Dear mother, as you nurture your precious children you are revealing the heart of God and His nurturing heart of compassion and mercy. What a privilege!
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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.
Sometimes we need to be reminded that our children belong to us. Well, first of all, they belong to God for He is their Creator and Designer, the One who uniquely and specifically created each one of our children. And there is not one child who is the same. Everyone is an intricate and unique creation of God. He is the One who has also planned their destiny from before the foundation of the world. God calls them “thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me . . . my children” (Ezekiel 16:20, 21But God entrusts them to YOU as parents. He gives you the responsibility to care for them and train them. He gives you the responsibility to teach them in His ways. Over and over again He not only reminds us, but COMMANDS us to teach His laws and His ways to our children and our children’s children "all the days of our lives.”
Deuteronomy 6:6-8 in the Amplified version reminds us how seriously we are take God’s command about teaching our children God’s truths: “You shall teach them diligently to your children [impressing God’s precepts on their minds and penetrating their hearts with His truths] and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.”
Therefore, do not be intimated. Your children do not belong to the government. They do not belong to the public school system. They do not belong to another other organization. They belong to YOU. You are responsible for what they are taught. You have the last say!
Why would a God-fearing parent put their children in a public school where they aim to program your children in socialism and anti-patriotism. Most schools embrace common core teaching, the re-writing of history, the lie of white supremacy, and even transgenderism. They are tutored in the new words, phrases, and pronouns that are geared to change the thinking and ideas of this new generation.
You must know exactly what your children are being taught. And you will never know unless you are there. Why would you risk your children being brainwashed and taught lies? Nearly every student coming out of our schools and colleges today is ingrained in extreme socialism, globalism, and climate change indoctrination.
Take charge of your children’s education. The rise or fall of America depends upon it. The rise or fall of Christianity in this nation depends upon it.
God has given the authority to YOU, dear parent, not the state.
Blessings,
Nancy Campbell
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The beautiful family meal table! “I beg your pardon?” you shout. “Our table is chaos! I don’t even know how to get order!”I know. We come to our meal table with our weaknesses and failings. Our children are certainly not perfect. Sometimes they are fussy. Sometimes they don’t want to eat. They grumble and complain. They don’t want to eat their vegetables. They squabble and argue. Or even have a fist fight!
Help! Without God’s intervention, it can be total shambles! But did you know that God wants to come to your table and bring His presence?
Can I share a beautiful and biblical truth with you? The first mention of the table in the Bible is in Exodus 25:23-24, talking about the table of shewbread. In this passage God tells Moses to make a table from acacia wood and then to overlay it with pure gold. It is interesting that this table was to be made of both wood and gold, speaking of Christ’s humanity and His divinity. I believe this also relates to the tables we have in our homes.
In the Bible wood always speaks of humanity. That reminds us of our earthly table that can be very earthy! But God covered this wooden table with pure gold which speaks of the divinity of Christ.
Dear frustrated mother, God wants to bring His presence to your table. He wants to cover your humanity with His divinity.
This is what He did at the beginning of creation with Adam and Eve, and He wants to continue this practice throughout all generations. (Genesis 3:8-9) Every day He came to talk with Adam and Eve. He did not come to them in the heat of the day or during their hours of work (for God established the principle of work before sin entered the Garden of Eden). He came to them in the cool of the day, in the evening time—the time of the day when we gather around the meal table to eat together, fellowship, and relax.
God wants to join you at this time of each day too. Realize that you don’t have to survive this time on your own. God wants to come. He wants to be part of your family mealtime.
INVITE HIM TO COME. This Is the secret. It makes all the difference when you invite Him to come. Let the children be part of inviting Him to come. Help them to realize that God is present with you. Acknowledge His presence. His presence will bring the atmosphere of Heaven to you, and it will cover your earthy humanity.
I can’t do without Him at my table. I don’t think you can either.
Be blessed today,
Nancy Campbell
Picture: The Drennan family from Texas.
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I am sure, like me, you have found a rotten potato in your bag of potatoes. Isn’t it such a foul smell? There’s nothing worse. I found one the other night in my bag. The only trouble with a rotten potato is that it contaminates all the other potatoes around it! I had to throw out most of the bag.We can also be like a rotten potato. When things don’t go your way, what do you do? Do you say, “Oh well, praise the Lord anyway. Or do you get into a mood? Begin to pout? Or give the “silent treatment”? We know these reactions come from our rotten flesh. And it stinks!
Actually, our flesh is meant to be dead! The Bible tells us that when Christ died, we died with Him. When He rose, we rose with Him. When we come to Christ, we die to our flesh and instead yield to the life of Jesus Christ who dwells in us.
Galatians 2:20 says: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loves me, and gave himself or me.”
A dead person doesn’t react! When we react with anger or get into a mood, we show to everyone around us that our flesh is still very much alive.
The problem is that one rotten potato affects many others. Because it is part of a bag of potatoes it begins to pollute all the potatoes around it. It’s the same with us. We live in a family. When we react negatively, live in self-pity, “fly off the handle,” or put on a miserable attitude, we affect everyone around us. We make them miserable too. They smell the stink of rottenness. And then they start to get rotten too! And everyone begins rotting together.
Are you giving off bad smells or the beautiful aroma of Christ?
Love from Nancy Campbell
Sorry for the horrible picture!
Read Romans chapter 6, Galatians 2:20; 5:24; 6:14; Ephesians 4:22-27; and Colossians 3:5-9.
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Motherhood is not a part time job. It is our life! And although challenging, it is the most fulfilling life!
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I was arrested by a Scripture I read this morning in Isaiah 26:18 (NET): “We cannot produce deliverance on the earth, people to populate the earth are not born.” The NLT says: “We have not given salvation to the earth, nor brought life into the world.”Wow, these words are very powerful, and yet true. There are many hurting and broken people in this world and all around us. They need God’s salvation, deliverance, and healing. God is waiting to show them His salvation and deliver them from all their bondages. But how does it happen? God uses His people. We are His body on the earth, and He works through us.
The sad thing is that thousands of people are missing from the earth—men and women who God wanted on this earth. But they are not here because for so many years God’s people have thrown away His plan and decided they had a better plan.
Instead of receiving the children God planned from them, they limited their families to the average two-child family in the nation today. Millions are missing.
I pray for the eyes of God’s people to be opened to God’s ultimate plan. The more children God chooses for us to bring into this world, the more impact we have for the kingdom of God. God wants His salvation and glory to fill the earth. He wants His people to be “more and mightier” than the heathen (Exodus 1:7-12).
Psalm 105:24 tells us that God “increased his people greatly: and made them stronger than their enemies.” We become weaker when we diminish. We become stronger when we multiply. These are plain facts. Plus they are Bible language.
I love the quote from Frank Boreham: "We fancy that God can only manage His world by big battalions abroad, when all the while He is doing it by beautiful babies at home. When a wrong wants righting, 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 in Bethlehem."
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Are you satisfied with your life? In other words, are you content? We are always thinking of something we need, aren’t we? But do we really need it? We can’t afford it and so we go without, and we find we live life just fine without the thing we think we need! It’s amazing what we can live without.Contentment is an anti-stress attribute. When we stop worrying about what we can’t have and accept what we have, we no longer stress.
I read this morning in Jeremiah 31;14: “My people shall be SATISFIED with my goodness, saith the LORD.” Oh, we are so blessed. We are overwhelmed with the goodness of the Lord. So much of the world lives in poverty and we live so well in America. Millions are being persecuted and we live in peace. We have a roof over our heads, food on our tables, and more clothing than we need to wear. What are we worrying about? Instead, we should be basking in God’s goodness.
I think of the children of Israel who lived in the wilderness in tents. They had no supermarkets to buy food, no entertainment centers, no mod-cons such as washing machines and dishwashers and so on. But God said in Nehemiah 9:21: “Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that THEY LACKED NOTHING.”
Can we learn to be truly satisfied with God’s goodness to us? It’s a beautiful way to live.
Love and blessings,
Nancy Campbell
Painting: Lewis A. Ramsey
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Do you love gathering your family to the meal table? It is such a wonderful place to make memories.
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How does your husband think of you? Sour like lemon juice? Or sweet like honey? What about your children?Don’t you think we should be like honey in our homes? That’s a big challenge, isn’t it?
I have always been challenged by a little passage in the Song of Solomon. This book is a picture of the relationship of a husband and wife. In the Song of Songs 4:10, 11 (NET), the husband says: “How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine . . . Your lips drip sweetness like the honeycomb, my bride, honey and milk are under your tongue.” Oh wow. Can your husband say these words about you?
What kind of words do we drip from our mouths? Complaints, arguments, resistance, or even bitterness? Or do we drip words of sweetness and love?
If we are not doing this, we can cultivate it. We can make a deliberate effort to speak sweetly. We may fail but we don’t give up. We seek to make it a habit of our lives. As you know, you have to work on things. You may not feel like doing a certain thing, but you do it because you know it is the most powerful thing to do.
Think of yourself as a honeycomb in the midst of your home, dripping words of sweetness to your husband and your children.
Proverbs 16:24 says: “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul; and health to the bones.” The word pleasant in the Hebrew means to speak “agreeable words, delightful words, and beautiful words.” We’ve got a long way to go, haven’t we? But just imagine what would happen to the atmosphere of our homes when we speak agreeable, delightful, and beautiful words to our children and husbands. These words will change the atmosphere of our homes. The behavior of our children. And our own character!
Let’s be dripping honeycombs today.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Picture from Etsy.
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Are you feeling worthless and unappreciated as you mother in your home. It is easy to get these negative feelings, isn’t it? I can remember often feeling like a failure. But God always has a word for us.Galatians 6:7 states: “Let us not be weary I well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” In other words, no matter how you feel, don’t give up! Most translations of this Scripture say these very words: “DON’T GIVE UP!”
I was encouraged as I checked the words “well doing.” The word “well” is “kalos.” Did you know that this word describes our life as a wife and mother in the home? Titus 2:3-5 tells the older women to be teachers of “good” things and the word is “kalos.” Sometimes we think that what we are doing in the home is mundane and useless. But God says it is BEAUTIFUL, lovely, valuable, and virtuous! It may seem insignificance to the world’s eyes, but it is BEAUTIFUL to God’s eyes.
The word “doing” is “poieo” and means “to make, to do, bring forth, execute.” A fuller meaning is” to bring forth something which when produced has an independent existence of its own.” I think this is so true of motherhood. The years of loving, nurturing, and training our children are not wasted. They add up to fruitfulness. They bring forth a strong family that stabilizes and strengthens the nation. Our mothering today establishes godly families for the future that take on a life of their very own!
Can I encourage you, dear mother, that on these days of feeling like a failure, feeling hopeless, or unappreciated, please keep on with your beautiful works. There is coming a day when you will reap your reward.
The New Living Translations says: “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing IF WE DON’T GIVE UP!”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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Chatting with a couple recently, the husband said to me, “I’m concerned about our teenage daughter. When she gets up in the morning, she is very uncommunicative and miserable. The wife spoke up on her behalf and said, “Oh I think she’s just tired.”I couldn’t let it pass. “Just a moment,” I replied. You don’t allow her to get up with this attitude, do you? And if you think it’s tiredness, make sure she gets to bed earlier.”
There is no excuse for any member of the family to come to the family kitchen in the morning with a sour face and uncommunicative attitude. We must teach our children to come with a cheery Good Morning. Of course, as parents, we set the example.
As each one comes into your kitchen each morning, greet them with a smile and a cheery welcome such as, “Good morning, welcome to the day.” If they don’t give a cheery reply, keep saying it until they do. Get them into the habit.
Dear mothers, family life is where we prepare our children for marriage. Your children should never have to go to a marriage seminar to prepare for marriage. You are preparing them each day as they watch your example. You are training them into the right habits for their future lives.
What a terrible thing for a husband to wake up to a wife with a sour face and grumpy spirit. And non-communicative. That doesn’t build a marriage. It slowly pulls it down. Don’t ever let your children get into this habit in your home.
Don’t let them get into entitlement habits either. They will destroy their future marriage too. Deal with every negative habit in your children’s lives that would be detrimental to their future marriage and the future success of their lives.
I cannot even believe how many parents allow their children to be a “wet rag” in the home, stay in their sour moods, or act selfishly.
Don’t allow it to continue for one minute! You are setting them up for heartache later on.
Blessings to you today from Nancy Campbell
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It seems that many mothers find cooking for their families a chore. “Oh no, not another meal to cook for this hungry family.” “Here I go again, day after day, day after day, with no let up!”Dear mother, can I encourage you that preparing meals for your family is not insignificant? Do you remember what Jesus said in Mark 9:41? “For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink IN MY NAME, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.”
These are the words of Jesus. They will never fail. If Jesus says that we will not lose our reward if we give a cup of water in His name, what about preparing a whole meal?
Every time you prepare a meal for your family—breakfast, lunch, and supper, God is watching. When you do it with the right attitude, when you do it as unto Him, when you do it in His name, He promises that you will not lose your reward.
Oh what a blessing to be a mother. Just think of how many rewards you are going to receive from cooking meals day after day for years! Of course, we do it in His name, not with a bad, complaining attitude.
And what a blessing to prepare each meal for our family, but at the same time “as unto the Lord, and “in His name.” It takes you to a whole new realm. Because you are doing it for the Lord, you will want to make each meal special, knowing that Jesus desires to sit with you at your meal.
Don’t you love these words?
Christ is the Head of this home,
The Unseen Guest at every meal,
The Silent Listener to every conversation.
Many people have these wonderful words hanging on their wall. It’s a great reminder, isn’t it? Jesus wants to be included at your meal table.
Many blessings to you today,
Nancy Campbell
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Don’t lower the dignity God has given to you as a woman. Live in the glory of your womanhood.
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In my post yesterday I wrote the phrase, TOTALLY DESTROY THE CANAANITE CULTURE! Wow, that’s a rather strong statement, isn’t it? But that was the heading of Deuteronomy chapter 7 in my Bible. And yes, that is exactly what God told them to do. They were to totally destroy it.We read the story of Jael in our Family Devotions yesterday, a rather bloodthirsty story, where Jael, a wife in the home, hammered a tent peg through General Sisera’s temple. Let’s read it: “Her left hand reached for the tent peg, her right hand for the workmen’s hammer. She hammered Sisera, she shattered his skull, she smashed his head, she drove the tent peg through his temple . . .” You can read the whole story in Judges 4:17-23 and 5:24-31.
And God’s words says: “Most blessed of all women is Jael . . . most blessed of homemaking women.”
Why would she be honored for doing such a bloodthirsty deed? Every story in the Bible is a lesson for us. The enemy came right into Jael’s home, but knowing he was the enemy, she plucked up courage to annihilate him. It would have taken much courage. If she had missed with the hammer, he would have killed her.
We all face many subtle enemies that come into our homes. Satan, the enemy of our souls and our homes, lurks around waiting to bring his insidious ways into our family lives. He doesn’t do it blatantly, but little by little, so sometimes we don’t even notice. That’s why we must be continually on the alert—and especially over all social media where Satan is winning his greatest victories.
Mothers, we watch dogs over our home and over the souls of each of our children. We are the watch dogs of society. Our society is a reflection of the homes of our society. Sadly, today, we live in a worldly, godless, and deceived society. That’s why we must watch and pray and be more alert than ever. It is godly homes, adhering to God’s word and His truth that will change society.
We must be brave and courageous to stand against all evil in our homes, and in society around us. We must take a stand. We can’t be silent. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer says: “Silence in the face of evil is evil itself.”
All God’s people, including mothers, should be part of destroying the “Canaanite culture” in our society. That doesn’t mean we have to get out of our homes to war against it. No. We start facing it in our own home. Jael didn’t even have to go out of the home to conquer the enemy. And God honored her for dealing with it in her home. This is where it starts.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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I was amazed again this morning as I read Deuteronomy 7:6 where God describes who He intends His people to be—and this promise continues to His blood-bought people today: “For thou art an HOLY PEOPLE unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a SPECIAL PEOPLE unto himself, ABOVE ALL PEOPLE that are upon the face of the earth.”That is amazing, isn’t it? This is God’s heart for His people. What does it mean?
Some people think that to be holy we have to be religious, but that is not the meaning of holy. It means “set-apartness, un-commonness, un-worldliness.” It is being set apart from the secular unto God. The word special means that “we are God’s possession, His valued property, a special treasure to Him.” And He wants us to be “above all” other people on the face on the earth.
That’s why God told them in the previous verses to TOTALLY DESTROY THE CANAANITE CULTER! Yes, that was the heading at the beginning of this chapter in my Bible. I was certainly arrested when I read that!
Verses 2- 5: “Thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them: thou shalt make no covenant with them, not show mercy unto them . . . ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.” And then it says: FOR YOU ARE AN HOLY PEOPLE . . . “
Dear mothers, are we seeking to be set-apart families unto God? Anything less is not God’s will. I notice that many Christians today do not want to be set apart. They want to know they are born again but they want to still look like the world around them. They want to be right on the fence, saying with their lifestyle, “Yes, I love God with all my heart, but I don’t want to look different from the world. That would be too embarrassing. I want dress just like the world dresses and fit in as much as possible with their lifestyle ,so I don’t look too different.”
But this is the opposite to God’s plan. Dear mother, are you teaching your children God’s plan for them? How He wants them to live? Do they know that they are God’s holy people, set apart for Him and His destiny? Knowing their purpose will make a huge difference to their lives.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Check out these Scriptures. God did not give this message once to His people but many times:
Exodus 19:5, 6; Leviticus 11:44, 45; 20:24-26; Deuteronomy 7:6; 14:2; 26:18, 19, 1 Kings 8:58; Romans 12:1, 2; Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter1:14-16; 2:9; and 1 John 2;15-17.
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(a tribute to mothers everywhere)I'm the mother of boys—
There is pee on every toilet seat,
Crumbs on every counter,
Noise in every moment,
But sometimes, when there's silence, I know some-thing's not right
An epic mess is brewing, forbidden sweets are being eaten, or a bone is about to break!
I'm the mother of boys!
Just three of them and me in the house,
Delivered two of them, married to one of them, but sometimes I feel more like his mother than his wife,
My only peace is a few minutes in the shower each morning,
But inevitably someone finds me,
"I can't find any socks!"
"There's no more milk!"
"Mommmmm! Owie! Kiss!"
Sigh!
Why do I not lock the door?
I'm the mother of boys!
Who would ever want a pet?
I clean up enough poo and pee as it is,
I don't know why I set the table,
They'd eat out of a feeding trough if they could,
And I could just hose them down on the back porch before bed,
I'm the mother of boys?\!
But most days I feel like a ringmaster in the circus,
The only thing that gets them all moving is the crack of my whip ,
My husband is a lion, strutting around with his chest out,
I hunt and gather and cook all the meals,
And he graces us with his presence to consume them before I clean it all up,
Then it's time for his nap on the couch,
A lion for sure!
My oldest boy is a rhino,
A trail of destruction wherever he goes,
Hard-headed, quick tempered, endless appetite,
Don't you ever wear pants?
Do you even know what a laundry basket is for? ,
Then there's the youngest, a monkey
Do I wear a sign on my forehead that says, "Climb on me"?
How is he always in my lap?
And how does he find that dirty cheerio on the floor after I've swept up?
I'm the mother of boys!
What a career!
I'm a cook, cleaner, taxi driver, seamstress, soccer coach, nurse, cheerleader, bookkeeper
No pay,
No sick days,
Vacations are work days in different locations,
When did I develop this nervous twitch?
The Bible says my children will bless me
And my husband will praise me!
By D. B. Ryen
“Her children stand and bless her. Her husband praises her” (Proverbs 31:28).
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All I can say is Amen. What do you say?
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Don’t be deceived by pursuing a lesser career than the one God has given you—the mighty career of motherhood, nurturing, teaching, and preparing the next generation into their destiny to impact this world, and ultimately eternity.
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Are you still as madly in love with your husband as when you were first married? Or more? If not, it’s time to get out of the rut and do some work on your marriage. Get back to your first love. Say the things and do the things you did in the beginning that sparked your love. Turn up the element. When you turn off an element it soon gets cold. You’ve got to keep the heat turned up day and night to keep your marriage hot. Don’t even leave it on medium. Turn it up to full heat.
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