don’t find modern-day feminism appealing.

Misconception 1. WE HAVEN’T BEEN “ENLIGHTENED” YET
Some feminists assume that the only reason other women are not feminists, is because we’re “stuck” in traditional thinking and our eyes have not been opened to the “empowering” views of female equality.

It’s not because we haven’t been enlightened by feminist views. It’s because we’ve heard them, and we reject them.

The reasons for disagreeing can vary by person. For some, we see that many (but not all) feminists are extremely bitter towards men. They constantly punish them for being “animals,” “predators,” and “toxic” to society (and we kinda like men, and have some good men in our lives, so we think these gals are exaggerating a bit).

Many Christian women reject modern-day feminism because it’s pushing ideals that are completely out of line with the Bible and Christianity. Some women don’t like to be associated with feminism because they feel it has become an extremely far-left movement. And me? I’m not a feminist for these reasons and more.

Misconception 2. WE DON’T BELIEVE WE’RE EQUAL TO MEN
I feel like I shouldn’t need to explain this one, but unfortunately, I do.
I have never met a single anti-feminist who believes men are superior to women. I’m sure there are a small majority of women somewhere in our society who believe men are superior. But let’s face it, there are WAAAY more women who believe we are the superior gender. It is also more socially acceptable to call women “superior”.

Truth is, most non-feminists believe in some form of equality!

I believe in equality. I believe men and women are equally important. I believe Christian men and women are equal as inheritors of the Kingdom of God. And I believe both men and women should have rights.

*** “Men and women are created for DIFFERENT purposes!” ***

The reason I (and others) clash with feminism, is because men and women are not equally the same. Some of us are not caught up in the push to blur the line between genders. Not only do we recognize the clear biological distinctions between men and women, we believe that men and women were created for different purposes. Some of us even choose to embrace *gasp* traditional gender roles.

Of course, it would be silly to believe that men are not capable of doing domestic things at home, and women are not capable of running businesses and having careers. But we believe that women were put on earth for different reasons than men. We don’t feel the need to compete with men and prove how we are equal, because we embrace how we are unique. This also allows us to appreciate men for their own uniqueness without being jealous (or thinking they’re “superior”). We respect men for who they are, and we respect ourselves for who we are.

*** “We respect men for who they are, and we respect ourselves for who we are!” ***

Misconception 3. WE DON’T BELIEVE WOMEN SHOULD HAVE RIGHTS
Most anti-feminists are thankful that we have the liberty to attain higher educations, financial opportunities, and the right to vote. And most would agree that women should have equal pay (if they are in the same positions and putting in the same level and quality of work) as men.

We don’t believe women are supposed to be doormats and dominated by all men (even if we believe in the biblical commandment of submitting to our husbands).
Then why are we not advocating for women’s rights? Because we already have legal rights. We are living in the 21st century where women have all equal opportunities and the same important legal rights that men do! This is why many of us kind of see modern-day feminism as a dead cause!

What legal “women’s’ rights” are they talking about? The right to go topless like men? Reproductive rights (AKA, abortion)? The right to free birth control?
These so-called legal “rights” are nothing like the rights of first-wave feminism in the 19th and early 20th century that focused on overturning legal obstacles to gender equality and advocating voting and property rights. And many of us believe these new causes to be immoral.

However, there are a few feminists who are not advocates of these extreme so-called “rights.” And if they have no more legal battles to face, what are they fighting for? For social and cultural rights for women . . . we get it. There will always be women who will be raped, assaulted, or unfairly treated somewhere, even in our modern society.

Sure, there are plenty of women who need to be defended, but non-feminists recognize that women are not always the victims. Sometimes men are the victims. Sometimes men have it worse than women. Who’s fighting for them?

There are some feminists who claim that they fight for men’s rights equally, and maybe some of them do, but for us non-feminists, it just wouldn’t make sense for us to post hashtags like #Believewomen, or to march for a cause exclusively for women, or to be associated with the word “feminism”, which is a word for women.
Those things don’t sound like equality to us.

Misconception 4. IT’S THE WAY WE WERE RAISED
It is true that the way someone is raised may greatly influence their views on life and personal beliefs. A woman may be more likely to accept traditional gender roles if this is what her mother modeled for her. Likewise, many feminists may have had mothers who were more career-oriented.

However, we can still choose to reject or accept what we were taught. Sometimes women who were raised by more conservative stay-at-home moms, grow up to become far-left feminists. Some women who were told by their parents that they should put off having children and chase their career, may still desire a more domestic lifestyle.

The reason many women who were raised to embrace traditional gender roles may still accept them is because they have evaluated these beliefs themselves and they have seen the positive effects that this lifestyle had on their own mothers and families.

As a non-feminist, this is true from my own personal experience. My mother stayed home to raise us five children because she felt that we needed her during our growing years. My mother had other side careers going on, but she believed in putting us children first. This gave us comfort and security and highly benefited us in other ways. I see her years of staying home and serving us as a gift and self-sacrifice.

Because of her example, I wanted to be that kind of mother to my own children. I also want to give them the best that I can offer and impact the world through my children. When I was little, growing up to be a stay-at-home wife and mother was my ultimate dream. Now I walk in that role, not because I feel pressured by my family, but because this is a desire for me and a calling on my life.

Misconception 5. WE ARE “OPPRESSED” BY TRADITIONAL ROLES
Women who reject the idea that traditional female roles are oppressive, do so because they see those roles (such as placing family before a career) as an honor and more highly fulfilling than any career. It is society that teaches us these roles are “oppressive.”

*** “Women inherently want to nurture!” ***

But this doctrine goes against our womanly instincts. Women inherently want to nurture something. If a woman says she never wants to have children, she will still usually “mother” something (maybe a cat or a dog). And many mothers who do have careers, wish instead that they could stay at home with their children.

Maybe to feminists we are “oppressed” if we serve our families, but many mothers who get to stay at home and serve our families see it as an immense blessing. This is not to say we don’t have our own ambitions and passions, but we recognize what is truly precious in life.

It is true that there will be some women who will feel like they’re missing out when family gets in the way of their careers, but this is largely because society has taught that children are burdens instead of blessings.

Non-feminists reject the idea that we are free when we serve our employers, but slaves if we serve our husbands and children.

After all, love, family, and selflessness are really what life is about.

MEADOW HALL
Facebook: Meadow Hall
Instagram: _m_e_a_d_o_w_

This article is from SILK AND HONOR, her blog that inspires women in Faith, Fashion, & Femininity. For further articles, go to: www.silkandhonor.com

Photo: Meadow with her husband, Kendall.

Guard your resting place. Don’t let anyone or any organization or spoil your resting place. Deal with every situation that spoils the rest in your home. Don’t let them fester and grow bigger. Resist all outside evil influences. Take time to create order and peace in your home. Make it what God wants it to be—a “resting place.”

In Hosea 11:11 God says that He will “settle” Israel in their homes. God loves us to be settled. The Knox translation says: “In their own home, the Lord says, I will give them rest.” Isn’t that lovely? Often, we get overwhelmed and agitated in our spirits because we are too busy running here and there. When we get into this state, God reminds us to come back home. You’ll find rest in your home, not gadding about.

This doesn’t mean that you won’t be busy in your home. You can be busy and yet at rest in your spirit. Get into the habit of living a “restfully busy” life.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Painting by Theodore Robinson (1852-1896).

“I am free from debt, depression, and disease. I am free to jump on the trampoline or have a tea party with my children. I am free to teach them right from wrong; free to teach them how to read and explore the wonders of creation with them. I am free to worship God and read His Word. I am free to work in my garden and enjoy the labor of my hands.

I am free to choose whether to be thankful or feel sorry for myself; and I am free to make that choice every day.”

You are free too. Make the right choice today.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Illustration: Brooke Smart

Did you know that when you conceive, God has visited you? What could be more awesome than a visitation of God?

Just think about it. It’s true, dear mothers. Genesis 21:1-2 says: “The Lord visited Sarah . . . for Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son.”

Again, it says in I Samuel 2:21: “And the Lord visited Hannah, so that she conceived, and bare three sons and two daughters.”

Do we really understand the awesomeness of conception?

Blessings to you today from Nancy Campbell
Painting by Robert Coombs

And you run your hand up their body and tickle them under the arm or under their chin.

~ Nancy

As you embrace this beautiful picture of a woman, you not only nurture your family, but you build a nation!

Motherhood is not weakness, it is power.

Be encouraged today, Nancy Campbell
Painting by Sandra Kuck.

“Wonder” is an emotion God has given to us, firstly, in relation to Him. He is called “Wonderful” (Isaiah 9:6). The word is “pele” and literally means, “a wonder, a marvel.” God cannot be fathomed. He is mysterious (Job 11:7-10). Judges 13:18 says His name is “secret.” God should be our greatest awe as we continually receive new glimpses and understanding of Him and His amazing creation.

Can we awake each morning, filled with wonder and expectation of what God will do and show us? Or have the stresses and burdens of life dimmed this wonder? Perhaps excessive social media and iphones etc., have blurred our brains from seeing the wonder and expectation in life. A book I am reading currently talks about a delightful clockmaker who “had never grown up and things still amazed him.”

May you and I be those who keep being amazed! Ask God to renew in you the delight of wonder. Together, with your children, daily look to understand more of God. Look for wonders and miracles in your everyday lives, not only in the big things of life, but also the tiny little things.

As you sit together at the table at supper time, ask your children to tell you about some “wonders” they noticed today.

Live in the expectation of wonder today.

Blessings from Nancy

When you are home you cook from scratch, using wholesome, non-packaged foods. You can grow a garden and eat fresh, non-sprayed vegetables. You save loads of dollars on prepared foods and eat healthier.

You save on gas and clothes.

But best of all, you are with your precious children. You are not handing them over to someone you don’t even know! You are investing in their lives. You are teaching them in the ways of God. You are “little by little, and precept by precept” training them to grow up in the character of God.

You still think you can’t do it? No, you can’t in your own strength. But when you take a step of faith and simply obey God’s ultimate plan for you, you will find He is with you all the way. You’ll be amazed at the miracles that take place! You’ll be amazed at how you survive!

Love to you from Nancy Campbell

You are still wondering how God can provide for you. Check out this link:
http://tinyurl.com/CanGodProvideforBaby

Painting by Katie Berggren

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And instead of getting bitter, we open our hearts to instruction. This is the way we mature. This is the way we grow in our walk with the Lord. If we cannot receive reproof, we may stay in the same habit, the same sin, or the same rut for years!

The other day I read this powerful Scripture in Psalm 141:5: “Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil.”

I looked up the Passion translation and was challenged when I read: “When one of your faithful ones rebukes me, I will accept it like an honor I cannot refuse. It will be healing medicine that I swallow without an offended heart.” What wonderful words to take to our hearts.

Can we receive instruction and reproof to heal us like medicine? And without being offended?

This Scripture calls reproof a healing medicine. Proverbs 15:31 calls it “the reproof of life.” It brings life to our souls.

This is how we need to live our personal lives and then teach this habit to our children. We must teach our children HOW to receive instruction and rebuke. It is natural to resist. We must show them God’s way.

I think this would be a good Scripture to pin up in your kitchen for the whole family, don’t you?

Be blessed today,

Nancy Campbell