FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 49 - How Can We Change the World- Part 15

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello ladies, good to be with you again. Perhaps you are listening for the first time. We are currently doing a series called “How do we change the world?” We are finding that we don't change the world by being ordinary, by being normal, by being the status quo. No, we have to go beyond that. We are up to point number 15.

No, 15. WILLING SERVING THE LORD

We don't just serve the Lord, we willingly do it. In fact, today, we are going to find out even more ways that we can serve the Lord. Last time, we looked at that wonderful Scripture in Proverbs 31:13, which says that this woman works willingly with her hands. Now, we see two things here.

We see, first of all, that she works and that really is another name for serving, isn't it? Because when we serve, we have to work. You can't really serve somebody by sitting on the sofa doing your own thing. You have to get up and serve. Today, the words “to serve” and also another word that starts with S, “to submit,” are not very popular words today. It's more popular to serve yourself, to be independent, to look after yourself, but that's not the Bible way.

The Bible way is often opposite to our way. Usually, we think our way is best, so we go along with our way. If only we could realize that God's ways are the ways that work. I have always been challenged, all throughout my life by Mark 8:35 where Jesus said: “For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s shall find it.” We think that we will find our lives by saving them, by looking after number one, by looking after ourselves, making sure we are looked after, and everything is nice for us. We don't have to do too much, and we don't have to pour out our lives for others. That's not how we find life. We actually find our lives by losing our lives in others, by pouring out our lives for others. As we pour out our lives and serve others, we find our lives. We find fulfillment. We find joy. We find blessing. We live an overcoming life. That's how it works. This comes right into our home, right into our motherhood experiences. Once we begin this journey of motherhood, we know it is going to be a serving experience.

We can't be a mother without serving. We can't be a wife without serving. It takes going beyond ourselves. Serving another person, pouring out our lives for someone else, for others, our husband, our children and as they grow, to others outside the home. That is the whole ministry of a woman, pouring out her life for her family and for others.

This is in every woman, even single woman. Women who are not able to have children of their own can still fulfill their great calling of motherhood as they pour out their lives for others. We always think of mother Theresa, don't we? Such a great example but there are many, many other examples too. She was a woman who poured out her life for others. She didn't marry; she didn't give birth to children of her own, but she mothered more children than we will ever dream about. She brought life and sustenance and nurturing and care, and the love and compassion of God to thousands and thousands. She was willing to pour out her life. She forgot about her own life; she poured out her life for others. This is what serving is all about. Whether we like it or not, we will need to serve in our families, but how do we do it?

Do we do it with joy? Do we do it with a willing heart? I think what we need to do is to realize that this is what Jesus did. I think this is our most wonderful example, Jesus, the Son of God. The one who left the glory of heaven, and He was willing to come to this earth, not only to come to this earth, to leave the glory of the eternal world but to come and die.

What did Jesus say in Mark? Let's have a look at it here. Mark 10:42-45. Jesus was speaking here, and he says: “Whosoever desires to become great among you shall become your servant, and whosoever among you desires to be first shall be slave for all. For even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus, who was the son of God, didn't come to be waited on and served. He came to serve, to serve others, and lay down his life. That is what serving is; it's a laying down of your life to bless and serve others. If Jesus could do that, if He lives in us, surely, we will want to do this too.

I know many times as I was mothering my children it seemed as though all I did was serve, serve, serve, all day long, and sometimes I thought, “Goodness, I'm just a jolly servant.” Then the Holy Spirit would come to my heart and say, “Nancy, isn't that what I came to do?” Once again, I would get into perspective. Yes, this is what Jesus came to do. He came to serve. He lives in me, so this is my life. Praise the lord. We see another example of Jesus in Philippians 2:6-8. Here, Paul is writing to the Philippians, and he says: “Let this mind or this attitude be in you.” In other words, have the same attitude Jesus had. “Let this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant.” Did you get that, ladies? And took upon him servanthood. He took that upon him: “And was made in the likeness of man and being found in the fashion of a man, he humbled himself and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

This is another challenging Scripture. I often think, if we were only allowed one Scripture in the whole of the Bible for us to know how to live a successful marriage, this would be the Scripture. Of course, we have been given so many more. If we were to take this one, just this one, and we thought to have the same attitude that Jesus had who was willing to lay down his godhead, who was willing to become a servant, to humble himself, who was willing to become obedient to the Father's will, I don't think we would have any problems in our marriage. Don't you think that's right? If we could just have this beautiful serving attitude. Because this is the heart of Jesus. This is the attitude of Jesus.

The other day, I was posting a message on Facebook as I do each day. I hope you get on to these messages, Above Rubies Facebook. I write little posts each day to encourage you as a wife and a mother, and I was writing about the different characteristics of Jesus and are these characteristics in us? Of course, one of these characteristics was a serving attitude. I'm looking for a picture. That's usually my most difficult thing in posting a post on Above Rubies. That is finding a picture to go with the article. I was looking and looking, what am I going to post?

I found this lovely picture of a wife serving her husband. Her husband was at the table and she was serving him his food. I thought, what a beautiful picture of serving. It was an old black and white picture, and I thought, isn't that interesting? I couldn't find a modern picture of a wife serving her husband. It's not a thing done today. Back then, it was normal.

I think back to even when I was a child, that was a normal thing for a wife to serve her husband and to have a meal ready for her husband when he came in after a day’s work. She didn't say, “Oh, you're home, better get something out of the cupboards, or fix yourself something.” No, it was her joy and delight to have a meal ready, waiting on the table, ready for her husband. That is a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful serving ministry of a wife to her husband and to her family.

I remember when I was courting my husband, or should I say, he was courting me, and I was visiting his home in a different city. Their grandfather had a bush farm way out, and sometimes he would come by to see them. He would always turn up at a mealtime because, being on his own, way out in the bush, he didn't often have very good meals. As he was coming past the window, he would call out, “Pour out the gravy.” because back in New Zealand, that was part of our normal evening meal. It was usually roast lamb and roast potatoes and pumpkin and parsnips and always gravy with your meat.

What was he doing when he said that? “Look, I'm here, it's time to put the meal on the table and pour out the gravy.” I think some women would feel most offended if their husband said that as he came past the window or even in the door. That was normal back then. He wasn't doing anything that was abnormal. It was expected and why shouldn't it be expected? God created us to be helpmeets to our husbands, to be helpers to them.

That is definitely not an insignificant thing because that word “help” in the Hebrew is ezer. That word was first used to describe women, but that word is also used to describe God, the one who is our Help and our Shield who comes to help us. It's a character quality of God Himself. In embracing that, we have the privilege to be like God, and we are as God to our husband as we serve him. The Hebrew word even takes on more meaning. It's a word that means to save, to be strong. It's a woman of strength and honor who has that grace to serve her husband. She's not some little three-year-old, some immature person who hasn't even grown up yet and has to have her own way and do her own thing and can't serve anybody else. That is immaturity because serving comes with maturity. Have you noticed that, ladies? Serving comes with maturity.

Little children don't really know how to serve. They are very self-serving. We are having to look after them and they are self-centered, and it takes time for them to learn to go beyond that and not be taken up with themselves as they get older, to see that the world does not revolve around them. We have to teach them that.

I hope you are teaching your children that the world does not revolve around them, and they should not get everything they want just when they ask it. Every time they go to shop, “Can I have that?” If they don't, they throw a tantrum. No, we teach them when we go out shopping, they don't ask for anything. You are going to bring home all the things we need for the family, to feed the family for the next week and maybe you'll even bring home some surprises for the children. You don't want them to ever get into the habit of thinking, when they see something, that they can have it. That's training them to have an entitlement mentality which so many people have today. It's destroying our nation.

We are training our children out of that; we are training them for maturity; we are training them how to serve others, and we are training them for their future marriage. Remember that, precious ladies. Think of when you're giving into your children, when you allow them to have what they want because they want it and so on, how that's going to help them when they are married. Instead of being someone who's mature and knows how to serve, they only know how to serve themselves; they are going to be self-serving. We don't want to train children like that. We are training children to maturity, to be servers. This is a sign of maturity because Jesus revealed it, and certainly, He was the most mature of us all, wasn't he?

I think of Psalm 40:7-8, and this is a prophetic word of Jesus, and it's looking to the future. He's still in eternity. And it says: “Then said I, 'Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of men, I delight to do thy will, oh my God.'” I often contemplate how that Jesus, who was the lamb of God, was the lamb of God not only when he came to this earth; He was the Lamb of God before the foundation of the world. It tells us that in the word of God. The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world and all through eternity, Jesus knew that he was the Lamb. He had to know that there would come this day when He would have to leave the glory; He would have to come to earth; He would have to humble himself; He would have to become a servant, and He would have to die. He would have to take upon himself not only our sin but the most horrendous sin that's ever been committed in the world, the most painful sicknesses and heartaches that have ever been felt in this world. He took them upon himself, and He took our place and died in our place. He looked toward that.

What were his words? Yes, it's written in the volume of the book. This is God's plan, the plan of salvation to redeem mankind. He says: “I delight to do thy will, oh my God.” We will never face anything like the serving that Jesus did. We serve so little in our homes, surely, we can do that with delight. Jesus said in John 5:30: “I seek not thine own will but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” He delighted to do the Father's will.

Precious mother, in your home, you are in the perfect will of God. You are fulfilling the will of your Father, your Father God. Your creator created you for motherhood. He created you for this purpose. He created your body to be able to conceive and bear a child, to nurse a babe at your breasts and to be a nurturing, nourishing human being. This is who you are as a female. As you embrace the precious children that He gives to you, you didn't do it. God gave them to you. You couldn't make conception happen. Conception comes from God. He gave these children to you for you to care for and raise for Him. You are in His perfect will.

Can you speak like Jesus? I don't seek my own will but the will of my Father. Sometimes, you're not really rejoicing in it; you're grumbling in it maybe. Are you having a grumbling day today? Can I remind you, dear lovely mother, you will find that when you embrace your Father's will, you'll begin to enjoy your motherhood. enjoy your life in your home. You will be embracing what you were born for, so don't grumble, embrace it, live in the joy.

Jesus said in John 6:38: “For I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” As you get up each morning, mother, what is your purpose? Is it to do your own will or the will of your Father in heaven? We have two choices every day, to do our own will, what we want to do, or yield our lives to the Father's will, to do what He wants us to. Of course, it's very plain when He gives us children, that's the work He’s given us to do, the work. We are talking about serving God willingly, the work He has given us to do. When He gives you children, that's the work He has given you to do. Embrace it. You put aside your own will.

What are you saying? Are you saying Amen? Do you know that the sheep say Amen?

God calls us His sheep. There are two animals that God likens His people to, well really, His people, He only likens them to sheep: “My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me.” In the Psalms, He also calls us His flock.

In the New Testament, it also talks about goats. The goats, they are the ones when the Judgment Seat comes, the sheep will go to the right hand of the Father and the goats to the left. What do the sheep say? The sheep are a very submissive animal; they are a meek animal, and the sheep say “Aaaaamen. What do the goats do? The goats butt. “But Lord, do I have to do this? But I can't do this.” They are always butting, and if you've ever had a goat, you'll know that they love to butt. That's one of the differences between the sheep and the goats.

Let's embrace serving. To serve means to work and work means to serve. I think of the story of Rehoboam. Do you remember Rehoboam? That was Solomon's son who became king after him. After Solomon dies, the people came to King Rehoboam, and they said: “Your father ruled us with a pretty strong hand, and he took lots of taxes from us.” Solomon was an amazing king, and he established the richest kingdom in the world at that time. Maybe it was the richest kingdom in the world of all time if we compared the monetary value to what it is today. I mean, his kingdom was filled with gold. Just about everything was made of gold and the temple was made of gold, and his home was made of gold and all the most amazing things. He was the wealthiest king. To do this, he put taxes on the people.

Anyway, so they said to Rehoboam: “If you'll lighten the burden upon us, we will serve you forever.” Rehoboam thought: “What will I do?” He went to the elders who had always advised his father, the older men of God, and he said: “What do you think I should say to the people?” They said, this is what you should say to them.

1 Kings 12:7: “If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day and will serve them and will speak good words to them then they will be your servants forever.” That was interesting advice, especially when this was given to a king. This wasn't told to an ordinary person; this wasn't told to just some servants. This was spoken to the king reigning in Solomon's stead in the wealthiest kingdom in the world at that time. These elders are telling him: “Rehoboam, if you'll be a servant to your people, and you'll serve them, they'll serve you forever.”

 He thought: “I don't know about that. I'll see what the young men say.” He went to all his contemporaries and all his young fellows and said: “What do you think I should say?” They told him the opposite. They told him to make things harder than ever. 1 Kings 12: He took notice of the young men around him; he didn't take notice of the older men who had wisdom. In verse 13, it says: “And the king answered the people roughly and forsook the older men's council that they gave him and spoke to them after the council of the young men saying, 'My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke. My father also chastised you with whips, but I chastise you with scorpions.'”

What happened? The people fled. They went off and chose another king, King Jeroboam. King Rehoboam was only left with two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, because he didn't listen to those wise words. Weren't they interesting? Words to a mighty king, yet they were words to serve.

We may not be a literal queen, but we are queens in our home. We are ruling over a domain, but God wants us to also be servants in our home.

I was talking about sheep, and I'm quite familiar with sheep having come from New Zealand. New Zealand is a sheep country and wherever you drive in that beautiful land of glorious green hills and fields and paddocks (you don't use that word “paddocks” here in USA), but we have sheep all over these beautiful paddocks.

Did you know that the sheep is an animal that serves and loves to give? In fact, it is the most giving animal of all animals. All the year round the faithful sheep grows its wool. It doesn't grow it for itself; it grows it to give away. Every year, once a year or even twice year (it has now become more popular twice a year to shear the sheep), the shearer shears all the wool off the sheep, and the sheep doesn't grumble. It doesn't complain, it doesn't kick, it doesn't fight, but it submits and yields and willingly gives its wool for the blessing of others.

Jesus himself was likened to a sheep. In Isaiah 53:7: “As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.” Of course, that was talking about him being a Lamb led to the crucifixion. As I said, I'm a little familiar with sheep, my father having been the world champion sheep shearer in his day. I'm sitting here in my living room doing this podcast looking at some of my pictures on the wall. I often call my home a sheep house because I have lots of memories of our country of New Zealand. I have sheep skins, and I have pictures of my father shearing sheep and also pictures of him at the big tourist show in New Zealand called Agrodome where they used to, well, they still do, but he has, of course, passed away now but where he used to entertain people and show them how to shear a sheep and how they trained the sheep dogs.

I want to read you something here, and this was written by, not my father but his brother, Godfrey Bowen who was also a great man in the shearing world. He wrote a book about sheep and shepherds, and I'd love to read you this.

“How impressive the sight of the giving sheep. The soft valuable wool contributed so willingly by the humble sheep who, when shorn, stripped bare and a little cold has given all that it has to give. What a wonderful sacrifice. And once shorn, that sheep is off again away on the range to grow it all over again. The sheep makes no fuss, waits for no compliments for its wondrous fleece because it has given as a sheep has always given because this is what it was born for. This is what it lives for, to give willingly all that it has.” Then he goes onto say, “The more we give, the more we receive; the more we give away, the more comes back to us. The more we serve, the more we grow in happiness, contentment and peace of soul.”

Lovely ladies, as we talk about working willingly, serving joyfully, will you do that today and realize that serving is not something to be looked upon negatively, just as submission is not be looked upon negatively. They are beautiful attributes. They are both beautiful attributes of God. They are attributes He loves to see in us, His people. Because they are His attributes, they are in us. We can squash them because we are demanding our own way. When we yield to Him, He will live these beautiful attributes of serving and submission through our lives.  They will bring beauty and love and joy to our marriage and bring beauty and love and joy to the atmosphere of our homes. Amen.

Let me pray.

“Dear Father in heaven, we thank You, thank You so much that You came to this earth to give Your life, to serve. You didn't hold on to all the glory that You had in eternity, but You gave it up for us. Lord God, we ask that You will help us to have the same attitude that Jesus has. And that You will come into our lives and fill our lives with Your beautiful attributes of serving and Lord, that we will delight to serve because You delight to serve. You said, “I delight to do your will, Oh my God.” Help us to delight to do Your Will. Delight in our mothering, delight in our homemaking, delight in serving our husbands. We ask that You will do this in us by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.”

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 48 - How Can We Change the World- Part 14

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies.  We are now up to . . .

No. 16. WILLINGLY SERVING THE LORD

God not only wants us to serve Him, but to willingly serve Him. We are finding in each one of these points an adjective that goes with them. God doesn’t want us to do anything ordinarily, but extraordinarily. In serving the Lord, He doesn’t want us to just serve Him just because we have to serve Him. No, but to do it willingly, out of our hearts. And of course, the greatest way that we are going to serve the Lord as mothers with children is in our homes—mothering, homemaking, and being a wife. They’re not mundane things. they are so powerful and, oh wow, when we can do these willingly, it just makes such a difference.

I wonder if we can go to that lovely Scripture in 1 Corinthians 15:58 where it says: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast. unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

This Scripture speaks to us as mothers because it’s talking about our work for the Lord. Everyone is working for the Lord in a different way.  If God has blessed you with children, you are a mother working for the Lord in your home, raising these children and making your home a beautiful place, a place that’s filled with the presence of God and doing many other things in your home. 

The home is such an amazing place to do so many projects, a place where you can bring people into your home to love them, and to feed them, and to show hospitality. It’s a place where you can create and make things to bless other people. Of course a lot of that depends on the season of your motherhood. When you have little ones, they take your whole life and you often don’t get much time to do anything else in your whole day. 

I can remember when I had three in 17 months, and then I had four children under four and so on. In those early days that’s all I did, was to mother these children and to care for my home and my husband. I would often write lists of things I wanted to do but I don’t think I ever got anything done at all. I don’t think I ever crossed anything off my list. Well, actually, I have to confess that even today I write lists and I still never cross everything off my list that I put down. Life is filled with so many things I want to do, but, the end, I had to realize that I am doing the most important thing. 

Then, as your children get older and they grow up and you get bigger ones and you get children in their teens, and you train them how to cook, run the house, and do many other projects, wow, the things you can accomplish in the home are absolutely amazing!

And many of these wonderful, creative things you will do to bless other people. Some will even be used to bring money into your home. You can do a business right there in your home and that can be a wonderful blessing, as long as you do it, as I said, in the right season.

Because when you do this, it’s doing it with your children and having your children to help and it’s usually a season of when they’re grown up with you and you have all these helpers who can help you in the home, can help you with the creative things you are doing, and that’s blessing them and enlarging them also. And so we wait for our season. Wherever we are, whatever season, we’re going to be doing it for the Lord, aren’t we? 

I must take you to this little passage here as I’m thinking of it, because I said how we can use our gifts and our creative talents and the projects we do, often to bless our home financially. But even in doing that I think we do have to be very careful that we don’t always do things for monetary gain.

What does it say? 1 Peter 4:9-10: “Use [or practice] hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

So God is saying here, as you’ve received the gift, not one of us have a gift of ourselves, every gift/talent that God has given to us, comes from God. He wants us to use the gifts that He has given us to employ them, to use them to serve one another. It doesn’t actually say in this Scripture to use it for your own, or your own monetary gain. Which, yes, there is importance in that, too, because we do have to care for our house or our households.

And although our husband is the provider of the home, in that season when we have older children we can continue to bless and do things in our homes. But let’s remember that our gifts are given to us, not just for monetary gain. Our gifts are given to us to bless others, to serve others. I think it’s a beautiful thing to do that, to realize, “Oh, Lord God, You’ve given me this gift, I want to use it to bless others.”

Erin Harrison and I, we do a talk show together. Some of you may have watched our Talk Show. We do it every Tuesday. It’s now on YouTube, Erin now puts it on YouTube. Just last week we were talking about this very thing and how important it is to do this, and to teach our children this too.

So many children today grow up with an entitlement mentality. Even if they do something in the home, or of course they have their faithful jobs and chores they need to do each day, but sometimes when we want them to do  something extra special or extra that needs being done, parents will say, “Well, look, I’ll pay you for that,” or “I’ll give you so much.” Well, that can be good.  But why is it that we have to pay our children for something special they do? We can do that sometimes. I love to do that! When our children were preparing at Christmas time and they wanted to earn money to buy Christmas presents I would think of all the extra jobs around the home—cleaning the windows (that didn’t usually get done) and all those kinds of jobs. I would pay them for it because they were working to get presents for Christmas.

We do have seasons when we’ll do that too,  but not everything. Not everything. Oh, I can’t believe the way children just expect things today. Dear ladies, don’t raise and train your children to grow up expecting things all the time, expecting something every time they go to town.

Or if you go out, “I’ll bring you something home!” I beg your pardon! Come on now, what are we training them for? We’re putting in an entitlement mentality that, “If mummy and daddy are going out for the night, then I’m entitled to get something because they went out.” Or if an extra job is needed to be done around the home because something is happening or someone is coming and we’ve got to get the place really cleaned up, well, they really shouldn’t have to be paid to do it. It’s part of family life.

Let’s raise our children to be those who will be employed to serve one another in the family, or even to serve outside the home. I think that is very important. That’s learning to serve the Lord willingly and aboundingly. 

Isn’t that what this Scripture says here in 1 Corinthians 15:58: “Always abounding in the work of the Lord. . . .”  That word “abound” is the word perisseuō and it means “to excel, to increase, to superabound, enough and to spare, over and above.” Do you understand how that word means “more than the necessary, over and above”? Let’s begin to do our mothering that way and to serve the Lord that way in everything we do and train our children how to serve in the family this way and to serve other people this way.

I love this Scripture because do you notice the end of it? We’re to be “Always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor . . . “  (Oh, did you notice that word? Your labor. What does that mean? Your work. Work, yes work. Did you get it? It is work, and motherhood is work. Yes, you’re not afraid of work, are you? I believe work is a wonderful thing and I think we should have the right attitude about it even in our homes.

Motherhood is not something where we just sit on the sofa and it all just happens. No, we have to work to keep our homes and manage them well. We have to work to mother our children. We have to work at homeschooling our children. It is work. But is work something that is a drudgery? Is work something that’s mundane? Is work something we just have to do until we can just relax and do what we want to do?

No, I believe work is life! We should embrace it and enjoy it and make it our lives. In fact, we really, I think, have it easy. Most of us have a weekend off in our lives these days, whereas God said, “Six days shalt thou work and on the seventh you shall rest.”

Some of us actually do have more rest than actually working six days. I believe that work is something to be enjoyed if we have the right attitude.

In fact I did write something else about work that I wanted to share with you. I’ve just been doing a study about “good works.” I started off with the word “good” and I’m looking up all of the Scriptures of the good things God wants us to do. My list is getting so long of all the good things that God wants us to do. Then, I have just noticed this morning about how He wants us to do good works and I found four different Scriptures that are related particularly to women specifically about good works.

Now there are loads of Scriptures that talk to everybody about good works.

In fact, Ephesians 2:10 says that we were “created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” We are not saved through good works. Only through the precious blood of Jesus. But we are saved unto good works so that when we are born again, “not of works, lest any man should boast.” But then we come into showing good works so that we will glorify God. What does it say in Matthew 5:16? “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Let’s have a look at the Scriptures specifically to women, shall we?

1 Timothy 5:10 is the first one. And this is written about an older woman, about a widow actually. Paul was writing to Timothy about a problem they had in the church. They had a lot of widows and they did not know what to do with them all. So Paul says, “Okay, so if these widows have children or they have grandchildren, they must look after them and care for them. This is their responsibility.”

This is still our responsibility today, to care for our parents, especially for a mother if the father has passed away. It’s our responsibility now to care for her, that’s biblical. But then, there were obviously women who didn’t have family for some reason, or maybe they lived far away, or passed on, too. And Paul said, “Okay, those women, you can care for them, provide for them from the church if they have lived (well, they had to be 60 years of age or older) a certain lifestyle.”

Now, when we read about this lifestyle, we get an understanding of God’s heart for mothers, for women. It says: “Well reported of for good works.” Okay, there’s our first one written to women about good works. Now, what are these good works?

Let’s look at the first one: “If she have brought up children.” Now I find that very interesting because God always put’s first things first. Everything in the Word of God is not haphazard, it’s all just how He wants it. It’s all in order. And this is the very first thing on the list: “If she’s brought up children.” The word for “brought up” is teknotropheō. Teknon is “child” and tropheō is “to feed, to nourish.” So that word means that she has embraced children and she has fed and nourished them.

She firstly nourishes the babe at her breast. Then as her little one gets older and then more children come along, she’s feeding them and feeding them. It’s interesting that the Scripture uses this particular word about mothering because one of the biggest things we do as mothers is prepare meals. Anybody notice that? Yes, every breakfast, every lunch, every super time and in between as well, you will be feeding your children.

But darling ladies, this is a good work. Did you know that? You see, it’s good to know the Scriptures, isn’t it? So we know it’s not just, “Oh goodness me, I have to get some more food for these children.” And as they grow up, they have to eat more. If you’ve got teenage boys, you’ll know you can hardly fill them.

I can remember when my boys were in their teens, I’d cook this big dinner (of course, that was back in New Zealand days) and I’d cook a big dinner. Most likely a big piece of lamb and roast vegetables around it. That was a typical New Zealand meal. So I’d feed all these boys and the rest of the family. Of course they were in their late teens and early twenties, the older boys by then. We’d have this big meal, have devotions, do all the dishes and then be hanging around and suddenly, “Oh, where’s Wes and Steve?”

One of the others would say, “Oh, they’ve gone to McDonalds.” I mean, I’ve just fed them this huge meal, but then they had to go and top it off. It’s very hard to fill them when they’re in that stage of their lives.

And so, you are a feeder. Dear, darling mothers, don’t despise feeding.  It’s a powerful thing, it’s part of your mothering. It’s a good work.

Then it goes on to say, “If she have lodged strangers.” If she has opened her home in hospitality. Hospitality has always been a part of my home life. When my children were little, we still opened our doors in hospitality, and we’ve continued to do it throughout all our lives. It was one of the greatest blessings of our lives. It’s so wonderful to invite others to join you at your table. It’s so lovely to have other families with children your age.

As our children grew and they got into their teens I would invite wonderful godly families with children the same ages as ours to our home and around for a meal. The children would get to know one another and become great friends. It became such a powerful thing because they found friends that were of good caliber and kindred spirits. We could be happy that they were hanging out with them because we could trust them and that was such a wonderful thing.

You can do that with hospitality. And of course you can reach out to those who are needy and needing encouragement and love and just the joy of being enveloped and welcomed into a family. That is one of the good works of this woman. We see that her motherhood extended. As her children grew, her motherhood did not stop. See, ladies, motherhood is not meant to stop. It’s not just for a certain time. No, our motherhood grows, it enlarges, it extends so when our children grow and they leave the nest, we’re just bringing more into the nest. We’re continuing to reach out to those who are needing and hurting.

We see this beautiful picture here and it finishes here that “If she have diligently followed [not just followed, but diligently followed] every good work.”

All these things are good works. They’re the lifestyle that God intends for women. And so we can embrace this lifestyle.

In 1 Timothy, the same book, chapter 2, verse 10, it talks about the woman professing godliness with good works. There it is again.

Then we go to Titus chapter 2, verse 5, about teaching the younger women. In Titus 2:5 we see here that one of the things that the older women are to teach them is that they are to be keepers at home. Now, that’s an interesting one. Most translations are taken from either one of two ancient manuscripts. So different translations will have a different Greek word.

Now the one Greek word is this, it’s actually oikourogo and it’s from two Greek words: oikos meaning “home” and ergon meaning “to work.” So you will see that some translations say:  “workers at home.” That is true and that is good. I am a great believer in women working. 

Of course, I don’t believe that they’re meant to be out in the corporate world working. God wants them to be workers at home. Some translations say: “home workers.”

Now when we’re in the home, we’re not going to be just hanging around being lazy. We are working in the home, it’s a work. Here we see it—“Work.”

The other word is oikouros It’s from two words also: oikos meaning “home” and ouros meaning “to guard, to watch over, to take responsibility.” That’s a wonderful translation, too, I love both of them. “Home workers” and “Home Guarders.” We work hard in the home and we guard the home. You can’t be a guardian of the home, you can’t be a watchdog over your children’s lives, over their minds, their souls, their spirits, and their bodies if you’re not there. You have to be home to guard your home.

And interestingly, ladies, we see this very same thing way back in Genesis. We go to Genesis chapter two, verses 8 and 15 and it says there:  “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden . . . And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”

So there were two things God wanted us to do in the home and, can you believe it? They’re exactly the two things that I just shared about! One is “work” and one is “guard.” Isn’t that interesting?

The first, “to dress it,” that’s the Hebrew word, avad and it means “to work, to serve, to labor, to toil.” It means to toil with the sweat coming down your brow! The same word is used for, “there was not a man to till the ground.” It’s man out there tilling the ground in the hot sun, the sweat pouring down his brow. It’s real work.

Then the other word, “to keep it,” is the word shamar which means “to hedge about, to guard, to protect, to watch.”

And so, those two initial things God gave for the home in the very beginning, in Genesis chapter two: to work, and then to protect and guard, are the same two things we see in Titus chapter two. We are to be home workers and we are to be home guarders, protecting and watching over our children. Isn’t that amazing how we get it in the Old and we get it in the New?

The other one that is specifically for women is Acts 9:36, where it talks about Dorcas who made these coats for all the needy people and it says she “was full of good works.” FULL of good works.

So, going back to our Scripture, we are to be always abounding in the work of the Lord. That means in our mothering, in our homemaking. “For as much as we know that our work, our labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

Lovely ladies, your work in your home, sometimes you feel you don’t really think you’re accomplishing much. I want to tell you, it’s not in vain in the Lord. If you’re doing it as unto the Lord, it’s not in vain. You will receive your reward.

There is a reward day coming. I mean, you’ll get it in this life. I mean, I have my rewards. Oh goodness me, the blessings and the rewards of our children and their children and now their children—there is no greater reward in the whole of this world. This is the greatest life anyone can live with children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren around them. They are riches!

In fact, a dear friend was staying with us recently. They were passing by and stayed the night and she gave me a gift. It was a wall plaque with every month of the year written on it and then she gave me little cards that I could hang to put the birthdays of every one of our children and grandchildren and so on, on these little round cards. So I got my Above Rubies helper to help me in this. Morgan writes beautiful calligraphy. So I said, “You can do it with calligraphy.”

Well, my friend gave me 100 little cards and we have used every one of them, except two, and this year I think we’ll fill them! And so we are just on 100 people and starting with Colin and me. Isn’t that amazing? I mean, talk about reward in this life! It’s unbelievable! And I haven’t even got to the next life yet! Wow! Be encouraged ladies, be encouraged! Oh, you have rewards ahead and you will be so blessed.

Let’s pray, shall we?

“Father, we thank You so much for all of Your goodness to us, Your blessings, Your blessing of marriage, Your blessing of a home, just a roof over our heads, a home to make life in it, our children. Oh God, we thank You and praise You. Help us to be filled with joy and gratitude and thankfulness for all of Your goodness.

I pray Your blessing upon every daughter, mother, and grandmother listening that, Lord God, You will give them a vision to see beyond what they are doing today. Sometimes they don’t see much further than today. Lord, give them a vision of what is ahead and that what they are doing today is not in vain. There is a reward coming here in this life and in the eternal.

I ask Your mighty blessing on every marriage and every home and every mother and every child listening. In Jesus Name. Amen.”

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 47- How Can We Change the World- Part 13

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello ladies, daughters, mothers, and grandmothers. Lovely to be with you again today. We are now up to point number 14 on HOW DO WE CHANGE THE WORLD? We are talking about this as wives and mothers. We may not be out there in the corporate world, we may be hidden in our home, but I believe that we can be world changers.

NO. 14. DILIGENTLY EMBRACING MOTHERHOOD
God not only wants us to be mothers but to whole-heartedly embrace mothering. We are finding out that we don't really impact the world, or we don't impact anyone around us very much if we are ordinary and status-quo. No, it's only as we are more, as we are more than is necessary, we are abundant, we are over the top. This applies even in mothering. We can just do mothering and get by. I think this is how many women mother. They just get through each day. They somehow survive.

God wants us to thrive as mothers. He wants us to thrive in every aspect of our being, in every moment of our life. It's not so much what we are doing, but who we are being that causes us to impact other lives. As a mother, you have such a privilege to impact and influence lives. You have little ones all around you, some of you have middling ones, others of you have teens and bigger ones and some who are married with having their own children.

With every season of life, we are influencing; we are training; we are imparting. That which we pour into our children, it goes on. It goes into their lives, and then it continues into future lives, and into their marriages, and into the children that they train, and into future generations. As mothers, we are impacting not only this generation and not only this nation. Mothers are those who are truly the IMPACTORS OF THE NATION because we produce the next generation. The next generation will be how we have input it into their lives, how we have trained and mothered and nurtured and inspired our children. This determines what the next generation will be like. Mothers determine the destiny of nations.

Precious ladies, no matter who you are today, with little ones or big ones, you are determining the future of this nation. You have such a powerful role. Don't just try to survive and think, “Oh wow, I've got to look after my children, but I've got lots of other things I want to be doing.” No, this is the most important thing you will ever do.

I realize that more myself now at this stage and this season of my life than I did when I was in the throes of it. Yes, I can remember being in the throes of mothering. I think back to the days when I had my first children. I started off with my first baby and then seventeen months later, I had another two babies. I had three babies in seventeen months when I started out. At that time, it was an overwhelming time.

We had just come back from the Philippine Islands where we had been missionaries. We came back to New Zealand, and we were living out of suitcases for the first little while, and I was there suddenly with these three little babies, three little babies in “nappies”, as we use to call them Down Under. I have to remember to say diapers now here in the States, but that's what we used to call them. Back then, I didn't have the washing machines that we have today. I remember having an old ringer washing machine where you wash the clothes in that and then you have to put them through the ringer. We didn't have dryers, so I would have to wash and then put them through this ringer, turning it by hand, enough diapers for three little babies and then hang them out on the line.

We always hung our clothes out on the line. There weren't any dryers. New Zealand is a wet country. The Maori name for our country, New Zealand, is Aotearoa, meaning the Land of the Long White Cloud. Often when we fly back to New Zealand and we arrive in Auckland, it's like that. You look out, and there's this long cloud. Of course, we are not seeing the whole country. Even what we do see, there's this cloud over it because it rains a lot and that's why it's so beautiful and green. The green often is like as though it's luminous it's so green. It's so amazing. Even the vegetables are greener and brighter. I love going into a Greengrocer. Yes, that's what we used to call it. That's where you buy your greens and your vegetables, a Greengrocer, or even the supermarket. Seeing all the vegetables, I can’t believe how much brighter, greener they are. It's amazing. There's a different ozone layer down there in New Zealand.

In fact, I was talking today with some folks at lunchtime. One of my little granddaughters came in and she'd been playing out in the sun this morning. Her skin is quite white, and she wasn't sunburned, but she had this pinkness all over her skin. It was so lovely, just lovely to see her out in the sun. I was saying that back when I was a child, I was continually sunburned in the summer, and I was just covered in blisters. It was normal to have blisters all over my shoulders, and that's going out on a cloudy day.

You can be playing out on a cloudy day and come in and be sunburned and blistered. It's quite amazing. Whereas here where we live in Tennessee, our summers are so much hotter than we ever experienced in New Zealand, but we don't get sunburned the same. In fact, I can remember our children, some of our children were prone to freckles like I was as a child. I remember our eldest son. He was a redhead. He had so any freckles that all his freckles turned into one big blob there were so many of them. It's amazing now, he's in his fifties, and they've all faded now.

Pearl, our beautiful Pearl, and most of you know Pearl of Trim Healthy Mama, well, I don't know if she would like me telling her secrets, but when she was a little girl, she was covered in freckles. She hated her freckles. She got most of them when we lived in New Zealand. Then we moved to Australia for ten years, and Pearl was in her teens at the time. Although we lived just about right on the beach, the rolling breakers of the Pacific Ocean, I don't think Pearly hardly ever went to the beach. If she did, she was totally covered up because she didn't want any more freckles, and her whole life was just getting rid of her freckles. Well, I can’t see a freckle on her today. They do fade as you don't live out in the sun.

Anyway, I don't quite remember how I got talking about sun and freckles. I was talking about motherhood and back in those days when I'd hang out clothes on the line. I still love to hang my clothes out on the line. I'm one of those great believers in getting the sun on your clothes and airing them in the sun and letting the wonderful sun sanitize your clothes and deodorize them. In fact, I refuse to sleep on sheets that haven't been dried out in the sunshine. I always wait for a sunny day to wash my beautiful linen sheets because after many, many years of saving and saving and saving, I actually didn't buy them. God wonderfully blessed me, and someone gave them to me as a gift. I love linen sheets because linen is such a healthy fabric, along with wool, the healthiest fabric there is, and I certainly don't like to lie in synthetic sheets all night.

Synthetic clothes are not really good for us. I wear them myself, especially when I'm going out, although I try not to wear synthetic around home because it's not good for you. I think, I'm sleeping all night in sheets, so I'm now so happy to have my linen sheets, and I always dry them in the sun. They come in so aired and beautiful. I love to dry all my clothes in the sun, although I haven't even got a clothesline.

Now, Pearl and Serene know how much I love hanging out my clothes so a few years back for Christmas, they bought me a clothesline, a revolving one. One of those that we used to have in New Zealand where it is revolving around. Somehow, my loving, wonderful husband still hasn't had time to put it up. So, I hang my clothes on the deck. At least I get them out in the air.

I think I was getting onto that because when I had my eldest son, then the twins only seventeen months later, and after I had been washing all the diapers, I'd go out and hang them on this line. I'd take the twins out, and I had swings for them. I would hang one swing on the other side of the clothesline and one swing on the other to balance it out. As I twirled the clothesline to hang up the nappies and all the baby clothes and all the other clothes, they would swing around with me. That was how I kind of cared for them while I was hanging out the clothes. They were very overwhelming days.

In fact, I have to go back to those days to let you know that that's really where I got the revelation for God's heart for mothering. I didn't have it when I started. Well, of course I loved my children. Doesn't every mother love her children? When my first baby was born, I could not fathom this love I had for this baby; it was so incredible. I wondered how I would ever love another baby as much. How could you have enough love for another person when you love this one so much?

Of course, these babies came along, and you find then you have as much love for them. Although I loved these children, I still hadn't come to that place of loving motherhood. You see, when Colin and I got together and were engaged, it was while we were engaged that we, my husband, went out full time for God. We have really been serving the Lord full time since we were engaged. My vision was to change the world for God.

We got married, and we had our first baby and then these two babies came along, all unexpected. Can you believe it, that I didn't know I was having twins until I had them? Now today, that would be hard to believe because everyone has their ultrasounds every month to check their baby. Back in those days, we didn't have ultrasounds. In fact, I wasn't even checked until the end of my pregnancy. I conceived in the Philippine Islands, and we came back to New Zealand when I was about eight months pregnant. I went to a doctor. He said, “Well, everything looks fine. Actually, I'm going off to England so when you are ready to have the baby, go into the hospital. Whoever is on duty will look after you.” That's just what happened.

In fact, I went in a week early, and it was a false alarm and still nobody detected twins. Nobody looked at me and said, “Oh my, you look big. Do you think you could be having twins?” You see, I'm tall. I may have shrunk a little bit, but I am/was 6 ft, so nobody really noticed. Although, I did. I thought, “My, I've got some huge baby in here.” It wasn't until my due date that I went in again, yes, I was in labor again and lasted right till then for twins. They were listening to the heartbeat with the old doppler, and the nurse said, “Hmm, interesting, I can hear another heartbeat. Oh well, could be an echo. Let's just wait and see!”

Evangeline was born. They felt my tummy. “Oh yes, there's another one there,” they said. About five minutes later, Stephen was born. That was the first news that I ever had that we were having twins. Suddenly, here I was, with three little babies in four walls, living out of suitcases, washing nappies with this old ringer washing machine and didn't know anybody, just come back from the Philippine Islands, and I wondered what had happened to me. My husband, he kept going out serving the Lord, and I was stuck at home.

Do you know, ladies, at that time, I thought that I had got out of the will of God? “Oh God, what have I done with my life? I can no longer serve You. I'm stuck home with these three babies. Oh God, I'm sorry, what have I done?” I kept crying out to Him, and He began to show me. He began to reveal to me that I was in His perfect will, that He had chosen to create me a female in order to fulfill His destiny in me. It was as a female that He would be glorified in me. It was at that time that I realized, yes, this is who I am. I had never really embraced my femaleness before in my whole life. I'd always wanted an adventurous life, and I thought, “Oh my, the men have so much more adventure, and why am I a woman?” But God had to come, and He showed me, “I created you this way. I created you. Your body is created for childbearing. This is how I made your body. It's totally different to a male body. I have given you a womb; I have given you breasts. Every way I have created your body is for childbearing, even right down to your elbow.” They are shaped differently than man's; they are shaped in a way that is easy to cradle babies. Every part of a women's body is created for ultimate childbearing.

I didn't get this revelation all in one hit; it came little by little. As God showed it to me, I was able to embrace, for the very first time in my life, my femininity, my womanhood, my motherhood, so I embraced it. I was able to come little by little to that place of not only loving my children but loving motherhood, knowing I was in the perfect will of God, knowing it was His destiny for me. As I began to embrace it and love it, I could begin to walk in the fullness of it and the joy of it.

When we don't come to that place, we walk in frustration. Perhaps you may be a mom who is in a frustrated place at the moment. I understand. I was a frustrated mother in the beginning; I was frustrated. I loved these children, but I had not embraced motherhood. I felt that I had more important things to do. I had to come to that place of embracing, embracing with all my heart, knowing that this was God's destiny upon my life, that this is who He had created me to be. As a mother, I would fulfill this destiny that He had for me. It was a very powerful time in my life. I was able to come into that, and of course, more and more as I walked in motherhood.

Everything in our lives is a MORE AND MORE walk, isn't it, lovely ladies? I simply love that Scripture in Proverbs 4:18 which says: “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” I always call my walk with the Lord a more and more walk. It's always more and more. In fact, if we get in a rut and we are not coming into more understanding and revelation of our great God, we are in a rut. Even in our motherhood, if we aren't coming to more understanding of God's incredible role for us as wives and mothers, we are in a rut. We are never meant to be in a rut. There's always more if we will only seek after Him and embrace what He gives us and then be open for more and more.

Now, some of you are in that time of little ones all around you that I was talking about in my life, and some of you are getting older children, some even older. I'm in the season now of not only being a grandmother but being a great-grandmother, yet have I finished learning about motherhood? No, I'm still learning. I come to God every day, “Father, I'm here to learn more from You. I know You have so much in Your heart for us as wives and mothers. I want You to show me more of Your ways because I'm an older mother now, and I have a responsibility to teach the younger women. Show me Your ways.”

God is continually opening the Scriptures to me. They are always new. The Scriptures are like that. You can read the Word from cover to cover, and you go back, and you still are finding new things. Don't you love it? I hope there are some older moms listening today along with young moms. Dear older, fellow mothers, we have such a responsibility to teach and encourage and train the young mothers. Don't vacate this very important season, this important watch of your mothering, which is the watch of you're now responsible for another generation. It does concern me that there are many, many older mothers today who have vacated this season, who have vacated this watch: “I've done it; I've raised my children. That’s it. Now I'm going on to something else.” No, we never ever, ever, ever stop mothering. We are mothers until we meet Jesus because this is who He created us to be, but we are mothers of different seasons. Our mothering is going to be different at the different seasons of our lives.
At this stage, we are at a season when we should be training another generation.

It saddens me when I will send out a new Above Rubies magazine, and I will get emails from older mothers, “Thank you, Nancy, for blessing me all these years as I was raising my children, but my children are grown now, so I don't need Above Rubies anymore. Can you take me off your list?” My heart is grieved because I'm thinking, their children, don't they want to keep getting the magazine for their children? Are they not passing it on to them? Are they not saying, here are the names of my children who are now getting married because they will need the magazine? Are they not thinking of another generation that is coming on, that God has mandated them to train and to encourage and to pass on God's truth to them?

Oh my, every mother needs Above Rubies. In fact, single women need it. I have loads of young women, who are not yet married, who love to get Above Rubies because they are wanting to prepare their hearts for motherhood. Of course, every mother with little ones and middling ones and teenagers all need Above Rubies. The older moms need it too because we need daily refreshing so that we are refreshed to encourage the young moms. How can we do it if we are off doing something else? How can we show them the way if we don't know it ourselves, and it's not in our hearts, and we are not getting refreshed in it ourselves?

Wherever you are in your mothering season, I want to encourage you today to embrace it. Embrace it with all your heart. Don't be an ordinary mother, surviving, and just getting through each day. Embrace it so that you intend, as you wake up each morning, to be the greatest mother in history, where you are going to pour out your life as a mother. Ladies, there is never enough time to pour out everything we want into our children.

Now, can I talk to you young mothers? It's like one blink of my eye of my children growing up. Even when my first son was married, it was like one blink of my eye from the day that he was born—that glorious, wonderful, amazing day when he was born. When your firstborn is born, it's the most incredible moment of your life, and I still remember it vividly. It was like one blink of my eye, and he was married. Now, he has children who are married, and grandchildren. You see ladies, don't take it for granted. You will always feel, if only I could have poured more into them. there wasn't enough time. Embrace your motherhood. Do it passionately. Do it diligently, with all your heart.

Can I encourage you with this? I do believe that mothers who are passionate mothers, who have embraced their vision from God, they know their mandate from God, they know who they are, they know that God has given them this mothering, this anointing of motherhood because we all have this anointing. Even if you don't have any children, you are still an anointed mother. God has put within you this anointed, nurturing heart. It’s in every woman. Every female is created with a nurturing heart, and it is in us. If we don't feel it's in us, it's only because it's been brainwashed out of us by this society and this education system.

Yet, it's amazing, even those who have it brainwashed out of them to have children, you will notice, they still have pets. Oh yes. If a woman doesn't have children, she will have a pet because she's got to pour out her nurturing heart on something. That's why so many people have so many pets today who don't have children. I know older women who are longing for grandchildren; their children have grown, and they are not getting married and if they are, they are taking so many years to have children. These poor grandparents are waiting and waiting because we are not ever meant to be waiting for grandchildren.

No, it's meant to be a cycle. We have children, if God blesses us and continues to bless us with children. Often, we will be having a little baby and our older children will be in late teens, maybe getting into twenties, sometimes they will be getting married. As this little one is growing, instead of having the empty nest for years and years, then you have a grandchild coming on, and that's how God intends it. Instead, many have the empty nest for so many years, and they are waiting to be grandparents for year after year after year. I know one beautiful woman, and she's going to be the most amazing grandmother the world has ever seen, but she hasn't got a grandbaby yet, so she has lots of little puppies. We've got to nurture; that's who we are.

Let's pray, shall we?

“Father, we thank You so much for Your plan. Lord God, in this society, Your beautiful plan for women is disdained, and there are so many growing up who have been brainwashed with lies and delusions about who we are as women. I pray, Father, that You will come to every daughter, mother, grandmother listening today and confirm and affirm them in the truth, in Your truth of who they are and how You have created us to be nurturing women, Lord, with our own children or in society, to the hurting and the needy. Father, I ask, Lord God, that You will save us from being passive mothers, and You will change us to be passionate mothers who embrace motherhood with all our hearts, and we will be great mothers in our homes and in society. Wherever we go, we will go with this mothering anointing upon us, to bring Your compassion and love and Your nurture into society. We ask it in the precious name of Jesus, Amen.”

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 46- How Can We Change the World- Part 12

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello.  Well we are still on point number 14 of “How do we Change the World?” And, I still have a few more thoughts on this point, which is ADAMANTLY ADVOCATING FOR LIFE.  And so we’ve been talking about this for some time, and last time we were talking about nursing our babies again. This is all about life, precious ladies. And, you know, how do we change the world? Goodness me! These are sessions about how do we change the world and I’m talking about nursing babies?! How on earth do we change the world nursing babies?  Well, I believe that we can do mighty and powerful things as nursing mothers. Because when we’re nursing a baby, we have another baby, another life that God has given to us that God has planned, that God has chosen before the foundation of the world, and who knows who this baby is that we’re nursing at the breast? Who knows what this baby is going to do in life? Who knows the impact this baby is going to have on the world?

Precious mother, as you’re nursing your baby, you’re not wasting your time. No, don’t be reading some stupid magazine—well you can be reading Above Rubies—but don’t be reading some junk while you’re nursing your baby. You can open the Word, or you can read Above Rubies and get blessed and encouraged, and you can pray, and you can read stories to your other children. Of course, it’s lovely to have those beautiful times when you’re just nursing, but you can do lots of other things too with your children. You can even be homeschooling while you’re nursing your baby. 

I remember when I started Above Rubies, over 41 years ago, and many times I was nursing my baby as I was doing Above Rubies. It was Serene who was a baby when I started Above Rubies, and it’s amazing what you can do. I believe the greatest way that we as mothers can change the world is by embracing the children, being open to the children, saying Yes to the children that God wants us to have and to be raising them for God—and that begins with nursing them. 

Oh, all this is so powerful, precious ladies. It’s powerful, and I believe that it’s time that we got back to God’s original plan and the blessing that He has for us in our lives. And we’ve been talking a lot, but I’d like to read you some Scriptures.  I’m turning to them here. I believe that they are all wonderful Scriptures as we think about the possibility of “Could I have another baby?” and so on. So many mother think, “Well I have two, three, or maybe have four,” “Well, my husband doesn’t want any more and we think that’s about all we will want.” But you know, the ultimate thing is just to trust God, to let Him be sovereign. Don’t you think that’s the best thing that we can ever do in life, to yield ourselves to God’s sovereignty?   don’t think there’s any more beautiful thing than being yielded to the sovereignty of God. 

I’ve often had mothers, with even quite large families, come to me and say, “Well look, we’ve got eight or maybe nine children and, whew, I think that’s enough. Don’t you think we should stop now?” I say to them, “Well why stop when you’re just about at the finishing line?  How ridiculous to stop before you finish!  What does it say in Ecclesiastes 7:8? “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.” Even Jesus Himself said to the Father when He was praying in John 17:4: “I have glorified Thee on earth.  I have finished my course.” 

I think that’s a beautiful testimony to have. Jesus had it. Don’t you think it’s a wonderful testimony for us to have, too? I want that testimony to be able to say when I stand before the Lord, “I glorified You when I was on earth. I finished the course You gave me to do.” And because God created you to mother, and you’re only able to do this in this particular season of your life. Life is full of seasons, and dear ladies, this season is not a very long season when you think how today people are living into their eighties and into their nineties. And yet this season of motherhood is only twenty, or at the very most thirty years of our lives. That’s not even near half our life and it’s this special season when we are yielded to God to visit us, if this is His plan.

And the wonderful thing is, is that when we yield ourselves to God, if He doesn’t give us any more children, well, we know we’re in His perfect will. But if He gives us another baby, well then, we know we are in His will again, because He is sovereign. And what He does is perfect, and it’s perfect for our lives. It’s perfect for what God wants to happen in this world. It’s perfect for eternity. So, let’s just be yielded to His beautiful and ultimate sovereignty. 

First Corinthians 6:19-20 says: “What?  Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own.  For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 

We glorify God in our body by yielding to who He created us to be. When we stop being who He created us to be, and as we were talking in last session, when we stop, not because God stops, but because we planned to stop and we stop having children, we are no longer, not only glorifying God as a woman, as a female, but we stop the blessings on our life. The blessings of health, and we put ourselves in that place where we can be perhaps even susceptible to female cancers because we’re atrophying, and our body is not doing what we were created to do.

Okay, let’s go back to the Old Testament.  Isaiah 29:16, and the Bible says here: “You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay? And the thing made should say of its maker, ‘He did not make me’, or the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding.’”

We’ve turned things upside down today, haven’t we?  It seems today that the clay tells the Potter what to do. We say to the Potter, “Well God. That’s all the children I want. We’ve got our boy; we’ve got our daughter. That’s it, thank You. We’ve got to do this, and we’ve got to do that.” And we tell the Potter—we’re the clay, but we’re the one in charge! This is upside down because the clay is in the hands of the potter and we who are the clay are to be in His hands. 

Isaiah 45:9: “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots. Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’? Or woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’” Questioning God!

Isaiah 64:8: “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.”

 Jeremiah 18:6: “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD.  Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel?” 

And, of course, He is speaking personally to each one of us.  How do you read the Word of God?  I read it personally.  Is that how you read it?  I read it as though God is speaking every word personally to me. 

Now of course I know that there are many passages of the Word that, especially in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and many of the minor prophets, where there are prophetic words which are speaking absolutely directly about Israel, about the physical Israel, the land of Israel, the land of Israel that we know today. It’s speaking about that land and prophetically of what God is yet going to do in that land and what He is going to do with His people, and they are literally for Israel. So we recognize that and we claim those promises for Israel. 

But even in them, there’s always that personal word, too, because the Word of God comes in so many layers.  It comes to speak directly to that person or that nation that it’s writing to. But it comes personally as well. And that’s what makes the Word of God alive and living, and how I love it! I love every word of His precious living Word. 

Back to the New Testament, Romans 9:20: “Who are you, a mere human being, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me this way?’”

Sometimes women will say to God, “Why did you make me like this?   mean, I didn’t plan to have a womb.” But you see, this is how God planned it. This is who we are, and who are we to say to God?  e is the Potter, we are the clay, and it’s all for our blessing.  h dear ladies, there’s something about embracing, and with abandonment, God’s plan for us and that’s when we come into the fullness of joy and delight in our mothering and who we are as a woman. 

One last Scripture, because there’s nothing better than the Scripture. They’re better than my words, aren’t they?  Romans 12:1: “I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” 

Presenting, yielding our bodies to the Lord because He is our Potter, we are the clay and He is totally sovereign. 

Now, I’d like to just go on to a different thought.  I’ve been thinking about this since I saw some newspapers and also on the internet of some information about people who are on opioids today.  These are some of the headings that I read just recently: “Drug Overdose Deaths among Middle Aged Women Soar.” My, that caught my attention! I thought that it would be amongst young people.

Then I noticed this heading: “Biggest Jump in Drug Overdoses was among Middle Aged Women.” One article stated that in 2016, 52,404 died through drug overdose, 20,101 of these were using prescription drugs, and of these the No. 1 percentage were of middle-aged women using anxiety drugs and anti depressants. Another article said that the rate of death from opioid overdoses soared 500 percent among women over thirty. 

Now, this was really getting me very concerned.  I read one other article and it said that two thirds of those taking dependant forming medicines are in their fifties and sixties. I thought, wow, why is this? 

Now of course, I’m not a professional and I know that there will be medical reasons for many of these. But, dear ladies, I don’t think we have to look very far to see that one of the reasons, perhaps the biggest reason, apart from the exceptions (there’s always exceptions) and there’s always certain situations, always, you know, these medical things. But I believe that suddenly, in these last few years, for middle aged women to actually have the biggest percentage of all these people on anxiety drugs and anti-depressants, I believe it’s because women have turned away from the lifestyle God intended for them.  I believe, ladies, it’s impossible to go in the opposite direction to God’s plan and still walk in all His blessings. That doesn’t work. 

Now we have been talking in some of our last sessions about the blessings of motherhood and being in the home and how that when we’re in the home that we are able to enjoy these beautiful hormones and especially that wonderful, blissful, and anti stress (did you hear that? Anti-stress) hormone of oxytocin (even prolactin is also anti stress). Oxytocin is a hormone that we enjoy when we’re nursing a baby, when we’re sitting around the meal table together, when we’re eating, when we’re hugging and touching our husbands and our children, and we’re love-making in a beautiful and permanent marriage. All these things release oxytocin and yet we have these women, thirties up, and middle age, and even up to fifties and sixties taking these anti-depressants. Oh, this is so sad.  

But when you think back of what’s been happening in the last couple of generations, or three generations or so, and how that the trend has come for women to delay getting married. The current statistics in our nation today are now 29 years for men and 28 years for women. That is very late. It is not biblical. Couples are meant to marry when they’re young, unless they don’t meet that wonderful person until they’re older. And sometimes that happens. A person just doesn’t meet that one until they’re older. But often they do meet them when they’re young. But they don’t get married. Sometimes they just live together and that is living in adultery and the Bible says that no adulterer will enter the Kingdom of Heaven (2 Corinthians 6:9, 10). Some are going from one partner to another and so they’re delaying getting married where in a godly marriage, you can enjoy bliss. And they are delaying children. They wait to get married and they wait to have children, and when they eventually have children, well they have their one and two and that has been happening for a number of generations now. 

And so what happens ladies? These women, of course, they have their one or two and they get out in their careers and they get more and more entrenched in their careers and that becomes their life and then they get to middle age. What have they got?  Instead of now, at this age of their lives, when they’re getting near to this age of life, when they would be getting grandchildren, but, oh no, their children are following the same lifestyle as them. Getting married later, delaying child-bearing and limiting the number of their children. And so they don’t have any little babies around them. They don’t have any little children of their own flesh and blood around them. They’re just in the rat race of society. They’re out doing what God intended the man to do which is to be the provider, out there in that market place, out there in the fight and to provide and to be protecting the family. Instead the woman has chosen that role. It’s not her role. That’s going to give her stress and then she doesn’t have all these beautiful hormones because she’s not in the home and she hasn’t got little ones around her. 

I meet many grandparents who are our age, and often I’ll say to them, well I say I meet grandparents, but actually many of them aren’t even grandparents, but our age, and we’re grandparents. In fact, now we are great-grandparents and we’re getting on to the great-grand-parenting now. But I will meet them and say, “Oh, so do you have some grandchildren?”  Sometimes they will say, “Yes, we have two” and their faces are just beaming. They are so blessed to have these children; they’ve waited so long for them and they are their life. 

But many others will say, “No, sorry, we’re waiting, we’re still waiting, but our children, they’re not interested in having children yet” and so there they are. What a life? I mean, it’s not the life that God intended for us.

That’s one of the reasons why I believe God intended women to go through menopause at about 50 years of age because if a woman is embracing the children that God has for her, and He blesses her (sometimes God just gives a couple one or two, I don’t know, God’s plan is always His best plan) but many times as couples will trust Him and His sovereignty in their lives they may have eight, nine, or even ten children. And by the time they’re getting to 50, they’ve got children who are already married and so they’re getting grandchildren and they’ve got no little babies left, but now they’ve got babies coming on. So there is always the lifestyle of babies, a little baby in the home. As this baby is growing up, well, then a grandbaby comes. 

Some mothers are so blessed to have a baby, a grandmother, along with their daughter who is having a baby at the same time. I think that’s a very special thing. I always hoped that would happen to me, but I didn’t get that joy. But I think that’s wonderful when that happens. And so, these mothers never have the empty nest syndrome and they just have babies coming on and they’re still in that lifestyle of being in the home and mothering and so on. I think this is one of the reasons why it must be that so many women in middle-age today are on these anti-depressants. Wow! That’s just so sad. 

Of course, for some it may be that they have not learned yet to live in the rest that God has for us. Because that’s another thing we do have to learn, whether we’re mothers or women who are out in their careers. We have to learn to live in the rest that God has provided for us. God intends us to live in rest. Did you know that ladies?

Rest. God gives rest. God lives in rest. God never get’s in a state of stress. God never get’s in turmoil. God never get’s overwhelmed, He is always in a state of rest. It’s part of who He is.  When Christ comes to dwell in us He wants to bring His rest. You all know Matthew 11:28-30 where Jesus said: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”  You see how He loves to give rest. “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 

Now we see rest two times in that Scripture. In the beginning it says, “Come and I will give you rest”. Now I believe that first rest is speaking about the rest that we have when we receive forgiveness of sin and when we receive forgiveness from Jesus and His blood covers our sins.  We are set free from not only the sin, but the guilt of the sin and we have such rest, because we have no rest when we are in sin. Even when we are born again, well we’re still not perfect and we can sin, and if we do sin, we’re certainly not going to be in rest. Have you found that? You’re not going to have any rest while you are in sin or you have done something you know has grieved the Spirit of God. So you’ve got to get right. 

We go to 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And so we come, and we seek His forgiveness and rest comes again. 

But this Scripture goes on to say: “And ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Deep down in your soul. Even when you’re going through a challenging, difficult, trying, oh, terrible ordeal, did you know that you can still know rest deep in your soul? Just as when the ocean is storming and terrible on top and foaming and there’s gale winds and the waves are just lashing around, underneath there’s stillness. And we can know that. And Jesus said you’ll know that when you take My yoke upon you and you learn of Me, you yield to Me.

That’s what it means to take on a yoke. When two oxen are yoked together, they have this yoke and they’ve got to yield to one another because they can’t work unless they do. They’ve got to plow that field and they’ve got to work in unison, and they’ve got to work together. If one pulls ahead or one lags behind it just does not work. It’s total yielding to one another and so we yield to Christ. We yield to His sovereignty. We yield to His commandments. We yield to His ways. We’re not yielded to the spirit of the world, we are yielded to Christ and as we’re yielded to Him and His plan, therefore we know that whatever happens, when we face difficulties and when we face things that, wow, we didn’t expect to face, we can face them because we’re yielded to Him.  We know He is in control, we know He is working everything out for us. He is the first and the last, He is the beginning and the end. So we can completely trust Him because He knows the end and we can’t see the end, but He sees it, He knows it, and He’s got it all in control. So we can yield to Him completely, and as we learn to do this and take His yoke (sometimes it seems a yoke, sometimes motherhood seems a yoke to you), but yield to it and it becomes easy and then it becomes light. 

Sometimes motherhood is very hard for some women and especially mothers who are just starting out on their role. They say, “Oh, this is too hard.” Why? They haven’t learned to totally yield to it. Still, there are other things in their lives that they’re wanting to fit motherhood around all of these other things and so, because they have not totally yielded, it’s still hard. But when you totally yield, it’s easy. It’s easy! And the burden is light! Are you getting it?

And this is what God wants you to enjoy in your motherhood. He wants you to enjoy rest.  Hebrews 4:9 says: “There remaineth therefore a rest unto the people of God.” It is for you. There’s a rest for you. 

Let me give you a couple other of Scriptures as we close. And let me see where I put them because I did bring them because I thought I’d get to share them with you. Let me have a look here. Proverbs 24:15: “Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous, spoil not his resting place.” In this Scripture, God calls our home, our dwelling place a resting place, and look out anyone who comes to spoil our resting place! And so dear mothers and wives, we’ve got to be on the lookout. We’ve got to be on the lookout for those things that would spoil our resting place. Oh, and the enemy is so subtle. Often things come in. Of course, often circumstances will come to seek to spoil our resting place. Sometimes we allow things in, we allow that spirit of the world, we allow things to come in.

Oh! Even social media! Oh ladies! Don’t let your home be overrun with that. That will spoil your resting place.  Now, I’m not saying you don’t have social media. We’re living in an age where, goodness me, that’s our society in which we live. But with everything it should not become an idol. It should serve us. It should serve us. I use it to serve me so I can bless you. I send out a message to you every day on Facebook and I send out encouraging things to you on Instagram and on Twitter and through email. I use it to serve you, to bless you, because I love you. My passion is for mothers, to love you and lift you up and encourage you and strengthen you. So, I use this media to serve you, but, it’s not something that’s my idol, really, I couldn’t care less about it, except I use it as a tool. And you need to teach your children this. 

Oh yes, and make sure when you sit down at your meal tables and you sit down together as a family, I hope you don’t allow one iPhone at your table. I think that is the most sacrilegious thing that could ever happen. I will never allow an iPhone at my table because the table is also a resting place, although it can be full of life and fun and debate and all kinds of wonderful things, because our tables are always very exciting! But they’re also resting. As you eat you are relaxing and you’re resting and you’re enjoying fellowship and to bring in iPhones and social media would totally spoil your resting place. Don’t allow that to happen. 

In Hosea 11:11, God talks about settling Israel in their homes: “’I will settle you in your homes,’ the Lord says.”  I love that. God wants you to be settled in your homes. Yes, He was talking about how He wanted Israel to be settled, but it’s showing the heart of God. Every Scripture reveals His heart and He wants you, dear mother, dear wife, to be settled in your home. I love the KNOX translation, and it says: “’In their own home,’ The LORD says, ‘I will give them rest.’” Isn’t that beautiful? 

Once again, it’s talking about the home as a resting place. God wants our homes to be that, but sometimes we are too busy to make them a resting place. In fact, we’re often too busy going here and there that we’re not even in the home. We’re taking our children here, we’re taking them there, we’re taking them to this lesson, we’re taking them to that sports activity. Oh my! We’re running around like a hairy goat! And we’re getting overwhelmed and we’re getting tired. We come in and because we’ve been out then we’ve got to get the meal ready and we’ve got to do this, and that wasn’t done because we weren’t there. 

Oh my, dear ladies, don’t be a victim. Too many mothers are victims. They are victims to the lifestyle of our society, they’re even victims to their homeschooling curriculums. I mean, did you know you just don’t have to do everything? And your children don’t have to get through every lesson and every plan? Oh my, you can do all that and they still don’t end up knowing everything. 

Let’s just live and make life in your homes a resting place. My, they will learn so much more in that beautiful environment. Oh yes, the place is the home of learning, and I’m a great believer in education. But in the right way, God says we learn little by little, precept upon precept, line upon line, and it’s just little by little, in the home, walking by the way, sitting down, rising up, and so on, in a place of rest (Isaiah 28:9-12). And if you are getting overwhelmed, stop running around too much and come back to your home. Make home your resting place because God said it, I didn’t. “In your own home,’ saith the LORD, ‘You will find your rest’”.  Isn’t that wonderful?

Shall we pray? 

“Dear Father. We want to thank you so much that You are the God of rest and that You want us to live in rest. This is your plan for us. You’ve shown us how to live, you’ve given us the lifestyle.  Lord, save us, please, from moving into lifestyles that are out of Your will, where we will not live in Your rest. Father, help us to embrace the way that You want us to live and to live in Your rest and to be yielded to Your sovereignty, yielded to Your yoke. We thank you that we can accomplish great things when we are yielded to You, Lord, because then You can use us to bless our families and bless this world.  When we are out of sync with You, God, it is impossible for You to use us. So help us to be yielded totally to Your sovereignty. And, Lord, we thank You that You dwell in our hearts and You give us rest. Help us to live in the rest that You’ve come to give us.

I speak the rest of God upon every mother, every grandmother, every child, every home, every marriage. I release Your rest to come to them. I come against the turmoil and stress in homes. O God, I break the power of the spirit of the enemy that comes to spoil our resting places. I take authority over him in the name of Jesus and I speak rest to everyone listening at this moment in the name of Jesus. Amen.”