Dear mother, if Jesus Christ dwells in your heart, in the midst of all your challenges and the things that tend to send you crazy, you can live in victory and patience and joy. You are an overcomer in Christ.
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Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
Through the weekly and daily devotionals you can be constantly encouraged in your great role of parenting, the highest career in the nation. You can also stay updated on what's happening with the Above Rubies ministry.
Yes, I was shocked as I recently read a commentary on 1 Timothy 2:15 that speaks of women being saved and delivered through embracing the lifestyle of motherhood. This commentary stated: “This deliverance was from some of the devastating effects of the ROLE REVERSAL that took place in Eden. The idea of childbearing, then is a metonymy of part for the whole that encompasses the woman’s submission again to the leadership of the man . . . “
I must confess that I had never thought of the sin in the Garden of Eden as a role reversal. It arrested me. But it is true. This was the first sin! Eve took charge! She did not discuss with Adam about the idea of taking the fruit or talk about it with him. She made the decision without him. Adam himself became a wimp and followed her instead of taking his leadership.
The devil continues to challenge and tempt every married couple the same way. He wants us to role reverse—in our marriage relationship and in the role God has given to us as as women and mothers. Satan hates every ordinance and plan of God and continually tries to subvert them and entice us in the opposite direction.
We must guard against it. 1 Peter 5:8 says: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith.”
This doesn’t mean that we can’t make a decision without talking to our husbands. God has given to women the management of their homes. We make decisions constantly in managing our homes and dealing with and teaching our children. However, in big decisions, we should not take charge without first checking with our husbands. God has placed them as the head of the home. It’s God’s plan and His plan is always best.
When we keep to God’s plan, we’ll have harmony and His blessings.
God be with you today,
Nancy Campbell
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Do we allow our emotions and attitudes to be dictated by our circumstances? That’s so easy to let happen, isn’t it?Habakkuk 3:17, 18 (NLT) is always such a challenge to me: “EVEN THOUGH the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are grapes on the vines; EVEN THOUGH the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; EVEN THOUGH the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!”
The situation was total devastation and destruction. This guy had nothing left but God Himself. And yet he is still rejoicing.
What about us?
Have you been up all night with the baby? And you’re feeling lousy, tired, and overwhelmed? Can you still say, “Even though . . . God is good. I will rejoice.”
You wonder how on earth you can pay next month’s rent! “Even though . . . I will rejoice in the Lord. I know that God will not fail us.”
You are burdened with a sick parent or child. “Even though . . . I will rejoice. I will trust my God.”
Your house is so small and you long for more room for the children. “Even though . . . I know God is with us and we are blessed.”
I think it all comes back to putting our trust in God and knowing that He is a God who cannot fail. Let’s trust Him more.
Let’s confess the right confession. Let’s be those who can say “Even though . . . “
The Lord abundantly bless you today,
Nancy Campbell
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This is what makes strong homes and families and consequently strong nations.
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Yesterday we talked about what to call a baby growing in the womb. We discovered that God’s Word often uses the phrase “with child.”There is another word that God uses. It’s actually a Hebrew word but it reveals great truth. We know that life begins at conception, but it is amazing to understand that God sees life even before it is conceived. Did you know that He uses the same word for the word sperm as He does to describe people? Let’s look at it, shall we?
The Hebrew word for sperm is “zera” and it is the same word that is used to describe people at different stages of life.
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 with him: His sons, and his son’s sons with him, his daughters, and his son’s daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.” 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 out on the blessings of possessing the land.
Because Phinehas was zealous for the Lord and stood against the adultery that was happening amongst the people at that time, 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 contracepted 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! Wow, God’s understanding is far beyond ours, isn’t it?
My daughter, Serene and I were talking about life on one of my podcasts. Solly (her one-year-old) at the time, 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! 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 dreadful to deprive someone of eternal glory.
Our minds are so puny. I constantly ask God to open my mind to think His thoughts. To 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!
Oh, let’s begin to think like God thinks. If we belong to the kingdom of God, let’s be on His side. God is a God of life, and His kingdom is a kingdom of life.
Blessings and love from Nancy Campbell
Picture: Janelle Bass and her precious children.
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What word do you use to describe your pregnancy? We usually say, “I’m pregnant.” Some say, “I’m expecting.” You sometimes hear, “I’m in the family way” which is a phrase dating back to the 17th century. Polish words for pregnant can mean “with hope” or “blessed state.”
I remember reading about a mother who was asked to get involved in a church project, but she answered, “Sorry, I am full-time gestating.” Now, there’s a good excuse for you. It is true. You couldn’t be doing anything more important than growing a child in your womb, an eternal soul that will live forever.
There are other words, some negative and some slang. We don’t want to use them. I think we should use the most beautiful words possible to describe the awesome wonder of God creating a child in the womb, don’t you?
The Bible tells it plainly and truthfully. It states that the woman is “with child.” Ecclesiastes 11:5 talks about “how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child.” The Hebrew for “with child” in this passage is male and means “full, filling, fullness.” It is the picture of the womb filled with a growing child. If this phrase was more popular, society would become aware of the truth that the baby is not a blob of tissue, but an actual human being growing and filling the womb—a human being that has the same DNA it will have when he or she is 70 years of age or more.
The Hebrew word hareh is also translated “with child.” This word is used for conception as well as the child growing in the womb. It’s the language of angels. When the angel of the Lord came to Hagar he said, “Behold thou art with child and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael” (Genesis 16:11).
In Genesis 21:2 the same word is used when it says: “Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age.” The Bible makes it clear that life begins at conception. This word is used for the moment of conception, the child growing in the womb, when the baby is “great” and ready to be born, and then coming into the world. A similar word, harah, is also used for both conception and being “with child.”
Here’s another thought-provoking point. Exodus 21:22 says: “If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her . . .” “With child” is hareh. But what is the word for fruit? It is the Hebrew word yeled which means, “something born, a child, a young man.” That’s talking about a person who is alive and walking around. But God uses that word for the baby in the womb, confirming that the babe in the womb is just as much the person they will be when they are a child or even older.
Let’s go to the New Testament. Jesus speaks of Mary being “with child” when Jesus, the Son of God was growing in her womb (Matthew 1:18, 23 and Luke 1:31). It is the Greek word “brephos” and is used five other times such as2 Timothy 3:15.
Don’t you think it is time we understood God’s truth rather than listening to human reasoning?
By the way, what words do you use to tell people you are pregnant?
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Other hareh (“with child”) references: Genesis 38:24, 25; Exodus 21;22; Judges 13:5, 7; 1 Samuel 4;19; 2 Samuel 11:5; Isaiah 7:14; 26:7; Jeremiah 20:17; 31:8; Amos 1;13; and 2 Kings 8:12.
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We all know that parenting takes consistency, hard work, training, and constant guiding and guarding. And yet it’s FUN. We make our homelife what we want to be. A place of rest, joy, happiness, contentment, and productivity. Or a place of chaos and tension.Especially as mothers in the home, we determine what our home atmosphere will be like. It all depends on our vision, our attitude, and our purpose to make it happen.
Some parents do easy parenting. Others are in for the long haul of earnest parenting!
It’s easy to get lax and want to make our children happy, especially for the moment. But seeking to make our children happy doesn’t always make a happy household. Of course, we want our children to be happy, but we also have a higher goal. We want them to be holy. This certainly doesn’t happen automatically. We must train them daily to be obedient, to do what is right, and prepare them to be responsible, hardworking, diligent people. We are preparing them for their future. We are preparing them to enjoy a good marriage.
Our ultimate aim is not just happiness for the moment, but happiness for their future!
When we continually give into our children to give them anything they want when they want it may make them happy for the moment. But it produces children with an entitlement mentality. It produces children who easily get into a mood or have a fit because they don’t get what they want immediately. I am sure you never allow pouting or moods in your household!
I don’t believe children should expect something every time they go to the supermarket or you are out shopping. What does this do? It teaches them that they can have whatever fancies them. This becomes a habit. This produces adults who are impulse buyers who buy things because they see them but don’t really need them. They don’t learn to conserve. They don’t learn discipline. It does not prepare them for marriage or learning to manage a home with frugalness.
Sometimes we discipline our children for disobedience and other times we can’t be bothered. We are not consistent, so our children don’t think it is important. But if we don’t train them to obey us and they only obey when we shout and yell after the thirteenth time of telling them, we are vacating our responsibility as a parent. And making a chaotic atmosphere in our homes.
Proverbs 29:17: “Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.”
Don’t give into the easy way out. Be earnest. Be consistent. Train your children to the behavior you want in your home. THEN you will enjoy rest, peace, joy, and happiness.
Love from Nancy Campbell
Painting: LovettaReyesCairoArt
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I think it takes discipline, integrity, and the fear of God to speak the absolute truth. We need to practice it.
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Yesterday, I posted the foundations we need to build again in our society. Did you read them all? If not, check them out again under WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR OUR CHILDREN? I listed five points, but I want to post the last point again today in case you didn’t get to the end.It truly amazes me that as we see what is happening to our society and what lies ahead for our future generations that many families are carrying on with their lives as if nothing disastrous is happening.
As we put down our stakes to strengthen our families, we must also pray. There is nothing more powerful than prayer. This is why the devil seeks to keep us from the place of prayer. He gets us distracted by our busy lives, so we don’t make time to gather our families, morning and evening, to pray together.
Can you imagine what could happen if every God-fearing family began to pray together each day for this nation? God has promised to heal our land if we will humble ourselves and pray.
2 Chronicles 7:14 is worth quoting again: “If my people, which are called by my name,
shall HUMBLE THEMSELVES,
and PRAY
and SEEK MY FACE,
and TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS;
then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
I am challenged by Jeremiah 10:25: “Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the FAMILIES that call not on thy name.” Wow. This Scripture says that if we are not a family who calls upon the name of the Lord, we might as well be a heathen family.
J. R. Miller states: “Christ must be our guest if our home is to be a fit place either for our children or for ourselves. If there is no sincere prayer in it, it is not a true home at all. It is only a heathen lodging-place!”
Dear mothers, I know your lives are so busy. Maybe you are like me. I can never fit in everything that is on my list for the day. I rarely get through a quarter of it! But I put a priority on our times for prayer and Bible Reading. I make those times happen, morning and evening, and everything else has to fit around them. It doesn’t matter if other things don’t get done. But it does matter if we miss our times of meeting with God each day. They are more important than anything else. I make them happen.
The devil hates it if you pray. He hates it even more when you gather your family to pray. That is even more powerful where “two or three” or five or six or ten or twelve are gathered together in unity in His name. Don’t let the devil have his way in your home. Give God the preeminence.
Praying families are nation changing families!
Praying families are world changing families.
You can help turn this nation back to God as you pray. And encourage other families to pray. Let’s become a nation of praying families. Amen?
Bless you today,
Nancy Campbell
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Dear mothers, we are the watchdogs of our families. We are the preserver of life, and we have the responsibility to influence the nation for the sake of our children and coming generations.
This nation is progressing further and further, day by day, into the pit of deception and destruction. Our schools are now training grounds for extreme socialism. Even five and six year have textbooks to steer them towards gender change.
Did you know that prominent Democrat leaders have presented a 28-page document to the Biden White House urging him to use “executive action” to execute the following:
1. Crack down on churches and ministries,
2. Remove Christians from public office,
3. Deny free speech and religious liberty to Christians,
4. Remove IN GOD WE TRUST from US currency,
5. Fully fund “comprehensive” sex education to include encouraging children, even five and six-year-olds, to undergo gender transition.
We cannot keep our heads in the sand and carry on as usual. We must answer the question in Psalm 11:3: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
Here are some things I believe we should do. Please comment if you think of others:
1. STRENGTHEN OUR FAMILIES
I believe the greatest way we strengthen the nation is to strengthen our families. Strong, godly families make a strong nation.
2. HOMESCHOOL OUR CHILDREN
I believe that we should seek to do this if at all possible. Schools are no longer what we thought them to be. They plan to brainwash our children into communism and alternative lifestyles. We must consistently and diligently teach our children a biblical world view which they will be taught in the public school. They will instead be brainwashed with a humanist world view.
A biblical world view is not only about salvation. It is what God thinks about every subject in the universe. We as mothers must be searchers of God’s Word to know His mind and His heart on all areas of life and penetrate His word into our children’s minds, hearts, and mouths. We cannot do this unless we are in the home constantly teaching them (Deuteronomy 6:6-8).
We must also teach them the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Our first Supreme Court Chief Justice, John Jay said these words: “Every member of the State ought diligently to read and to study the constitution of his country and teach the rising generation to be free. By knowing their rights, they will sooner perceive when they are violated, and be the better prepare to defend and assert them.”
3. STAND UP FOR TRUTH
The rank and file are continually fed a diet of deception from the media, the education system, and society in general. We are now a humanist society. But in the midst of this deception we must stand up for truth. We must never compromise. We must not keep quiet. When a member of our family or a friend says something that is not truth, don’t let it go. Ask questions to see why they are making that statement. Talk about it. Drop seeds of truth.
Of course, we can’t do this if we don’t know the truth. We must search for truth, to get to know the truth, and then speak and defend the truth. Jesus said: “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should BEAR WITNESS UNTO THE TRUTH.” (John 18:37).
4. NEVER COMPROMISE
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (author of many books including “The Gulag Archipelago” stated: “The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. ONE WORD OF TRUTH OUTWEIGHTS THE WORLD.”
What people are on the top of the list who will “have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone”? It is the “cowards.”
5. ABOVE ALL, PRAY!
This is my final point, but it should really be the first point. There is nothing more powerful than prayer. This is why the devil seeks to keep us from the place of prayer. He gets us distracted by our busy lives, so we don’t make time to gather our families, morning and evening, to pray together. Just imagine if every God-fearing family began to pray together each day for this nation. God has promised to heal our land if we will humble ourselves and pray (2 Chronicles 7:14).
I am challenged by Jeremiah 10:25: “Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and UPON THE FMAILIES that call not on thy name.” Wow. This Scripture says that if we are not a family who calls upon the name of the Lord, we might as well be a heathen family.
J. R. Miller states “Christ must be our guest if our home is to be a fit place either for our children or for ourselves. If there is no sincere prayer in it, it is not a true home at all. It is only a heathen lodging-place!”
Dear mothers, we have the opportunity, as we minister to our families, to build a godly nation again.
Be blessed,
Nancy Campbell
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Jesus came the first time as the Lamb of God to sacrifice His life for our sins. He is coming the second time as the Lion of the tribe of Judah to judge the the world and punish all wickedness.Will you be ready for His coming?
Repost from Rosa.
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“Out of the mouth of babes and suckling hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger” (Psalm 8:2).This Scripture causes me to think of the writing of Frank Boreham. The last paragraph is one of my favorite quotes:
"A century ago, men were following, with bated breath, the march of Napoleon, and waiting with feverish impatience for the latest news of the wars. And all the while, in their own homes, babies were being born. But who could think about babies? Everybody was thinking about battles.
"In one year, lying midway between Trafalgar and Waterloo, there stole into the world a host of heroes! During that one year, 1809, Gladstone was born at Liverpool; Alfred Tennyson was born at the Somersby rectory, and Oliver Wendell Holmes made his first appearance at Massachusetts. On the very self-same day of that self same year Abraham Lincoln drew his first breath at Old Kentucky. Music was enriched by the advent of Frederic Chopin at Warsaw, and of Felix Mendelssohn at Hamburg . . . Samuel Morley, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Francis Kemple. But nobody thought of babies. Everybody was thinking of battles.
Yet viewing that age in the truer perspective which the distance of a hundred years enables us to command, we may well ask ourselves, ‘Which of the battles of 1809 mattered more than the babies of 1809?’
We fancy that God can only manage His world by big battalions abroad, when all the while He is doing it by beautiful babies. When a wrong wants righting, or a work wants doing, 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 at Bethlehem.”
Frank W. Boreham (Mountains in the Mist - published 1914)
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God has given a specific mandate to older women to teach and encourage the younger women in the ways of motherhood and the home. But where are the older women who are doing this?I am always amazed when a new Above Rubies magazine goes out and I begin to get feedback from our readers. Often, I get emails from older women thanking me for how Above Rubies has encouraged them all through their child-bearing years of raising their families. But now their children have grown, and they say they no longer need the magazine!
I don’t quite get it! I am a great-grandmother and I still need it! Yes, I am inspired as I put the magazine together and gather all the wonderful testimonies from wives and mothers. It keeps me on the right track of where God wants me to be as a woman.
You see, because my children have grown (most of our children are now grandparents themselves) I haven’t stopped being a mother. We are mothers until the day we meet Jesus. This is who God created us to be. Our children leave the nest, but we keep mothering—grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and all the needy and hurting people around us. This world is crying out for the nurturing heart of mothers.
But more than that. We are commanded to teach the young mothers. I think of these older mothers who say they no longer need the magazines. What about their daughters and daughters-in-law? Are they not passing the message of encouragement on to them? What about all the young women in their church and in their lives? Are they not passing in the magazine to them and encouraging them in their divine calling of motherhood and homemaking?
What are they doing? Are they moving into a different lifestyle? How can we teach the young women if we are doing something different ourselves. We teach mainly by example! The older women must be held responsible for what the younger women are doing. It is a devastating fact (and I say “devastating” because it is totally unbiblical) that most of the young mothers in the church today are out at work and leaving their children in daycare. This is the opposite of God’s word. It is the opposite of what God tells the older women to teach the younger women.
In fact (now don’t throw stones because I am not the author of these words but God Himself), if the older women are not teaching this truth they are blaspheming the Word of God (Titus 2:5). Why does God use such powerful words? Because if we as older women are living a different lifestyle or we are not teaching the lifestyle of mothers being the “keepers of the home” it is showing a completely different way than what God’s word teaches, and therefore it blasphemes His word!
Dear older mothers, where are this young generation of mothers? Mostly out in the work force. They hardly know anything of the glory of motherhood. They have been brainwashed throughout their lives, in the public school, and through the media, that they are wasting their lives if they stay home with their children. They have been programmed with lies! And the fruit is the breakdown of marriage and family life and the continual weakening of the nation.
It's time for an army of older women to arise into the calling God has for them and call the young mothers back to the home. It is strong marriages and strong families that will save this nation.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Truly our God is a God of patience, longsuffering, tender mercy, and great compassion. He has all power to zap all evil people and yet He waits with patience. He suffers the defiance and rebellion of the very creatures He created.I was reading the words of David again this morning, the words he shouted to Goliath, the Philistine. This Philistine had been taunting the people of God for weeks but there was not one person what was brave enough to stand up against this giant until David turned up on the scene. Can I remind you of his words?
1 Samuel 17:45-47: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in THE NAME OF THE LORD OF HOSTS, THE GOD OF THE ARMIES OF ISRAEL, WHOM YOU HAVE DEFIED. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.”
These were spoken by a young 17-year-old boy, a young man who knew His God.
We are facing a similar war today. Do we realize that we are living in a nation that defies God? They have made same-sex marriage a law! That is absolute DEFIANCE against God who created marriage between one male and one female. We know that it is inspired by Satan who hates everything that God has designed and seeks to oppose it.
Now we have blatant rejection of male and female and an all-out-front to urge people to change to the opposite gender, to become the opposite of who God created them to be. They are DEFYING God just as Goliath was defying God.
It’s time for those with the spirit of David, men and women, young and old, to rise up and challenge those who defy God and His absolute truth. I read the other day that 99 percent of Americans should not have to adjust their morals to accommodate one percent of the population! Many public schools are now using two books, HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES and MY PRINCESS BOY for five and six-year-olds to encourage them to change their gender. This is again defiance against God.
Dear mother, make sure you are on the side of truth. The latest statistics published by the Christian Post state that “Just 2 percent of parents with children under 13 years were found to have a biblical worldview.” How will the next generation have a biblical worldview if their parents don’t?
It's time to rise up and speak out boldly. We must know the truth, speak the truth, and stand for the truth. We must never compromise. God is truth and anything that counteracts His word is false! We must challenge everything that defies God’s truth.
Romans 3:4: “Let God be true, but every man a liar.”
Let’s wave our banners for the truth,
Nancy Campbell
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We all want to be blessed by the Lord, don’t we? Did you know that God’s first and greatest blessing to you as a mother is to bless you with the fruit of your womb? There is no greater blessing that can come to you (apart from your salvation). Never despise or hold back from receiving this incredible and eternal blessing.
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It keeps you depressed and your whole family with you!
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Yes, it’s time to shine your light. Teaching God’s truth to your children at home and shining His light wherever you go. When you go shopping with your children, put a smile on your face and let the world see your joy in motherhood. Never be ashamed to show that you are a full time mother! You are showing to a deceived world God’s truth in living form.
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Gathering your family together daily to read God’s Word, Pray and worship God.Why Is it important? Because…
1. It brings the presence of God into your home (Exodus 20:24).
2. It strengthens your marriage and family ties (Joshua 1:8 and Isaiah 59:21).
3. It is the greatest way to make sure your children are daily filled with God’s Word (Colossians 3:6). It is only the truth of God’s Word that fortifies them and saves them from the deceptions of our humanistic society.
4. It gives opportunity to discuss the Scriptures and divine truth together. It is an opportunity for the children to ask questions and for we as parents to ask the children questions.
5. It is the best way to make sure we pray together as a family—for one another, for our nation, for Israel, for the nations of the world, and for all those in need (2 Chronicles 7:14 and 1 Timothy 2:1-3).
6. It is imperative for beginning each new day by honoring and worshipping God as a family and to sit and listen to Him speak to us. We should gather as a family morning and evening (92:1-2).
7. It is essential for the blessing of the nation! When families no longer take time to pray and read God’s Word together, the family weakens. And when the family weakens, the nation weakens (Psalm 1:1-3 and Jeremiah 10:25).
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Sitting down to a meal is far more than eating food. Eating not only feeds a hungry tummy but includes all of the five senses—sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Can I encourage you to think about this as you prepare meals for your family? It will bring such blessing to your children.SIGHT
To dish up a meal on an unset table is, I think, a sacrilege. I don’t even like to eat at a naked table (without a tablecloth). It is even worse to prepare a meal and let everyone eat it at different times and wherever they want or in front of the TV.
You can spend time preparing a lovely meal but if it doesn't minister to the sight, it doesn't have a great appeal. On the other hand, you can sit down to a humble meal, placed on a table that is prepared with dignity and love and it can be a spiritual experience. Proverbs 9:1-2 tells us that the wise woman PREPARES her table.
Even young children are aware of the atmosphere when they sit up to a delightfully prepared table. Perhaps you are a mother of young children, and you can't imagine one more task during the busy supper time. It takes all your effort to cook a meal without the extra work of setting a table!
But obstacles are only in our mind. It doesn't take long, and you can teach young children how to set a table properly. It is a basic task for them to learn and they will love to do it. You can make it a competition, as they each have their turn to see who can set it the most attractively.
It adds a touch of class and delight to use a tablecloth. If you haven't time for washing tablecloths, purchase some clear plastic which you can place over a pretty tablecloth, or purchase some attractive plastic cloths that you can wipe down after the meal. Add a candle, some flowers (even if they are wild flowers or weeds that your children find around), or a centerpiece to your table.
Encourage your children to set the table beautifully, not haphazardly. It will make all the difference to your meal.
Did you know that we taste with the eyes as well as the mouth? Make your food look attractive, too. Arrange it appealingly on the table in serving dishes or on individual plates if you do it this way.
HEARING
If you do happen to have TV in your home, make sure you turn it off during mealtime. Put on lovely peaceful music which you can have quietly playing in the background. Create a soothing atmosphere.
TOUCH
Hold hands together as you give thanks to God at the beginning of the meal. Create an atmosphere of togetherness and love.
SMELL
This is a very important part of each meal. Use herbs and spices to enhance your food. It will not only taste better but will fill your home with tantalizing aromas. There is nothing like smelling the food that is cooking for supper. It really makes home feel like "home, sweet home."
Did you know that God loves aromas? The meat that burned upon the altar was a "sweet smelling savour" to God (e.g. Genesis 8:21; Exodus 29:18, 25, 41; Leviticus 8:21; and 2 Chronicles 13:11).
TASTE
We wouldn't want to eat food if we couldn't delight in the flavor, would we? Make your food palatable and tasty. Be creative and make different kinds of tastes. Delight in the flavors of the foods God has created. We like to ooh and aah over the tastes of food in our family. I think God is happy about that. He likes us to appreciate what He has created.
You can also train your children's taste buds from a young age. Don't give them sweet junk foods when they are young, and they won't clamor for them when they are older. Feed them healthy food rather than junk food and that's the kind of food they'll enjoy. Don't even bring junk food into your home and you won't have trouble trying to stop your children eating it.
As you prepare your meal each evening, think about how you can impact the five senses of your husband and children. They will take these memories with them for life.
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