Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

Isn't it true? We experience the delirious joys of motherhood and also the aches and pains of motherhood, but our lives are richer for them all. How much we would have missed out on if we hadn't been blessed with each child God has given us. And we get more than we start with. As each of our children marry and have children, we receive the blessing of grandchildren! That’s unbeatable! And then great-grandchildren. That’s even more amazing!

Dear young mothers, forget sighing and grumbling about all your frustrations. These precious days with your little ones go too quickly. My three oldest children are all over 50 years of age, but it still seems like one blink of my eye since the day they were born. As I look back on raising our children, do I regret that I didn't get involved in more activities outside the home or further my career? Oh no. I regret every moment I didn't spend with them. I never felt I had enough time to pour into them all I wanted to before they were gone and flown the nest.

Treasure every moment with the children God has given you, today.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

Picture: Back when my twins were born, 1965 (Evangeline on the left and Stephen on the right). At that time I had three children under 17 months.

Do we have enemies to fight? Yes. Many years ago, before we ever came to live in America, we made a visit to Disneyland and I watched an animated speech of President Abraham Lincoln. I have never forgotten hearing him say: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Nearly 30 years later, we face this destruction, and right now at election time.

We have enemies of abortion where Hilary Clinton and all her hordes advocate murdering babies in the womb right up until the day they are born! We fight the enemy of euthanasia. I heard yesterday that now Obama Care states that chemotherapy is not allowed for anyone over 75 years of age. They want to eliminate the aged, and yet many men are, or have been, leaders of countries in their seventies!

Do you fear terrorists from overseas? They are already here. We have terrorist sleeper cells waiting for the right time to destroy us in every city in America. Hilary wants to bring them in by the thousands. We have the enemy of homosexuality which the Creator of mankind calls an abomination. Plus corruption and deceit and more and more and more.

How are we going to fight? Do you have three children in your family? Three children and mom and dad makes five! God says that five of you can put 100 enemies to flight. Twenty families of five can cause 10,000 enemies to bite the dust.

What about families with six, seven, eight, nine and more children? Think about all these prayer warriors. Just imagine if God-fearing families would really get to prayer! Don't let the devil get you so busy and so involved in other things (yes, even GOOD things), that you don't have time to pray and cry out to God for our nation. Don't let all your prayer warriors be wasted. Even little children can learn to intercede.

Praying together is THE MOST POWERFUL THING you can do together as a family. Amen.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

We must keep praying. Praying begins with families, not the church. Are you praying earnestly as a family each day for these coming elections which are just about upon us? This country is at tipping point. These elections will determine the course of this nation and ultimately the world.

We must pray and we most vote against evil—against corruption, against the murdering of babies in the womb right up until the day they are born (which is Hilary’s agenda), against euthanasia, against the appointment of liberal Supreme Court judges (which Hilary plans to do) and it goes on and on.

We have a friend who is very close to our family and recently he arrived with a replica of the LIBERTY BELL for us. And yes, it even has the crack in it, and the Scripture written on it which is on the original in Philadelphia: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10).

Our friend knows we have Prayer Boxes on different subjects that we use each morning and evening in our family prayer times. Now we use the Liberty Bell to pray for the nation (and now the upcoming elections). Each card tells a different need to pray for our nation. We find the prayer cards help to stimulate our prayer times, especially for the children, who often run out of ideas to pray. It teaches them to stay focused and gives ideas for prayer which they often don’t have.

If you are not currently praying, can you begin today? Gather your family together at your evening meal tonight and PRAY TOGETHER, Everyone around the table. Don’t just pray. CALL out to God to save our nation. You may have to rearrange your whole schedule. We can’t even consider that sacrifice when we consider that our nation hangs in the balances.

Can you imagine what could happen if every God-fearing, Bible believing family began to gather their family together morning and evening and cry out to God for this nation. We can quote 2 Chronicles 7:14 by heart, but do we believe it or do anything about it?

Luke 18:7-8: "Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry DAY AND NIGHT unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily."

Let’s take up our responsibility as God-fearing families.

Love from Nancy Campbell

For further reference, clink on these links:
http://tinyurl.com/OurPrayerBox
http://tinyurl.com/TryDifferentPrayerBoxes
http://tinyurl.com/IdeasForPrayerCards
http://aboverubies.org/morning-evening-principle

You only have their childhood to train them and it goes by so quickly. Don’t waste this great privilege from God by giving your God-given gifts to someone else to train. God has given them to YOU to train in His ways. Embrace every moment of your high calling from God.

Love from Nancy

THEY GROW TOO FAST
I think back to the day you came
To bless me long ago;
All I knew about you was your name
And that I loved you so.

A tiny bundle, soft and sweet,
God's special gift to me.
Uniquely made to be like Him,
To live eternally!

The days and months flew quickly by;
I was told the time would pass;
But with lots of babes and work to do,
I didn't know then how fast.

I wanted more than anything
To lead you in God's ways,
To teach you that to live for Him
Was the reason you were made.

Now that you're grown and on your own,
And time to train has passed,
Though you say you saw faith in me,
I still wish I could go back,

To cherish more those fleeting times,
To show you of His love.
Though I tried to point you all to Him,
I'll never feel I did enough.

But I'll say to you what was said to me,
That as you love and train your own,
Slow down, enjoy these precious ones,
In a blink, they'll all be grown.

@2013, Val Halloran

There are so many aspects to God’s glory, but are you aware of a specific glory God has given to you? In the book of Hosea, God tells Ephraim that He will take away their glory from them because of their sin. What was this glory? Let’s read it in Hosea 9:11 RSV: “Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird – no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!”

God looks upon motherhood and the bringing forth of children as a glory. He told Ephraim they would have no more conception, no more pregnancy, and no more births. This was not only Israeli’s glory, but God’s glory.

Every new baby that is born is created in the image of God. They are born with the glory of God upon them. No wonder we experience such a special atmosphere in our homes when a new baby comes to us.

God wants to reveal His glory on the earth through our children. They are for signs and for wonders (Isaiah 8:18).

When we hold back conception; when we put a stop to the function of our womb, when we refuse pregnancy; and when we don’t want another baby, we limit the glory of God.

Let’s embrace our motherhood which is the glory of the nation. Let’s exude the glory of God.

Be blessed today, Nancy Campbell

Painting by Nora Kasten
https://www.pinterest.com/so…/norakasten-artist.blogspot.com

Blaspheme the Word of God (KJV).
Bring disrepute to the Word of God (NEB).
Bring reproach to the Word of God (AMP).
Bring shame on the Word of God (HCSB).
Discredit the Word of God (RSV).
Disgrace the Word of God (TJB, CJB).
Dishonor the Word of God (NASB).
Malign the Word of God (NIV).
Revile the Word of God (ESV).
Slander the Word of God (MLB, HCSB).
Speak evil of the Word of God (GNB).

It is not a pretty picture, is it? I’m sorry I need to write this, but I must be faithful to declare the whole truth, and not only half of it.

The word in the Greed is “blasphemo” and comes from two words:
Blapto – to hurt, and
Pheme – reputation.

Therefore, it means that when we do not walk in the beautiful things of Titus 2:4, 5 that we hurt the reputation of God’s Word.

Because there have been so few older women teaching the younger women how to love their husbands and children and how to be keepers at home, we now have a whole generation who have no understanding of God’s plan for women. They have not even seen the lifestyle before their eyes. They did not see it growing up in their own family. Many come from two-child families and were never around babies. They spent most of their lives at school and college and did not have time to learn the art of cooking and managing a home.

Many have embraced the workforce, rather than motherhood--many times living on fast food, with no time to sit together as families around a homecooked meal, enjoying interaction and family devotions together. Because of the “me first “and the “entitlement” mentality in our society today, many marriages are falling apart.

May our nation of Christians turn back to the beautiful lifestyle God ordained in the very beginning so that we will become a “good advertisement” for His Word and His plan that was devised in eternity.

Be encouraged today,

Nancy Campbell

Painting by Anna Silivonchik

I couldn’t get through on phone but emailed instead. Go to:
https://www.afa.net/…/take-action-no-christian-music-or-ch…/

Blessings from Nancy

Sound doctrine is practical living. In your home, in your kitchen, and mothering and training your children. That’s why Paul immediately follows the message of sound doctrine by telling the older women to teach the young women how to live. They are to be “teachers of good things.” The Greek word is “kalodidaskalos” and means to be a teacher of beautiful and valuable things

What are these beautiful things? You remember them. To be self-controlled, pure, to love our husbands and to be submissive to them, to love our children, to be keepers at home, and to be kind. These are all BEAUTIFUL things in the sight of God. No wonder the J. B. Phillips' translation says they are “a good advertisement for the Christian faith.”

What a privilege you have in your home today. You have the opportunity to practically live out sound doctrine. You have the blessing of doing BEAUTIFUL things all day long.

Have a BEAUTIFUL day,

Nancy Campbell

Our God is a God of life. He creates every precious new life that is conceived. He loves each new life. He has plans and destiny for each special life (Psalm 139:13-16). And these lives are eternal.

The kingdom of God is a kingdom of life. If we belong to the kingdom of God we must stand on the side of life. If we do not cringe and cry at the devastation of life in the womb in this way, we belong to the kingdom of darkness which hates life.

We must stand against the candidate, Hilary Clinton, who unashamedly promotes the murdering of babies in this way, right up until the birth of the baby. We must do everything in our power to stop her anti-life agenda.

~ Nancy Campbell

http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/linedrawings/
http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/illustrations/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6vnOaq7nWU

Do you notice that Joab encouraged his men to be strong and courageous, not just for themselves, but “FOR OUR PEOPLE, AND FOR THE CITIES OF OUR GOD”?

God is with you, dear mother. Even when you feel week in yourself, you can call on God’s strength in the battle. He is with you. He is the One who gives you courage. And He gives you courage to be strong for your family.

I believe we are in a time when we not only have to be strong for our families, but for our cities, and our nation! We must stand strong for righteousness. We must stand strong for the life of the unborn. We must be courageous to oppose all evil, even in the face of ridicule.

We must be strong at this election time to vote for righteousness. In this coming election I am not voting FOR someone as much as I am voting AGAINST! Because I belong to the kingdom of God which is a kingdom of righteousness, a kingdom of light, and a kingdom of life, I must oppose all evil and everything that seeks to destroy life. I am not warring against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers.

Therefore, I will vote against the candidate who brashly believes that babies should be aborted even one day before they are born, because they are still in the womb. I am voting against the shutting down of the Christian voice in the nation and the candidate who believes that Christians and evangelicals will need to change their thinking to all that is unbiblical and against God.

Let’s be courageous in this hour, not just for ourselves, but for your children, our children’s children, and the destiny of this nation.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

They fall in love and “eventually “get married, but have no thought of having children. That’s something in the far distant future. This is not God’s plan. The first words He spoke to the first married couple were “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth.” If a couple are not ready to embrace children, they are not ready for marriage. They are still immature and irresponsible.

Wow, that’s a statement most people won’t like today.

They think they are responsible by waiting until they have “all their ducks in a row” and are financially successfully before they could have children. But that depends whether you are depending upon yourself or upon God. That depends whether you have a humanistic worldview or a biblical worldview.

The Bible tells us that when He sends a child, that He will provide. Of course, we don’t know when God will give us a baby. It’s not a given that it will happen right away. We don’t know whether God will give us only one or two or maybe ten, but that’s His prerogative. If we walk with the Lord, we walk by faith and trust in His absolute sovereignty. It comes down to this fact: we either trust in our own resources or in God’s sovereignty and His resources which never fail.

Plus, there is nothing like the addition of children to mature a young man and woman. They grow up overnight (unless they are steeped in deception and demanding their own way rather than yielding to the will of God).

Psalm 144:12 tells us that our daughters are to be like the cornerstones of a palace. A cornerstone is the one that forms the very foundation of a building. It is the mainstay. When our daughters marry and begin establishing a home, they are the very core, heart, backbone, and bedrock of the home. If they haven’t been trained to manage a home and embrace and care for children, how will they cope? Many times they don’t.

And if we don’t have mothers as the cornerstone of their homes, how will our homes become the strength of the nation? Godly homes are the strength and stability of a nation. Marriages and homes that are fragmented and falling apart weaken the nation.

Are you raising cornerstones?

Love from Nancy Campbell

Picture: Shelby and Josiah at their wedding rehearsal. Yes, they are both always holding babies, any time you see them, at their rehearsal, and even on their wedding day.

During the bride and groom dance, Josiah’s little sister came and danced all around them and they loved it.

This is such a beautiful thing to me. And such a manly thing. So many young men today would not even have the time of day to notice a baby, especially on their wedding day. Sadly, they have been raised in a humanistic society that doesn’t embrace children. They don’t know anything about babies or raising children. They have been raised in two-child families where they have not had the privilege of little ones around them and don’t know how to relate to them.

Josiah and Shelby are a young couple. But they are ready. Josiah is ready to take on providing for his wife and a family as they come along. They are both ready to embrace family, and as soon as possible. This is true manhood. This is God’s plan from the very beginning of time. He didn’t intend men to amble along in their single estate for years and years. He purposes for men to get married, take on their manly responsibility, and embrace children.

Let’s raise sons who are real men.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Picture: Josiah cuddling Ezzie (Rashida’s baby) on his wedding day.

We need the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit to touch our lips each morning. Just like Isaiah when he saw the LORD and exclaimed, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.” Then the seraphim took a coal from the altar and laid it on his mouth and said, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged” (Isaiah 6).

Let’s pray: “Dear Father God, please touch my lips with your holy fire today and heal them from all perverseness. I want to be a healing tongue in my home today to my husband and to my children. Amen.”

All God’s blessings,

Nancy Campbell

Another set of twins are Beauty and Holiness. Holiness is beautiful and beauty should be clothed with holiness. In fact, most times these twins are mentioned in the context of clothing. Psalm 92:2 says: “Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.” It actually refers to the holy garments the priests wore when they worshipped and served the Lord. And also when they went out to battle (Psalm 110:3; 2 Chronicles 20:11; and Revelation 1:14).

God is a God of holiness and beauty. When He gave the design of the clothes for the high priest, God stated had to be made for “glory and for beauty” (Exodus 28:2).

It’s rather interesting that it refers to garments. God wants His people to dress beautifully because He loves beauty, but He also wants them to be holy. Remember, they are twins! Inseparable.

Why then do some women like to wear (sometimes even to church) low cut and short dresses? What message do they want to portray? It’s certainly not one of holiness, or even of beauty. We need to be reminded of who we are. We are called “The people of thy holiness” (Isaiah 63:18). We are called “The Holy People” (Isaiah 62:12). We are called “The holy seed” (Ezra 9:2). We are called “a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9).

God’s temple was called the “holy and beautiful house” (Isaiah 64:11). You are now the temple of the Lord. You are His dwelling place and He wants you to be a holy and beautiful house for Him.

Let’s dress in a holy and beautiful manner.

Blessings to you today,

Nancy Campbell

Be a joyful servant today.

Love from Nancy Campbell

My daughter, Evangeline was sharing with us on Sunday how God challenged her about this. Her husband has been redoing their kitchen and renewing all the plumbing in their house. With ten children she has had no stove and no water for two and a half months! Can you be filled with joy in the midst of this? Not in the natural, but yes, as you live in the presence of the Lord.

If we have no joy, or only a tiny bit of joy, it’s because we live in the flesh. We are fixed on our problems instead. Dear mother, fix your eyes on the Lord today. Live in His presence, for it is an absolute face that in His presence is FULLNESS OF JOY.

Let’s look at some other translations:

NET: “I EXPERIENCE ABSOLUTE JOY in your presence.
CJB: “In your presence is UNBOUNDED JOY.”
CEB: “In your presence is TOTAL CELEBRATION.”
TLV: “ABUNDANCE OF JOYS are in your presence.”

It’s only in His presence. Jesus is filled with joy above everyone else and He lives in you (Hebrews 1:9)!

May you have a joy-filled day, Nancy Campbell

Picture: Evangeline on her recent vacation. She had just kayaked about six miles catching fish. Yes, this is on vacation, but she’s just the same at home with no stove and no water! She makes every day an adventure.

Therefore, we must vigilantly guard our heart. We cannot be lenient. We must take strict measures to bring “every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

The Complete Jewish Bible says: “Above everything else, guard your heart for it is the source of life’s consequences.” The Hebrew means “the outgoings of life.”

As mothers, we cannot afford to let our hearts run away with us. We must keep pure hearts before the Lord. If we hold resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, or just stay miserable towards our husband or any other person, it not only destroys our own soul, but affects each one of our children.

You cannot hide the attitude of your heart. It eventually affects the atmosphere of your home and the hearts of your children for good or for evil.

We guard our hearts, not only for our own sake but the for the sake of our children, children’s children, and beyond.

God bless you and your family today,

Nancy Campbell