LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 212: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 23

Another revolutionary podcast today with my daughter, Evangeline. She shares her story of mothering her young children in a small one room "hut" with no running water and cooking outside. Eventually, they had two rooms where she and her husband slept in the kitchen. No room for children's beds, so they all slept on the floor in the main room.

She tells how she learned to embrace her situation with joy and make it fun, and how she has learned to CHOOSE JOY in every situation. Be ready for a challenge when Vange gets going! Evangeline is a mother of 10 and grandmother of six and three more on the way.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Well, can you believe it? I now have Evangeline, my daughter, with us today. You’ve heard from Pearl. You’ve heard from Serene. And now I have Evangeline. It is so great to have them with me, and for you to hear from their lives, how they have learned to walk in joy. For those of you who are just coming onto this podcast, we’re talking about the land of motherhood, and how that it is a land of joy. God wants us to have homes of joy.

Jeremiah 30:18-19: “Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents,” talking about their homes, “and have mercy on his dwelling places. . . And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.” Do you notice, ladies, what comes out of the homes? “Out of them will come thanksgiving, and the voice of them that make merry.”

In Isaiah 51:3, we see another description of the home. It’s talking about Zion, but it relates to our homes. “For the LORD shall comfort Zion . . . joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.”

We actually see two sets of twins in that Scripture. “Joy and gladness,” they go together right through the Word. We see joy and gladness, and God wants them to be in our homes. The other set of twins are “thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” God wants them in our homes, too.

When God was blessing the tribes of Israel through Issachar, He told them, the tribe of Issachar, that they were to rejoice in their homes; Deuteronomy 33:18. The word for “homes” is ohel, and it means, “a covering, a dwelling place.” It can be used to talk about a hut, or about a mansion, or a palace.

Some of you may be thinking, “Well, I live in this little, cramped space. It’s just like a hut! Goodness me! How can I have joy in my home? If only I had more space and a bigger home! Well, I could feel a lot happier.” But Vange, that’s how you started your motherhood.

Evangeline: Well, you know, I love that you said that because I was thinking as you were speaking, “Oh, I’d better tell these stories!”

Nancy: Yes, I want you to start.

Evangeline: A lot of you don’t know, and I want to say a lot to you, because this is my passion, speaking about the joyful mother. So many of you rely on your circumstances. Literally, Mum, I have so many mothers come up to me. “Well, you know, you’ve got your mother, and you don’t know my mother. You don’t know my life.”

Or “You haven’t had cancer,” and “You haven’t had this,” and “You don’t live in my house.” Everybody’s got something to whine about, or to cry over, or some spilled milk. We live in a fallen earth. But that’s not where we leave our brains! Especially when, Mum, you were saying all those verses about where the joy comes out of our dwelling place.

We live in one percent, the west, of the richest people in the world. I’ve had a fun adventurous life. Even with my children, we, in one weekend, we moved out of a city, and we had some land. We didn’t have enough money to build. My husband found some stuff in a dumpster. In one weekend, he put up, I think it was 9’ x 14’, one room. We moved all out there. This was when I had, I think I had six children, pregnant with my seventh.

I know I had five, and I was pregnant with my sixth child. I had my sixth child out there, Mum. It’s true. We moved into this one room with no water. It was literally one room. No bathroom, no taps (faucets), there were no holes in the wall. It happened to be the coldest winter Tennessee has ever had on record.

We were cooking outside. Everything got frozen. I’ve got so many adventurous stories. You can’t even believe it.

I had people coming up to me, “Oh, you poor thing! This is just . . .” Look, I’ll tell you what! It was all in the mind. I literally had the most adventurous, adventurous life! If I followed their thinking, man alive! I would have been down in the pits like you couldn’t believe! Like the poorest, like the worst woman! I know I felt like I was the millionaire most days, because I chose it! I chose how my brain was going to go and think about my circumstances.

Many years went by, and it took a long time to get water, because we had to hire machinery, everything. It’s a long story, but eventually we got water. But you know what? I felt like I was living in Africa, in these beautiful woods. You’ve got to look at the fine, at the wonderful things around you. You’ve always got to choose joy. It’s all about choosing.

Can I say something more, Mum?

Nancy: Yes!

Evangeline: The other day, Zadok said, “Oh, somebody was asking what your mother is like,” because my children are very out there, and full of personality. I thought, “Wow, wonder what their mother is like?”

He said that verse: “She laughs at the days to come” (Proverbs 31:25). I’ll tell you what. When things do go wrong, you have to laugh. I remember my husband, well, he had hired all this machinery for, I think it was about the tenth time, to try and get water. We had to go down a cliff to get water. Then ice and snow. It just filled up the whole trench again. I think I had hemorrhaged. I was pregnant. We came in, and all we could do was laugh, because what else are you going to do? You have to laugh at some things. There’s no other choice, because otherwise you’re going to cry, and then you’re going to die early. Because joy literally makes you live longer. You have normal blood pressure. Joy heals you.

Nancy: I wonder if you are imagining it. Vange was saying how she came out with these children. They have ten children now. Of course, she is a grandmother today. Where did they sleep? The children grew up with no beds. They never had beds. There was no room for beds. So, they had their sleeping bags in the corner which they put down and slept in this little one room in the evening.

Nancy: And then your bedroom . . . Well, in the end, you got, you had the one room. Then you had one more room. Wow, hallelujah! But the little kitchen was where you and Howard slept, in the kitchen! And then the children all just laid down their sleeping bags on the floor in the other room. But they’re all here to tell the tale and they loved it!

Evangeline: Oh, yes! My boys thought beds were for girls. In fact, they hate sleeping on beds to this day! Because they grew up on the floor and they moved out. So many fun, fun stories.

But I want to tell you guys, you cannot laugh at the days to come when you’re full of anxiety. You cannot laugh when you’re full of yourself and woe is me! You cannot laugh when you’re fretful. You cannot laugh and have joy when you’re fearful, when you have no hope, when you have no purpose.

Let me tell you, mothers, this is your season. Own it. You cannot laugh and be joyful when you have no purpose. I think I just said that. You’ve got to choose it. Jesus said to the Israelites when they had feasts and there will be joy. He said, “You will be joyful.” Joyful is not just a state of the heart that willy-nilly comes.

“Well, I’m not joyful.” Well, jolly well choose it for crying out loud. Tell yourself to smile! Laugh out loud. Choose it! There is a choosing. Instead of choosing how you feel.

The other day, a story that just happened. I saw it again. I was over at Serene’s house, and Pearl came in. We’re just all talking away of what’s happening. I mentioned a little story, and I was in great spirits. I hadn’t even though anything about it. And then Serene said, “What? What?”

I said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

She said, “Where were you?”

I said, “Oh no, I was here.”

She said, “Well, I’m not having it. No! Oh, my goodness! No, you should have to deal with this. I could really work you up in a tizz. But it wasn’t fair Vange. That wasn’t fair for you.” I’m like, “Well, I’m good, I’m good, Serene. I haven’t even thought about that. Didn’t even think about that.”

And then Pearl was there. She was like, “Oh, Vange, we could really work you up in a tizz.” They were joking, of course. Well, when I got home, I saw the situation again, and all of a sudden, I thought, “Oh, yes, that is just not right.”

It shows you, when people start to hear your story, I’m like, “Oh, poor you.” No, no, no. Do you know what? I went home and got myself in such a tizz. It was so stupid! I thought to myself, “This is the dumbest thing in the world. My brain was perfectly whole, and perfectly happy, until I took up somebody else’s offense, even though they were joking.

Stop taking up other people’s offense, and other people’s offense on where you are, on how you live. When I lived in that one room, when they were all little, the whole world was offended at how I lived. But do you know that every child that came in, and some of them were millionaires that came in and said, “Oh, I wish my mom and dad lived like this. This is so adventurous. This is so fun!”

See? It’s all about how your brain goes. We must be proactive at choosing joy.

It’s not having joy. It’s CHOOSING joy.

As the mother goes, so the family goes. You have to mother your own mind. Just as you mother your children and you teach them, you have to mother your own mind and teach yourself. Teach it. Encourage it every day.

King David did it. He said: “Oh my soul, live, and my soul lived!” Mother, tell yourself, “Oh my soul, be joyful!” And you will be joyful. Tell yourself, “No moods. Stop feeling sorry for yourself.” Life is always full of points down. If you haven’t, go back to the beginning, and write.

Stop and see where your subconscious is. What are your top thoughts? And by that, what I mean is, what do you think about when you’re in the shower? Just not really, it’s calm, the hot water is falling all over you. If it’s not conducive to life, then change your thoughts for joy and life because you’re wasting your thoughts.

As your thoughts are, so are you.

You can be wasting 70,000 thoughts a day.

It takes practice. It takes practice. Don’t allow your external state to determine your joy. If you try to control your environment, then let it go, and look up, because, in Jesus, when you’re in the spirit with Jesus, there are always blue skies. I don’t know or care what circumstance you are in, there are always blue skies with Jesus.

Do not own “the terribles”? Don’t take on other people’s problems. Do not be weighted down. Even in Ezekiel 37, and I’ve not talked to you ladies before, the people of God, it’s actually the people of God, and you women listening, you might be a person of God. They cried out, and they said, “Lord, we have no hope.” Ezekiel 37, it’s really fantastic. It says because they had no hope, they were not in joy.

Then, here he comes. In the Spirit of the Lord, he prophesies. You mothers have to stop prophesying to yourself every day. In the Spirit of the Lord, say, “Hear the words of the Lord to those old, dry, negative bones that have not had joy in a long time. Say, oh bones, oh mind, live in joy!”

Hezekiah, in the Bible, said, “The Lord delivered my soul.” He said the Lord didn’t deliver his circumstances. Maybe later on. But first, He delivered his soul. You cannot be joyful when you whine. I have never met a group of people who whine so much as mothers in this modern-day culture.

And yet, how does the Bible, throughout all of history, describe mothers? As the “happy mother of children” (Psalm 113:9). And yet we have forfeited our actual title over our lives because of whinehood.

It’s not whinehood, it’s motherhood.

Happy mothers who don’t ever whine.

Forgive, because you cannot have joy when you’re holding something against your husband, your children, or somebody else.

Nancy: It’s like this verse in Deuteronomy 28. It’s very challenging here, where it says: “Because you serve not the Lord your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things, therefore shall thou serve thine enemies.” And it goes on.

The Lord sees this as something very serious. When we don’t serve Him with joyfulness in the ministry . . . The service God has given us to do as mothers, is to serve our families, serve our husband, to build our homes. Our serving unto the Lord is in our homes. He wants us to do it with joyfulness, with gladness of heart.

When we don’t, and when we don’t, sadly this is in the section on curses. We start off this chapter with all the wonderful blessings. That’s where we want to be, in the blessing part. But don’t be in the cursing part, dear ladies, where we are not serving with joyfulness. We’re serving with groaning and grind, whining and griping.

No, let’s serve with joyfulness! Serve our husbands, serve our children, with gladness of heart and joyfulness. It makes all the difference to your life, and it makes all the difference to your husband, and all the difference to your children!

Evangeline: Another huge point is that the way you view God is the way you will be. A lot of you have the wrong image of God. You have Him as this person who’s always unhappy and about to beat you up.

Jesus said: “As you see me, so you see the Father.” The Father is the most loving person on earth, because out of the whole of history, Jesus, there was no one who set foot on the earth who was so full of love, so full of mercy, so full of life, so full of joy. Jesus was the most joyful Person that ever has lived. That’s who God is, and you’ve got to start seeing God as the most joyful person. Then you can be like that.

You can’t be joyful when you’re going around without a smile. It’s true. I actually do this. I practice this throughout the day. I just smile, by myself. I do the biggest grin I could ever have. It really alters and elevates, and I think it gives you endorphins. Smiling shows the world. When somebody’s smiling at you, it’s very hard not to smile back.

I think when you’re smiling, it’s very hard for your heart not to smile with your actual external expression. Change your countenance always. Stop going around as the grump in your house. Tell your children too. Smile! I tell my children, “Hey! Smile!” “Oh, nothing’s wrong.” No smiles. Just smile. Smile! Force yourself to smile throughout the day, all day.

If somebody’s done you wrong, if it’s not evil, evil, evil, immoral, if it’s just something that annoys you, smile! Smile, smile, smile, smile, smile, smile. Mum, do you mind, before we leave off, if I read this? It’s something that I wrote, and my Mum actually got me to write it. I don’t know if you posted it or what. But I found it the other day and it’s so good, so I’m just going to read it to you ladies out there,

It's titled “LOOK UP,” because as you look up to Jesus, as your thoughts look up, you’re going to change.

“There is so much life to be lived, even under the grayest of skies and the bluest of skies. The skies of our brain are made up of 60,000 to 70,000 thoughts a day. Can you imagine seeing 70,000 stars, twinkling and pulsing with life, through an inky black sky? It would literally pulse our breath into sheer wonder and glory.

That’s how I feel most times. My stars are my thoughts. I have chosen them. I don’t let the inky black displace the light of 70,000 twinkling life choices, even though the dark night is always going to be there in the background. No, it’s a very war cry against the empty black that has my soul breathing the words of Light Himself.

Shine. Shine. Shine like stars in this universe. ‘See, I have set you as a light to shine, to shine in your family.’ And how? How are you going to do that, when your supposed circumstances don’t match up? The epic revelation that shining begins in your own brain, in your own dark sky. My own mind.

Will I light my own backdrop to see light, and goodness, and glory, and beauty of the everyday? Will I realize the mystical music of living each day as doing the little things that need doing with a smile? The things that no one gives a nod to play the music of life more beautifully than Beethoven’s greatest symphony.

Why should we live for those fleeting high moments when it is the thrill of enjoying a million mundane, everyday moments of time that makes one love life and have joy? These moments, these notes, each one supporting the best music ever played. Don’t live for the thrills. To live another note is thrilling.

Imagine sneering at the sound of a new heartbeat! Impossible! That sound brings triumphant celebrations. Yet, what does it do? It brings a job, day in and day out. Year in and year out, never changing. When it starts, we give parties, we give parties, and when it stops, we cry.

Then why should we sneer at the day-in and day-out heartbeats of our season? The very reason we celebrated in the first place. Why should we cry over the mundane rituals that accompany our season? When we are changing diapers, and they say they are changing the world, you just beam your smile wider. While they are standing and receiving accolades and you are falling on your knees from a stray Lego, still smile.

Yes, feed the children. Get them to bed. Wake up. And do it again. And what for? Because it is beautiful. Because this is what makes life—our everyday moments, the ritual of the everyday, the business of breathing, bathing, work, and the hours people call mundane in order to live, and in fact, find our treasure.

The secret of loving a joyful life is not in pursuit of life but of loving every moment in the rituals of the everyday. If the joyful heartbeat of daily living dies, and you’re whining, you will live for yourself, and lose your soul trying to find purpose for life. Nothing is as dead as not realizing your season and the ritual of it.

To escape the mundane is to escape the very beautiful whole of life. The sheer goodness of having a work before us that is enduring, made up of scars and healing, laughter after pain, dancing after mourning. It’s beautiful, utterly beautiful.

To look for anything else outside of that is to look for something that doesn’t exist, it’s fleeting. It is a fast-paced fleeting fame and burned-out world, offering you false highs, empty escapes, and thousands of new toys to try and make you happy.

But you, ladies, yes you. You now have the market on life. Your mind can choose its skies where the insignificant and daily duties are quite literally the light bulbs of blazing life in all. Look up, my friend. Look up. Because there are 70,000 twinkling stars for your choosing. I love you.”

Nancy: Wow, that’s really amazing, Vange. Where did you get that?

Evangeline: I wrote it!

Nancy: You wrote that?

Evangeline: Yes. I wrote it to somebody who was complaining.

Nancy: Whoo!

Evangeline: I wrote it to somebody who was whining. I just believe it. It’s what changed my life. It’s what changes all our lives. It’s true. It’s true, Mum.

Nancy: That is so powerful! You hadn’t given that to me before.

Evangeline: Oh. I thought I had.

Nancy: No. That is absolutely powerful.

Evangeline: I thought I gave it to you.

Nancy: I know. I’m always waiting for them. Thank you! That is so great. It reminds me of David, and how he constantly affirmed that he would praise the Lord.

Psalm 9:1-2: “I WILL,” he doesn’t say, “Well, I should praise the Lord, but you know . . .” No, “I WILL praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I WILL shew forth all thy marvelous works. I WILL be glad and rejoice in thee: I WILL sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.”

We keep going through the Psalms, and he keeps saying: “I WILL,” “I WILL praise the Lord,” “I WILL rejoice in Him.” That also has to be our affirmation, our confession. “I WILL, I WILL.”

Evangeline: I wanted to find the Scripture that I was in the other day, and I can’t find it for you ladies. But the whole chapter was, choose joy. It was Paul and Timothy, and they were nearly dying. They were in jail, and it was so funny. It was so great. The whole chapter was, OK, be happy! Choose joy! Be excited about life! Over-excited about life! The whole thing was like, oh man!

I must have read it before, but I never read it like this. I’m underlining all the things, and there were about twelve of them in just one chapter. All of choosing your state. It was incredible!

Nancy: Absolutely! Yes.

Evangeline: Yeah. Like King David. “I will. I will. I will.”

Nancy: Exactly. It’s all a choice, isn’t it? We’re going to choose joy.

Evangeline: Will you? Today?

Nancy: Absolutely! I love Psalm 46:4: “There is a river, the streams of which make glad the city of God, the sanctuary of the tents,” that means “the homes,” “of the most High.” God wants the homes, His homes, He wants His river, the river of the Holy Spirit, to flow through our homes, to make them glad. To make them glad.

We can’t do it on our own. We need the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, which is the joy of the Holy Spirit. It’s only through the river. And, of course, this river has many, many streams. The Holy Spirit wants to flow out in streams, in streams of joy and gladness, streams of love, and forgiveness, and sweetness, and healing, and encouragement, and building up. Streams of compassion and kindness, and tender-heartedness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, patience, peace-making. We just go on and on.

There’s a stream for every need that we have as we’re raising our children and building our homes. They may not all flow at once, but they will flow as we need them. It’s all through the power of the Holy Spirit that makes glad the homes the homes of our God, Amen?

Evangeline: Amen. Can I just say one thing, Mum?

Nancy: Yes!

Evangeline: I’m sorry, but the thought came to me that, really, what Mum was saying then is absolutely the truth, because it’s out of the homes that all those things that you were talking about, being kind, and all those lovely, wonderful things.

Anyone can be kind when everything’s going right, when everything’s going your way, and everybody likes you. It’s really a load of junk to only be kind when situations arise. Life doesn’t always go our way. Really being joyful is in the moment where things don’t go right.

You’re not in the right situation. Things are going everywhere, especially as a mother. You’ve got things out of control from morning till night. There are certain things that you can control, but you don’t know if you step on a Lego, or this one’s going to split his lip open. But it’s choosing joy in all the crazy situations.

When you want to scream, you smile! You laugh. When you want to lash out, you don’t. You claw your skin instead, and you laugh, until it becomes one great big fun game. Life does! You have to practice. You have to practice it. Once you practice, it becomes your lifestyle.

There’s not one joyful person that I have known that hasn’t chosen joy (and they don’t live in a normal circumstance . . . you know, multi-billionaires . . . in fact, some of those are sad, and some are happy. But it’s not having your circumstances, joy is not having your circumstances right. Uh-uh. Nope. Not at all. It’s actually practicing when your circumstances aren’t met and aren’t right.

Nancy: That’s right. Oh, yes! Thank you, Vange, for coming and sharing.

Evangeline: You’re welcome, because this is one of my most passionate, passionate things to tell people. I want to kick it in the face.

Nancy: I do think that joy, this is the greatest need in the homes of God today, is His joy. His joy to be filling the home. So, dear mothers . . .

“I pray, Lord Jesus, that You will bless every mother listening today. I pray that You will fill them with Your joy. Lord, we thank You for Your Word that says that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

“Lord, this is Your kingdom life. We thank You Lord, that You’ve given us Your joy. Lord, I pray that You will bless everyone listening today. Just pour Your joy out upon them. Teach them how to put it on, Lord God, because You have already given it to them.”

“I pray that You will fill their homes with joy, and fill their homes with laughter, and fill their homes with, Lord, gladness, and thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. Oh, God, that You will be praised and thanked and glorified in every home, Lord.

“We thank You, Lord, that singing unto You, Lord, is part of joy. You want us to do this, Lord. Bless them, bless them abundantly, Father. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 211: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 22

Today my daughter, Serene (of Trim Healthy Mama) is with us! While we are discussing the subject of Living a Joyful Life, I have asked my daughters to come and share their experiences. Next week Evangeline will be with us!

Today, Serene shares how she has learned, in her own personal experiences, to get out of the "grumps" and into the "glory." She shares how she has learned to CAST OFF "the old man" ("the dead man full of maggots" she called it!) and "put on the new man" as she mothers in her home. Serene is a mother of 14 children with eight still living in the home. You will be revolutionized as you listen to this LIFE-CHANGING revelation.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Well, I’m so excited again! Because today I have Serene with me! I can’t believe it because she is so busy. To get her to do something like this when she has so many podcasts, and meetings, and this and that she has to go to and attend. So, you’re actually here, Serene!

Serene: Yay!

Nancy: It’s amazing! Well, I think most of you will know Serene through Trim Healthy Mama. You most probably listen to their podcast. If you don’t, well, you sure would love to listen to it. Serene is a mother of 14 children, nine biological and adopted children, and a grandmother. The time just goes by, doesn’t it? I could just remember the day she was born. What an amazing day that was and the world has never been the same again!

But we’re still continuing to talk about joy, because I believe we need to keep talking about it until we get it. Because joy is the lifestyle of the kingdom of God. This land that we are talking about, it stems from the Promised Land, a description God gave to the land of Israel. It was a type of the kingdom of God, the land that He brings us into, to live in.

Of course, it’s the land of our motherhood as well.

Romans 14:17: “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”

Joy is the lifestyle of the kingdom of God. If we don’t have joy, if we’re not living in joy, well, what kingdom are we living in? Because this is the lifestyle. It’s righteousness, yes. And we don’t have joy without righteousness. It’s peace, and it’s joy.

Now that doesn’t mean, of course, that we’re going to have this wonderful, happy, perfect life where nothing ever goes wrong. No! Life is full of challenges and suffering and heartaches. We’ve talked about that. But joy is undergirding it all.

Serene: Yes! I would like to interrupt. I totally love that, Mum, because what I think and what I’ve seen in my own life, too, is that joy is not happiness. They’re not one and the same. Joy is deeper. Joy is an anchor. Happiness is just circumstantial, like if everything’s going right. Everything is all sunny and rosy.

But joy doesn’t need that foundation. It doesn’t need circumstances to be right because joy is so deep. Joy is so intracellular, into all the cells of our body, because we’ve received it. Life can be, I’ve actually had some of my greatest joyful moments in my hardest moments. Because joy is, I think there’s a word in the Bible that I looked up. I think it’s makarios. Is that a Greek word, makarios? It’s the word for “fully satisfied, blessed.” Also, the word for the joy of our salvation.

Joy is something that makes us fully satisfied, but not in circumstances. It’s something that’s so much deeper because it’s a gift. It’s a gift that we receive that’s not at all involved in circumstances.

Nancy: That’s true, yes. Then we read Romans 15:13: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” Just about every word in that Scripture is so powerful. “Now the God of hope fill you.” We’re not meant to just have a little bit of joy. We are to be filled, “fill you with all joy,” not just a little bit, no, “all joy and peace in believing.”

Serene: Can I interrupt?

Nancy: Yes!

Serene: Well, I noticed what you said there is “all joy and peace in believing.” We don’t get joy unless we’re “in believing.” That’s what I’ve noticed in my life, too. I don’t get joy in the doubt. I don’t get joy in the wavering. I don’t get the joy in the what ifs. I get joy when I stand “in believing.”

Nancy: Absolutely! Yes! When we stand on the truth. Yes, “That ye may abound in hope.” You see, this whole lifestyle of the kingdom is one of abounding. We were talking about that in another session recently. Perisseuo, meaning to “be over the top, excess, superabundance.” It’s not just average, ordinary, status quo. There is a whole level of life in Christ.

Serene: May I interrupt again?

Nancy: Yes.

Serene: I’m a terrible interrupter.

Nancy: Oh, no! That’s what we’re doing! Interrupting.

Serene: Things that you’re saying are like putting spots off in my brain. I just interrupted, Mom, so horribly, and I said about the believing,” in the believing.” But the other little word, little, tinier than believing, but just as important, is the word “in.”

“In believing,” and then you said, “in Christ,” and that’s my whole revelation right now. The biggest revelation that I’ve ever received in my life that’s brought so much breakthrough is that two-letter word “in.”

We have learnt that it’s in Christ, in believing, in fellowship with Him. It’s this indwelling. It’s this experientialness of being in the vine, in the branch. “You are the vine, I am the branch.” It’s in Him, and when we’re in Him is where we can find joy. We cannot find it if we’re out. We have to be in.

Nancy: That is so true. It’s “in.” I love that. We are in Christ, and He is in us. It’s the “in” working both ways. It’s the John 15 abiding, isn’t it? That we may abide in Him, and He abides in us.

Serene: In my Bible, the tiny little book right now, because I’ve got all, I’ve decided to underline all the times I see “in Christ,” or “in” something that who He is. In peace, in righteousness, in love, in, in, in. I’ve underlined it all. It shows me that you cannot walk out this life at all unless we’re in.

Nancy: Yes, I love that! I think I’m going to start doing that too. That’s a good idea. When you’re reading the Word, we are looking out for things. It becomes so much more exciting. So, look out for those little words, “in.”

You know, it’s so true that every word in the Word of God is life. Every word is life to me. Don’t just read it through. Look for every word. I love that, yes! And it’s like what I’m talking to you about this land of motherhood.

Whenever God said He was going to bless His people, it was in the land. “I will bless you in the land. I will do this for you in the land.” It wasn’t out of the land. When we’re out, we don’t get the blessings, and we don’t walk in the victory, and we don’t come into the fullness of what God has for us. We have to be in. We can’t be out. Like He brought us out of Egypt, to bring us into the promised land. That was for the children of Israel, but it’s for us in our experience as well. Amen?

Serene: Yes! I love it!

Nancy: What else do I have? Galatians 5:22: “The fruit of the Spirit is joy.” So?

Serene: When we’re in the Spirit, we walk in joy.

Nancy: If we have the Holy Spirit, which we do, if we’re born again, we can walk in joy. It doesn’t matter what’s happening in our life. We have joy. It doesn’t matter whether we feel like it or not. The truth is we have it. 

Now, listen to this Scripture: Colossians 1:11. Paul is praying for the Colossian believers, and he says: “that you may be strengthened with might, according to His glorious power.” That sounds so exciting, and wow! Woo! We’re going to have power for this and that. But it goes on to say, “unto,” what is this power for? “Unto all patience and longsuffering, with joyfulness.”

We need the power of God to walk in patience, and longsuffering, and joyfulness! It’s not something we have of ourselves. It’s the power of God in us. Amen?

Serene: Yeah. Love it.

Nancy: Anyway, Sereny-beans, in your mothering, tell us, how did you walk in the joy of the Lord?

Serene: I think the more I tried to walk in it, I didn’t walk in it. Because it was something that I realized over the years, these gifts of the Lord, they can’t be worked up. They have to be received and then rested in. I feel like the path of the righteous shines brighter and brighter, so I’ve been looking back and watching my journey in hindsight.

I feel like more and more the Lord has been teaching me that “in,” that “in” revelation. I find as I rest in Him, then joy is the fruit of that. When I abide in Him, when I’m in Him, Christ in me, and me in Him, that’s my starting place now for everything. I feel like now I don’t even have to strive, because beforehand I’d be like, OK, I need to work on my disappointment. Or work on the satisfaction, or work on these things. But it never really worked.

I feel like when I delve into and almost swim in His joy and the gifts of the Spirit, then He takes care of the rest. It’s more of this resting, this all-in. I feel like, whenever I’ve had the victory of joy, it’s saying “ha, ha, this is Your gift to me, and I receive it.” Now it’s mine. I don’t have to work it up. It’s mine. I have it now. I totally have it now, so I step into it.

It’s like Paul when he wrote about putting off and putting on. So instead of striving, it’s like, “Oh, well, I’ve paid that ugly mood off, and I’m going to put on joy!” It’s something that I open up the package, “Thanks, God,” and I just slip it on. It’s mine already. I just get in that red Ferrari, and I turn the key, and I start riding down the road in joy.

It’s not like I have to work my way up and get a little bit happier. No, joy is not happiness. But I feel like it’s something that when I realized the revelation that it’s mine, and that it’s paid for, and that it’s in its fullness, and that there’s no lack of it, it’s abundantly joy. A joy for every situation.

It’s not just joy for Christmas day. It’s joy in the hard times. Then it’s like, wow! All I have to do is just get in and wear it! I think even today, even today, just even before coming here, I had to put off the grumps and put on the joy. I feel like you can ride along for a long time and not get tested in certain areas, not even at all. Like you’re doing like a chanty, and all of a sudden, you get tested again.

I feel like I haven’t had to tell my children off for a long, long time. It feels like smooth sailing. Everything was great. Everything was running smoothly. And then last night and today, it was like, wow! They're naughty! I just realized again, I haven’t been doing much training lately and they’re all wild and going crazy!

I felt like I was using a whole lot of energy bringing them back to their chores, like 17 times. Something that could have been so simple, like washing the dishes, it could have taken five minutes, it was taking five hours because they’d do it half-hearted. They wouldn’t do it with soap. They wouldn’t do it with hot water! Everything was blah, left undone, even after them repeating the chores over and over.

I was like, “Oh, this is ridiculous!” But it wasn’t one child. It was five! I was just talking, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I felt like saying, “This is stress!” I was about to get in a big stress-funk. I was overwhelmed with stress. Then I realized, “No, I’m not! This is such an honor to raise these children. I’m just going to relax, put off the grumps, and put on joy, and realize this is my job.”

When other people go to work, maybe dog-trainers, and the dogs aren’t doing everything perfectly, they don’t take it as personally, I think, as when we train children. I feel like the devil has it out for us moms, to get so disappointed and take things so personally when our children aren’t walking in perfect obedience.

When other people have a stressful situation at work, that’s just part of the challenges of work. I had to realize it was like a temptation from the enemy to get discouraged in motherhood. I thought that it was an attack on my high calling for me to get discouraged in it.

When I realized what the devil was doing, and I realized I was wearing grumpy spiritual clothes, unspiritual clothes, it wasn’t like my physical clothing. I had put on the disgusting grumps. I was like, “Get this thing off! It’s uncomfortable, and it’s itchy, and it’s agitating. GET IT OFF AND PUT ON JOY!”

Then I found it was so easy to train, and training was relaxing, and it was who I was as a mom. It was part of the land of motherhood. It became like, “Oh, this is great!”

PUT OFF AND PUT ON

Nancy: That’s so wonderful. I think that is such a great revelation. Isn’t it amazing how when God speaks to us in His Word, He uses illustrations that are right down to life? Like put off and put on.

We all have our wardrobes. We have our certain clothes that we put on. We have our clothes that we put on for working around the house or working in the garden, or for when we go out for the special occasions. But when we have to put off something, it’s not a big deal, as you said. You just put it off.

Then when you have to put on another, put on Christ, to put on, as it says here. In Colossians 3, it tells us some of the things He wants us to put on.

Colossians 3:12-14: “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.”

All these different dresses that God has given us is our wardrobe, He’s given us a wardrobe, a wardrobe of the new man. Other Scriptures say: “Put on the new man.” Well, there’s not just one garment. There are many, many garments. There’s the garment of forgiveness, and the garment of joy. The garment of patience, and all these.

Now, as Serene was saying, you don’t have to work at it. When we have to go in and put on our garment of patience, we don’t say, “Help! I’ll have to make this dress, and get out my sewing machine, and work hard, and try and make it so I can put it on!” No, it’s given. It’s there. We just go to the wardrobe and put it on!

Serene: It’s comfortable and it fits perfectly. It does. I just love that. And I love how you’re mentioning now putting off the old man and putting on the new. That new man is Christ. It’s Christ in us, the hope of glory. I love that.

So that’s my other revelation now. Whenever I’m finding myself all in angst, or kind of wound up, I think to myself, “Well, that’s not Christ, so it can’t be my new man. So that’s the old dead man. Yuk! That’s full of maggots and that’s like a rotten old corpse. Why am I walking around, being a rotten old corpse?

When I came to Christ, when I look at the cross in my mind, I see myself hanging dead there with Him. Because He did that on our behalf. I died, and now my life is lived through Him. That’s the truth of it. If it’s not the truth of it, then why believe any of it? That’s the crux of it all. That’s the pivotal axis right there. It’s the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. That’s it.

The whole crux of my faith is that I died. Now I’m only alive in Christ. If I’m having fear, or doubts, or agitation, or negativity, or anything like that, I think, “Yukky old maggoted corpse!” I’m going to put that off and put on Christ.

It’s something that it’s a constant thing some days, some days more than others. But it’s fun. It’s a game to play, and it’s renewing the mind. As soon as I start thinking like the old man, I’m like, “Get out of there!

I don’t want to put make-up on a corpse and try to dress it up and make it appropriate for my family. It’s not appropriate. It’s not appropriate to be around my children or my husband, so I’m just getting rid of this stinky old man, and I’m putting on that new man.

Nancy: Yes! And you can’t dress up the old man. You can’t. It never works. It has to be the new man. Now, lovely ladies, we’re just saying these things but it’s another thing to get them. Just ask the Lord to give you this revelation, because when you come to Christ, you are born again. We’re not just saved for sin and ready for Heaven. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Jesus died to give us this new life. His life, this beautiful life, this life of joy, and patience, and longsuffering, and everything that we need, it’s all in Him. We have it there. It’s given. It’s given. We’ve got it. But we do have to put it on by faith.

We have to come into this revelation. If we come into understanding this, and doing this, we will walk in joy. But we will walk in whatever we need. Patience, longsuffering, and forgiveness, and kindness, all these things, we put them on as they’re needed in the situation.

Serene: Yeah, and I feel like anxiety, depression, negativity, all that, is such a burden. I love how the Bible says: “Cast your cares upon me.” That word “cast” in the Hebrew means “hurl,” like a big strong man would hurl a big rock across the field. Just throw it off! Not just a little cast.

When we put off, it’s almost like casting that burden off. Putting off the old man is like “Oh, I suppose I’ll put it off and dust a little flea off my shoulder,” like that. No, it’s like, in my soul, I think of it like, I’m in so much disgust of that old man, that I’m going to hurl off that burden, and be very stern about it.

I love how it says, in Colossians 2:11: “Him you will also circumcise with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” And I love that picture of putting off all of that that pertains to that old fleshly nature.

It’s of Christ, a circumcision made without hands. It’s a spiritual one. When we put that off, then we can easily renew our mind and put on. We have to put off before we can put on. We’ve got to get it in the right order. We can’t put on joy if we haven’t hurled off the grumps.

Nancy: That’s true.

Serene: When you’re in the grumps, it’s hard to get out of the grumps. You think, it’s been so many hours working myself up here. Like I was slightly grumpy this morning, and then I was semi-grumpy by the mid-morning. Now it’s late afternoon. I’ve got a serious case of the grumps.

But once you’ve spent that much time in it, you don’t want to get rid of it that quickly. It’s become like a precious thing that you’ve been practicing all day. I feel like it has to be where you decide to put off, like when you cast your burdens off, that very definite, decisive, “I’m hurling this off of me.”

When you put off, then you renew your mind with truth. That’s right. I’m not even alive! It's Christ living in me. I’m this glove, and He’s inside of it, and it’s Him reaching out and touching my children. It’s Him reaching out and loving on my husband. I’m just the vessel. I’m just the conduit. It’s Him. Oh, why was I getting involved and mucking it all up? I put off. Then I can renew my mind. Then I easily put on.

Nancy: That is so good. Oh, my lovely ladies, are you getting this revelation? Because this is what sets you free. This is what brings you into victory and to a life of fullness.

Serene: Can I just say, I’ve heard that “put off, put on” my whole life, because I was raised in the church. But it’s when you really stop seeing it as just a Scripture. My whole life I’ve never wanted to see things just in my mind. I’ve always wanted to see them in my heart. But it was like having to re-read them like I’d never heard them before, like I’d never read them before. Re-read them like I was reading them for the first time, so I wasn’t numb to them.

It’s like the whole issue of abortion. We know it’s wrong. We know it’s taking the life of an innocent. We know it’s so awful, and so hurtful to the heart of God. It should be so shocking to all of us. But even if we’re shocked about it, we know that it’s bad in our minds because it’s been around for so long.

Maybe we don’t have it on our prayer list every day or we’ve become numb to it. We hear people say, “OK, let’s pray. We pray against abortion.” In our minds, it’s a bad thing, but we have to think like we’re hearing it for the first time, that babies are getting destroyed. For the first time. It has to be fresh, and new, and get into our souls. That’s how I feel like it is with the Word of God. Like I’d heard it my whole life, and that’s not a bad thing. That’s a good thing. But I had to start renewing my mind in a fresh way, so it wasn’t just, “Oh, yeah, put off, put on.” And then I’d just go on my merry way.

I had to say, “No, no, no, literally put it off, Serene. That means “put off.” Like P-U-T  O-F-F. Like actually get it for real?” That’s the difference between Christianity and a life of victory with Christ where I was sort of saved. I know God saved me! I know that. But was I really experiencing salvation?

The difference between that, and how God is leading me now, it’s a place of breakthrough in my lie. Because I’m reading the Word of God like it’s hitting my soul for the first time. Like the first-time hearing that we should pray against abortion. Like the first time.

I feel like, if you’re listening to this podcast today, and you’re like, “Well, I’ll turn up these Scriptures. It’s such a lovely little podcast. Oh, yes, we’ve got to put off the negativity and put on joy.” But no, I mean seriously! Seriously, the whole crux of victory life is put off, because we’re not meant to be dragging that old man anymore. Renew our mind and put on Christ.

It’s so simple. One little sentence: “Put off, renew mind, put on.” That is joy. That is the whole recipe for joy. Everything else is maybe like icing, and maybe like talking about a little bit more, or whatever. But it’s that simple. Put off, renew mind, put on. It’s that simple because it’s already bought and paid for us. All we have to do is wear it. It’s as simple as it is.

Nancy: Yes. I think, as you were saying before, that we have to really see that this old man, that it’s bad, that it’s horrible. We want to put off, because half the time, we like keeping on with our negativity, and our grumpiness. It’s sort of, kind of, we can get comfortable with that. We mustn’t. We must see it for what it is.

Serene: Can I say one more thing to interrupt? When we say, “We mustn’t”? Does the “mustn’t” because we’re realizing it in our heart? Not just in our mind, but in our heart, that it’s not worth knocking around with the old man, because it leads to death. It leads to misery.

But it’s not work. I read something this morning that totally blew my brain. I wish I’d brought my Bible. Mom said I would borrow mine. But I don’t like other people’s Bibles. I left mine at home, but it’s in the first chapter of Hebrews. It talks about Jesus and how he is seated at “My right hand until I make your enemies under your feet” (Hebrews 1:13).

Nancy: “Your footstool.”

Serene: “Under Your footstool.” And I saw it for the first time! I’m like, “Hah, it’s so simple!” I’m in Christ, so I died with Him. I was buried, so that dead man’s buried. It’s under the ground, like way more than six feet under. It’s gone, totally gone.

Now I’m alive in Him. And where is He now? We don’t just stop at the resurrection. We go to where the resurrection took Him, which is where we abide, at the right hand of the Father. Where He is, we are, because we’re in Him.” When it says: “Jesus is at the right hand of the Father until I make your enemies your footstool,” I thought, “Well, that’s where I’m at then! If I’m in Him, I’m at the right hand of the Father!

So, guess what? All I have to do is be there, and He’ll make my enemies my footstool! I don’t have to work on grumpiness, and I don’t have to work on depression. All I have to do is stay at the right hand of the Father.

It was such a beautiful picture of peace to me. I don’t have to work on this. This is not a hard chore. I’m just staying at the right hand of the Father. So, all day long, that’s been my new little revelation. Even though the enemy, like I said before, was tempting me to get a little bit discouraged in motherhood.

The other thing I was saying to myself was “Will that trust stay at the hand of the Father, Serene?” Because it’s easy there. We don’t have to work on our problems because He does. Depression, anything that opposes joy, is an enemy. He puts our enemies under our feet when we’re staying at His right hand.

Nancy: That’s so powerful. I think you really brought out this truth, didn’t you, in the last book that you wrote, “I’m That Girl.” In a way, where you’re encouraging women to leave their old negative state and confess their new life in Christ.

Serene: Well, it’s an identity, really. It’s an identity, because when you think, “Well, my life is hard.” Or “My husband lost his job,” and “I’m dealing with fibromyalgia.” And “I've got five special needs children.” Or whatever it is. These are all real things. I’m not making light of them.

But when that is our identity, that is what we’re thinking about all day. That’s who we see that we are. We’re not going to walk in victory anymore. It’s like the revelation I had today. That’s going to be my new identity.

“I’m that girl who sits at the right hand of the Father!”

Nancy: Whoo!

Serene: So, it doesn’t matter what assails me. It doesn’t matter what my circumstances are. It doesn’t matter what! I’m above that because I’m seated at the right hand of the Father! He’s making my enemies under my feet. They’re going to be my footstool. That’s my new identity. It’s where our identity is. That’s everything.

When our identity is that we are a new creature, like never before seen on this whole planet before Christ came and died on the cross. We are a new creature that was never seen before. It’s not a visitation, where God would come and visit the prophets, and visit people, via visitational culture. Now it’s a habitational, it’s an indwelling. My identity now is, “Christ in me.”

So, what do I have all day? I have hopes of glory all day long! That’s my identity. This life, this day, all is spent with the hope of glory. Every minute, what do I have inside? The hope of glory. And glory is such a huge word. I’m sure that you’ve done a study on that, and you know all about what the glory is, of the Lord.

But that’s huge. That’s my identity. Whatever our identity is, is what we walk in. It doesn’t matter if you hear this podcast, if you read the Scriptures, and even if you try to put it to heart, if you walk away, and your identity is still of one that is discouraged, or your identity is still that of one that has a hard lot.

That’s what happened, sorry, I’m really on a roll. But that’s what happened when I went through my last miscarriage. I was so thoroughly happy to be pregnant, to carry life again. And I had two miscarriages prior to that in a row.

When I lost the baby, the enemy really tried to discourage me, and say, “Well, you can’t be full of joy now. You can’t be happy, really, because you’re not pregnant. You were so happy being pregnant, and now that’s removed from you. You’ve got lack now, so you can’t be really fully happy.”

When I walked around with an identity, I was miserable. Then, when the Holy Spirit came and ministered to my heart, and said, “Ha ha. Now, why I’m fullness? I am your portion, and in Me there is no disappointment. In Me there is no lack. And if I’m in you, and you’re in Me, then you have no room. There’s no space at all that I don’t fill because I’m the fullness that fills all in all.”

There’s no room for disappointment. We’re not like, “Whoa, what a revelation!” That’s what got me out of the great grief that I had. Now, if I get pregnant again, that’s just icing on the cake. But the cake is fully made and fully delicious. He is my whole cake. He is my fullness. I can be completely filled, abundant with joy.

Nancy: Amen. Our time is going, but let’s just finish on these beautiful Scriptures, because you just said, the fullness of joy. The Bible speaks about this.

John 15:11: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” Not half full, but full.

John 16:22: Jesus said, “Your joy no man taketh from you.” Now, no man can take that joy that God has given you as a gift. It’s only you. Only you, with your bad attitudes, my bad attitudes.

1 John 1:4: “And these things write we unto you . . .”

Serene: The old you, not the real you. The real you is Christ in you. There is no in and out.

Nancy: “And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” Amen?

I see you’ve got this book in your hand, called “Moving Your Invisible Boundaries” by Dr. Jim Richards. Wow, you’ve just got it underlined all the way through!

Serene: Oh, yeah, God had already been bringing me on this journey of identity in Him. It’s been such a fun, exciting adventure! But then a friend of our families gave me this book, Moving Your Invisible Boundaries. I started reading it, and it was another incredible, it helped reveal and give me understanding to this whole in Him, through Him, by Him, everything is in Him. Everything is the “in,” the I-N. It’s the most amazing book. I recommend it to anybody. It’s so powerful.

Basically, it’s about the fact that you’re dead in Christ, you’re buried, and you’re resurrected in Him. Just to walk in that. So many times we don’t walk in it! We forget about all that, and then we try, try to be good Christians, but we don’t have to, when we’re walking in the identity of new life.

Nancy: Amen! If you haven’t already read Serene and Pearl’s book, I’m That Girl, you can order it from AboveRubies.org. That is so powerful and life-changing, too.

We’ve come to the end of this session. Thank you, Serene. So great to have you with us.

“Lord God, we thank You so much for the revelation of Your Word. Thank You for giving us these principles of how to live in victory. Thank You, Lord, that You’ve given us Your life. Thank You, Lord, that You have stated, and this is the truth, that we are dead and buried and risen with You and seated at the right hand of the Father. Thank You, Lord God.

“Help us to see who we are and live in it. Bless these precious mothers and wives and daughters who are listening today. Bless their families, Lord God. Let them come closer and closer to You. May their homes be strengthened more and more. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Serene: May I say one more thing? Amen, Mum to that. Can I say one thing though? That Scripture, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

Nancy: 2 Corinthians 10:5.

Serene: I think that’s what it comes down to, too. Casting down all these things is another way of putting off. Any thought that comes to you during the day that says, “This is the reason why I don’t have to be in joy.” Anything! That’s a vain imagination. It’s a deception. We cast it down, because it’s exalting itself against the knowledge of Christ.

The knowledge of Christ is, He died so that everything of that old nature, all the things that are opposing the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, and all the rest. They are gone! And the knowledge of Christ is, now it’s Him and us. It’s just Him. If we have a thought that’s not Him, then it doesn’t belong in us, and we cast it down, because it exalts itself against Christ in us.

Nancy: Amen! Amen. Thank you, Serene.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you have a moment, it would be lovely if you could email a little thank you letter to Darlene. She sacrifices much of her time to transcribe these podcasts for you and I know it would encourage her to know that you are blessed by her hard work. Thanks so much.

Do you have Serene and Pearl’s book, I’M THAT GIRL?

It is life-changing. It will transform your life. You will never be the same again after reading it.

Here’s a few quotes from their book:

“Just one single fearful thought triggers more than 1,4000 known physical and chemical responses.”

 

The more encouraging words spoken to a child at an early age, the fewer problems they will have with their identity and purpose for life.”

 

“Complaining literally shrinks your brain!”

 

When you complain your body releases the stress hormone cortisol.

And here’s a few of the 156 I’M THAT GIRL declarations:

“I’M THAT GIRL WHO NO LONGER AGREES WITH FEAR!”

 

I’M THAT GIRL WHO HAS OUTGROWN ALL HER OLD CLOTHES OF DESPAIR!”

 

“I’M THAT GIRL WHO LOOKS FOR JOY IN THE UNLIKELIEST OF PLACES!”

 

“I’M THAT GIRL WHOSE MOOD LIFTS THE SPIRITS OF THOSE AROUND ME!”

 

“I’M THAT GIRL WHO ASSIGNS HIGH VALUE TO SMALL TASKS!”

 

“I’M THAT GIRL WHO BRINGS ORDER AND BEAUTY TO HER HOME!”

 

“I’M THAT GIRL WHOSE MOUTH CORNERS ARE NATURALLY UP RATHER THAN DOWN!”

To purchase, go to:

I'm That Girl - Pearl Barrett & Serene Allison (mybigcommerce.com)

www.aboverubies.org

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 210: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 21

I am so excited to have my daughter, Pearl (of Trim Healthy Mama) with me today. She has so many meetings of her own, and, of course, their own podcast. I am glad she could squeeze us in! You are going to LOVE this podcast as Pearl (I call her Pearlie) shares her story of being a “half-glass person” to becoming a totally “full-glass person”! You’ll hear interesting scientific information and discoveries from Pearl in this podcast that you may have never heard before. You won’t want to miss!

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Great to be with you! Well, I am so excited that today I have my daughter Pearl with me. I can’t believe it because she is so busy. Yet I managed to drag her along, so here she is! It’s so wonderful to have her.

We’re still continuing to talk about joy. This is something that Pearlie has had to find, an overcoming way in her own life. We’ll talk about that. But first of all, Pearlie, what’s happening with THM, and the new cafe in Texas and a whole change of our cafe here in Tennessee?

Pearl: Yes! Hi, Mum! I don’t think you had to drag me at all! I’m very honored to be here. Mum calls me “Pearlie,” and Serene does. I think you’re the only people. My husband has never called me “Pearlie.”

Nancy: He hasn’t?

Pearl: And now 28 years. I think you, Vange, and Serene are the only ones. But I love it.

Sometimes you mention us on . . .  I go to the Above Rubies Facebook, and I look at it all the time because it comes into my feed. I think I’m one of your biggest fans.

Nancy: Really? That’s amazing.

Pearl: You always mention Pearl and Serene, and Trim Healthy Mama. I’m not sure many people these days know we’re even your daughters. It’s like a given. You’d think that everybody knows we’re your daughters, but. . . Trim Healthy Mamas. . . Serene and I have been doing this Trim Healthy Mama thing for our book releases a decade now. A decade.

Nancy: Wow! I can’t believe that.

Pearl: That first book. And you launched it! It’s been amazing, the things that have happened. But it started, really, with your magazine.

Nancy: I’ll never forget when that book first came out. I had been talking about for, oh, three or four issues before it came. People were geared up. I remember going to an Above Rubies retreat, and I arrived late. I didn’t have time to even take my suitcase to my room. I just took it to the meeting hall.

And before I could do anything, the ladies were, “Have you got the book?” I opened the suitcase and the boxes, and people just grabbed, grabbed, grabbed! They were all gone!

Pearl: None of us knew what would happen with that. That’s what God started for this movement for helping women with their health. None of us could know. I still, to this day, ten years later have to pinch myself. What God has done because it certainly wasn’t us!

You were talking about the cafe, so you know we opened . . . We’ve had this little cafe here in Tennessee. It’s been a family-run one where we sell our products. We sell delicious baked goods and meals and things like that. It’s just for our community here, really.

Nancy: And people who do come from all over the nation. And they come, and they get motels, and they stay the weekend just to come to this cafe!

Pearl: We get many girls’ trips here. But we opened our first one in Texas. Actually, yesterday was the first day it was open for food and beverage. That is on a whole new level. That is a huge, huge place in Ft. Worth, Texas. It’s pretty exciting what God is going to do there.

Nancy: Have you heard how they got on yesterday?

Pearl: I haven’t even talked to them. Charlie leaves them alone because I know that it would have been overwhelming yesterday. Just trying to do all the things that they have to do when they get started. Oh, but then, we’ve had this little one here in our community, where so many people have come from across the country and Canada, just to visit.

We found out that we can no longer have it here because our lease was up. This is the place where we opened our first little offices, right here, in Bon Aqua, Tennessee. There’s nothing here! But then we opened the café, and we got a lot of traffic. Apparently, we’re all too much for the sewer system there so we’re not allowed to renew our lease.

We were crestfallen. We liked it. But this is family. This is community. What are we going to do? And then we realized we have a manufacturing center here in Centerville, Tennessee. So, there’s this cute little bungalow house that we were going to tear down because we thought it was no good to anyone. It was old. It was decrepit but it was cute.

And then my son actually had this idea. “Mom, why don’t you put your cafe in there?” So, we’re taking it down to the studs. It’s three levels. It’s going to be amazing. We’re going to make it . . . it’s so exciting. It’s going to be incredible. It’s going to be a place where people will want to come from all over because we’ll have outdoor seating. We’ll have the drive-through, the healthy things.

In that community there’s a lot of type two diabetics. We’re going to bring healthy eating to that little town. There’s going to be a children’s play area, beautiful and safe. So, we’re excited about that next adventure.

Nancy: And you’re having an exercising area?

Pearl: Yes, the whole basement is going to be a workout area, free of charge for everybody.

Nancy: Aren’t you going to do it at the manufacturing plant?

Pearl: In the meantime. The house is going to take about nine months. So, it would be a temporary cafe and store at our manufacturing plant in Centerville, Tennessee.

Nancy: Oh well, that’s all exciting! I know many of you have been to the cafe here.

My husband and I have been wanting to go down to the opening.

Pearl: In Fort Worth.

Nancy: Yes, in Fort Worth. They actually opened yesterday, but you didn’t have a real opening, did you?

Pearl: No grand opening. That was a limited opening yesterday, just drinks and a few baked goods, and things like that. The grand opening will be in a couple of months. Serene and I will go down, and hopefully you’ll go down too.

Nancy: We hope to, yes. Well, let’s get back to talking about joy. When I thought of Pearlie coming over, I thought of one of the songs that she and Serene used to sing. I love the good old days when I went out to ladies’ retreats, and Serene and Pearl would come with me, sometimes with their little ones as well. We would be a whole entourage of three generations.

It was so great. They would sing and share. One of the songs that Pearl wrote, and Pearl, I wonder if you actually remember it. Let me read it. I love the words of this song. It’s about motherhood.

Little arms reaching for me,

Grubby fingers touch my face

And love is what I feel.

Little eyes looking at me,

Chubby cheeks burst with smiles

And joy is what I know,

Peeking in while they sleep at night,

I thank God for the gift of life,

I thank God for more that I deserve.

And the chorus goes:

My heart is full, my heart is full,

Why would I want for more?

When my cup overflows?

My heart is full, my heart is full,

This much I know.

It goes on then about her husband. But I know, Pearlie, that when you wrote that song, you weren’t living up to it. It wasn’t quite like that, was it?

Pearl: No. Actually, that song, when you were reading that, it took me back to when I wrote that because I feel like it’s the beginning of my story of choosing joy. You, Mother, I felt like you as my mother were a glass-full person. I think you learned to choose that. But I think you were generally naturally a positive person in your nature. Would you say that?

Nancy: I had to learn too. I had to decide that was going to be the way I would live.

Pearl: But I remember you as my mother being joyful, very, very joyful. Each day was an adventure, each day was fun, each day was happy. I’m sure you had your moments, but I remember you, looking back, you were a joyful person.

But growing up, I thought to myself, “Well, my mother is a half-full or full-full person. I’m just a half-empty person. I’m just different from my mother.” I wasn’t, I didn’t have depression. I just called myself a little worried, a little anxious, a little half-full. I thought that was my nature and I believed it about myself. I was sort of a thoughtful dreamer, worried about the things in life.

Nancy: True. And Pearl wasn’t like Evangeline. If some of you know her, extrovert, and sort of over the top. Pearl was always on the sofa, just dreaming and planning how she would solve the problems of the world.

Pearl: That’s true! When you think about problems, well, sometimes you get half-full, right? Or half-empty, I should say. Yeah, half-empty is the word. I remember that day. I was pregnant with my third, with Rocky. Meadow, my daughter. . .

Nancy: Who is now married!

Pearl: Yes! And Meadow, my little, I think she was four at the time, was running around the house. The house, I was pregnant, and I was sick, so sick. I could barely move. I remember looking around my house and it was a little trailer home. It was very modest. It was nothing to brag about!

And we didn’t have a dime. We had no money, and my house was a mess because I couldn’t get off the couch. I was just throwing up. It was terrible. And then my little, now 10-month-old at the time, Bowen, he had just learned to bring himself up on the sofa. He was standing there on the sofa. I looked at his grubby face and I looked around at my life. I was like, “Poor me! Here I am, the barefoot, pregnant woman, who feels like throwing up. Look what I have, this dirty little trailer home.”

All my life, when I was younger, I thought I was going to be some sort of rich princess queen. Somehow, I’d marry a rich guy. I just believed it, and here I was, in a trailer home, messy, disgusting! Where was my maid? I always thought I was going to have a maid. She was not there, and I was the maid, and I was terrible at it.

I was feeling so sorry for myself, at my state. I even cried for my poor little self. And then my little son Bowen, he kind of pulled himself along the sofa and reached up to me, and said, “Mama,” and just gave me this hug.

I was like, it just demo’ed me that I was the richest woman on earth, that I had this beautiful life growing inside me, that I had this beautiful child hugging me, that I had this four-year-old dancing and singing around the home with joy. And that I had a husband that was going to come home after working all day and love me. Love me.

At that moment, I made the switch to realizing and to telling myself to look at what I had, and to look at it differently. It was a long road for me to joy. I think I failed so many times. I think motherhood is so joyous and it was a beautiful thing.

I look back at my motherhood now that I’m a grandmother. My children are grown. I look back at it so tenderly and so beautifully. But I think I sometimes I just took for granted the beauty of what it was because of the hardship.

I grew to this point over the years and over letting God change my heart, of learning to choose the joy. It changed in the end with my full identity. I no longer look at myself now as that person who was glass half-empty. I look at myself as a joyous person.

If you’re going to ask me how I am, I always used to say, “I’m pretty good.” Or “I’m OK.” I didn’t want to lie. I wanted to be authentic. “Oh, I’m going through something.” I didn’t want to be the big, RAH, RAH, I’M AMAZING! You know, like my sister Vange, because I thought, “I’m not Vange! I’m Pearl!”

But now I’m not rah, rah, but the truth is, I am amazing! So, if you ask me how I am, I’m going to tell you I’m so good, and I am good because Christ is in me and He’s the hope of glory. Every day I realize that more. Now, you bet I’m the FULL-GLASS PERSON. I’m like you, Mum, but it wasn’t my nature. It’s God’s nature and He just had to work that within me.

Nancy: Yes, and talking about your husband, that was the end of this beautiful song. Let me read you the last verse:

Strong arms reaching for me,

Circle my waist for the millionth time,

And love is what I feel.

Sometimes I watch him sleep at night.

I thank God that I’m his wife

And joy is what I know.

Wow! Wish I could just play that song to you all now. It is just so beautiful! I’ll actually put the link on the transcript so you can hear it because you will love it.

I remember, you and Serene, you wrote so many songs about motherhood. You did, I think, two CDs of songs just on motherhood. Then you did one for wives and mothers, and one of lullabies for little children. They were all so beautiful.

But you wrote this one about Psalm 113:9. Remember? “The Joyful Mother.” And where it says, “He maketh the barren woman to keep house,” to be a homemaker, “and to be a joyful mother of children.” When we read that, we see that joy is really, God equates it with motherhood.

And yet, I think today so many mothers don’t really feel that joy. They were, perhaps where you were, way back there. But I think, for a lot of women today, it is really the conditioning of society that has played down the role of motherhood. So, in their brain, they think it’s insignificant, and so they think, “Oh, I love my children! And I love this baby God has given to me.” But they’re still not loving motherhood.

There’s a huge difference, I believe, between loving our children and loving motherhood. Every mother naturally loves her children. But it’s another realm to actually not just love your children, but to LOVE LMOTHERHOOD. I think when we get to that place, and yes, loving and embracing motherhood, that we can enter more into the joy of it. Because if we don’t embrace it, how can we enjoy it?

If we think, “Oh, really, I could be doing something else.” O “I could be doing something better than this!” No, we have to realize that this is the greatest thing that I could ever be doing in life. I just want to encourage you, dear mothers today, that that’s what you are doing. It’s such a powerful and amazing role.

Pearl: But I have to say, Mother, I so agree that so many women need to understand that. But Mum, I understood that! I grew up with . . .

Nancy: I guess you did! I guess you got it ground into you!

Pearl: I grew up with you as my mother! I wanted to be a mother and I knew the value of it. I think a lot of what is in our society is to be our authentic self. If we’re feeling down, and things are hard, just to embrace it. Now, you never taught me that either, Mum. That was all on my own.

And because we have our own lies that we believe, right? And I believed that one. I think that’s very prevalent in society. You know, the extremists, well, people think you, well, they’re just going to pretend you’re happy? What is this pretending thing? We know that’s just stuffing things down.

PUT OFF AND PUT ON

But there’s a whole different way that God looks at that. He says: “Put off and put on.” So, what do we put off? We put off our negativity. We put off our depression. We put off our “poor me,” and we put on our gratitude, our joy. We put on this delight in life, this delight for motherhood.

That’s what I had to learn, to put off the lies, and to put on the truth. Because it’s not pretend. It’s the truth, and that’s what I needed, that’s what I had to learn. Not to value my motherhood, because I already valued it. I needed to walk in this truth of joy.

WHAT YOU THINK IS HOW YOU ARE GOING TO LIVE

Nancy: Yes, I believe that is true. It’s what you believe, how you believe, and what you think is how you’re going to live. In our motherhood, in this land of motherhood, we’re going to live it and enjoy it, according to how we believe. The truth of the Word of God, which is that Christ is in us. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And Christ, who is joy.

He had “joy above His fellows,” the Bible says in the Psalms, and also in Hebrews 1:9, how that because “He loved righteousness and hated evil, He had joy above all His fellows.” His joy was over the top. It was above things. That joy, that joy resides in us. It’s not the joy just for feeling happy. It’s the joy, no matter what we’re going through.

Even where the Scripture says that: “for He endured the cross because of the joy that was set before Him.” We can hardly imagine it, but even in going to the cross, there was sorrow so much that He sweat drops of blood. And yet the Bible says: “For joy He went through it.” I don’t think maybe we really fully understand what true joy is. It’s something that is so deep and underlying, even apart from the things that we face in life.

Pearl: Right! And I think it’s not dependent on our circumstances, because life always kicks, no matter what. Sometimes I was always in a place where I was waiting for it to be perfect. Then I could be joyous because everything was right. But the joy can be in the scorched places, the hard places. Mum, can I bring you a bit of science? This is very interesting.

Nancy: Yes, I’d love that!

Pearl: I haven’t told you this before. I was planning on it. As we live and speak and believe, our body changes. Like the Bible says: “A merry heart is like medicine.” As someone believes, so he is, or becomes. That’s the truth of things.

But over these last years, I’ve learned to put on and practice this joy in my life in the way I speak, in the thoughts that I allow to nest in my mind, and in my general, just day-to-day. I continually practice these things, because to practice I had . . . They took the place of all the other ones that I used to say and believe.

So, it’s interesting. Recently Serene and I have been big into gut health. We’re going to bring some microbiome testing to our women. Gut is such a huge thing in how we think, and how we feel. These days, so many people have compromised guts.

HAPPY BUGS

I got my microbiome tested and there are a few things I have to work on. But what this doctor said to me was, “You have amazing bugs in your gut.” He said, “I’m calling them “happy bugs.” You must have a lot of positive thoughts. Do you feel positive?”

And I’m like, “Yes! I’m so super-positive but I didn’t used to be like this.” He said, “Well, you’ve got an abundant supply of super-positive bugs in your gut that will give you, I would call them, happy thoughts. Is that correct?”

I’m like, “Yes!” That was incredible to me! A merry heart does do good medicine! It is like medicine. I think that that has just been because I’ve practiced this in my life and my body is responding.

Nancy: That is absolutely amazing!

Pearl: But Mother, as I practiced this over the years, at first it was all much like, “No, I refuse these dark thoughts.” Then I practiced putting God’s ones on, His truth. But, Mum, I barely need to practice it now. It’s become such a part of me that I feel it.

There are spontaneous thoughts that have nested and have grown roots. These roots of joy just, I feel like . . . I do. I walk around thinking “Maybe I’m the happiest person in the world.” I don’t know. God’s so good to me!

But I just get more and more a sense of what, of how good He is every day, and how good He is. It just pours out of my thoughts and my speech. I’m sure I still mess up. Occasionally I have a down day, but, man, I get out of that as soon as I can. As soon as I remember.

Nancy: Oh, that is just so amazing! I know, as I have watched you, you have changed. And even talking about health. You actually had a lot of health challenges in your life, and a lot of that was also learning how you think, really, wasn’t it?

Pearl: Oh, absolutely. I’ve walked out of a lot of things in my life. Even quite grave diagnoses that could have . . .

Nancy: I think now when we’re talking about this, this could have been because there was an underlying negativity there. Then, as you have become more joyful, and putting on Christ, and the thoughts of Christ, it changes your health.

RECONDITION YOUR HEALTH

Pearl: Absolutely! Reconditions your health. And it’s not a denial. These are not miracle healings. These are healings that are slow, but they’re manifest. As your self-changes with your thoughts, and I’m not speaking woo-woo. This is science now. It’s catching up with the Bible. People think that’s just mind over matter stuff. It’s not!

Nancy: When this doctor saw this, does he see many people like that?

Pearl: No. I’m sure I don’t have the most joyous gut-bugs in the world, but he said, no, they were significantly high. Significantly high, he said, so I’m just happy with that. Because I’m sure that mine at one point were significantly low.

Nancy: That is amazing! Well, you know, talking about that Scripture, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine,” I have it written down here. I don’t even know where I put my glasses, so I hope I can read it!

But, you know, this Scripture, “He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children,” well, that word “joyful” there is exactly the same Hebrew word as “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” It’s the same, same word! And the word that is related to “motherhood” is in this Scripture, then related to health. That is very interesting.

HEALING JOY

Pearl: But Mother! Mother! Mother! There are just light bulbs are going off in my head. So, really, if you take that whole Scripture into consideration, it’s like healing joy. It’s healing joy, and motherhood can be healing joy.

Even pregnancy, we’ve been talking to this doctor lately about what happens to the body when you are flooded with pregnancy hormones. When we’re a young woman in our twenties, we have estrogen that maybe reaches 300-400. It’s healing to our bodies. We’re thriving, and our bodies are like that, because we have to have babies and we have to nurse our babies. We have to have energy. Auto-immune diseases are lower. We have great protection from that estrogen.

When we go through menopause, it goes down to one percent of what that was. I’m all about replacing naturally my hormones. But when you’re pregnant, do you know that your estrogen levels go to 20,000? That’s just incredible. Do you know that that is absolutely healing of autoimmune diseases? It is healing of many things. So, motherhood, yes, now sometimes we come to motherhood through adoption or other things. But just pregnancy itself is healing joy!

Nancy: Yes. Yes. So many people have been healed of so many things during pregnancy. That is absolutely amazing. Isn’t it sad that you know the conditioning of our education and our world system is that “Oh, you don’t have too many babies, and pregnancy might be harmful.” Whereas that is a lie. The opposite is the truth because it brings such health and such release of hormones. Oh, wow! It’s so amazing.

Let’s give you the reference, Proverbs 17:22: “A merry heart doeth good, like a medicine.”

And then Proverbs 16:13: “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance.” I think that both those relate to motherhood because it’s the same word, “the joyful mother,” “the merry-hearted mother.”

In fact, if we go to the Hebrew of that word, “a merry heart, the joyful mother,” the word in the Hebrew is sameach. It means “to be full of glee.” In fact, the whole meaning of the word is “gleeful, merry-full, happy-full, cheerful, rejoicing-full,” and of course, “joyful.”

Hey, but more than that! Because I was studying this word. This word is described in the Bible to talk about parties and feastings and festivals where they really get happy. We can read about that in Deuteronomy and Kings.

EARTH SPLITTING JOY

Then what about this one? This was when they were making Solomon king. In 1 Kings 1:39, 40 it says: “And Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the ram’s horn, and all the people proclaimed, long live King Solomon! And all the people followed him, playing flutes and rejoicing with such a great joy that the earth split open from the sound.”

Pearl: Ha. That’s amazing.

Nancy: The earth-splitting joy. Now, we cannot even imagine that that could actually happen. Was that true? Or was it just a cliché that describes how much joy it was? I thought, “Well, I’d better check that out. So, I looked up the actual Hebrew word for where it says, in the King James it says, “And the earth was rent with the sound of it.” But here, in this modern translation, it says “And the earth split open from the sound.”

I said, “I’ve got to check it out.” I always want to check things out. I checked it out, and it was the word, let’s see, I haven’t even got my glasses on. But somewhere I have it written that the Hebrew word, yes, it does actually, literally mean the word that they used there, “to split open, to divide.” So, obviously, it’s what happened! *

Pearl: That’s huge, Mum! I’ve never heard it like that before, that Scripture, but it makes so much sense to me. Because as we start to study quantum physics, when we split the atom, what is the smallest thing that makes the biggest explosion? The splitting of the atom, the atomic bomb.

But you see, these things that we do and say, and God’s Word, especially, it moves the quantum world. We only see and hear and do these things with our five senses, but most of what is happening is things that we can't see or hear.

Jesus, God created this quantum world. Yes, everything is vibrating. We don’t see things vibrating but they are. I believe that joy, the same thing goes with depression or sadness. They affect things we can’t see. Sometimes they affect them so much they manifest as things we can see. So, joy, I totally believe, could split the earth. It's just incredible.

BECOME A SMILER

Also, I want to say something else. It was about the cheerful countenance verse. A cheerful countenance, what is it? To me, when I think about it, is the smile. You always smiled at us children, and that’s the thing I remember about you as a mother is your smiling at us constantly throughout the day! Just cheering us on with your smile and it showed your love.

I don’t know that I did that as much, and I don’t know why, because you did it to me, but I had to find that. Now, I’m determining to be the most smiley grandmother in the world. But I think I did learn to. I just let events get me down sometimes and then I learned to walk out of that.

But smiling at my husband, I think is something that is so huge for the atmosphere of the home. A smile can change the whole atmosphere of the home. I find that when I’m frowning, if I’m letting the stress of my workload get over me, and I look at my husband when he comes in the door, I just try to show him my fatigue and I see him wear it. I see him start to wear it and he doesn’t smile at me either. He’s like, “What’s wrong? Well, we’re old poor pitiful people, aren’t we?” Then the whole house is poor and pitiful.

But I learned to shake it off and smile and be cheerful in my countenance. I’m still working on that, but I love being a smiler. I love being that way and I’m glad that you were that to us.

Nancy: Yes, I think that is such an amazing thing. I just want to encourage you, lovely moms. I think that’s one of the foundations of joy. You don’t always feel joy. We’re talking about this today, but you come into the habit. It becomes a habit of your life, and you begin to feel it because it’s part of you.

But you don’t start off feeling it. You’ve got to just do it because that’s what you do. Smiling is perhaps the foundation of joy. You smile, because when you smile, you can’t stay unhappy, and you can’t stay negative. You can’t stay mad because you’re smiling! Smiling is releasing joy. One of the things you can do to begin to be a joyful mother is to begin to smile and smile at your children. It is such a powerful thing.

And, as Pearlie says, at your husband. I was just hearing from someone, was it today? A message I got, and in talking to another wife just recently. They’re so . . . I just don’t even know how their marriage can work. But I think to myself, “You can’t just smile at your husband constantly and them still want to get away from you.” No, it doesn’t work that way. But a smile is so endearing, and it will break down the barriers. It draws you closer and closer together. So, become a smiler!

I think of that Scripture in 2 Corinthians 3:18: “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” We are changed as we behold the Lord, and as we see Him in His Word, and we understand Who He is. We change, and we become more like Him, because we are looking at Him.

Now, it’s the same with our children. They look at us all day! Who else are they looking at? Mainly looking at Mother. What do they see? If they see frowns . . . and oh, goodness me! I see some mothers, and they look so sour, and so boring, and so frowning, wow! Help! You’d think they were just about to die! And if their children are looking at that all day, what are they going to be like? They’re going to be frowning and grumbling and complaining too!

You look at them. You’re smiling. You’re going to get smiling children.

Thank you, Pearlie, for coming! Oh, that was just so amazing to hear those things you shared. I think of Pearl. There was a time I can remember when we’d be at a wedding or something. You would not be one who would like to ever go out or dance, or perhaps even move your feet. You would just sit on the sofa like the princess on the chair.

But now, you just get in there, and you go for it! Wow! At Rocky’s wedding (Rocklyn, her son), because all Pearl’s children are married now, except beautiful Autumn. She’s the last one left. But recently we had Rocky’s wedding, and he was doing a dance with his mother at the end. But then, from a beautiful waltz you suddenly entered into this wild thing! It was unbelievable!

Pearl: I just think it’s . . . I want the banner over my life to be joy. I want it to ooze out of me, and it is. I want to dance and sing my way through life because it’s a celebration of God’s goodness. Each day He gets more good! And each day I realize it. I’m like you, Mum. I look to my future with such hope and joy because this is Him!

And every day that His Word speaks to me, it sounds so super-spiritual, like it’s the Bible, and God, and all this. But it is! There’s nothing else that has changed me into the joyous person that I am other than Christ in me, and Him being the hope of glory for me. It’s beautiful, and it’s incredible.

Nancy: Yes. Amen.

“Lord, we thank You so much that we can talk together. Lord, thank You that You are our joy. You have put joy within us. We may not have it of ourselves, but You are joy within us.

“Father, I pray for every wife, mother, daughter, listening today, that You will give them just a glimpse of walking in joy, and how to put it on. It is something we have to do. We have to put off our old nature, and all our grumbling, and put on Christ. Help us, Lord, to always do this, and to be faithful. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

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www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you have a moment, it would be lovely if you could email a little thank you letter to Darlene. She sacrifices much of her time to transcribe these podcasts for you and I know it would encourage her to know that you are blessed by her hard work. Thanks so much.

*The word “rent” in 1 Kings 1:40 is baqa and means “to cleave, to break, to open, to cleave, to divide, to rip up.

LINKS TO PEARL AND SERENE’S SONGS MENTIONED – Enjoy these lovely songs.

MY HEART IS FULL

http://tinyurl.com/04MyHeartIsFull

THE JOYFUL MOTHER

http://aboverubies.org/3476th/SereneAndPearlMP3s/SoothMe/02JoyfulMother.mp3

 

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 209: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 20

Today I continue the 15 points of when God wants us to rejoice! Most of these situations are when we are going through difficult and challenging times. The joy that God give is not just for happy times but a deep joy that undergirds our lives even in the most trying and sorrowful times of our lives. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:10: "Our hearts ache, but we always have joy."

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! We are continuing our journey through the land, and we are still on point No. 15, IT IS A JOYFL LAND. Last week, I began giving you some points about when do we rejoice? I actually have 15 points, so we’ll continue them today.

To recapitulate, last week,

No. 1 was, WE ARE TO REJOICE ALL THE DAY.  

No. 2. WHEN A BABY IS BORN.

No. 3. THAT OUR NAMES ARE WRITTEN IN HEAVEN.

No. 4.  EVEN WHEN PEOPLE PERSECUTE US, HATE US, AND SPEAK AGAINST US.  

Now, we are up to point number five.

No. 5. WHEN YOU GO THROUGH A FIERY TRIAL

Though the Word of God speaks so much about joy, it doesn’t only speak about joy when everything is going great. It speaks about joy in the difficult times.

1 Peter 4:12-14: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.

Now we see in this passage, when Peter was writing to the early Christian believers, many of them were facing persecution. They were facing hard times. And yet, he gives three different Greek words here about rejoicing. Some of them we looked at yesterday because they are repeated in different Scriptures. But let’s look at these ones.

“But rejoice,” even when you’re going through a fiery trial. That’s the word chairo. It means “cheerful, happy, joyful.” So, then we go down to that “ye may be glad,” that’s chairo, too.

Also, “with exceeding joy.” Now, that’s a Greek word. Let me see if I can pronounce it for you: agalliao. It means “to jump for joy, to exult, to be exceeding glad, rejoice greatly.”

We were talking last week about how it says the same thing in Matthew chapter 5:11, 12: “When men shall revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of things against you,” to rejoice, to jump for joy. Now, that’s not something we’re used to doing when we’re going through hard times, is it? But that’s what the Bible says. And then it says: “if you are reproached for the Name of Christ, happy” (supremely blessed) are you because when you’re going through times like this, the Spirit of Glory and the Spirit of God rest upon you.

No. 6. WHEN YOU GO THROUGH MANY TEMPTAIONS

1 Peter 1:6-7: “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”

Sometimes we find it so hard to go through the challenges, the difficulties that we face in life. But we have to look at them, dear friends, we’ve got to look at them in the light of eternity. Because what does it say here? That when we are “tried by fire,” that going through this, it will “be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”

As I’m reading this Scripture, I’m thinking of 2 Corinthians 4:16-18: “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment. . .” We rarely think of it like that, do we? We think of “our light affliction”? Oh, no, it seems so heavy to bear. “Which is but for a moment”? Well, oh my. We think it’s going on forever! When is it going to end? But this is how we’re to look at it, in the light of eternity.

Let’s read it again: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

So, dear ones, you’re going through a difficult time, a hard time, it seems so heavy, it’s just weighing you down and you wonder how long you have to go through it, I want you to put it on God’s scales.

OK, let’s put our burden on the scale. We think it’s so heavy, but when we put it on the scales, then we see God’s scales. We see what it does for us. Did you notice what it works for you? An “eternal weight of glory.” God uses five adjectives to describe what our prize, our crown, what we will receive in glory. It says: “it works for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Five adjectives to describe the glory that will be revealed in us.

When we put our burden on God, on the scales, it goes up and becomes a light burden as we see the glory, the weight of glory, the heavy glory that will be worked out in our lives. Be encouraged. Don’t just look at your problems and your heartaches. Look up to the Lord. Trust in Him. See what it is working in you, and working in you for glory, for the eternal world.

When we’re going through these fiery trials, what does it say here? You “greatly rejoice.” Once again, it’s that word that means “to jump for joy.” Wow! That’s not our natural language, is it?

No. 7. WHEN YOU GO THROUGH TRIBULATION

Paul confessed in 2 Corinthians 7:4: “I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.” Wow! Have you ever said those words? I don’t know how often I’ve said them. We don’t really talk Bible language very much, do we? We are usually more, “Well, how can I get through this? Poor me! Why do I have to suffer this?”

And yet, Paul, who went through more suffering than any of us have ever faced. He was shipwrecked three times and beaten with stripes. I think it was five times, 39 lashes each time! Help! Their body and their back were just one big mess of blood and open flesh. We’ve never faced persecution like that. And all the lists . . . he talks about the lists of things that he had gone through, suffering for Christ, and yet he says: “I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.” Read 2 Corinthians 11:23-33.

You see, true joy is not dependent on how we feel when everything is going great. That’s happiness. Everybody, even the agnostic, the atheist who doesn’t believe in God, he can be so happy when everything is going great. But it’s only the believer who can know that deep joy when everything is going wrong.

It makes me think of this Scripture I read the other day, ladies. I was reading in Nehemiah 13. I have read through Nehemiah so many times because I love this book. It’s about Nehemiah coming back to build up the gates that were broken down and build up the walls because Jerusalem had been rummaged to the ground. They wanted to build it up.

I often love to read it because we, as mothers, we also are builders.

Proverbs 14:1: “Every wise woman buildeth her house, but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.”  

We are builders. We are building a strong marriage, building a godly family, building a godly home. As we do that, dear mothers, we are building a godly nation. A nation is only what it is according to the homes of the nation. The homes of the nation are only what they will be according to the mothers of the nation. We have got to be those who are builders.

I always love to come back to Nehemiah, read about him building. Of course, he had so many attacks against him, people trying to stop him, and persecution. You’ll remember how his enemies, Sanballat and some other guys, were always after him.

I love that Scripture in Nehemiah 6. This is when he’s got these enemies, Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem. They are after him, and they are using every kind of sneaky thing they can in the book to try and get him to come down from the work that he is doing and to stop the building.

You see, that’s what Satan wants to do, dear mothers. You are building, but you know, Satan is at work to try and stop you building. That’s what he wants to do. He doesn’t want you building a strong, godly home and family. No. He brings temptations to stop you building.

But I love how Nehemiah answered these messengers. In fact, they sent messengers to him. They wanted him to come down and meet in one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But Nehemiah says in Nehemiah 6:3: “I sent messengers unto them.”

He didn’t even go himself. He did not stop for one minute his work on the wall of building up the wall. He never stopped. He didn’t come down to the enemy. It says:

“I sent messengers unto them, saying,

I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down:

why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?”

 

That should also be our response, dear mothers, when the enemy wants to tempt you and pull you away and put all these temptations in front of you, or make you feel overwhelmed, and in despair and despondent. send that message to Satan: “Get behind me, Satan! I resist you, Satan, in the Name of Jesus! I cannot come down. I am doing a great work, and I haven’t got time to come down to you.”

That’s a great Scripture to write in big letters and pin it up on your wall so you can see it.

But anyway, I was reading Nehemiah 13, and I can’t believe it that I had never ever noticed this before. Let’s see. There are amazing things here in Nehemiah, but I’m just going to talk about this one.

Nehemiah 13:23, 24: “In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab: And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people.”

Wow! Can you believe that? That these Jews, they had totally disobeyed God’s Word that they were never to marry people of another race. They were only to marry their own people because God did not want to bring into them the influence of their following other gods. But they had married all these women of Ashdod, and Ammon, and Moab.

Now, their children couldn’t even speak their own language! Can you believe that? Hebrew children could not speak Hebrew! They spoke the language of their mothers. Did you notice that? The language of their mothers. Their mothers taught them their own language so that they didn’t even know the language of their heritage! Wow! Now, Nehemiah was absolutely mad.

Nehemiah 13:25: “And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair.” Wow, can you imagine anybody doing that today? Today, most pastors are too scared to even get up in the pulpit and speak against the evils of the day! Like abortion and homosexuality, and so on. They don’t want to offend one person in their congregation.

But here’s Nehemiah, goodness me! He was just getting into it. He could not stand the fact that they were bringing this into the people of God. He “made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.” He goes on.

But the most powerful thing about this, ladies, is that it was the mothers who taught them this language. We, as mothers, have such power. We, as mothers, have such influence. I want you to realize the influence you have, dear mother. You have a powerful influence in what you teach your children and how you teach them to speak.

Of course, I know we’re all speaking the English language if you’re listening to me because I’m speaking English. Yes, we’re speaking English but of what kingdom do you speak? Do you speak the language of the kingdom of God to which you belong? Or do you speak the language of the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of darkness?

I hear many mothers speaking the language of the kingdom of the enemy. They are speaking more of the language of this society today, which is a humanistic, socialistic society, which does not actually even, they don’t even believe the words of God. In fact, sadly, there are so many, even in the Christian church, who even confess they’re believers, who don’t actually talk the Bible. They don’t say what the Bible says. They don’t even really know it.

They have more knowledge of the kingdom of darkness and this humanistic world all around us than they do of God’s Word. The children growing up in so-called Christian homes, even many in homeschooling homes, know more . . . they have more knowledge of movies, and actors, and stuff on social media than they do of God’s Word.

Dear lovely ladies, what language are you teaching your children? Is it a strange languagelike these mothers were teaching? Why am I saying this? I’m talking about these Scriptures. They tell us to rejoice, even in difficult times, even in times of tribulation.

But what is your language when you’re going through tribulation? Is it joy? Is it, “Yes, I’m going through this but I’m walking in the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is my strength. God, who is my exceeding joy, I’m trusting Him.” What is your language?

Or is it, “Oh, poor me! Help! I know God’s forsaken us!” I even hear people, I cannot even believe it, I hear people say they are angry with God. I beg your pardon? I beg your pardon? Who are we, the ones He created, speaking against our Creator? Angry with Him who is a good God? Who always does that which is good? Who knows the beginning from the end, who has our lives planned? Who is watching, even though often we don’t know it? He is watching over us at all times.

He is God. He is God, and who are we, that we should speak like this? And yet, this kind of language comes out of people who are supposedly believers. When we speak this way, our children hear us. We are teaching them, just by, we’re not sitting down, “Now, this is what we speak, children.” No, they listen to us! And they’re going to learn to speak what we speak, the kind of language we speak.

Is it the language of the Kingdom? Is it the language of the Word of God? This is the big challenge to us. We, as mothers, we’re the ones who teach our children what they will speak, what they will grow up speaking. The kind of things that come out of their mouths.

Hosea 8:12, God writing: “I have written to him the great things of My law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” Interesting, isn’t it? There are many things in the Word of God that believers count as strange. You can talk to many believers, and you’ll see a young mother, maybe even at church. She has two lovely little children with her. “Oh, what precious, beautiful children God has given you! Are you hoping for any more?” “Oh no! I’m finished! I’m done!”

I beg your pardon? Where did that language come from? It’s not the language of the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible do you find that language. The language of the Bible is:

“And God blessed them and made them fruitful.”

“And God blessed them and gave them another child.:

“And God blessed them and multiplied them.” God’s blessing is always fruitfulness. And yet we speak the opposite of the Bible.

Let’s get on with a few more of these Scriptures, shall we, dear ladies? Let’s see if our language is lining up with the Scriptures.

Paul’s confession in Acts 20:24: “None of these things move me,” and he’s just told and mentioned many of the things that he has been facing. “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy.”

Again, he says in Colossians 1:24: “Whereof I am made a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake.”

No. 8. WHEN YOU SUFFER AFFLICTION

In 2 Corinthians 8:1, it is talking about the churches of Macedonia. “Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God . . .”  Wow! That’s real King James language, isn’t it? “. . . Bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.” Wow! Can we look at that again, ladies?

Yes, how that in “a great trial of affliction,” that’s what they were going through, “and deep poverty.” But in the midst of all that, it talks about how “the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.” Even in their deep poverty, they gave out of their poverty. God saw that as great liberality. It may not have been as much as some rich person would give, but it was so liberal, as they gave out of their deep poverty.

Let’s look at a couple of other words here: “how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy.” Now, that word “abundance” is one of the perisseuo words. It’s perisseia, and it means “surplus, super-abundance.” So, out of the surplus of their joy, their joy was not just joy. Their joy was abundance, super-abundance.

DOWN TO EARTH BIBLE LANGUAGE

You see, lovely ladies, I’m not just going over the top. I’m talking down-to-earth Bible language. The sad part is, is that we’re so, we’re not really down to earth. We must be under the earth or something because we’re so below even the down-to-earth Bible language. Wow! And that Bible language is that they had abundance of joy even in their deep poverty.

I know there could be many of you listening. You’re facing difficult times financially. Whoo! I know that’s not easy. We’ve faced that in our lives too. But we can go through it two ways. You can go through complaining and in misery, or you can go through it in joy, continuing to trust God. No matter what, He will not forsake us.

Then it goes on: “And their deep poverty abounded.” There’s the word perisseuo, which I have talked about so many times on this podcast, because it pops up so many times in the Word of God. It’s why I changed the name of this podcast. It used to be, what did it used to be? Oh, From My Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell. But really, oh, we were just talking so much about these wonderful words that we find as we read the Scriptures that I changed it to LIFE TO THE FULL.

What does this word mean? It means “excess, superabound, excel, nothing to spare, over and above.” Of course, that’s Bible language.

All right! We’ve got to get through these quickly.

No. 9. WHEN YOU SACRIFICE YOUR LIFE

Philippians 2:17-18: “Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.”

No. 10: WHEN YOU FACE THE SPOILING OF YOUR POSSESSIONS

In Hebrews 10:34, the writer says you “TOOK JOYFULLY the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.” Obviously, through persecution, all their goods were taken away, or spoiled, or ruined. But what did they do? They took it joyfully, chairo (with calm delight, cheerfulness, gladness). Yes. Do you think we can get with the Bible language, dear ladies?

I can remember way back in New Zealand days, when I had all my little ones around me. I had a Bible study for mothers in my home. Every week all these mothers and children would come. My husband had made me a beautiful plant holder. It was a very great big one with three tiers. It was filled with glorious plants.

I just loved these beautiful plants. They were inside my home. Every week, these little toddlers would come, and they’d jump on it and they’d trample them down. “Oh, oh, my poor plants!” But you know what? God was so good! I didn’t stop having my mothers’ meetings because my plants all got trampled. Every week they somehow grew up again, ready for the next trampling! But they actually did survive. You would never believe it!

No. 11: WHEN YOU ARE WEAK

You all know this one, don’t you? 2 Corinthians 12:9: “And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

No. 12: WHEN YOU ARE CAST OUT

Well, in this particular Scripture, Acts 13:50-51, it tells how the people “raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.” What did they do? “Oh, poor us! They just got rid of us!” No. “But they shook off the dust of their feet . . . and the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.”

Well, maybe you’ve been cast out of your family. Maybe you’ve been cast out of your church. Maybe you’ve been cast out from somewhere. It’s not the end. Don’t worry. Just rejoice! Be “filled with joy and the Holy Ghost.” Instead of getting through it miserably, get through it with joy. Yes, I’ve had the experience of being cast out of a church, way back, years ago. The thing is, everything that happens in your life moves you onto greater realms and into larger places.

No.13: WHEN YOU ARE IN SORROW

2 Corinthians 6:10: “As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.”  I love that. Paul doesn’t say to the people, “Now, come on, just rejoice!” No, he says: “As sorrowful.” He knew what it was to have sorrow, but still rejoicing, always rejoicing.

I love the New English Translation: “Our hearts ache, but we always have joy.” That’s very powerful. You can be going through a time of such heartache. Your heart can hardly, hardly take it. But underneath that heartache, you can have joy when you have Christ dwelling in you.

The J. B. Phillips Translation says: “We know sorrow, yet our joy is inextinguishable.”

No. 14: WHEN YOU GO THROUGH HARD TIMERS AND EVERYTHING IS TAKEN AWAY

Habakkuk 3:17-18. This Scripture always challenges me: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”

Whoo! That was a testimony of total wipe-out! Nothing left, and yet, still he rejoices in the Lord. And joys in his God.

Time is gone, so here’s the last point.

No. 15. WHEN RECEIVING CHASTENING OF THE LORD

We chasten our children, and they don’t like it but it’s for their good. But as we walk with the Lord God, still He chastens us. Sometimes He uses people. Sometimes He uses our husbands. And we don’t ever like it, but we have to realize, if we will receive it with meekness, that it will bring joy into our lives.

Hebrews 12:11: “Now all discipline,” this is the New English Translation, “seems painful at the time, not joyful. But later it produces the fruit of peace and righteousness for those trained by it.”

Well, there you go, dear ladies, incidents in the Word of God, where we are to be filled with joy. Most of these are talking about hard times, difficult times, challenges, poverty, suffering, heartache, persecution. All this stuff, none of it we like. But in all of it, every Scripture says to receive it with joy.

May the Lord help us to become Bible-believing people, Bible-speaking mothers, who speak the language of the Bible, the language of the Kingdom, and we pass it on to our children.

“Dear Father, please help us. Please bring us up to Your ways. Lord, You say Your ways are far above our ways. Your thoughts are far above our thoughts. Lord, we don’t want to stay down, Lord, just in the rut of our own ways. We pray that You’ll bring us up to Your ways, and to your language, Lord.

“Help us to get to know the language of the Bible and that it will be the language that comes out of our mouths. It will be the language that we automatically pass on and speak to our children. We ask it in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”

By the way, ladies, I have a PS for you. The next three sessions, the next three podcasts, I am getting my daughters to come and be with me. I know you’re going to just love it! Don’t miss them. I’m going to get Pearl, and Serene, and Evangeline.

We’re going to continue speaking about joy. But with them, we’ll be getting down to the more nitty-gritty and practical. How do we really have it in our lives, even when we go through these difficult times? Don’t miss these coming sessions. Love you!

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you have a moment, it would be lovely if you could email a little thank you letter to Darlene. She sacrifices much of her time to transcribe these podcasts for you and I know it would encourage her to know that you are blessed by her hard work. Thanks so much.