Motherhood is the most multi-tasking career in the universe! It is not inferior but an exalted career. Rise up into your full anointing, dear mother, and fulfill your great career to the utmost!
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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.
It’s a serious thing when we despise what God gives to us, don’t you think?
I read Jeremiah 2:7 the other day: “I brought you into a bountiful country, to eat its fruit and its goodness. But when you entered, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.”
This is talking about the children of Israel coming into the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey. Alas, they did not appreciate what God had given them and defiled the land. I believe we can do the same with the land of motherhood God has given to us. When God blesses us with children, He bring us into the glorious land of motherhood that He intends for us.
Sadly many mothers do not like this land of motherhood. They think it is inferior to what they could be doing and give their children to others to care for while they pursue the land of their career. They do not get to eat of the “fruit and the goodness,” the joy and the glory of this land. Many grumble and groan and speak negatively about motherhood. What are you confessing each day?
But we dare not do this lightly. God has given to us this gift of motherhood. He planned it. He designed it. He created our female bodies for the specific purpose of motherhood. It is ultimately God’s land. Did you notice God calls it “My land” and “My heritage”? When we despise and spurn it, we defile this beautiful gift. We even turn it into an “abomination.” Yes, that is the word God uses.
Motherhood is the glory of women. Isn’t it amazing that many “change their glory for that which doth not profit” (Jeremiah 2:1). Many do this in ignorance because the devil, who knows the power of motherhood, has instituted a big campaign to brainwash women against God’s ultimate plan for them.
Let’s not be deceived but live in the fulness of all that God has planned for us.
Have a blessed day,
Nancy Campbell
Painting by Polina Luchanova, Russia
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Are you speaking words and doing things to make your marriage stronger and more beautiful today? Marriage is a building program. You must keep building every day (Proverbs 14:1).
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Dear mother, you are the greatest teacher and influencer your children will ever have. Use your God-given anointing to teach your children the ways and statutes of God.
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The other day my sister and I were reminiscing of growing up together. We remembered how all the children on our street would converge on to our front lawn and play together. After a big conflab about their next venture, they'd soar into action.
My father possessed a large box of boxing gloves, and the neighborhood boys loved to have boxing matches (or wrestling matches). This often culminated with boys going home with black eyes and bleeding noses! Did anyone worry about it? No. Did concerned parents call up and complain? No. The boys were back the next day for another round!
Now we live in a different world. Many parents today would be calling the CPS to complain about these parents allowing their boys to be so rough, coming home with torn clothes and bleeding faces! But these boys loved every minute of it. They were boys! And the parents thought nothing of it! They wanted their boys to be boys. To grow up to be men who could face the struggles of life and know how to take a blow!
What a life these children had. On our back paddock they'd set up racing tracks. They wrecked every bicycle in the neighborhood. Each time my parents bought me a bicycle it would be in pieces in two weeks by the time my brother had finished with it. Our brother ended up riding a 14' one wheel bike! They built underground tunnels that went for hundreds and hundreds of yards.
Psalm 144:12 speaks of our "sons as plants, becoming great in their youth." We don't keep them like little boys. We train them to become mature and grow into manhood even in their youth.
Of course, they won't be playing all the time. They are also learning how to work hard, how to finish a job, and take responsibility.
Make opportunities for your boys to be boys.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Where is your mind today? Dwelling in the past? Or even in the present as you mull over the difficulties you face? To dwell in the past or the present can be depressing unless you are doing it with joy and thankfulness.Did you know that God wants us to LOOK AHEAD! To that which is BEFORE! Paul confessed in Philippians 3:13, 14: "This ONE THING I DO, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Things may look pretty bleak at the moment. But it's not the end of the world. God has got so much more ahead for you. Look ahead to what God has. Forget the past and keep pressing forward to the prize.
Recently in our Family Devotions my husband talked about how we can easily get stuck in an eddy. An eddy is where some flowing water gets sidetracked and stuck to the side of a river. Instead of flowing with the current it goes around and around in circles going nowhere.
If we don't keep our eyes on what is ahead, we can be sucked into an eddy. Instead of looking up, keeping our eyes upon Jesus, and the hope of what is before, we can stay in a rut (or an eddy) going over and over our problems and never getting anywhere. Remember, that's what happened to the children of Israel in the wilderness. Because they didn't believe God was bigger than their enemies, they ended up going around in circles in the wilderness for 40 years!
We'll never find an answer to our problems while we keep worrying about them. We'll only know the way out when we look to the Lord and trust Him.
When our eyes are upon Him, He can show us the way He wants us to go. And it will always be FORWARD. GOING AHEAD. PRESSING ON TOWARD THE MARK.
Keep out of eddies and keep running your race. It's not the end yet!
Love from Nancy Campbell
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Your marriage is your first priority. Treasure it and guard it well.
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Dear mothers, you are doing a GOOD WORK. This is confirmed in 1Timothy 5:10 and Titus 2:3-5. I know that sometimes you feel as though you are hardly making it, that you are not accomplishing much, and it's all so hard. Yes, it is hard in your own strength, but God does not intend you to do this great work on your own. He stands behind you with all His power. He waits to give you His wisdom. He wants to refresh you and strengthen you as you trust Him.Although it is in the chapter about freely giving (isn't motherhood all about giving?), 2 Corinthians 9:8 is a wonderful promise to you as mothers: "And God is able to make ALL grace abound toward you; that ye, ALWAYS having ALL sufficiency in ALL things, may abound to EVERY good work." ALL is repeated three times in this Scripture. God does not half enable you. He does not give you half enough strength and sufficiency to mother your children. He gives you ALL that you need!
Let’s notice some more words in this Scripture:
"And GOD IS ABLE to make all grace ABOUND toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may ABOUND to every GOOD WORK." The word "abound" is perisseuo in the Greek and means "more than abundant, more than you need." It's the word that used to describe the seven baskets of food that were LEFT OVER after Jesus fed the 4,000 plus (Mark 8:8).
God’s name, Almighty, is the Hebrew word El Shaddai and it means “the God who is more than enough.” God is more than enough to supply our every need.
What more do you need when God promises He will give you more than you need? I think you need to write or type this Scripture out in big letters and pin it up where you can see it.
Many blessings to you today,
NANCY CAMPELL
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Do things seem all on top of you? You wonder how you can keep going? Can I encourage you dear, Mother, to keep plodding on? Take one step at a time. You can’t solve your problems in one moment. Your challenges won’t go away with one magic flick of your finger. Everything takes time. Instead, you keep plodding on.
But you don’t plod on in gloom and despair. You take one step at a time looking up to Jesus. When you take your eyes off your problems and look to Him, He will show you the way. He will give you strength. He will put His peace in your heart. The greatest thing you can do is put one step forward after another.
Even when it’s hard, keep taking the next step. What do you do when you are climbing a steep mountain? You get weary. You don’t know whether you can take another step. But you do. And another one. And eventually you get to the top! It’s the same with everything in life. You just keep going and you’ll get through. You will climb your mountain.
I was reading the book of James and was arrested by James 5:10. I love the paraphrase of the Message Bible: “Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and NEVER ONCE QUIT, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those WHO STAY THE COURSE!”
Stay the course, dear lovely mother. God is with you. He will not let go of you Trust Him. His ways are higher than your ways and He is bigger than every problem you face.
Many blessings to you from Nancy Campbell
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It’s getting to the end of another wonderful Thanksgiving Day. We squashed about 90 plus people for a sit-down meal at our home today. A great time of feasting and fellowship and speeches. Plus tug-of-wars and egg-throwing.Here is an acrostic on being thankful, not just for today, but for every day of the year.
T I thank God for TEACHING me His ways.
H I thank God for giving me my HUSBAND. Marriage becomes more and more beautiful with time.
A I thank God for ANOINTING me to be a mother. Is there any greater blessing, apart from our salvation, than to enjoy the blessings of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren?
N I thank God for creating me to be a NURTURER and NOURISHER to my family and to others.
K I thank God for His KINDNESS to me.
F I thank God for my FAMILY and His daily FAITHFULNESS to me.
U I thank God for giving me UNDERSTANDING of His truth. My greatest delight is to receive revelation of God’s truth from His living Word.
L I thank God for LOVING me enough to die for me and shed His precious blood for my sins. I don’t like to get a day go by without thanking Him for His great and unspeakable and eternal salvation.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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The life God gives us in His kingdom is an abounding life. It is above the normal status quo. He wants us to abound in everything in our lives (2 Corinthians 8:7). That means abounding and overflowing as we face the challenges of motherhood each day. Yes, right in your kitchen, when a child is annoying you, one is crying, and everyone seems to want you at once!"Please get real," you say. "This is a bit over the top. And you don't understand what I am going through." Dear wife and mother, did you know that the word "abounding" is Bible language. It's repeated over and over again, translated with words such as "abundantly, exceeding, increasing, and multiplying." These words relate to every area of our lives. They are even written to believers who are suffering and going through persecution.
One of the "aboundings" is to ABOUND IN THANKSGIVING (Colossians 2:7). Most translations say: “OVERFLOWING WITH THANKSGIVING.” The Greek word is “perisseuo” and literally means “superabounding, overflowing, exceeding, excelling, over and above, and enough and to spare." Now, that's not normal, is it? It's over the top! But dear ladies, it’s Bible language! It’s amazing how we live so sub-zero standard, isn’t it?
Do you start the day thanking God for all His goodness and His great salvation that He suffered for you on the cross? Are you thanking Him in your heart all day long for every little thing that happens? This overflowing thankfulness should spill over to everyone around us.
Do you continually thank and show gratitude to your husband? When he does something for you do you take it for granted or spill over in thanks? Why don't you stop and give him a call right now and thank him for the wonderful husband and provider that he is? Thank him for marrying you!
And don't forget your children. Thank them when they do a task. We give loads of commands, we give lots of frowns, we are always reprimanding, but where are the thanks? Where are the smiles? We should be aboundingly and overflowingly thanking our husband and children and all the people who are part of our lives.
I know you’ll have a great Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, but let’s not limit our thankfulness to this day but let’s have thanksgiving day every day of the year. Amen?
Many blessings to you and have a most wonderful Thanksgiving.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Do you like waiting? Well, in the natural world it is hard to wait, isn’t it? We like things to happen just when we want them. I remember growing up as a child. We had everything we needed but we didn’t have excess. We didn’t expect to get what we wanted each time we went to town with our mother. We received gifts for birthdays and Christmases and that was it. To get an orange in our Christmas stocking was a gift from Heaven. A little packet of raisins was heavenly!I can remember waiting with agony for Christmas to come each year. It seemed like an eternity to wait. But with the waiting was incredible expectation.
My husband remembered one time how he received a bottle of pop for his birthday and thought he had gone to Heaven. He remembers it being called Orange Crush. It was so precious that he would take two sips each day and put it back on the shelf to make it last. It didn’t even bother him that all the bubbles depleted as the days wore on.
This is unheard of today. An orange or a bottle of pop is like nothing! Most children get what they want when they want it. They have never learned the expectation of w a i t i n g!
In many ways, this is sad. I think that if children do not learn to experience this emotion of waiting when they are young, how are they ever going to learn to wait on God and wait for His timing when they are older? The Bible says, “First that which is natural, and then that which is spiritual.” Nature prepares us for the spiritual.
It is sad when I hear someone say, “OH, I prayed, but God didn’t answer, so I don’t believe in Him!” I wonder how many times they prayed. I wondered how long they waited. I am sure it wasn’t long. They have not learned this very important quality. Don’t deprive your children of learning it.
And let’s all learn to wait on God. He is not in a hurry. He does not live in time. He will work when it is the right time.
Lamentations 3:26: “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”
Psalm 37:7: “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself . . .”
Many blessings,
Nancy Campbell
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Your home can be the most exciting place on earth!
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Don’t allow the devil any space in your home. Don’t even let him get a foot in the door. Once he is in he will take over more and more. Speak the name of Jesus out loud. Take authority in Jesus’ name over any evil in your home.
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Rise up in the anointing and authority God has given you as a mother.
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I was reading the psalm we all know so well this morning, Psalm 23:2: “He leadeth me beside the still waters.” We know that a shepherd always leads his sheep to peaceful and tranquil waters. They will not drink from turbulent waters.The Hebrew word for still means “a resting place, an abode, figuratively consolation (specifically matrimony).” When God was looking for the best place for His people to dwell Numbers 10:33 tells us that “the ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them . . . to search out a RESTING PLACE for them.” It is the same Hebrew word.
When Naomi was saying goodbye to her daughters-in-law and encouraging them to stay in their land and find a husband she said: “The LORD grant that you may find REST, each of you in the house of her husband.” The Berean Study Bible says: “May the LORD enable each of you to find rest in the home of your new husband.”
God, who is the giver of all good things, intends marriage to be a place of rest. Sadly, many marriages are places of turbulence and upheaval. That’s the devil’s plan. But God’s plan is peace and rest. We must stay on God's side to help bring peace and rest to our marriages and homes.
This may not be easy. But God, who lives within you by the power of His Holy Spirit and who sheds abroad His love in your heart, is able to give you the power to do this. Instead of reacting when your husband says something nasty or derogatory, answer him with sweetness and softness (Proverbs 15:1). You can’t do it in your own strength but only by the power of the Holy Spirit. If you can’t trust yourself to say the right thing, well, don’t open your mouth at all. Keep your mouth shut!
Marriages are ruined and destroyed by words! Our words have power to build up or pull down (Proverbs 14:1). To bring life and refreshing or destruction. Even when Jesus was accused at the time of His crucifixion, “He answered never a word.” When He was reviled, he did not revile back. When they heaped abuse on Him, He did not retaliate. When He suffered under their hands, He made no threats (1 Peter 2:23).
Do everything you can, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to make your marriage a place of rest. That is God’s beautiful plan for you. I love Isaiah 28:12 which says: “His rest shall be glorious.” When you have rest and security in your marriage, it is such a glorious way to live. God wants you to live a glorious life.
Be blessed today, Nancy Campbell
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Today is the 18th November and so I began to read Proverbs 18 (31 chapters for 31 days in the month). As usual, I didn’t get very far. I didn’t get past verse 1! This is usually what happens wen I read God’s word each morning. I rarely get through a chapter. As I begin to read, I find something so wonderful and revelatory that I stop to study and meditate upon it more! God’s word is new and refreshing each day.What was it that arrested my attention? Proverbs 18:1 BSB says: “He who isolates himself pursues selfish desires; he rebels against all sound judgment.” The Good News Translation says: “People who do not get along with others are interested only in themselves.”
This truth lines up with God’s word and His plan for the people He created. God did not create us for isolation. He created us for familyness, togetherness, and fellowship. He sets the solitary in families. Yes, He wants us to experience our family fellowship, but to also reach out beyond our families.
There are some folks who do not go to church. They can’t find one where they fit in and therefore fellowship on their own. That is isolation. God loves togetherness. Recently I did a study on the assembling of God’s people. Can you believe it? I found 17 different Hebrew words that God uses to describe His people assembling and coming together and each one is used in many different Scriptures! It is God’s heartbeat and it His plan.
God continues this doctrine in the New Testament. We all know Hebrews 10:25: “Not forsaking the assembly of ourselves TOGETHER, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the ore as ye see the day approaching.” And we read in Acts 4:42 that this was the lifestyle of the early church.
It is true that we can miss “sound judgment” when we are isolated. We need one another to sharpen one another, to encourage and exhort one another, and to keep one another in line. It’s not even enough to go to church. We must fellowship. We just show hospitality to one another.
God’s plan is togetherness, not isolation.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Val Stares, the director of Above Rubies in Australia, sent this link to me this morning. It is called THE AUSTRALIAN CREED FOR SEXUAL INTEGRITY.
This creed was drafted by some of Australia’s most prominent Christian leaders. In just over 200 words, it lays out the Bible’s clear teachings on sexuality in truth and grace. They want millions all over the world to sign this creed. It can be used as:
a doctrinal affirmation in worship services,
an educational tool for Christians,
a theological defence against compromise,
a way for churches and schools to affirm their orthodoxy,
a legal defence for Christians facing job loss.
Go to this link to sign:
I have already signed it. Sign and share it with others. Further information from: www.australiancreed.com
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Your home is a haven providing protection,Filled with joy and peace and lots of affection,
It’s God’s chosen place for your husband and you,
To raise godly children, righteous and true.
You’re making it a sanctuary from the evil around,
So you can train children to be whole and sound,
The right time is coming when you’ll send them out,
Empowered with God’s Spirit—world, look out!
~ Nancy Campbell
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