Episode 34: Every Good Thing

God has given us every good thing we need to enable us to mother in victory, rest, joy, cheerfulness, patience, and longsuffering. How can this work in our daily lives?

Plus, Cherish Allison joins me again for this pod. She talks about life in the Allison family—family communication and interaction. We have the power to make the kind of life we want in our family lives.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Lovely to be with you again. Yes, I've got Chalice with me . . .

Cherish: Cherish.

NC: See? I'm always mixing them up! Do you mix your own children up? I was always doing that when I was raising our children. I'd go to call one of them, and I'd go through the whole lot of them to get the right name.

Cherish: Mum does that.

NC: Yes. But anyway, I'm going to get Chalice to talk to you more in this session too . . .

Cherish: Cherish! (laughing)

NC: I can't win. Anyway, at the end of the last podcast, I shared how I love to write down what the Lord is saying to me, because I would forget. Many times, in the morning, while I'm in the Word, I get this great revelation and understanding. If I didn't write it down, at the end of the day, you would perhaps ask me, “Hey, what did you get from the Word this morning?”

And I would think, “Oh, help. What was it? This day has been filled with so much, and I've been so busy, and I can't even remember.” But I can go back to my book. I've written it down. I haven't lost it.

Now I do believe, that when God sees our expectancy, our faith, and that we really don't want to miss what He says, that He will give more to us.

When we're not really concerned, when we're “Oh well, what does it matter if I forget that,” is He really going to give us more? I believe what the Word says that He gives those who have much, He gives even more. I think that when He sees, that yes, we treasure what He gives us, and we don't want to forget it, and we write it down.

Now I know some of you darling mums have got little babies and toddlers all around you. And you think, “How will I have time to write stuff down!?” I understand that. I went through those seasons too. I remember when I had three children in 17 months. I had twins for my second.

Then I had four under four, and so on. Those were such busy, busy, overwhelming, tiring days. And yet, wonderful days. Oh, glorious days, even in the midst of my tiredness. They were still wonderful.

I didn't have time to write like I can now. But I did try. Instead of having a book with maybe a whole page where I could write something, I would get a journal for the year that would have about four days on one page. Then, even if I could just write one Scripture, even if I didn't have time to write anything about it, I would try and do that.

I've still got some of those books, and I have to confess, there's lots of gaps also, because some days I just didn't even have time to write a Scripture. But I did what I could.

God knows, because there are seasons in our lives. There are seasons where we have all little ones all around us. But these darling little children, they grow, and they get bigger. Somehow you have more time. Even when another baby comes on, you've now got older ones who are helping to do things in the home. It still is easier. So, you do what you can in the season that you're in. If you're able to do this, well, do it, because it will bless you.

I thought I'd just give you a little revelation I got just a couple of days ago. It's written here in my book. Otherwise, I most probably would have forgotten it.

I was just reading the story in Genesis of how Abraham's servant, I think it was Eliezer. It doesn't say the name, but Eliezer was his chief servant, so it was most probably him. It says: “And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master and departed” (This was to go and get a bride for Isaac)” for all the goods of his master were in his hand. And he arose, and went.”

I was arrested by those words, “And all the goods of his master were in his hand.” Dear ladies, everything that's written in the Word is written for our learning. Everything is a type, even the stories. Even every little thing that happens in the stories, they are literal stories, they actually happened.

But there is more. The Scripture has layers. It starts off with the story, the literal thing that happened, or the literal promise that is going to happen. But then it goes down, and it's also a type that can speak to us today. And it goes down and down into depths and depths. The more we meditate, the more revelation God gives.

As I read this, that all the goods of his master were in his hand (Eliezer was his servant) and he had everything of Abraham's at his disposal to use for the good of Abraham's house.

Now lovely ladies, we are more than servants in God's Kingdom. Jesus has made us, not just His servant, but His friend. We are more than His friend, we are His begotten children. We are more than His begotten children. Romans 8 tells us that we are joint heirs with Christ. And all that Christ Jesus is heir to, we are heir to.

I mean, we can't hardly take that in, but it is the Scripture. Most of us don't walk in the truth of it. We don't walk in the truth of hardly anything in the Scriptures! But we've got to start walking in it.

This here is the type of this whole revelation truth. All the goods of Abraham were in the hand of Eliezer. He could take what he wanted. He took ten camels, but there were loads more cannibals. Not cannibals! (Cherish laughing) Camels! He just took ten of his master's camels, because that's all he needed for this trip. But whatever he needed, if he needed 100, he would have taken 100, because they were at his disposal.

Now all the promises that are in Christ Jesus are ours. All that is in Christ is ours, precious ladies, all the good things. This Scripture reminds me of a wonderful Scripture in Philemon, verse 6. This Scripture was a Scripture that totally catapulted me into victory as a young mum.

I started off living by my feelings, up some days, down the next, according to how I felt. But that's a lousy way to live. We're not meant to live by our feelings. We are meant to live by the Truth of the Word of God. Every word, and Jesus said, every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

This is how we are to live, lovely ladies. Is that how you live, by the truth of what God says about you in His Word? Or by your feelings? No, let's get out of that rut of living by our feelings and come into all that God has promised us.

Now in Philemon 1, verse 6, it says that “the communication of your faith may be effectual,” effective, working, working out in your life. Do you want your faith in your home, as a mother with all your little ones around you, to be effective? Well, it goes on to tell us how, so let's listen.

“That the communication of your faith may be effectual by . . . “ How? “By the acknowledging of every good thing that is in you in Christ Jesus.” So what it's saying is, all the good things that are in Jesus are in you, because He dwells in you. That's a fact. That's the truth.

If Jesus dwells in you by His Spirit, and He does if you are born again, that means everything that is in Jesus--all His victories, His peace, His joy, His rest, His patience, His longsuffering, that's all in Christ. Those are all the beautiful, lovely, good things in Christ. If He's in us, well, they're in us. So, all at our disposal. Are you getting the message?

Isn't it incredible? It's just as Eliezer experienced. All the goods, every good, wonderful thing of his master's house was available to him. Now we, who are God's children, joint heirs with Christ, all the good things that He has promised us, all the glorious good things of the attributes of Jesus that are in Him are in us, and at our disposal.

So lovely darling mums, every day in your home, you can walk in victory. You can walk in rest. You can walk in joy. You can walk in victory. You can have patience when you want to blow your top!

Yes, because, not that you've got it. Your flesh just stinks! Mine stinks. It always wants to do the wrong thing. But Christ dwells in our hearts, and it's His life we yield to. In every situation, when we're feeling mad, angry, our temper's getting up. Instead of yielding to that, we yield to Christ.

“Thank You, Jesus, for Your patience. It lives in me. I'm full of patience. Thank You, Jesus.”

When you're tempted to be despondent and down, and give into a self-pity trip, that's just giving into your feelings! No! Yield to the Life of Jesus in you. Thank You, Jesus, for Your Joy! I am filled with the Joy of the Lord, because Christ dwells in me. He is Joy!

You see, we yield to His Light. We yield to His attributes, which are in us. They are all at our disposal. They are for you. You don't have to get into a state, and your stomach tied up in knots, and get into a terrible stress mode, because Christ dwells in you. He is rest.

He lives in rest. You can live in rest if you yield to His rest. “Thank You, Jesus. You are Rest. You live in me. I take of Your rest. I trust You. I bask in Your rest. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You. I don't have to take all this stress. I just give it to You, Lord. Thank You. I'm just going to live in Your rest. Thank You.”

So all the good is at your disposal. This word “good.” It's just a very ordinary word, we think. We use “good” all the time. “Oh, you're having a good day?” “Oh, that's good!” “Oh, wow, I love that. It's so good!” “Good.” We're always using that word.

The Biblical word “good” is amazing. Because, I think I have shared with you before, that we read a word in the Bible, and then we look it up in the Hebrew, and we blow our minds, because it has so many meanings, the fullness of that word.

Look, this is what the Lexicon of the Hebrew Words for just this little ordinary word “good” is.  Now let me tell you. It says it means “pleasant, beautiful, excellent, lovely, delightful, joyful, fruitful, precious.” Wow, I can't read that. Yes, “sound, cheerful, kind, correct, righteous, the right, virtue, happiness, pleasantness, moral goodness, bountiful, gracious, glad, merry, sweet, prosperity, pleasing, pleasure.” All those words combine to explain the word “good.”

What does the Scripture say? All these good things, that beautiful description, are all in us, all at our disposal. And then, oh, be blessed dear mothers. Don't yield to your feelings. Yield to the Light of Christ that dwells in you.

Now tell us, Cherish! You've been sitting while I've been talking!

Cherish: That was amazing. I was relaxing.

NC: You were relaxing in His rest. Amen. I want to ask you another question. Tell me, what do you love best about being in your family?

Cherish: Oh, I love it when we all get together, and we fellowship. Every night, our family will, I mean, we'll all be busy in the day with all different types of stuff. But once we sit down together in the lounge, we just talk about everything and anything. And it's that's just, oh, that's something I cherish.

NC: Yes, Cherish cherishing. Well, it's true, because I think there's nothing I love more than popping over. I wonder, do you say that in America? Popping over. That's a real New Zealand thing. We often say, “OK, I'll just pop over.”

We love to pop over to your home, especially after supper, when that's exactly what you're doing! You're all sitting around the lounge, and you know, everyone of their different ages, all doing their little things. But you're all together, fellowshipping one amongst the other. It's so wonderful.

Arden is here recording, and I know you love to do the same, don't you, Arden? Even though Arden and Esther are married now. How often when we pop over, they've popped over too, just enjoying the beautiful family fellowship.

I just love that. I think that's what family is all about. It's communication and fellowship. A lot of families are not experiencing this today. They're too busy. They're too busy going here, going there, involved in too many things.

Dear mothers, we can get involved in too many things and miss out on the simple joys of family life, these joys that are so precious, and make such wonderful memories. Just sitting together and talking, communicating. I think in your family nothing is unsaid. If there's a problem, or something's happening, you all talk . . .

Cherish: Oh yeah, everything comes out. (laughing)

NC: There's nothing hidden.

Cherish: Oh, no, no. But it's fun.

NC: Yes, and Serene and Sam, their mum and dad, they don't allow anything to be hidden. And it all comes out, and everything is discussed and communicated. That's the center of family life, that's the strength of family life.

But we have to make that happen. And that's something your parents have chosen, is that they haven't gotten hooked in all the extracurricular activities. Because that usually is for one person, or just a couple in the family. They want to keep the family together.

Now I remember when you were young. If you could just see Cherish sitting here. Cherish is so strong. I mean, she is sooo strong. Look out if you're doing an arm wrestle with Cherish! You won't win. Also look out when you get a massage from Cherish. Oh my! If you want a really strong massage, come to see Cherish! She's very strong.

When she was young, she was amazing at gymnastics. She was so strong and agile. They took her for a few times, didn't they, because your mum and dad realized you were so good. So they went along a few times, and, “Oh, wow, this girl! We could train her for the Olympics!” They just wanted you to get so involved.

Then your mum realized, this is not the life. You would just be involved every day. It would take over family life. So they quit it. So you never lacked by quitting. Your whole life would have been running around like a lunatic. You wouldn't even know the joys of family life that you experience today.

Cherish: I wouldn't even know my cousins or my brothers and sisters.

NC: Yes, that's another thing. You have your brothers and sisters, and then your cousins. The life that you have with them, well, actually, here on the Hilltop, is like, what would you say? A young people's group every day and night of the year. It's so wonderful, because they have so much communication together too. But it's just such a wonderful life.

You know, dear mothers, we do make the life that we want for our family. We determine what we want. Some families, they determine that they just want to be running around everywhere, taking their children here, there, and everywhere. They'll be all good things, I know that, because I know all of you want to do good things. There are so many good, good, good things you can do for your children.

But sometimes these good things are not the ultimate best. We miss out on a lot of the really best and most wonderful things because we're too busy doing “good” things! So we do have to watch that.

I really encourage you to make family life. Did you know, it doesn't just happen? You have to make it. You've got to decide what you want, and you have to make it happen. It will be such a blessing in your family.

Yes, of course, now you're earning some money. You're saving up. Why do you want to save some money?

Cherish: I really want to go to Israel, go and see all the amazing cool places.

NC: Yes, maybe I'll have to come with you. Or you'll have to come with me. I've been to Israel, let me see, about five times. But you can never go too many times. You're never the same again, once you have been. So that would be wonderful. Any other places you want to go?

Cherish: Oh, I want to go back to Liberia and visit some of my family there. My older sister, she's thinking of going next year to do some stuff over there.

NC: Yes, when Sam and Serene adopted, they adopted five children from Liberia, no six, I think. I lose count. But there were three of you.

Cherish: Yes.

NC: So you've got Selah, and Isaiah, and you. Three siblings. The others weren't siblings. So Selah is married, and she has six children. She has three of her own, and then Selah went back to Liberia and adopted another three from Liberia, because they were family members whose parents had passed away from the Ebola over there, and so on.

They were grieving that they had family members, little children who were left with no one to care for them, so they brought them back, and now she has six little children. She is doing such a beautiful job. Selah is the most beautiful wife and beautiful mother.

Isaiah, some of you may remember praying for Isaiah. He had a terrible car accident. It was a head injury, and they didn't think he would even live. If he did, they didn't think he would ever come out of a nursing home. But God answered our prayers, and your prayers, and he came out. He is doing so well today.

And then there's you. So there were three siblings. Selah, she is wanting to set up an adoption agency, isn't she?

Cherish: Yeah.

NC: So she's going back there to do that. Oh no! Before we finish today, another thing! Although Cherish has graduated now, when Serene was homeschooling her, she'd give the girls projects every day. Essays to write; always getting them to write, because writing is so important. Some days she'd give them a subject to write or write a poem. I've read some of your poems, and they're so lovely.

I want to look here at the one you wrote when little Solly was born. Solly, her name is actually Solace Ling, but we call her Solly. Solly is about ten months now, isn't she?

Cherish: I should know, but I don't know. (laughter)

NC: She grows every day.

Cherish: She's getting so big now.

NC: Read this poem you wrote when she was born.

Cherish: All right So it goes:

Solace Ling

 

My dear lovely sister, Solace, so kind and so sweet.

You're a bubble of sunshine I'm so privileged to meet.

As I fondly gaze upon your face, I see a wonderful glow

Filled with love and joy which I pray will stay as you grow.

My dear little sister, God will use you for much more.

Small right now, but in time you'll bless people galore.

Beautiful Solace, we welcome you into the arms of the Beloved.

He will be your Guide, your Shelter, your Protector from above.

NC: Yes, tell me how you enjoy Solly.

Cherish: Oh, my goodness! She is definitely a bubble of sunshine in our house, the sweetest little cute thing.

NC: How do you love having another baby come into the home?

Cherish: Oh! It's definitely another amazing new thing. It's just, I don't know, it's a whole new environment. I just love it. I never get tired of babies.

NC: Oh, so you're hoping that Mommy will be able to have even more babies yet.

Cherish: Yes!

NC: Yes, yes, (Laughter) Oh, now I remember when you wrote this one, about America. Wow.

Cherish: Yes, I forgot about that.

NC: I know. But I had it just lying around. Yes, and I found it today, and I said, “Wow, this was Cherish's poem.” So read it. Wow.

Cherish: You can read it.

NC: No, because you've got to read it. It's a powerful poem.

Cherish: Hope I can do it right.

AMERICA

America, America, oh, can't you see?

America, America, it's time to fall on your knees,

Our country is raging and falling apart,

Evil is attracting our very own hearts,

It's time to come back to the arms of God

And leave behind the evil of this world.

Our Father in heaven, who's watching above,

Wants to give each one the Gift of His Love,

We just have to be willing and allow Him in,

He is more than ready to wash away our sins,

America, America, turn back to God Who waits

With His arms wide open; it's never too late.

NC: That's powerful! Oh, now that you have graduated, you mustn't stop writing poems. You've got a gift for them.

Cherish: This one, the America one, I was actually . . . I did this on my own. It was not for my school.

NC: Wow, it wasn't for school? You just got a burden to write.

Cherish: Yeah, I was sitting down, and I had, you know, I had a paper and pen. I was praying to God and everything, but I mean, God literally gave me that poem. I just kept on writing it. It was just like, God gave it to me.

NC: That is so wonderful. Yes, one more! It's about shining our light. I like that one.

Cherish: So this one is called . . . 

IS YOUR LAMPSTAND LOCKED UP?

Is your lamp stand locked up in the basement to waste away?

Or is it shining fervently throughout all of the day?

Is your lamp shining brightly so the lost can see?

Or does it stand in the dark, withering like an old tree?

Do you fill up your lamp and never let it go out?

Or do you let darkness cover it and fill it with doubt?

Let's be a lampstand that shines out firm and strong

Blinding out everything that's evil and wrong.

NC: That is so great! I love to come over and read the poems and stories you girls are writing. That's why I had some of them here. I pinched them! (laughter)

Yes, well, our time has gone so quickly again. I love to pray for you each time, but I even found a prayer that Cherish had written. So I'm going to get her to pray it for yourself. I think you could pray it with her, and we can all pray it for ourselves as Cherish reads it. OK, darling?

Cherish:

“My life won't change truly, apart from being with Christ.

Instead of dwelling on stuff that doesn't matter, I want my first thought in the morning to be about thinking and praising Him.

God, You never created me for my own self, my own pleasure, my own fulfillment, my own desires. You created me for Your image, for Your likeness, for Your love.

Father, I put off every work of the flesh. I say these things shouldn’t own me and never will.

God, I thank You for being my Father.

Lord God, I put on Your tender mercies, Your loving kindness, and I rejoice that Your heart is inside me. I rejoice that I look through the eyes You behold in the Father.

Thank You for changing me. Amen.”

NC: Amen. Thank You, Lord God, for changing each one of us. We yield our lives to You again, that You will change us, that we will allow You to change us, that we will not stubbornly stay in our rut, but that we will let You change us and grow us into Your image. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

 

Episode 33: What About Book Parties?

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

Nancy: Hello ladies. We are up to number 33 podcast. It was way back in the beginning, at number seven podcast that I introduced you to Chalice. Chalice is Serene and Sam's eighteen-year-old daughter, but they have another eighteen-year-old daughter, and she is with me today. Her name is Cherish. I often get mixed up with Chalice and Cherish because they are both the same age, and their names sound quite similar.

Cherish comes all the way from Liberia, but you wouldn't know that because she is so part of our family. She was adopted into the Allison family and our whole extended family when she was only five years old. Cherish is eighteen now, and she is so much a part of this family, as if she was born into it as a little baby. We love having her apart of this family.

I think I did tell you, if you ever listened to number seven podcast, that we have something rather unusual or quite interesting on the hilltop, where a number of us live here. It's what we call CNN. Well, I never listen to CNN, and I doubt whether you do also because, as we know, it is fake news and who would want to listen to it? But we actually have CNN news here on the hilltop, but it's not fake news. It stands for COUSIN NEWS NETWORK, and it's quite amazing.

Somehow all the grandchildren, the cousins, find out about everything that's happening. When there's a new romance coming in the family, well, they know everything, and of course, they tell their parents, and then I ask them, and then everybody's whispering, and everybody knows what's happening. It's rather exciting because no one can do anything on the sly here. Cherish, I would say, is head of CNN on the hilltop. Cherish usually knows what's going on, so if we want to know something, we'll ask Cherish. Cherish is our social girl. When I introduced you to Chalice, I think you would have noticed that she is a little shy but cherish is the opposite. Cherish, it's so good to have you here today.

Cherish: Well, thank you for having me, Nana, and I'm so glad that I can be on this podcast.

Nancy: That's great. Well, Cherish loves to talk. Now Cherish, I know, like Chalice, you also love to read, don't you? They are always coming over to Nana's and ordering books on Amazon, getting the new books that they want. There's a set of books that recently all the young girls on the hilltop were reading. They were a series of books by Tricia Mingerink. Tell us about them. What was the name of the first one?

Cherish: The first book was Dare, and it's amazing. You have Dare, Deny, Defy, and then Deliver.

Nancy: Is that what you're reading at the moment?

Cherish: Yes, I've only got a little bit into it, but so far, it's amazing. It's so good.

Nancy: You're a little bit behind because everyone was borrowing your book; you couldn't even get it. I think the books, they were just going, and I got in on it. Because, often, when they're getting into some books, they tell me all about them, and I think, I have got to get in on it. I've also read Dare, Deny, Defy, and Deliver and everyone got better. Can you tell them what it’s all about?

Cherish: Oh, my goodness, I'm not really good at explaining books. I read the books, but Chalice loves to explain it a lot more, but all I can say is they are amazing. As soon as you start, you won't be able to put it down.

Nancy: Yes, and it's about these, they were called the Blades, and they are very evil, but the book brings out how some of them, not many, came to know Jesus and how He changed their lives. I loved, as I was reading the last book, Deliver, to see that these most wicked men, they were actually just taken as children by this wicked king, trained to kill and so on, but it was amazing how when Jesus came into their lives, how they changed. God can change anyone, can't He? Now, number five is out, so you ordered it today.

Cherish: I just ordered it today, and I'm so excited even though I'm still on the fourth one. But I read really quickly, so I'm really excited for the fifth.

Nancy: It's fun when all the young people, and all the cousins, there are so many cousins just round about the same age, and they get into a series of books, and they all read them so they can enjoy them together.

In fact, something very special that we do here at Christmastime, that is us adults, the couples, we have what we call our ANNUAL CHRISTMAS BOOK PARTY. It started years and years ago when the grandchildren were young, and our Christmas would be bedlam with little children running everywhere. I thought, we need to have something that's quieter and more sedate and a special evening. I got this idea that we would have all the couples, the parents, would come, and we would have a book party. Each one of us would buy a book, and it had to be a decent book because we would play the white elephant game where we would put all the books in the center, and each person would take a turn to either choose a book or fight for one that someone else has got. It's a bit boring if everybody brings books that are ordinary or pretty boring.

Cherish: Don't you have to bring books that you want so that you can fight for it?

Nancy: Yes, that's a good idea. That's true. Well, you bring something that you know someone else will want, or if you can’t think of one that someone else will want, you bring something that you will want, and you'll fight for it. We had our adult book party just recently, and we've been doing it for so many years now that they've learned to get the best books they can because then everybody wants them.

The only thing is that it hasn't turned out to be this sedate, quiet evening. Well, it is wonderful when we arrive, and I make the place so beautiful, and the ambiance wonderful, and we have a glorious meal together, but then we start on our books. Then, it gets rowdier than with all the little children around. Everybody begins to fight over books, and we have wrestling matches and goodness knows what. It's all in fun, of course, because we are a crazy, outrageous family, and if we were going to sit there and just be boring people, well, none of us would enjoy it anyway.

At the end, there were still books waiting to be opened because everyone had been vying for books, back and forth. We don't even do the usual rule where if you get it three, that stops. No, we allow that you can have four times before it becomes your own. It gives chance for swapping and going after one-another's books, and it's a really exciting time.

You girls did something this time, didn't you?

Cherish: Yes, we did. Usually Tiveria, one of the cousin girls, will put on a Christmas party but then Chalice and I were like, well, we all love books so why don't we have our own COUSIN GIRL BOOK PARTY? It was exactly like you guys. You start off all nice and everybody's nice and sweet and then . . .

Nancy: Because you had yours in Chalice's palace. Now, this is something amazing. What is Chalice's palace? Well, this is a little house, well it was meant to be just a little room that Sam was going to build for Chalice for her library because she loves books. It was to be her Christmas present for about three Christmas year’s presents in a row. But the problem is with Cherish's dad, Uncle Sam, is that he can't do anything little. This little room that he was going to make as a library for Chalice ended up into a three-story place. So, we call it Chalice's palace. Anyway, they decided to have it on the third floor of Chalice's palace, but it's not all quite ready yet. You didn't get the heating on, did you? Tell them what happened.

Cherish: We got it all nice and beautiful, and it was going to be nice and warm, but then we forgot to put the heater on before everyone arrived. We put it on just before everybody got there, and instead of having a beautiful, warm place, it was freezing cold, so we all ended up just hovering over the fire. We could barely do anything for a few minutes because it was so cold. In the end, it warmed up, and it was fun. Next time, we are going to make sure the room is warmed up.

Nancy: So, it's going to become a tradition?

Cherish: It is. We really liked it this year so next year . . .

Nancy: I think it's wonderful how they've followed our tradition, and although you're listening to this in the New Year (a secret), we are actually recording this just before Christmas. We are also going to have one for all the young couples because we didn't know what to do because now we have all these amazing young couples who are getting married. Now, we have as many young couples as we do the older couples, so it was too many to all meet together, so Colin and I are going to host one this year to start off for the young couples.

Now we are going to have three book parties a year. They are all such fun. People don't just go out, and “Oh, I better get something.” No, we think about it all year, deciding what we are going to get. Evangeline came with two books this time, and she wanted them for herself, so she fought for them. She had to fight hard, and she actually got them.

Cherish: She got them? Oh, my goodness. Wow.

Nancy: Yes, and then your mom brought a book that she thought nobody else would want, just her, but no, Pearl was fighting for it too and others. I brought a trilogy of three books by Elizabeth Gouge (The

Eliot Family Trilogy). I wonder if you have ever read anything of Elizabeth Gouge? She is a wonderful writer, and anything by her we all devour, so that was popular.

I also brought a book that I had just read. This book is called The Holy War by John Bunyan. Now, we all know that John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's Progress. That's a very famous book; I guess you've got a copy of The Pilgrim's Progress, just about everybody does. The children's version is a wonderful version to read to your children. The original is sort of in Old English, but the children's version is wonderful.

I have to confess that I had never read The Holy War by John Bunyan. I also have to say that it's better than The Pilgrim's Progress. It is the most exciting book. I could not put it down. It's an allegory about this town called Mansoul, and of course, it's about the soul of man. There is the fight between Shaddai, who is God in this allegory and Emmanuel is His Son, Jesus Christ. The devil is Diabolos with all his demons, and they all had different names. The fight, oh the battles were so intense. It was a very, very exciting book, but the message you begin to see is how we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but we are fighting principalities and powers, and the enemy is always trying to get and take the soul of man. He wants man. He wants to overcome us, and it's a very powerful book. I would recommend it to you if you haven't read it. I really think it's a book that everyone should read.

Cherish: I want to get it.

Nancy: You need to read it. Chally needs to read it because she loves allegories, doesn't she?

Cherish: Yeah.

Nancy: She just loves allegories, and you would love it because you wouldn't be bored.

Cherish: Oh, it sounds like my book completely.

Nancy: Absolutely, and it's life-changing. I was so blessed as I read it, so I decided I was going to buy one for the book party.

Cherish: How did you learn about it?

Nancy: I found it lying around in our house. I don't know where it came from. I picked it up and I said, “Oh, I'll check this out.” I was amazed. I was reading a little about John Bunyan today because he lived back in the 17^th century, between 1628 - 1688. I think those were his years. He only lived for sixty years, but he accomplished so much, and most of his books were written in prison. He was put in prison because he was a separatist. He did not conform to the Church of England with all their things that they tried to put on the pastors. He wanted to be free to just preach the Good News.

His hardest thing in prison was having to leave his wife. It was his second wife. His first wife had died, leaving him with four children. Now, he had a second wife and had to try and somehow provide for them in prison. He was a tinker, and he used to try and make shoelaces in prison to get some little bit of money for them.

He could have been freed if he said he would refuse to preach the gospel out in the open, but he said No, he would not stop preaching, and he would remain in prison “until the moss grew on his eyelids,” rather than fail to do what God wanted him to do. That was the kind of man he was. In prison, he wrote many of these amazing books.

While we are talking about books, I must mention a few more books. In fact, if you missed podcast seven, go back and you can listen again, or you can even read the transcript because we now do transcripts for our podcast. We talked about many books that day, and there are loads of wonderful books that are listed there.

Another great book that I never had time to tell you about and won’t have time today to tell you about all the books I want to talk about. One book that we read when we first came to the States, we came to America in 1991. At that time, Serene and Pearl came with us, and we were traveling and ministering.

Our first Christmas here on the continent was way up in the Caribou of Canada. My sister was living there on a ranch in a huge log house. They weren't like a normal log house, they were massive logs. This house was in the Caribou, looking out on the Fraser river. We arrived, and it was in a snow storm. They lived way up on this hill. There was no way we could drive up. Her husband had to come down in the tractor and tow our car up behind the tractor, and then we were iced in and snowed in for the whole time we were there. We didn't even want to go out because we were so scared to go down that hill. You have to use chains to go down and chains to go up on the couple of occasions that we did. I stayed home, and I made homemade soup and homemade bread every day. Christmas day came. At that time, we had no money to buy presents. We didn't even want to go out to buy them.

Cherish: You were still snowed in?

Nancy: We were snowed in. What we did was we wrote poems for one another. I still have those poems. It's amazing; things like that are really far more meaningful than even gifts that we get that we lose. They kind of get lost, or they wear out or whatever. You don't even remember them, but I still remember those poems. While we were there, we got hold of a book called, Nothing too Good for a Cowboy. Have you ever read it?

Cherish: No, but I've heard about it.

Nancy: Yes, because you've heard your Mom talk about Mulligan soup. 

Cherish: Yes.

Nancy: Yes, Mulligan soup.

Cherish: Is that where it came from?

Nancy: That's where it came from.

Cherish: Oh, my goodness.

Nancy: Yes, from Nothing too Good for a Cowboy. I must tell you about Mulligan's soup. I read through this book while we were traveling. We were traveling through Canada and ministering, and Colin and I would speak, and the girls, Serene and Pearl, would sing. As we were traveling, I'd read this book and other books we got to, but this was about a cowboy up in the Caribou. True story.

Anyway, it got to this chapter about how every few weeks he would make Mulligan soup because his name was Mulligan. He didn't use a pot. Oh no. He used a great, big boiler tub. Maybe some of you wouldn't even know what a boiler tub was like. Well, I knew because when I was a little girl, every Monday, my Mom did the washing. We didn't have a washing machine. Oh no. You put all this water in this great big boiler tub, and you boiled up the water, and you threw all the clothes in the boiler and stirred them round. Then, the really dirty ones, you'd have a rub-a-dub-dub, one of those things, and you'd rub them against that. This is how we did the washing.

Well, this was how Mulligan made his soup. He'd fill the boiler, and then he would throw in the food. Out to the garden he'd go. There was no time to wash vegetables. You didn't wash vegetables. He'd pull the big carrots out of the garden, and he would throw them in, throw in the carrots. And he'd get a couple of cabbages, about 8 pounds in weight and he’d throw in the cabbages. And then he'd throw in beets and spinach and heads of lettuce and parsnips and horse radishes and handfuls of garlic. Not little cloves, of course, the bulbs, just throw them all in.

Nothing was washed, right out of the garden, clean dirt. He would throw it all in. Of course, they had the rivers, and they would get the trout, and they would throw in the trout. They would throw it in, heads and all and boil it all up. Wow, Mulligan soup. When it was all boiled up, they would sit there, and they'd eat it. Mulligan, especially him, would be bloated. Then, that soup would last them for six days. Then, when it was over, they would start again.

Anyway, I know your Mom, when you want to make a big soup and use all of the stuff in the refrigerator and whatever you've got there, she calls it Mulligan's soup.

Cherish: Makes a lot more sense now. I was wondering where we got the name from.

Nancy: Yes, it's from the book, Nothing too Good for a Cowboy. It's a great book.

I wanted to mention some children's books that I loved when I was a child. They are still available today by Patricia St. John. Now, Treasures of the Snow is one. Another is called The Star of Light and another is The Tanglewood's Secret. Wonderful books and you may love to get them for your children. They are not for little children, but for middling children, they would enjoy reading them.

There was another book at our book party, my sister, Kate brought it because Kate now lives here in this Nashville area, no longer up in the Caribou. She brought The Exodus by Leon Uris. Now, I had read that book years and years and years ago. Kate had too, but she had recently read it again, and she said, “Nancy, you've got to read it again.” This book is about the establishing of Israel. Israel became a nation in 1948, and it’s the amazing story of the establishing of that nation. It's a novel, but it has so much historical facts too. It's a wonderful story.

Anyway, we better not keep taking about books because we would go on forever. The best book of all is the Word. As I love to tell my little grandchildren, singing . . .

The best book to read is the Bible,

The best book to read is the Bible,

If you read it every day,

It will help you on your way.

Oh, the best book to read is the Bible.

What do you reckon? Do you love to read the Bible?

Cherish: Oh yes, I love to read the Bible. You can make it exciting, or you can make it feel like a chore. When I read it, I'll pray first, and then, when I read the Bible, I'll put myself in it like I'm going through that journey. That's me doing this, and it's a lot more exciting and fun, but there a lot of cool, amazing fun ways that you can do it.

Nancy: Yes, now, do you like to try and read a chapter a day or how do you go about it?

Cherish: Sometimes, when I read the Bible, sorry, I'm thinking . . .

Nancy: You were telling me earlier today that you like to do what Auntie Vange does. What does she do?

Cherish: When she reads a Scripture, she'll read it, and then, she can't go on because it's so deep, and you have to ponder it. You keep getting new things and new ideas, and it's like you're stuck on that one page. Every time I reread it and reread it, that just, yeah.

Nancy: So rather than trying to make sure you read a chapter every day, you read until you read something that really grabs you. Then, you'll stop and pray about it and think about it. Do you ever write down things about it?

Cherish: I used to. I need to start doing it again, but yes, I used to. God would give me loads and loads of revelation, and it's crazy.

Nancy: A good thing to do is to keep writing because I was exactly your age (I was eighteen years of age) when I began to write what God showed me in His Word, and that has been the most, greatest blessing of my whole entire life. I have books down there on my shelf that started when I was eighteen years of age, and I have continued every year.

This is how I read the Word too. When I open the Word, I'm not just saying, “Oh, well, I've got to read the Bible.” I open the Word, and I am excited. I am looking for God to speak to me. I am believing that God is going to speak to me. I'm looking at every word I read, and when I come to something that arrests me, I don't just keep reading. I stop, and I think about it, and I meditate about it.

Then, I have my book. I always have my book there ready to write, write what God is saying to me about it, what I feel the revelation of the Scripture is, and I just write. I find, as I write, more and more, understanding comes.

There's a little saying that says:

“Thoughts tend to disentangle themselves when they pass through lips or cross pencil tips.”

Although, now we use pens of course. But I have found that so true. You talk about that Scripture to someone else, it becomes clearer as you talk about it. That's why it’s so good to fellowship over the Scriptures but also to write. Keep writing, get your journal. I like to get a journal with one page for every day of the year. I'm looking out for everyday to fill my page. Sometimes, I need more, so I'll have an extra book to write more that I want to write too. That's a great blessing. That's something that can bless you, precious ladies, too. Well, you've got to stay on for the next session. We've got to do another poddy while you're here because I've got to ask you more things. Let's just pray.

“Father, we thank You for your blessings, for the joy of family life. I pray that You'll bless every dear mother and wife listening today. Fill them with Your joy, fill them with Your peace, and Father, I pray that You will bless them as they open Your precious Word, which is the best book. Lord, we can read all these other books, and they are so great, and we enjoy them, but Your Word is life. It is life. The words that You speak unto us are life. They fill us with life; they change our lives. I pray that Your Word will become precious to each one in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Books Mentioned:

The Eliot Family Trilogy by Elizabeth Goudge

The Blades of Acktar series (Dare, Deny, Defy, Deliver, Destroy) by Tricia Mingerink

The Holy War by John Bunyan

The above book, THE HOLY WAR is available from Above Rubies.

Go to this link to order:

http://aboverubiesbookstore.mybigcommerce.com/the-holy-war-john-bunyan/

Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

Nothing too Good for a Cowboy by Richmond Hobson

Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John

Star of Light by Patricia St. John

The Tanglewood's Secret by Patricia St. John

The Exodus by Leon Uri

Episode 32: Who Loves Parties? Let's Have a Mothering Party!

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Pam Fields joins me for one more session.

I talk about homeschooling in the spirit of “rest and refreshing” (Isaiah 28:9-12).

Pam shares how the manual, THE POWER OF MOTHERHOOD taught her how to be a mother. She purchased this book 22 years ago. Now she has purchased the edited and enlarged edition for her daughter who is expecting her second baby. Every mother needs this manual beside her. Purchase at this link: http://bit.ly?PowerOfMotherhoodUS

Pam also shares about her wonderful idea of MOTHERING PARTIES. Listen to how you can make this happen.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hi, Ladies! Wonderful to be with you today! Well, you'll never believe it, but I've got Pam with me again today. Now, she actually hasn't been staying with me for three weeks because this is our third podcast. We are actually doing them all together. I had to make the most of it while she was here.

Usually, when I'm doing podcasts to you, I do two at a time, but today, we're doing three at a time. Three pods in a row! It actually reminds me of that book, Ten Peas in a Pod, by Arnold Pent III. Did any of you ever read that book? It's getting a bit older now, but it's a wonderful book. Oh, if you can get hold of it, you can most probably get it on Amazon for cheap as dirt.

It's the most amazing story of this family, the Pent family. They had eight children; that was why it was called Ten Peas in a Pod. The father was an evangelist, traveling the nation, USA and Canada, preaching the Word of God.

But he was not only a preacher, he was not only an evangelist, he was not only a teacher. He was a father, and his greatest goal in life was to teach his own children first the Word of God. So, this was their plan. He would read the Word to his family after breakfast, after lunch, and after supper.

Wow. When I read that book, that was a challenge to me. I have to confess that we have never attained to that. Now I know that there are some families who do. But we read the Word every morning and every evening, because we know that's a biblical pattern. But if you can get to the three times, I'm sure it's even better.

So, they used to do this. But how did they do it when they were traveling? Well, this father, it never stopped him. No matter where he was, and often they would be staying with people, they’d be hosted in homes with all their children.

When it came to having breakfast with the host and hostess who were Christians, he would say to them at the end of the breakfast, or the end of the lunch, or the end of the supper, he would say, “Oh, I love to read God's Word to my family. Would you be happy if we could do this?”

“Yes, yes, go ahead,” they would say. Then he would say, “And wouldn't you like to join us? We'd love you to join with us.” He didn't get the same response. They'd say, “Oh well, just go ahead. We've got things to do.”

The son who wrote this book said there was never anyone who joined in. Isn't that sad? These were Christian homes. These were not secular homes. These were lovely Christian families who hosted this family. He said no one joined them. They were too busy to hear the Word of God.

This father didn't read for ten minutes. He read for an hour. At lunchtime, he read for an hour. Supper, he read for an hour. And, as the children got older, they were encouraged, before they came out for breakfast, to have an hour in the Word themselves.

So, these young children, and older children, by the time they were teens, they could quote the New Testament verbatim, and knew many passages of the Old Testament. It was quite an amazing challenging book. But it's also an exciting, riveting book. You'd love to read it if you could get hold of it.

Now Pam, I notice you've got your prayer bracelets on today!

PF: I went and found them. I did. I've got them on now!

NC: You had to go and get them on. It's so great to see them. They're so lovely.

PF: They do take up a bit of space. But you know what I found? When they take up a bit of space to put them all on there, and I find myself struggling with, “Ugh, they're annoying me,” or I just need to take them off to get something done, it prompts me to pray, right off the bat. I can move them from one arm to the other.

And when I've gotten through the names, I go put them back next to my bed stand, and on with the day. So, it actually . . . if it irks me, it motivates me to get right on the ball with praying for them.

NC: Wonderful! And you have a special place where you keep them when you've finished.

PF: Yes, I do, so I can start out the next day.

NC: So, they don't get lost. That's so great. I just wanted to tell you one more thing. Remember we were talking about homeschooling in our last session? I was thinking afterward about a Scripture. I'd love to read it to you, because I think it's a wonderful Scripture to encourage homeschooling moms.

It's found in Isaiah 28, verse nine and onwards. And it says: “Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.”

And it goes on to say: “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:” Do you get the picture that it's not sitting our children down and making one hour or two hours or three hour sessions, and there they are, they've got to accomplish all  this particular work?

No. Do you notice God's way? “Precept upon precept; line upon line; here a little, there a little.” Yes, knowledge—we can't always take it in in great big lump sums. It's here a little, and there a little as you go through the day. It’s the same picture that God gives in Deuteronomy chapter 6, where it commands parents to teach their children when they're sitting down, when they're lying down, when they're walking by the way. It's in the process of life, because life is teaching.

This is a wonderful encouragement, but it doesn't stop there, because it goes on to say, “To whom He said, this is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing.” Now so many mothers, when they're homeschooling, they don't feel refreshed. They feel overwhelmed, and how am I going to do this, and how do I get it all done, and oh, it is too overwhelming!

But it's not meant to be like that! Dear mothers, it's usually because we're doing it the wrong way. We're doing it our way. But God's way is line upon line, here a little, there a little. That way, you'll have rest. You'll have refreshing. Isn't that great?

But the passage isn't finished yet, because then it says: “but they would not hear.” Isn't that interesting? You know, we hear God's way, but it doesn't seem right. “Oh no, I don't think that's the right way. I've got to do it my way. I've got to do it how everybody else does. I've got to do it how the public school does it.” But God says: “When you do it My Way, you'll have rest.” But no, they would not hear, the Bible says.

It's like, a lady came to me one day, she came to our church fellowship. We were talking afterwards, and she said, “Oh, Nancy, I'm so overwhelmed! Please help me! I'm homeschooling my children, and I just can't keep up with it all.”

I said to her, “Tell me what you're doing.” She told me about her program for schooling, and then she said, “But also we've got all these extracurricular activities. I've got to take this one to violin lesson on Monday, this one to guitar lesson on Tuesday, and this one goes to this on Wednesday, and this one . . .”

By the time she finished telling me all the things she had to do, and the running around with her children, I felt worn out just listening to her! I said, “It's overwhelming. You've got to cut some things out.”

She said, “Oh, I couldn't do that!” I said, “OK, you just have to stay overwhelmed.” Because we have to choose, don't we?

Anyway, we've got to listen to the Word, don't we? Pam, OK, I think we need to get back to mothering again. I want you to tell me again a little bit of your growth in mothering.

PF: So, when I became a mother, my experience was babysitting. I was a babysitter, a lot. I babysat all the time. So, when I became a mother, I realized, it's just like babysitting, right? Wait a minute . . . it's NOT just like babysitting?!

I thought the goal was to keep them alive and keep them happy. Then I got a hold of The Power of Motherhood book. I was looking on the cover, and it was published first in January of '96, and my son was born in May of '96. It was just a few months after he was born when I got a hold of The Power of Motherhood.

I didn't realize it was so freshly off the press. It was meant for me, for sure, because I got a hold of it. It truly became my manual for motherhood. It took me beyond “my job is to keep them alive and healthy,” to “what does the Bible say?”

If I look through the chapters, it talks about nutrition, where we feed them. I hadn't really thought, well, you just feed them, slap something out in front of them. But there's more to it than just slapping something in front of them. Serving them, it's a privilege, it's an honor to be able to serve our children, and to raise them for the Lord. It's just an act of service to the Lord, truly.

Going in a few chapters like “What's Our Nemesis?” You know what, I'm supposed to be a watcher over my home. I'm supposed to be a caretaker. I had never heard of the authority that I was allowed to have as a mother. That was absolutely new to me, that they are my children, that God gave me, and I have authority to be their mother and to make decisions.

Making memories, making a home, and raising future missionaries, not that they will all maybe go overseas, but where we are now, each place they're going to end up in life. They'll be able to reach the world.

It just expanded my idea, and my knowledge of, and maybe it planted that seed to someday be homeschooling, because “Mothers Being a Teacher” was in here. I'm like, “I'm not a teacher, I'm going to send them to a teacher.”

So, all these things, so many of these chapters were so foundational that spurred me on to go, “There really is more to it.” Because I didn't know it, I became thirsty for it. I wanted to learn, and I wanted to do this.

NC: Yes. I wonder, do you have this book yourself, ladies? It is, as you said, a manual for motherhood. In fact, I believe it's a manual, something you need by your side, to encourage you and tell you what God says about you. Because that's the whole thing about this book, The Power of Motherhood.

I have gone into the Word of God to find out, what does God say about us as mothers? This book is just filled with 32 chapters, of each new chapter, a new thing that God says about you, as a mother. It will inspire you and encourage you. Instead of listening to what society says about you and pulls you down, this is what God says about you, and lifts you up, so that you will never be the same again.

I mean, you can't read this book and stay the same. So I encourage you, if you haven't got it, just go to the website, www.aboverubies.org, and you'll be able to find it there. Order it. Get one for yourself. If you're a grandmother, get one for your daughters, and your daughters-in-law. I believe it's a book that every mother needs to have.

It's not an option, because it's the Word. It's just taking out of the Word what He says for mothers, so you've got it all there beside you. So, I'm so glad you were blessed by it, Pam. This one is actually a new edition which I have, because I wrote that one 22 years ago. I can't believe it. This edition that you will get now is enlarged and edited. It will bless you off your socks!

PF: I agree. You edited this one just in time for my daughter. She had her baby, so she can have it too.

NC: Oh, that's so neat, that's so wonderful! Anyway, you told me something this morning, yes, it was so exciting.

Now I love friends who stimulate me. One of my dear friends is in Australia. Her name is Val Stares, and she's the director of Above Rubies in Australia. Now some of you are listening from Australia and New Zealand, so you know Val and Heather. Val looks after Above Rubies in Australia, and Heather is her sister, and she looks after Above Rubies in New Zealand.

Although they're in different countries, these beautiful sisters, who have been friends of mine since we were young mothers raising our children together, now we're grandmothers, and now we're great-grandmothers. They were with me right back then, so we go back a long way.

These two wonderful sisters, they live in different countries, New Zealand and Australia, but they call each other every day and pray together. Isn't that great? But Val was always, every time we got together, she would have a new idea.

We started off, that was where we first got the vision, it wasn't my vision, it was Val's. I started the magazine, and then she got the vision for music. We used to sing the anointed songs of motherhood to the mothers, so they could listen to music that would bless them as a mother.

So, Lois and Janie were two other wonderful friends. There were anointed singers, and they began to sing songs for mothers. They wrote songs for mothers and wives. We produced these first two, they weren't CDs, they were tapes and LPs. One was called, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and the other was, Her Price is Above Rubies.

Then, our daughters, Serene and Pearl, grew up. When they grew up, they were signed as record artists. They did that for a while, till they married. Then they wanted to be home with their children. Then, from that they began to write songs for mothers. So that's how music came into Above Rubies. It all started with Val—and loads of other ideas.

Now, whenever I get with Pam, oh, when I would stay at her home after an Above Rubies retreat, and she would have to drive me to the airport, we would talk. She'd come up with all these great ideas. In fact, it was her idea that, “Nancy, you've got to do a podcast!” So, we're sitting here today because of you, Pam.

So, this morning, she's talking. She's got another good idea. You've got to share it with the ladies, Pam.

PF: Well, it's purely driven by selfishness, I'm sure. But I think back to when I was a young mom, and I had no idea how to do what I was doing. I was so thirsty for encouragement, and thirsty for the knowledge. That, what does the Bible have to say about this? I want to know just how to walk with the Lord deeper, and how to parent my children for Him.

It was through your work, and your book, and several of your books, I started learning those things. And then I heard about the Above Rubies retreats, and I thought, “Well, I'll go to one of those.” One became another, and it became another, and I just enjoyed them so much. They just spoke into me, and they grew me.

Every time I came home, I just loved my children more, and my husband more. I was so much more appreciative. We need to be servants, we need to be servants to one another. So, I thought about this. I thought so many times, “Nancy needs to be duplicated!”

That's all there is to it. She needs to be duplicated, because wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a Nancy, an older woman in every one of our cities that we could connect with, and who can teach us? Now it's just something that so many of us . . . you're doing the podcast now.

I'm so excited, because we don't have to wait until a retreat comes around once a year. It's easier, you don't have to travel as far, and as often now. So, it's wonderful that you can do the podcast from your home and reach us.

Back in the day, when I suggested it, it wasn't actually a podcast. I'd never heard of a podcast before. But I remembered as a little girl dialing up this 1-800-Tell Me A Story.

NC: You told me about that first and then you also told me about the podcast.

PF: Oh yeah, at one point I did, because finally I heard about them. At the beginning, I thought, “I just want to call up 1-800-Nancy!” And I just wanted to call up and I wanted to hear your voice. I want you to be the cheerleader that says, “You CAN do this! You get out there, and get it done! This is God's anointing on you. It's His purpose for your life. Go out and do this.”

It's so lovely now. I can turn on my podcast, and I get that little oomph to go, I'm going to go out and do this. So, I really think we all need to have that. A podcast is wonderful. I love the podcast. I just think, what would it look like, if we all had someone who was near us, someone we could connect with and chat with regularly, to just push the truth into us, and grow us.

So, I was thinking back to, probably 10 or 12 years ago, I did an in-home party. We all know how the in-home party works. You get invited to the party. Go back 10 or 12 years ago. We sent out a postcard, followed by a phone call, followed by a morning of more phone calls. “Did you get my invitation? Are you coming to my party? We're going to do great things. I've put out snacks. Please come.”

These companies that have all these parties, they have spent big money on research as to how to make these parties successful, how to get people to come, and how to make these things happen. I have thought so many times, you know, we need to get just as excited about mothering, and about our faith, as we are about these little parties.

I just saw this postcard going out that says, “You come to my house, or come somewhere, and let's have a mothering party. Let's talk about mothering.”

NC: A mothering party! I love parties, and I think, why not have a mothering party? I think that sounds so cool!

PF: Yeah! And I was thinking, what does that look like, though? To go to a home to have a mothering party. Normally these things involve sales. Wouldn't it be great to go to a party, and not have to buy anything? Wouldn't it be great to just go and be encouraged and filled and refreshed in the Word? Ready and equipped to just go out there and do what God has called you to do?

NC: Yes. All mothers need this encouragement so much! Oh, I think we do have to think of ways of encouraging one another. So, I'm looking forward to hearing more.

When I was a young mum, I used to have a ladies’ Bible study in my home to encourage being a wife and being a mother. Oh, so many mothers came with their babies and their children. We had usually more children than mothers. They would stamp on my potted plants, and wreck my house, but oh, they were wonderful times, because we stimulated one another. We encouraged one another.

We always went back to our homes, although I was there in my home, but we were all refreshed. We could do it again for another week. We so looked forward to meeting one another. It's like the Above Rubies camps. It's not only my speaking that blesses the women, but it's the beautiful fellowship of kindred spirits. The talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, of encouraging one another, and the testimonies, yes. So, carry on!

PF: Well, you know, you had a great example of it being in your home. If you can do it in your home and have all the children play. Maybe the older ones watch the younger ones. Then that is fantastic. But sometimes people just, logistics aren't working out, size of the house, who's going to watch the children, on and on.

So, you could take this and make it your own in so many different ways. You could do it in your home, or you could do it in a park. You could meet in a park. You could meet in a coffee shop. There are even some coffee shops by me. I'm in the Pacific Northwest. We do coffee a lot.

NC: It's not quite so easy with little ones.

PF: Well, the coffee shops by us have playrooms. So, it could be, or it could be, maybe you do it in the evening, when your husband's home. Maybe he has, every now and then, he watches them. So, there's all sorts, you could just think out of the box, what can I do?

I want to tell you about another thing, because my friend, Ann Dunagan, has this down. She has a beautiful model. It really is relevant for today because so many of us are on Instagram or Facebook, and all these social media ways.

She told me about a thing she has. She has something called the Mission Minded Huddle. It takes place within Facebook Messenger. The idea is that you gather with a group of women, the same women, three to four women.

You pick a date and a time. Say we're going to do Monday at 2 o'clock. So that's a great time. You make sure your children are down for a nap, and you've got your whatever done. You could even be in different time zones as long as you have it all lined up so you're all online at the same time.

You go into Facebook Messenger and start a, what do they call it, they call it a video chat, I believe. So, you go into the video chat, and you start a video chat. Each woman gets 15 minutes, yeah, I think she does 15 minutes. Might be 10.

The idea is that each woman gets 10-15 minutes to go through a list. She calls it “The High Five.” I'm going to tell you what those are. Let me see if I can find it. There we go.

Each person gets the floor. No one interrupts for 10-15 minutes. You're going to tell, during those few minutes:

1. I'm praising God for. . . something. It's always good to praise, isn't it?
2. I'm learning about . . . What is the Lord teaching you? How are you growing? We never know when He's teaching us something if that is for someone else as well.

NC: I love that, because we should always be learning and growing. Now we just want to get into a rut, and we can easily do that. I'm always challenged by those words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, when he said, “But to act, that each tomorrow find us farther than today.”

I think it's something that we should keep in our hearts, to always be learning something new, always pressing on a little more. Today, tomorrow, we're going to just understand a little more who our Wonderful God is. We're going to learn something new.

Something I love to do at our family meal table, just in our family situation, and this is a wonderful thing for homeschoolers too, is at the supper table, where we like to encourage our children to discuss and talk. We should do that. I've never raised my children to be seen and not heard. That was very old-fashioned.

But I think the table is a wonderful place of communication. It's where we encourage our children to communicate. We can bring subjects to the table, and questions that can really open up stimulating conversation. Because if we don't, do you find that if you don't bring a subject to the table, that often it's just very shallow, it goes nowhere, and it's totally boring.

We can, as we are intentional, that word intentional, bring a subject to the table. We can have the most wonderful, stimulating conversation. A good question is, “OK, children, what is something new that you have learned today?” With each one, taking turns around the table, including Mommy and Daddy, because they want to hear, what have we learned too? So, we're all speaking about what we've learned, hopefully.

If nobody's got anything to say, well, we'd better change the way we're parenting! Maybe change the way we're homeschooling! I think that's quite a challenging question for people too. Often, I'll talk to folks, you're just wanting fellowship, and I'll say, “Oh, what's God been saying to you lately?”

Many times, they don't have anything. I mean, it's a stimulating question, because we should be learning something all the time, shouldn't we?

PF: If you ask them every time you see them, “What are you learning?” and they don't have an answer, it may drive them to go home to look it up to be prepared, because they know you're going to ask!

NC: Yes, Yes.

PF: So, the third question of the High Five was, “I need courage for . . .” You know, sometimes you're struggling with something, and you know, really in the end, you know where it's going, or what you need to do. You just need courage to make it happen. It's just great to share that with a group of women who know that's where you're struggling. So, “I need courage for . . .”

The fourth one is “I need prayer for . . .” Again, there's so much we need prayer for. The power of prayer is so great. But not all prayer requests are things that you are posting openly about. Not all prayer requests are things that you want to advertise to everyone. So, it's great to have, “This is a prayer request I specifically have for you, this group of women that I hold so dear.” So that's number four.

Number five is “Ask me next week.”

NC: That's how you're doing? “I really want to work on this, and this is what I'm going to do.”

PF: And you ask for prayer about something since last week. “Now I'd like to know, how did it turn out?”

NC: That's good, yes. I like that.

PF: It gives a model, so that, again, being intentional in our relationships . . . we have limited time. As moms, we're busy, busy, busy. I've told people I don't have time for silly little trivial conversations. I want to go from zero to deep in eight minutes or less. And truly, this is what it does. Going through this High Five takes you from “Oh, how are you today?” to “What's really going on?” That's where we need to be fed, we need to grow. So, I just love that model, to do it.

NC: I think that's so great. You know you can't do this so much on Facebook, or you could bring some things about it. But many women, over the years, have used this manual, The Power of Motherhood, as a Bible study for ladies in their home, and mothers.

So, you can look at that too, because there is so much of the Word and foundational truths for mothers, if you kind of don't know. Especially if you are going through this book, well, you'll be learning things that you can pass on. And that question, “What am I learning?

Or you could even have mothers in your home and go through this book. There's only one problem. There's just so much, you could be going for weeks and weeks and weeks! If it's going to be a long-term thing, that would be wonderful. If it's going to be a shorter-term thing, you may have to choose some of the chapters. There's such depth here that can keep you going for so long. But that's another good idea.

Thank you for sharing that, Pam. I love that.

PF: I think if we said, “You only have to do this huddle,” or “You only have to go through this book,” or “only have to do this,” it becomes a burden. But I think there's so many ways and ideas to take the time to be intentional. You can choose the format, you can choose the resource that you want to use.

I want to steal your quote, because I think of it so often, and for so many different areas. This is a Nancy quote. “Things don't just happen. You have to make them happen.”

NC: Absolutely. That's in every part of our mothering, isn't it? Every part of our parenting, every part of our homemaking. We create the home we want to have. We create the mothering that we want to enjoy in our home. We've got to make it happen. Whatever we want, we can make it happen.

Well, the Lord bless you, and thank you, Pam. What a joy it's been to have you with us on three podcasts. Wow, that's so cool. Let me pray for you.

“Father, I thank You again for every mother, grandmother, daughter listening today. Oh, God, You see their situations. You see them in their homes. They're just hungry, Lord God, for You, and for Your Word, for Your enabling in their lives. I pray that You will come to them this day and refresh them.

Let them know that You are with them. They're not home on their own, mothering. You are with them, in their kitchen, every room where they go in their house, You walk with them. You have promised, “I will be in you, and I will walk with you.” Lord God, You walk with us, wherever we go!

Our lives, and even the mundane and the normal is no longer normal when You are with us. Give us this vision to make our homes a place of excitement and creativity and joy and love and filled with the Presence of God.

Oh, God, we just thank You for who You are. Lead us all to know You more and more, because if we know You, Lord God, then we walk with You in understanding, and in joy, and in blessing. Our motherhood is, Lord, taken to a new level! We thank You in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

It'll get prayed for twice, because the Lord will hear the prayer twice, even if they only hear it once.

“Dear Father, we thank You so much for every precious woman listening today. Lord, I pray that You will come into their home, and they will feel Your Presence hovering over them, round about them, filling their homes with Your love, and Your joy, and Lord, all that You are.

We thank You, that You want to be with us. Lord God, You are a dwelling God. You long to be with us. You want to walk with us, and dwell in us, and be with us, and sit at our table with us. We thank You, and I just pray that You will bless each mother, and their husbands, and their children.

Lift them up, Lord, to a new realm of mothering and being a wife, that it will no longer be a drudgery, a chore. But it will be an excitement, because they know they're walking in the very perfect will of God. Thank You, Father, in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

Link to purchase THE POWER OF MOTHERHOOD: http://bit.ly/PowerOfMotherthoodUS

 

 

 

 

 

 

Episode 31: Growing In Motherhood

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

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

Nancy: Hello ladies. I'm blessed to have Pam Fields with us again today, so I know you're going to enjoy her. I think we will find out a little bit more about you today, Pam. Now, when you started motherhood, tell me what it was like in your beginning days, and what thoughts did you have when you went into motherhood?

Pam: Well, while my husband and I were dating, he said he wanted to have four children because that's what he grew up with, was four.  I thought, well, that's a lot, but I always planned to have one or two. I thought I'd have one or two and work full time. That was so much of what you heard.

Nancy: That's what your mother did, didn't she?

Pam: Yes, there were three of us, and she worked full-time, so I always assumed I would have one or two and work full time. When he said four and I want you to stay home with them, I thought, “Wow, what a deal. That sounds great.” We had one and then 17 months later the second.

Nancy: Isn't that interesting? Oh wait, you had Emma 17 months later. I had my twins 17 months later.

Pam: Yes, so I had Caleb then 17 months later, Emma and then the twins. It was four under four years, so that was it. We had our plan; we had four. It takes a little while to get your feet under you after the twins and the toddlers, organizing everything and the busy years, and then we realized, if they all come within four years, they are all going to leave within four years. You hear about all these empty nesters and how hard it is to adjust, and boy, we better do something. We don't want to be lonely and bored too soon, so we thought, “Well, we better have one more because we don't want to be bored, and we don't want to be lonely too soon. They are all going to go within four years.

Nancy: What about those who stop at two? Then they have all those years, all those years, and the children grow so quickly. To me, it was like one blink of my eye and my children were grown, and then it's a whole new life. I couldn't imagine just having two children. I wish I had more around me.

Pam: It doesn't feel like it when they are all little. The perspective of when you're a new mom or a young mom with only little ones, and people say the days are long, but the years are short. It didn't make sense to me until I had adult children. It was like, are they ever going to grow up? Then you shake yourself and go, wait, they grew up; it's done, and it's like, oh my goodness, that's beyond you.

Nancy: I always used to think I didn't have enough time. I wanted more time to input into their lives. It just goes so quickly.

Pam: That's true, so we had one more, our fifth. Our plan was that we would have just the one more so that we would not be lonely and bored. It was purely selfishness on our part, we just wanted the next one for us. It was funny, during her pregnancy, well, the funny part is I had been reading Above Rubies since my firstborn was a few months old. I had been reading that, and I had read about large families, but I didn't catch a vision for it.

Here, I'm pregnant with my fifth, and it was during her pregnancy that I started seeking the Lord on it.  I was thinking, “Maybe we were making this decision on our own, maybe not weighing in so much for what the Lord wanted for us. My husband was saying this the other night here, I had forgotten about it, but I put a book in the bathroom about sterilization options and the choices and all of this, and it had a real godly focus, so I just put it in there. Apparently, on his own and on my own, we were both traveling this journey, and then we kind of decided after that. If the Bible says children are a blessing, and they are a gift from God, who are we to say that I just don't want any more blessings from You, God? Please stop giving me gifts, enough is enough, stop right there. It was during that fifth pregnancy that our hearts changed, and we said, “I accept these blessings and these gifts from You and thank You for them.” On they came, six, seven, eight, and nine. They are all blessings, and they are all gifts.

Nancy: How old is Eli now, your youngest?

Pam: Eli is five and a half, so it's new stage of life. Lots of fun.

Nancy: No more little ones coming on. It comes to that stage, doesn't it?

Pam: Yes and no, because no more little ones are coming in my house. My daughter is now married, and she has a two-year-old and is expecting another. It's so natural; God has moved us straight in from parenting our own to having toddlers. It's a beautiful thing.

Nancy: That is how it is meant to be. That's how God designed it. That is why He made mothers to be in their childbearing years until they reach menopause. That can be round about 50 years of age but some younger, sometimes some a little older. Oh wow, am I going to have children until I'm 50? The average time that mothers become infertile is about 45 today. Anyway, it’s not a very long window in our lives, even twenty to forty is only about twenty years. It's so short in the length of our lives. It's the years of visitation where God can bless us.

As we get older, fertility is not like when we were younger and some stop having children sooner than others. Sometimes they come slower as you get older, but we are in those childbearing years, and then by the time you have stopped childbearing, you have children who are at the age of getting married, especially if they are prepared for marriage.

We have so many young people today who are in their mid-twenties, late-twenties, early-thirties, who are not getting married, but I think one of the reasons is that they haven't been mentally and spiritually prepared for marriage. They haven't grown up in families where there are children around, and the society doesn't really talk a lot about marriage.

Young people shack up together and even Christian couples may not want to do that, but many times, they do fall into fornication because they are not getting married. They are hanging out together and getting older, and their very natural instincts they cannot fulfill, and that's not how it's meant to be. I think God intended young people to get married at a reasonably young age. Then, as they embrace children, which hopefully they will if they're not brainwashed by our society. Then, like you are enjoying. Your children have stopped coming, but now, your daughter's children are coming. There's always babies around, and there's no empty nest.

Pam: No, we will never have an empty nest. Ever.

Nancy: God never planned the empty nest syndrome. It's not meant to be.

Pam: That's true.

Nancy: Isn't that wonderful?

Pam: Yes, so when I look at knowing we had a had a plan for four, and then we decided on five and then when God took over, that was the other six, seven, eight, and nine. It's funny. I'm not a real emotional person, but sometimes I look at those little faces, and they come up, and they talk to me, and all the sudden, it hits me. I could have chosen to never have you. By my choice and my will, you could have never been here. I just have a heart of gratefulness that they are here, and I have no idea what God has planned for them. We never know the plans we would miss out on, or the blessing we would have missed out on had we said, “That's it, tidy up, we're done, make this finished, I'm complete.” I'm not generally an emotional person, but sometimes it brings me to tears when I look at those. I've even told some of them, “You're a bonus. Most people wouldn't have you because you're number, you know, whatever.” They say, Really?” I say, “No, but I'm so glad I have you.”

Nancy: That's beautiful. Yes, and they are meant to be here. You think of children that God intended to be here, and they're not here. Not only stopping children through contraception but even when we go to the abortion field. To think there have been 60 million babies aborted since Roe vs. Wade.

You think of 60 million people in the workforce in our nation. Can you imagine how many of these could have been amazing people? Geniuses, inventors, wonderful fathers and mothers who would have had more children. We would not have to be bringing into our nation all these people from foreign countries to help the workforce because we would have had our own. We have gone so far away from God's ways by rejecting children.

Many, even in the Christian church, sadly, will stop having children, but they are not only stopping a baby, they are stopping a dynasty, a whole dynasty. Think of how many children they actually do stop because one child is not an island of itself. They will grow, get married and have children, so we stop a dynasty.  We stop the filling of eternity. You know, I've had people say to me, “God's not interested in the natural. In the New Testament, it's all the spiritual.” Well, yes, it is spiritual but still practical. God wants souls born into His kingdom. How are souls going to be born into the kingdom of God and enjoy the glories of heaven if they are not born into this world. We deprive people of eternity. Imagine it, these children that you have are going to enjoy the glories of eternity. How sad that they could never have enjoyed that just because you said, “No, I don't want anymore.”

Pam: Yes, and that first article I wrote for Above Rubies, it was in issue 91, and we had a pyramid that we showed. My husband's grandfather and grandmother. I believe he was first generation Christian, and from the two of them, they had seven children, and from those seven children, each of those had at least three or four, most of them had four, if I'm remembering right. Then there's the cousins which is my husband's generation, most of them had children, and then the next generation down would be my daughter's.

Nancy: That's a fifth generation.

Pam: Yes, and I asked my father-in-law's aunts the other time, one of them is the statistician in the family, and she messaged me last night with the numbers, and she said we are about up to 150.

Nancy: From two people.

Pam: Yes, from two people. You think what I do maybe isn't that important and the impact that I make maybe isn't that important. It's just these small little things I'm doing. But these small things multiply in God's hands. It multiples, and we may never see our five generations down, but it doesn't mean that God isn't there in that and working. To be part of that is an amazing thing.

Nancy: As your children grew, did you send them off to school or did you have a vision for homeschooling? What did you do with that?

Pam: I had never heard of homeschooling before. I grew up in public school my whole life. I had never even heard of it. One day, I went out to my mailbox to get my mail, and there was another lady that lived on our cult-de-sac going to get her mail, and she had all her children with her, all six which I thought, “What in the world? You have six.” I only had two, and I had never known anybody who had six, ever. They were home, and I thought that was the oddest thing. Why are they home? Shouldn't they be in school?

She invited me over, and I came in, and her children played with mine and we became good friends. She told me, “Well, we homeschool, and this is why.” It was an unknown concept to me completely, and I started to have a curiosity. I told my husband, “I think I might want to homeschool; I think I might want to teach them”. He said, “Well, I'm not sure if they are going to get the academics. I'm not sure long term, so I will let you do it for kindergarten, first grade, maybe second or third, but by third, they will need to be in school, for sure.”

“Ok, let's do it.” We started kindergarten with my oldest. When he was in kindergarten, the twins were just toddling around, and I was feeling overwhelmed and can I do this? So, for three months, we sent our son to the local public school, just for three months, and started around spring break until the end of the year and I noticed behaviors in kindergarten. He used to play with the toddlers, the little boys, and he'd play with his sister, and he'd come home saying things like, “I'm not going to play with her, she's a girl. I'm not going to play with them, they're babies.” When we brought him out for the end of the school year, we said, “That does not cultivate family and the love between siblings that we want to cultivate. We are going to go back to this homeschool.” We never went back to public school or private school. We've been on the homeschool journey.

Nancy: You got convinced along the way.

Pam: Part of it was when we brought him home, and I think I was a little bit still on probationary period but somewhere between that first grade to third grade, we went to our local homeschool conference, which was not high on his list to go to. He'll tell you that. It was an anniversary gift for me.

I said, “For our anniversary, will you please go to the homeschool conference with me?” And he said, “When is it?”

 “It's a two day.”

“Well, I can give my time for one day, but I don't feel the need to go back two. By the end of the first day, he said, “What time does it start in the morning?”

Nancy: Wow! Amazing!

Pam: We went back for day two and then continued every year. I think we've been twelve or thirteen years now. Now, my husband is a great homeschool advocate, and we ran our homeschool association where we live in our town and yeah . . . 

Nancy: Of course, Pam, you're not in the throes of homeschooling little ones, but you've got children who have graduated. Tell me, how did it work out?

Pam: As far as the final product?

Nancy: Yes, because you've got four of them now that have graduated.

Pam: Yes, I do. I can't believe that four that have licenses, four that have graduated, and every time one graduates, “Oh, we did it, this is done.” They are all completely successful. My oldest works within the family business. My husband says he's the best employee he's ever had.

Nancy: Yes, well, your husband was telling me last night, as a business man, how difficult it is to get good employees. How he has employees who've got degrees after their names, but they are really hopeless.

Pam: I think that something that has really become apparent to me over the years and given me confidence in my homeschooling is that we can train academics, and we can seek after and run after academics and a rigorous academic schedule. But if we do not raise children with biblical values, with virtue, with loyalty, and a heart of discernment, then we've kind of wasted our time a little bit. We can add the academics later.

We live in a time of information overload. You can go and get information so quickly that the academics aren't as high on our list anymore. Many times, my husband has employed people, and he says, “They are smart, but they don't show up to work, and sometimes they steal from you, and there's all sorts of things.” I would rather have a child of less academics and still be all these good character with godly values, to know the Word, and that's truly what the anchor needs to be. He said, “I can always teach an employee what the academics need to be.”

 If we raise our children with godly principles and values and a love for Him and a knowledge and thirst for how to get that information when they do need it, then they will always be employed. You don't need to worry that they aren't going to have the right academics, so they won't get employed. No, they will always be employed. The workforce is thirsty for people who show up to work and show up to work in time with a good and cheerful attitude, who are respectful. They are thirsty for that. Your children will always have a job if you train them. You can fill in the gaps of the academics later. I graduated from public high school with honors, and I still need to fill in my academics. I didn't learn everything there.

Nancy: Your husband was telling me last night about a study, and I was very interested in it. You might have to help me remember it, but it was about how they were checking out these children in high school and then as they went through college. They found that these people leaving high school and as they went into college, that each year they actually became dumber. Because our colleges now, instead of trying to impart the real knowledge that they need, they are just brainwashing places for the leftist ideology. They are only concerned about brainwashing the young people of this nation with the leftist and socialist ideas, and they are less worried about real knowledge. They found that every year they become dumber, and by the time they graduated college, they were actually dumber than when they were at high school.

Pam: They kind of lost some of their critical thinking skills.

Nancy: Yes, because they are no longer able to debate and reason and talk out things. I think this is something that is very important in gaining knowledge. Discussion, and other people's ideas, and being able to talk about them, and then see right through as you have both sides, and then you've got to see truth. They are not allowed to hear anything that is of God or original truth. It's all leftist ideology. That's all they get. They no longer even reason. They don't know how to reason or anything. They've become whatever they are told. That's what they believe. That's it.

Pam: I think at one of the homeschool conferences, truly, instead of spending $60,000 dollars to $100,000 dollars on a college education for your child, you'd do much better to get a franchise and have them go work a franchise. Don't get into that academia.

We have a son who is pursuing dentistry. For him, he will have to go to college. Dentistry is something you can't really YouTube. You have to learn how to do it through the school, and you have to get your certification and all that. He'll have to but he may be a unique one out of our nine. He may be the only one who ever goes to college. I think we've been brainwashed by society that says, “Oh, they have to go to college. They have to go to college.”

I think we are at a time that we, with our critical thinking skills, need to sit back and say, is college truly necessary? Where are we going and what is our ultimate goal? You'll know by each one of your children. They all have a different bent and different personality and passion to strive after. You're asking about my homeschooling, and I tell people we are kind of homeschool light. We don't pursue it hard. We're not crazy hard on the academics, and I don't stand up in front of my children and lecture and teach. We do a lot of self-taught. We border on unschooling. I'm not the academic one; that's my husband.

Nancy: He is a very academic man.

Pam: He is very academic, and for him to say, “You know what, the academics aren't that important to me, I'd rather focus on these.” That was a big statement.

Nancy: Because he has seen it and experienced it with his employees.

Pam: Yes.

Nancy: He was telling me also that many businesses today, because of the type of people that are coming to them, they would rather get a young man or woman who is diligent and intelligent but get them before they go to college because they can teach them what they need to know for their business. They will be able to teach them far better than when they've been propagandized with leftist ideology and have not really been trained, ready to be the kind of employee that they want to have.

Pam: Looking at my oldest four, the ones who have graduated, the one who needed to have the academics, who does intend to be a dentist, you know what, God gave him a passion for science. He gave him a passion for knowledge, and He gave him a skill to take tests amazingly. You know what, that's not the skill that his twin brother has, but God had a different purpose and a plan for them, and He will put that in them because that's the one who needs it. Isaac needs to pursue that dentistry; he needs that academic. God put that in him. It's nothing I did. I didn't say, “You must have college.”

Then, there's the twin, Ben, who is much more physical. He's much more active. He couldn't stand any test. He couldn't stand any academics, so he is perfectly suited for what he is now doing, which is why we got to enjoy this trip with you because we are going to see him at his army graduation. He's done amazingly well.

Nancy: They are all succeeding in the different areas. He's already been chosen to be the leader of his squad, because he has got that. He's someone who's going to make things happen. He gets what he wants. He's already a leader.

Pam: Right and he's eighteen. He's just eighteen. There was no way I could train him. “Oh, someday I think you'll be in the army therefore we are going to study this. I think, you are going to be a dentist, therefore we are going to study this. I think you're going to do, etc.” Instead, let's teach them godly values, let's teach them the Lord, let's give them a general knowledge and a general education, and let them pursue passions and follow, and the Lord will fulfil His purposes in them.

Nancy: Yes. I think we have often the wrong concept of schooling. I myself believe that knowledge is very important. Proverbs 19:2 says, “That the soul be without knowledge it is not good.” I love that Scripture because it says: “that the soul.” It doesn't even say: “that the mind.”

Sometimes, we try to fill our minds with knowledge, and yes, we've got to; that's part of it. We are going to stimulate our minds, and we are going to study to find out these things that we are passionate about. But there's something about the soul being filled with knowledge. I think that having a passion for knowledge is in us. I believe that it is in every person, a passion and a longing for knowledge. Because our God is the God of all knowledge. That's who He is. Everything, every attribute of God is not, “Oh, this is a little attribute of God.” No, God is the fullness of every attribute, the fullness. All knowledge is found in Him. Colossians 3:3 says: “In whom are hid ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Because that's “in Him” and we are created in His image, there should be a desire and a longing and a passion for knowledge. I believe this is the greatest thing we can do in our schooling, in our homeschooling. Give our children this passion for knowledge so that they long for it. It's not so much, “Ok, I've got to teach them this.”

This is how my brain thinks. First of all, we start off with public schooling. I often think, “How come we are such victims?” There was some person or a group of people that decided these are the subjects that the children of our nation are going to learn, and we will create the textbooks, and we will put in them what we want them to know.” I have one of my lovely Above Rubies helpers, who is with us at the moment. She was mostly homeschooled but did go to high school for a year or so. She said her history textbook had one paragraph on Christianity and a whole chapter on Islam. Some group of people are deciding what the children will learn. What authority do they have? How crazy are we, as victims, who say, “Yes, we will follow that. Yes, whatever this person decides. They didn't have any authority to say what my children will learn. But no, I will do that.”

So, we send them all off to school. Of course, there were years ago when they could get away with it. But now, they can't get away with it because this indoctrination, this propagandizing of this leftist ideology is not just in the colleges. It's starting right in the beginning of kindergarten now.

Then we come to homeschooling, and do you know that many homeschooling mothers do the same thing? We go to our homeschool curriculum fairs, and we see all these amazing curriculums, and they are all wonderful. We go home and because we have paid all this money for it, well, we are going to have to use it. Our children have got to finish that lesson, and they've got to get through it because I've paid all this money. This is what they've got to learn.

I beg your pardon? There was somebody who got that together, and it was a great idea for their family, but is that what my children have to learn? We become victims. We are just like little sheep. Oh goodness me. God has given us as parents to be the parents to these children, and we are different, and our children are different than any other children on the face of the earth. In fact, everyone in our family, each one of them are different.

I think the greatest thing that we do, as you were saying before, number one, is teaching them in the ways of God. His character and embedding them richly in the Word of God. As they go out into this world, they are going into a world of deception, and there is only one thing that exposes the deception, and that is the Word of God. If we are not filled with the Word, we can be deceived because we don't really know what truth is. We have to fill them, fill them richly with His Word and His character and the values of life. This should be so much a part of them and giving them a longing and a desire for knowledge.

It may not be just having to go through certain lessons. We we don't have to be stuck with that. We've got to do it the way we feel this particular child will learn, but we dare not put them off. I think so many people have put off school and put off knowledge. They've put off knowledge. I remember, as I went to public school back in my day, I'd never heard of homeschooling, but there were subjects, I mean, science. I hated science because I went to these boring lessons, and it was so boring. I think, “Oh, I hate science, but I should not hate science because God is the originator of science. Everything comes from Him and even scientists are only discovering. In fact, that's the problem with scientists today. They tell us one thing, we go a few years down the line, and they have greater equipment and microscopes and whatever to find out more, and they find that what they thought before is actually wrong and now it's new.

Pam: It's changed.

Nancy: Their science is changing all the time, whereas God is eternal, and He knows it all, and we should have such a longing for the knowledge of this world and how it works. I got put off science because of boring classes, and I got put off math. It was only when I was homeschooling my own children that I got a love for math. This is exciting.

Pam: I think that we let academics and schooling get in the way of true education, which is the knowledge and the wisdom. I would say, don't do that. Don't get caught up in the school and the education or the school and the academics that we forget what a true education is, and that is the wisdom and the knowledge.

Nancy: Yes, and knowledge is powerful because knowledge is God. God has all knowledge, and you see it. Not just, “Ok, I've got to school my children.” I mean, learning and knowledge are for life. Here I am, getting into the older part of my life, I still feel so young. I think I have an even greater passion for knowledge today. Every day, oh, I hear about something. I want to learn so much more about that. Oh wow, I've got to find out more about that! I do not have the time to find out all that I want to study and find out. Firstly, in the knowledge of God and who He is, but then in the knowledge of His world, which is all God. This is what we have to put into our children so that when they are questioning about something, forget the little lesson they are learning, just let them go for it to discover this, and then there will be something else. Let's discover what is enticing us and interesting us at the time. That's how we are filled with knowledge, and that keeps that excitement and knowledge in our lives. Don't you think?

Pam: Yes. for sure. I've learned a lot more aa a homeschooling mom than I did during my years in school myself.

Nancy: Yes, absolutely, so dear, darling mothers, be encouraged today. Some of you think, “Oh, I've just got to get through all these lessons, and I've got to get through this curriculum.” No, you don't. Who said you had to? You just put that on yourself.

I remember a friend of mine. They were going through a very, very difficult financial time in their lives, and she was homeschooling, but she couldn't even afford to buy any books or any curriculum for the new year. She complained to her husband, “Oh, what are we going to do? Our poor children, we can't even afford books for them.” He said to her, “You've got the greatest book in your hands; you've got the Word, teach them from that. Well, she had no other alternative. She couldn't buy the books, so she did. She began teaching them from the Word. Those children grew up, beautiful young girls and they had all the education they needed for life.

Pam: Absolutely.

Nancy: We've got to have another session with Pam. What do you reckon, ladies? Let's pray now, shall we?

“Dear Father, we thank You that we can talk together and discuss all the things that we face each day. I pray again for every mother and grandmother and daughter, everyone who is listening, Lord, bless them. Homeschooling mothers, Lord, bless them. I ask that You give them Your rest. Take away their overwhelmingness. Lord, let them know that You are the author of knowledge. It's in You that all knowledge is hidden. Lord God, we are not bound by certain lessons that we have to teach our children. Show us what You want us to teach them. And give us and our children such a passion and desire and longing for knowledge. That our whole families will be seeking after knowledge that comes from their own heart and their own desire. We ask this is in the name of Jesus. Amen.”