PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 421: THE FLOURISHING MOTHER, PT 3
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 421: THE FLOURISHING MOTHER, PT 3
The flourishing mother knows who she is. Well, who is she? You'll find out in this podcast.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to the Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies, a magazine bringing strength and encouragement to families across the world.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Here we are, together again. And we are continuing our series, “The Flourishing Mother.” Last week I was telling you how we can be a watered mother. That was NO. 3. A FLORUISHING MOTHER IS A WATERED GARDEN. We found that we are watered by the Word of God. So, we’ve got to make sure that we get that word into us as much as we can. The more that we’re struggling and facing difficulties, well, usually the more water we need.
I was just talking to a dear friend last night at our prayer meeting. I had actually just given her a little gift of The Daily Light on the Daily Path. That’s a devotional book that we read. I know some of you will have it. Maybe others of you don’t. But The Daily Light on the Daily Path is a devotional of just the Word of God. It doesn’t have anybody writing about their little story, or their little something or other. It’s just the Word. It is Scriptures on a certain theme for every morning and every evening, for every day of the year.
It’s so wonderful because it’s especially helpful for, I believe, for husbands who maybe didn’t grow up taking family Bible reading. They are not familiar with it. Often, they don’t know where to read in the Bible and they don’t feel confident, so they don’t do it.
But this book takes away all the excuses, because all we have to do is go to whatever date it is. What’s our date today? The 7th of July, so there you’ll see some Scriptures for the 7th of July. In the morning (there aren’t too many Scriptures, just a few) and then some for the 7th of July in the evening— for every day of the year.
I was giving this to her because about a couple of weeks ago or so, we were blessed to have their wedding in our home. Oh, it was so wonderful! In fact, we have enjoyed three weddings in the last couple of months Two of our grandsons married. That was rather exciting. I love weddings. Every wedding is wonderful. But this was quite special because these two grandsons were grandsons with the Campbell name.
THE FAMILY NAME
Now, we’ve had lots of grandsons marry, but they didn’t have the Campbell name. Did you know that when we started having grandchildren, we waited for 15 grandchildren before we got our first grandson with the Campbell name? Can you believe it? And now, get this. We have 50 grandchildren, but we only have five out of all them with the Campbell family name. That’s pretty amazing.
It takes having a lot of children and a lot of grandchildren to keep that family name going. And the family name is important to God. In fact, we read back in the Old Testament how if the husband died, the next brother was to marry that wife, and to raise up children to her. The first child would have the name of the deceased husband for the reason, which it says: “that his name be not blotted out of Israel” (Deuteronomy 25:6). God didn’t want the name blotted out.
It is very sad that today, in so many families, the family name is being blotted out because maybe grandparents only had two children. Then the next generation, they only had two. The next, maybe only had two. Maybe they didn’t even have sons! Wow! It takes quite a lot of children.
So, we were so thrilled that now we have two grandchildren, we’ve got these two grandsons with the Campbell name. Now we are trusting and hoping that they will have babies with the Campbell name so it will carry down the generations. We had our grandsons weddings at the barn (the wedding barn) where we have lots of our wonderful weddings. We have another family one coming up this month.
But this one, this wedding we had in our home. It was a dear friend, Susan Tyler, who was marrying Patrick Smith. They weren’t young like these couples. They were both 62 years of age and never married before. We were blessed to have it at our home. We had it all decorated so beautifully. Colin married them out on our deck.
But it was very special, because Susan Tyler, did you remember or notice the name? Susan is the great-granddaughter of President Tyler, who was the 10th president of the United States. Now you think, “How can that happen?” Because here, I have, goodness, up to 40 great-grandchildren all around me here. Wow! We’re just in this fourth generation.
But here is dear Susan, a great-granddaughter of our tenth president! How can that be? Well, President John Tyler had 15 children. He had the most children of any president of the United States. His first wife had eight children and she passed away. He married again, and then they had another seven children. Susan comes at the end of that, and then her father, Lyon Tyler, who was a dear, dear friend of ours, very wonderful man. He was the grandson, and he was at the end of the line of each of his family. So then, Susan came at the end of his line, and here we are. She’s the great-granddaughter. So amazing.
But anyway, I was giving her this book and I said to her, “Susan, you're going to so love it, because Patrick is going to be able to read these Scriptures to you every day, and wash you with the water of the Word.” I mentioned that last week and the Scripture is Ephesians 5:25-27: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word.”
One of the ways that a husband shows his love for his wife is not only loving her as he loves his own body, not only loving her by giving himself for her as Jesus gave Himself for the church, but by washing her daily with the water of the Word. It is a such beautiful thing. Of course, a husband not only washes his wife with the water of the Word, but his whole family.
This is one of the greatest responsibilities of a husband and father, to wash his wife and family with the Word. I published this book, The Daily Light on the Daily Path, available through Above Rubies. You can go to the website, and you can order it if you don’t already have it. It gives you the Word. It’s already waiting for you. There’s no worry. “Where will I read? I don’t know where to read.” It’s all there! And the Scriptures are there on a theme. It’s so wonderful.
And in this book, The Daily Light on The Daily Path, I actually put this particular book together, not the Scriptures, because you can buy The Daily Light on the Daily Path on the internet. You can get it in different translations of the Bible. All generations have been getting it, back to the last 150 years. All the Scriptures, morning and evening, are the same.
I was able to pick them up from the internet, but I have given at the beginning of each month an idea for how you can conduct your family devotions, keeping the interest of your children. It’s so easy, you know, when Father is reading, for everyone to get in a little dream. I can get in a dream. I want to have my ears intently open to hear the Word, and yet still, I can get into a little dream. So, Colin always asks lots of questions to keep us on our toes.
You will read lots of ideas in this book, one at the beginning of each month of how to keep your children on their toes and participating so that they’re part of it, and they’re really with it, and they’re loving it. It’s not some boring thing, but it’s an exciting thing as they hear God speaking to them. They’re learning from the Word.
But at the beginning of the November month, I have a little story. It’s written by the guy who wrote the editorial for the book. This is a family, the Barry Smith family. Barry Smith has now passed away. He was a fellow New Zealander. He was a great teacher of the Word of God, especially on end times. Oh, goodness me! You could sit with your mouth wide open, and never ever blink your eyes hardly. He was so interesting.
Even my children, at a young age, would be sitting on the front seat for two hours, listening. He was just an amazing communicator of the Word of God. He actually passed away while he was preaching in London, but his son wrote the editorial. I asked him to do it, because I knew that Barry read The Daily Light to his children every single day.
I remember one time they had come to our home. They were speaking at our church. It was time for them to go and he was gathering all the children from here, there, and everywhere, into the car, and they were ready to go. But before they drove off, he said, “Wait, children. We’ve got to read the Word.” And he read The Daily Light to them.
They were traveling evangelists. Barry traveled throughout New Zealand, throughout the islands, other countries, speaking the Word of God, specifically on end-time events. But he never failed, no matter where he was or what he was doingto read the Word of God, morning and evening, to his children. His son writes about this in his editorial.
In the November one, let me go to it. He tells a little story his father told about this Scripture, how that we are sanctified by the washing of water by the Word. So, here’s the little story. It’s a story from New Zealand, about a little Maori boy, and his grandmother.
An elderly Maori woman in New Zealand was gardening with her grandson, putting manure around their kumara (Kumara, sweet potatoes. They are the New Zealand sweet potato, but they’re a little different to our orange sweet potato here in the States. Oh, I love New Zealand kumara. It has a different flavor than the one here. I love our sweet potatoes here in the United States, but, oh, I drool over kumara in New Zealand. Whenever I go back, I say, “Please! Cook kumara for me!”)
Anyway, she was putting manure around the kumara that she planted in a pit in in the ground. Then she said to her grandson, “Take the flax basket, the kete.” (That’s the Maori word for the flax basket, which was a basket woven out of flax). “Run to the stream, and bring me water,” she said to her grandson.
He took the flax basket, filled it at the stream, and began walking back to his nana. But when he arrived, there was no water left! It had run straight through the woven flax, and out onto the ground.
“Nana, it’s all gone,” he lamented. “Oh, go again, and bring water,” she said. Back to the stream he ran, and scooped up as much water as he possibly could. He filled the flax basket and sprinted back as quickly as he could.
Once again, to his dismay, the water had all run out of the basket! “It’s no good, Nana,” he said. “It’s all gone” She looked into the empty kete and said, “Go one more time. Scoop up as much water as you can, and run back!” Frustrated, the young boy trudged back to the stream. Thrust the kete into the water, and ran as quickly as his puffing friend could carry him.
He got back faster this time, but once again, the water had slipped through the weave, and the kete was empty.
“Nana,” he said, “It’s hopeless! This bag cannot hold the water.” His Nana looked him and smiled. “That’s right, son. But look how clean the kete is!”
So, that’s how she got him to wash her basket!
But it’s so true. Sometimes we may not think that we’re getting anything special from the Word, but don’t worry. You’re getting washed clean. That’s what the Word does. It washes you clean. And, of course, too, there will be many times you get revelation. Oh, I just love getting revelation from the Word. Well, I have to admit, I think I get new revelations every day!
I can never wait to get up and get down to my little room where I spend time with God and get into His Word because I find it so exciting. I am excited to get there because I am excited to see what revelation I am going to receive.
You know, I love this Scripture in Mark 4:24: “And Jesus said unto them, Take heed what you hear: with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.”
Now, that’s an amazing Scripture because we don’t think like that in our society today. In fact, we’re very influenced by the democrats who believe that they should take all the money from those who have it, from the rich and give it to the poor. Isn’t that what we should do?
Well, it’s not God’s plan. And there are other Scriptures in the Word where He confirms this. He does not believe in doing that. In fact, here He says: “To those who hear, I will give more. To those who don’t hear, to those who don’t have anything, I’m going to take away that which he has.” That’s hard for us to understand.
But you see, God sees the heart. He sees those who come who’re not really interested. “Oh, I have to have my Bible reading. Well, OK, let’s read for five minutes.” We don’t even know what was read. And we don’t get anything because we’re not looking. We’re not anticipating. We’re not coming in faith. We’re not excited. We’re not expecting God to speak. And so, we don’t hear.
But when you open your ears, your mind, and your heart to hear, God will give you revelation and understanding. Then, as He gives you that, He’ll give you more, because revelation is progressive. Did you know that, ladies? It’s very progressive. You get a little bit of revelation, and then God gives you a little bit more on that subject. That’s what I find is so exciting. I think, “Wow! This is amazing!” And then I will find something more.
Remember our MORE AND MORE walk? “The path of the just is as the shining light. It shineth more and more” (Proverbs 4:16). And there’s always more and more, even more and more revelation. It’s always progressive. Even through God’s Word it’s progressive. We read something. God lays down a foundation. He lays down that first principle. Yes, the first word, the first principle is the foundation. But then He gives more. And it’s progressive revelation and understanding.
All right, lovely ladies! So, we get watered through the Word, and we get watered through the Holy Spirit. I love that Scripture in Isaiah 44:3: “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.” God has promised to pour water on those who are thirsty for water, who want to be watered.
And then He goes on to say: “I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.” Oh, that’s a beautiful promise. You can take that promise and pray, “Lord God, please pour out Your Holy Spirit. Pour out Your water on my children, on my seed, that they will be watered.”
Isaiah 59:21: I love this Scripture: “As for Me, this is My covenant with them, saith the LORD; My Spirit that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth . . .” Do you notice two things there? The two things, we need them both so much.
We need the Holy Spirit and we need the Word. If we just have the Word without the anointing of the Holy Spirit, it can be dry. And if we just go after the Holy Spirit without the Word, well, we can get into deception. We must have the Holy Spirit and God’s living, eternal word of truth.
And here this Scripture says that God makes His covenant: “that I will give you My Spirit and My Word.” Yes, “And My words which I have put in thy mouth.” Not just in our minds, not only in our hearts, but in our mouths. God wants us to get the Word into our mouths, and not only into our mouths, but “This Word shall not depart out of thy mouth.”
Did you get that? This Word, this truth, this living Word “shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your children, nor out of the mouth of your children’s children, saith the LORD, from henceforth and forever.” Wow! This is actually the vision God gives us for parenting, that we will, through the power of the Holy Spirit, because we cannot do it in our strength, dear mothers. But looking to Him and asking for His anointing of the Holy Spirit upon us, the strength of the Holy Spirit and His Word, so that we will get His Word not only into the minds and hearts, but the mouths of our children. And the mouths of our grandchildren, and continuing for generations. That’s what God wants us to do. That’s His plan. Amen.
All right, lovely ladies . . .
NO. 4. THE FLOURISHING MOTHER KNOWS WHO SHE IS
Now this is the bottom line. This is so important. If we don’t truly know who we are, who God created us to be, well, we’re not going to flourish in our homes. We’ve got to know who we are, know who God created us to be.
I love that Scripture in Acts 17:28. Paul is preaching to the people in Athens in Greece. They were worshipping many, many gods. And then they had a big sign up, “To the unknown god.” They didn’t want to miss out on any gods, but they didn’t even know who this unknown God was!
So, Paul began to speak to them and he’s telling them who this unknown God was, the true God, the God of Gods, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the Savior of the world. While he was preaching, he says these words: “For in Him (that’s in Christ, in God) in Him, we live, and move, and have our being.” Do you get that, ladies? In God, we have our being. We come to know who we are and who God created us to be. We find our being.
There are many today who are so deceived that they don’t know who they are. We are living in a confused age, especially regarding the genders. God made male and female. He made no other gender, only male and only female. And He made them both so uniquely different, oh, so very different. It’s amazingly different.
If you do some study, you will be amazed at all the differences that they have found. There are over 100 differences, even in the brain, between male and female. And recent studies have shown that they cannot be duplicated. They are so different. Many times, we think, “Oh, why doesn’t my husband understand me? He just doesn’t understand.” No, he doesn’t. He’s a man. He’s a male, and he doesn’t even think like you. It’s a very good thing to remember that.
Often, I have to think, I have to remember. “Yes, he doesn’t think like me. He wasn’t even made like me. I can’t expect him to be thinking like me and thinking emotionally like me.” How ridiculous! Many wives expect their husbands to think emotionally like them. And they weren’t even created that way. You’re getting them to do something that is impossible!
Now I remember one time talking to a woman at an Above Rubies retreat. One of her parents had passed away, and, of course, that was so sad. But she was telling me how her husband just didn’t seem to have the empathy for what she was going through. She was just about to divorce him because he could not get with her in her empathy, and all that she was going through emotionally. I had to share with her, “Look, he is not you. He is not a female. He’s not going to feel it like you. He’s different. He’s a male.”
We’ve got to release our men to be male, to be who God created them to be. God created us physically different and He created us innately different. He created us mentally different and He created us emotionally different. And yet, the amazing thing is, He puts us together, and makes us one.
ONENESS IS NOT SAMENESS
These two different people, but we are greatest in our oneness, because that’s another thing we must remember, that oneness is not sameness. If you can get that revelation, dear wives and mothers, it will help you immensely in your relationship in your marriage. Oneness, yes God wants you to be one, because He makes you one flesh, the most beautiful thing in the world. He wants you to have one purpose and one vision, but in your oneness, you will not be the same. Oneness is not sameness.
God created the male to be the one who is to be the head of the home, and to lead, and to be the provider and the protector. That’s how He created man. Sadly, that is being sort of brainwashed out of our younger male generation. It is so sad. There are so many young men today who are getting into their mid-twenties, late twenties, early thirties. They’re still not married. They still have not taken up the responsibility of taking a wife.
Yes, the Bible talks about taking a wife and marrying her, and providing for her, so she can bring forth the children, the godly seed that God so longs to see (Jeremiah 29:6 and Malachi 2:15). This is God’s heart. OK, it may not be what’s happening in our society, but it’s God’s Word, and it is God’s heart and it’s God’s culture. It’s the culture He wants for this world, and we are living in it in the midst of a deceived culture.
It’s time we stopped getting influenced by it. We dare not be influenced by what society is doing all roundabout us. We must be influenced by the Word of God. We must not be influenced by all the influence of society around us. Let’s be those who know who we are and who God created us to be. He created us as mothers. He created us differently to the male.
There are only two kinds of people in this world; a man without a womb who is the male, and the man with the womb, the woman, the wombman. The womb is our most distinguishing characteristic as a woman, a wombman, which is who we are. Even the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary brings this out and calls us a “wombman.” This is who we are.
We live in a day where woman want to disown their womb, disdain their womb, make sure their womb cannot function. And yet, this is our most distinguishing characteristic. It’s even more than physical. It’s even more than where a babe is conceived and grows. It’s the very seat of our emotions. We feel from our womb. We show compassion and pity from our womb. We love from our womb.
Our womb is so powerful. Yes, even the woman, the wombman who cannot for some reason, give birth to children, or who never married she can still innately from her womb, bring forth that anointing of compassion, that beautiful nurturing compassion that God has put within her to nurture the hurting and the needy. Because motherhood, yes, the greatest revelation of motherhood is mothers having babies.
But it’s more than that. It’s the actual revelation of the mother heart of God pouring out from us, from our womb. Yes, even from mothers who cannot have babies who will pour it out to mother and nurture others who have needs.
You think of Mother Teresa. Why was she called Mother Teresa? Because she was the greatest mother. She mothered more than any of us will ever mother. She didn’t have her own children, but she mothered greatly. Mothered thousands. She was a mother. There have been many women like her, who never even married, who were the greatest mothers, because our womb is physical. But it’s also innate, transcendental, yes, and we must embrace our wombs. Embrace who we are, embrace our womb, embrace our breasts to nurture life that God gives from our wombs.
There is even the breast also. You see, the womb is a picture of God Himself. The word “womb” in the Bible—there are four different Hebrew words for “womb”, and they are not only used as a physical womb of a woman, but to describe God’s compassion, and His love. Same Hebrew words.
And then the breast. Yes, the breast is physical, but it is named after God, El Shaddai. He is El Shaddai, Almighty Shaddai. The word is translated “almighty” in the English but it’s Shaddai in the Hebrew. The root word of Shaddai is shad, the breast. It’s a revelation of God as the Breasted One who wants to pour out His love and nurture and gather us in His arms. This is God.
The woman . . . we as women, we reveal this part of God. We reveal His wombness, His compassion. We reveal from our breasts His nurture, and His nourishing. Yes, and if we don’t reveal it, who else is going to do it? Because the male can’t reveal that aspect of God. He reveals other aspects of God. And especially when we marry and have children and we embrace having children through our womb, and yes, babies at our breast, we are showing physically who God is in the spiritual. We are revealing God. We are living and walking in the image of God.
Dear ladies, we must know who we are and embrace who we are. Embrace our being. Oh yes, it’s not just doing this, doing that. No, God wants us to embrace our being and who He created us to be. This is how we glorify Him most, being who He created us to be!
There are so many young women who are so deceived. They are rejecting motherhood, rejecting their womb. They are going through life being . . . well, they’re not even being, they’re doing the opposite of who God created them to be!
Embrace your being. Embrace your womb. Embrace who God created you to be as a wombman. Oh, you think, “I don’t know of all about this.” Let me tell you. This is God. This is His heart. This is His Word. And as you begin to get this revelation and embrace it, you will walk in joy. You will walk in glory. You will be fulfilling God’s plan.
And not only for this earth, but for eternity, because motherhood is an eternal career that lasts into the eons of eternity. When we meet Jesus, when we go to this place called Heaven where we will one day be on a new earth (there will be a new earth and a new heaven), this glory place. Wow! So amazing.
We will take our own redeemed soul. We won’t take a career. We won’t take all the things that we tried to accumulate here on this earth. Everything will be left behind. All we’ll take is our eternal soul and the eternal souls of our children. Yes, and what we have put into their souls and their spirits, because we prepare now for eternity. What we have of the Word in us now will go into eternity. We will build on it, even there.
But some may go in very shallow and have much more to catch up on. We prepare now, and we prepare our children now for eternity because God’s Word is going to be in eternity. What does it say Jesus said? “Heaven and earth will pass away” because they’re going to pass away with a great noise They’re going to be burned up. There’s going to be a new heaven and a new earth (2 Peter 3:10-14). He says: “They will pass away, but my Word will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).
There will be revelations beyond revelations that we will see in the heavenly realm that we couldn’t even ever understand here on earth. But we prepare here, and we’re preparing our children here. Oh, dear precious wives and mothers, let’s be living for eternity. And we are living for eternity when we embrace who God created us to be!
Anything else is a waste of time! Left behind. Wasted! It’s only the eternal, that will count. So, let’s embrace it with all our hearts. Amen?
“Dear Father, we thank You. We thank You that You are our God. We thank You for Your precious eternal word that shows us the truth. We thank You. We are here by Your design. We are here because You planned for us to be here. You planned for our precious children, who we have brought into the world. Lord, every one of them is planned before the foundation of the world.
“Oh, we thank You, Lord, and we pray that you will just help us, Lord. I pray that You will help every wife and mother who comes to the fullness of revelation of who You created her to be, to embrace it with all her heart. Lord, to live, oh God, in You, that she will learn to know that in You, Lord God, she lives and has her being, the being that You gave her, created her to have and to fulfill the destiny that You have for her. Oh Father, all these glorious destinies to be fulfilled in all these precious mothers and children and young people listening, Lord, to this message today. In the Name of Jesus, amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
DAILY LIGHT ON THE DAILY PATH
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~ Nancy Campbell
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