Welcome to the podcast FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ NANCY CAMPBELL, Founder and Publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy:

Hello dear ladies. We're continuing to talk about this wonderful Hebrew word, navah, which means “to dwell and live in your home, to make it a lovely home.” We're talking about different ways, and we're up to number four. We make our home a . . .

TRAINING AND EDUCATION CENTER.

This is where the bulk of the training of our children happens, in our homes. Not just going to school. Now, some may send their children to school. Many of you are homeschooling. I believe that today (maybe we could have gotten away with it years ago), but today we are facing more and more deception. Not only deception, but irate lies against God and His ways in our public-school system.

The gay agenda is pushing itself more and more and more into our public-school system. And it's touching the lives of our children. Even Muslim education is coming into our public schools and many schools. Even here in Tennessee, where I live, there are schools where they have been made to recite the Muslim prayers.

And yet we cannot have the Bible or pray to our great God in our public schools. And therefore, I believe that as godly, God-fearing parents, we have to think very carefully about the education of our children. I know we all want to raise godly, Bible-believing, God-fearing children. How can we do that when we send them to a school where they are taught the opposite? And this is happening today. Where they're being influenced by the gay agenda, where they're being influenced by alternative lifestyles, where they're being influenced by everything that is against God, where they're being influenced by socialism and everything that is foreign to our constitution and how this nation began.

And so, many of course, are now homeschooling their children. And we're so blessed that today, we have such wonderful homeschooling curriculums. There's just so much. In fact, there is too much because you hardly know what to choose. There are so many wonderful curriculums to get hold of for the teaching of your children so that they can have a very good education. But it's not only just learning facts that is education. Education is LIFE, and it's in our homes that we learn to live life.

I find in the public-educated children that I know, on the whole, (of course there's always exceptions), but on the whole, most of them as they come out of school and then they go onto college, they have no idea what home life is like. They are at school most of the day, they come home, they go out to extra-curricular activities, and they've got to do their homework. They don't become part of the running of the home, the chores of the home. They're not having time to learn to cook and how to manage a home. These are such valuable principles that are part of life learning.

It's so sad that so many young women today, they get to that place where they are getting married. Often, it's later and later and later today. The average age today in the states is 29 years for men and 28 for women. It is getting older and older and older for couples to get married. This of course is also opposite to God's plan and opposite to the word of God, opposite to His heart. It even goes against nature because when does God arouse that longing and desire for a mate? It's not when young people are in their mid, late twenties. It's when they're young. Now, does God do that to frustrate them and say, “No, you must not be married till you're in your late twenties or thirties?” No. God intends couples to be married when they are young, if they meet the right person.

Of course, sometimes couples don't meet until they're later in life, but I am so against couples meeting and just hanging out and going on and on and on in a relationship and never coming to that place of getting married. I believe it's totally wrong, and I don't believe, (well, there could be those who are truly walking in righteousness), but I think most of them are not living in righteousness, they're living in fornication. And therefore, it's all out of order and all upside down and opposite to the way God wants it. But in many of these, when they decided to get married at this later age, have no idea how to run a household. They have no idea how to cook. They have no idea even how to hold a baby. They've grown up in two child families, and they've never had younger brothers and sisters.

So, they've never seen their mother nurse a baby or had little babies around. This is one of the beautiful things of large families. Older children are able to see mothering and fathering right at hand. They see their mother nursing their younger siblings, and it becomes normal to them. They see how it happens and they are ready for it. They know how to cook a family meal for a big crowd. They know how to manage a household. They know how to go and get the groceries and they know how to do it all. They've been trained in it because they have been there on hand.

And so, we are not only educating our children with learning and facts, which are important. I believe, myself, that it's important to learn something new every day. I love that line from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow when he says:

"But to act that each tomorrow find us farther than today."

Every day of our lives should find us learning something new, stretching forward in a way we haven't ever done before. In fact, that's a great idea for you at the family evening table every now and then, to ask your children this question: “Children, tell us something new that you learned today.” And you go around the table. Each one having a turn right from the youngest to the oldest, including Mummy and Daddy. Oh yes. Have you learned something new today?

We should all be striving to learn something new. Apart from learning facts, we are learning life. That's even more important. Learning the principles of life, and how to live life, and also how to speak well. That’s a very important one. We talked about that on an episode recently, about how we're training children to speak.

Remember it says in Psalm 127 “Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them." Full of children. “He shall not be ashamed, for he shall speak with the enemies in the gates.” Well, I mean, “THEY shall speak with the enemies in the gates.” It's they, it's the children. We're raising children to speak, to speak well, to speak for God, to speak the truth, to be prepared to speak out, and to, maybe one day, speak in the gates of the city, or the gates of the land of this nation. Wow.

But we are preparing children for this. And that's why we need to always be training our children to speak clearly. I notice that a lot of young people mumble. (Incoherent sounds). They speak so fast and just mumble away to each other. They actually do understand one another, but I don't understand them. Maybe I'm getting a little deaf, but I think it is important that if our children are mumbling, we should say to them, “Hey, speak clearly, speak slower. Say that again, so I can understand what you're saying.” Because as our children grow up, their success is going to be determined on how they speak, how people hear them, how they speak to other people. Do they speak clearly? Do they speak in confidence? Do they know what they're talking about? And these are important things to prepare them for success in life.

And so, we're teaching them how to speak.

And this is another little thing too. Some people say, (well actually, it’s a big thing in some people's minds), you get people who say, when you talk about homeschooling, “Oh, but I send my children to school so they can be a witness.” Well, that sounds all very well and good, but it usually doesn't work out. What usually works out is your precious, vulnerable children are instead infiltrated and influenced by an ungodly culture at school. They'll just get completely rammed down if they try to speak, and they will be influenced instead.

But what we're doing when we're homeschooling is getting our children READY to speak. Oh, we're kind of looking after them now. We're hibernating them now because they're not ready. They're not ready to go out into this world yet, but we're training them. We are getting them ready because we're not keeping them forever. No, we are getting them ready to send out. There's a day when they going to go out. We will send them forth as arrows to shoot the mark. And we send them forth, oh my, we send them forth to the wolves because that's what Jesus said, that you will be like lambs in the midst of wolves. And our little children aren't ready to go out among the wolves yet.

We've got to get them stronger. They've got to know the Word. They've got to know the truth. They've got to know how to speak it. And they've got to have convictions. They've got to be able to contend for the faith, and so they have to be ready, because when they go out, they will face the wolves. When they face the wolves, they've got to know how to stand. And having done all to stand, as it says in Ephesians chapter six. Oh, I love those words. They're great words to take as a vision for your children as you're raising them. “I'm raising children who will be able to stand against the enemy and having done all, stand.” So that even when the wolves come, even when people come to knock them down, they'll still stand because they have the truth. And so, we're teaching them how to speak.

We're teaching them etiquette. Oh my, etiquette seems to be a dying art in our culture today. Young people don't know etiquette, and while we have our children in the home, we have opportunity to teach them etiquette and all the little things of life. Even at the table.

How do you run your table? Is it just bedlam? Does everybody speak at once? Well, maybe you don't mind that happening in your home, but I do. I do mind that happening in my home. We don't have everybody speak at once because it's bedlam. Nobody knows what anyone else is saying. And nor do we have private conversations because, did you know? They are rude. It is rude to whisper or have a private conversation with someone else at the table when there are others sitting around the table. And so, you teach your children etiquette, you teach them the right habits, so they know how to conduct themselves one day when they are adults and go out amongst people and have to dine with them.

Even last night we had a lot of young people at our table and they began to start off talking to one another, different ones having different conversations, and I had to say, “Hey everybody, we don't have private conversations at our table. We all join together. We're going to have one person speaking, and we're all going to listen and enjoy. So, we brought a subject to the table and different ones shared and we could all listen and laugh and enjoy what they were saying all together, and this is how it happens. But we teach this, we teach this kind of etiquette. It's so important.

Did you ever buy my etiquette posters? I have seven etiquette posters in a little package. You buy them all together and they are: Table etiquette, Home etiquette, Speech etiquette, Receiving Hospitality, Church etiquette, how do we conduct ourselves there? Work force etiquette, preparing your children when they go out into the workforce, and Daily Life etiquette.

Each one has a page full of just etiquette encouragement that we can teach our children. You can pin them up on your walls or put them as place mats if you like to, you know, put some plastic over them at your table just so you can teach your children. Or you can use them yourself, taking them one by one to teach your children.

I was talking to a friend just recently and she was saying to me, she said, “Oh, I'm so blessed. The young man who is courting my daughter, every time he leaves our home, he comes to me and he says, ‘Thank you so much for allowing me to be with your daughter.’” I thought how lovely that was. You can tell that that young man (he is a homeschooled young man), has been trained really well.

I think communication is a very important one, that we teach our children to communicate wherever they're going, whatever they're doing. If they are going out (because this applies to older children, as they are getting older), that we require them to tell us where they are going, what time they will be home and so on.

We, as parents, while our children are under our roof, have a responsibility (f they live in the home), to know exactly where they are and when they will be home. That is not overpowering a child, that is etiquette. That is what we train them to do, so they will be prepared for marriage. If we, as married couples, if one of us has to go out somewhere, we don't just go out. We tell our husband, and we tell him where we'll be. We tell him when we'll be home. We communicate. He does the same with us. We are training our children how to live life. We're preparing them for marriage. That communication is very, very important. We do not ever live lives just unto ourselves and do what we like. In fact, that is really the whole concept of etiquette: thinking of others, putting others first, putting others where we would like them to put us. And so, we are training them in this way.

So many areas of training in the home that prepare our children for life. And so, it is a training center.

Number five. We make our homes a . . .

PRAISE AND WORSHIP CENTER.

Our home should be filled with praise. It's wonderful to have the beautiful worship songs or hymns playing in our home. We're very blessed that we have so much music available to us today. And so, fill your home with beautiful music and the praises of the Lord. One time, (actually it was a number of years ago), I was reading in the Word, in Colossians. It’s in Colossians 2:7 and at the end it says that we are to be “abounding with thanksgiving.” Some translations say, “overflowing with gratitude.”

I looked up this word, abounding, to see what it really means, and it's a very powerful word. It means “to super abound, to be in excess, to do more than is necessary, above and beyond.” Wow, I thought, goodness me, how do I do that? If I'm going to be” abounding in thanksgiving,” how do I do that all day? I mean, I'm busy at work. I'm doing this. I'm concentrating on what I'm doing.

I was talking to the Lord about this and something came to my mind. I'm sure it was the Lord who put it into my mind and these words came: kitchen timer. “Oh, wow, what a great idea, Thank you Lord.” When I went back inside, because I was walking and talking with the Lord, when I went back inside, I got out my kitchen timer.

Well maybe you don't have one, but go and get one from Walmart, they're as cheap as dirt. I used this timer, and I would put it on for either a half hour or an hour. When it dinged, then I would remember to praise the Lord, and I would just take one little moment, “Thank You,  Lord for your goodness to me today. Thank You for Your faithfulness.” That was all, but I was brought back to a heart of thanksgiving.

Turn the timer on again, and you get busy. You forget all about it, but suddenly it rings again. “Oh, thank You, Lord. Thank You for my home. Thank You for blessing me with these children You have given me. Thank You for your presence here with us. Thank You, Lord.”  I turn the timer on again for another hour.

Of course, if your children are with you, then you're going to get them thanking the Lord too. So, you're bringing the whole family into an attitude of praise and worship. You can all do it together when it dings. “Okay, come on, children, let's thank Jesus.”

“Thank You, Jesus. We love You. Thank you. Thank You for all Your blessings. Amen.”

Get them all to thank with you. And as you are doing this throughout the day, it keeps you in that beautiful attitude of gratitude, and of thanksgiving. Maybe you've just got into a bit of self-pity and feeling sorry for yourself because everything's going wrong—and ding! Oh my. You can no longer be in self-pity. “Thank You Lord. Oh, I thank You that You are my joy. I thank You that I don't have to look at these circumstances. I look to You, Lord. You are bigger. I thank You in the name of Jesus.” And so, once again, you're back in the right attitude.

Maybe the children are bouncing off the walls and right at that moment you're ready to blow your cool—Ding! And so instead of screaming at the children, you confess: “Oh thank You, Lord.” “Come on. Come here, children.” You hold their hands and you pray with them. “Oh God, I pray that You will touch my children now. Lord, give them soft, tender, forgiving hearts to one another. Fill them with love for one another in Jesus' name.”

And so the timer can be a wonderful blessing in your home to keep you in the praises of the Lord.

Well, let's carry on, number six. We make our homes a . . .

PRAYER CENTER.

Well, this is very, very, very biblical of course, because we know that Jesus said that his house is a House of Prayer, and he was talking about his temple. And of course, it also means our home. And if you have dedicated your home to the Lord, it's His home. Every one of our homes should be God's homes, and therefore, they should be praying homes. They should be homes of prayer. How much is your home a home of prayer? How much time have you spent in prayer today?

Now, we do pray personally, and of course, we're going to be praying. We're going to be bringing things to the Lord in our hearts throughout the day because we're always needing Him. Oh goodness me, I'm always needing Him, aren't you? In fact, I think one of the prayers that I pray more than any other prayer is Zechariah four, verse six, where it says, “Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord."

“Oh God, I thank You that you are God, that You are bigger than this challenge that I face. I pray that You will come by Your Spirit, and You will move because I can't work this situation out. I can't change this person's life. Oh God, I can't change the attitude, but You can. I thank You. I pray that You'll come by Your Spirit. It's not by my might, nor my power, it's by Your Spirit. Come by Your Spirit and move, Oh God.”

Oh, how I constantly pray that prayer often throughout the day. And so, we pray personally, but we must pray as families because our homes are places for families. A home really is a family. That's what it is. It's a family, so we pray as families.

Do you gather as a family to pray? How often do you gather? Biblically, God has shown us the way to come into His presence—every morning and every evening. He shows us this way back in the teaching on the Tabernacle, and God reveals what is called the Morning and Evening principle. And God showed it in very practical ways. Everything that God teaches us, He also teaches it to us practically.

At the very beginning of their building the Tabernacle, God talked about the brazen alter. That was an alter made of brass where they were to do the sacrifices. And God told them that when they did this, that they were to come to that altar every morning and every evening. They were to take out the ashes of the fire, because there was a fire upon the altar, and then they were to put on wood to keep the fire going. This spiritually speaks to us of coming into God's presence every morning and every evening, bringing our children into His presence. In His presence is where He will convict us if there's anything that is hurting and grieving His spirit. That's where we take out the ashes, take all that dead stuff out and all that stuff that grieves the Holy Spirit. But then we've got to put on the fuel, put on the wood, and so we put on the word of God because that fuels us. And then we pray. We do it morning and evening. But that was not enough. That happened in the  outer court, but then you move into the Holy Place.

And in the holy place there was the Table of Shewbread on which they laid the 12 loaves. Then they had the candelabra, the beautiful seven-branched golden candle stick. And God said to the priests, “You have got to come once again every morning and every evening to keep that light burning. Every morning you've got to take off all the burnt stuff from the wick and get rid of it.” Always getting rid of all the bad stuff.

And then pouring in the oil, which speaks of the Holy Spirit, that renewing of the Holy Spirit, morning and evening. And he said, “You have to do this every morning and evening because this light is never to go out. If you do it once a day, it'll go out. You've got to do it twice a day to keep the light burning.” And that's why they had to do it twice a day at the altar, at that brass alter. Because God said, “This fire must never ever go out.” And he repeats it twice (Leviticus 6:12, 13).

Lovely ladies, if we want to keep the fire of God burning in our hearts, burning in the hearts of everyone in our family, we've got to come twice a day. Doing it once, the fire will go out. It's only as we keep it going. We've got to attend to it two times a day to keep that fire burning.

And then that wasn't all. Because before you went into the Holy of Holies, just at the entrance, there was the Golden Table of Incense where they burned the incense. Once again, can you believe it? They had to do it every morning and every night! God wanted His home where he dwelt there (where the God of the universe who could not be contained in the earth, and yet He deigned to live in a tent, to be with His people and to dwell in the midst of them), He wanted His home filled with a beautiful aroma, that sweet aroma of incense. And so, they would light it in the morning, but by the evening it would be dissipating, so they would have to light it again to keep it going.

And the Bible tells us that the incense is the prayers of the saints (Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-5). That's what it is. And as that incense went up, it was just like a beautiful sweet incense. It was like prayers going up to God. And so, God made a principal way back there, a precedent, a type for us to keep going, that we will continue to pray and intercede and praise and worship every morning and every evening as a family.

Let me read to you a couple of Scriptures from Revelation. These are amazing because I was talking to you about the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and you can say, “Oh, that's all very well, that's a way back then, back in the wilderness, that doesn't relate to us today.”  Oh yes, it does! Because everything regarding the Tabernacle was done according to the pattern that God gave. And it was according to the pattern of the Tabernacle in Heaven!

Yes, in heaven. This tabernacle, which now is! When we go to Revelation, it is John giving us a picture of the vision that he sees of Heaven and what is in Heaven. And we see, ladies, the very same thing happening in heaven that we were talking about back there in the wilderness. So, this is more up to date than today, because this is in the eternal realm. Revelation 5:8 says: "And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints."

Dear mothers, our prayers are going up before the Lord, even now, to His heavenly throne room. Oh yes. Those cries from your mother's heart. They're going up. They are not forgotten. They are before the throne.

Revelation 8:3, 4: “And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer and there was given unto him much incense.” Not a little bit . . . but MUCH! How much incense do you have going up in your home? A little bit or much? “That he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne”

Dear ladies, this is now in the eternal realm! “And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.” So, we see how this is the prayers of the saints, the prayers of God's people, the prayers of families. Can I encourage you so much to make this time every day in your family?

I know it's not easy, but you have to make it happen. And lovely ladies, remember you don't try and fit it around your schedule. No. If you try to do that, you'll never do it. If you try and fit it around everything you're doing in your home? Oh goodness me, you'll never have time to do it. No. This is what you do. You fit every single thing else around this most important part of the day. This is more important than anything else that you will do. This is eternal, and this will affect your family, your children, and generations to come. It will affect the nations of the world as you pray for them.

As you come every morning and every evening before the Lord, you're bringing that incense, but you've got to make it happen. You've got to absolutely make it happen. You've got to make that time and make that place, and everything else fits in around it and if not another thing gets done, well, too bad. These are the most important things in our home.

We find the most wonderful time of the day is at breakfast and at our evening suppertime, because it's the morning and evening principle of course. But we find it works best at meal times because that's when the family gather. To gather your family is not an easy thing because everybody's going here, going there, doing this, doing that, especially as they get older. But it's an amazing thing, they all come to eat. Oh yes, everybody wants to come to eat because we're all hungry, so you've got them there. You get them, they come to eat, and so at the end of your meal, that's when you have your time to open the Word and then to pray and to cry out to God at your altar, in your home.

Now, back in the early days, not only did they have the brass altar in the tabernacle and they had the altar of incense in the Holy Place, but earlier than even that, the Patriarchs made altars. And why did they make them? They made them as a point of contact to cry out to God and to hear God speak to them. Now we are not in a day of making alters. You're not going to make a stone altar or any kind of altar in your home, but the altar we make is that time and that place where we make it happen. A beautiful place is around your table, but it can be what works best in your home. And so you make that time and you come together to pray.

Did you know that prayer is the greatest thing you can do as a family? There's no more powerful thing. Not only do you pray for one another, but oh, you pray for the nation, and you pray for the world, and you teach your children how to do it, and you become nation-changing families.

As I close this session, I've got to tell you something very important. Satan will try to stop you because he hates prayer. He will do everything he can to stop you doing this, and when he stops you, he'll be laughing up his sleeve because he has won a victory. Because when we pray, we defeat the devil.

Are you going to be a devil-defeating, world-changing family, or are you going to let the devil have the victory?

Let's pray. Lord, I pray that You will help us all to be praying families, to make our homes prayer centers, where prayer is part of our lives. Where our children grow up praying, interceding, and knowing how to pray. Oh God, teach us how to be interceders for the nation and for the world. I pray that You will pour out a spirit of prayer upon every family hearing this podcast today or tonight in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Episode 12: Build an Exciting Home, No. 1

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: Well, it's such a beautiful day in Tennessee here in Primm Springs where we all live. The sun is shining and some of the young people are out on the volleyball court playing. Well, they don't seem to mind the heat. I think I would prefer it in the cool of the day. I hope it's a lovely, beautiful day where you are living too. Well, it's good to be back with you. In this episode, I want to come back to the very first word that we talked about when I started doing the podcasts. We are now up to podcast 13. My, how the time goes. In episodes one and two, I introduced to you a Hebrew word, naveh. It is spelled N-A-V-E-H, and it's one of the Hebrew words for the word dwell. It means to dwell in a home. It means to be at home, to reside at home. It can be a dwelling place.

One Hebrew commentator calls it the “inhabitress of the home.” Well, we don't use words like that very much today, do we? Although, we do! What about waiter, waitress; actor, actress; mayor, mayoress; editor, editress. Well, I don't think anybody actually uses editress. Although, I like to call myself the editress of Above Rubies because it is more grammatically correct. When this gentleman says, “not the inhabiter but the inhabitress of the home,” he is talking about the woman in the home. We actually found out about that in episodes four and five where I talked about this same Hebrew word and how we found that this word is in the context also of war and of this mighty woman. She's in the home, but she's also part of a great army. That was in Psalm 68:12.

Now, this word is also used to speak of God's home and of our home, of course, and even of a pasture for animals. It's a word that also means “lovely” because our homes are meant to be lovely places. In Jeremiah 6:2, it talks about the daughters of Jerusalem, and it calls them lovely and delicate women. Here the word is related to a woman, just as it is in many passages.

In Psalm 113:9: "He makes the barren woman to keep house (or to dwell in a home, to naveh in a home) and to be a joyful mother of children." Psalm 68:12, which we talked about, where it says: “she that dwelt in the home,” talking about the “she.” Not talking about the man, but the “she” that dwelt in the home.

It reminds me of Proverbs 31. Have you ever noticed, as you've read through that chapter, that the word “she” occurs 16 different times? She does good to her husband. She looks to the ways of her household. She does this, she does that. It's all about the “she.” Anyway, today I want to bring you back to this word again. We've been having many different podcasts, and I've been interviewing different folks, but now I've got to get you back to this word again. We haven't finished yet, and I want to take you to another Scripture where this word is used.

This time, it's in Jeremiah 29:5. Now, let's get the context before we read the scripture. The children of Israel have now been taken from their home of Israel. They've been taken to Babylon. They are now captives in a foreign land. God comes to them in Babylon and speaks to them through the Prophet Jeremiah.

Although Jeremiah is giving the word, God says that He is speaking, “Thus says the Lord of hosts . . . thus says the Lord of Israel.” Here we read this description of God as the Lord of hosts. Now this is a description that we read many times of God. I wonder, when you read it, do you think about what it means? Who is God as the Lord of hosts? Well, it literally means the God of the armies of Heaven, the God who fights for His people, Israel and for his covenant people today. He fights for us. He is our God. If God is for us, who can be against us. This is our God, and it's always in the context of war, or God standing up and fighting for us. Here He comes to the people in Babylon. He comes, “thus says the Lord of hosts.” Wow, they better listen.

This is an important word from God. Even though they are captives in a foreign land, God is speaking. What will He say to them? What does He want them to do in this foreign land? This is a very amazing passage, and we're going to read about seven different things that God said to His people in Babylon.

The very first one, let's read it in verse five. It contains the word naveh. God says to them: "Build houses and dwell in them." Many different translations say: “Build houses and live in them.” The word is naveh, meaning “to dwell in a home, to live in it, to make your life in it, to make it a lovely place, to make it a secure fold.”

In my second episode, I talked about how God wants us to make our homes a beautiful fold as we fold our flock and fold our family in our homes.

Here we go. Now ladies, isn't this amazing? I could never really quite comprehend this because this is God, the Lord of hosts, speaking this sovereign word to His people and what does He tell them? Build houses.

Our God is such a practical God. Dear precious ladies, God is interested in every aspect of your life. He is so vitally interested in your home. God loves homes because He is the designer and the author of homes. He is the first home designer. He is the first architect of homes. He is the One who created the very first home in the Garden of Eden, and it was called the Garden of Eden.

In Hebrew, the word Eden means delight. The home that God created was a delightful place. Perhaps there has never been, in fact, there never has been, a home that was as beautiful and delightful as that very first home. That first home was a prototype. Everything that God did in the beginning was the prototype for all that was to come. It was His plan for the future. He showed us the foundation and the vision of what He wanted and how He wants us to live. The first home, meaning a delightful place, is what He wants all our homes to be. He wants us to make them a delightful place.

Now, we all want our homes to be delightful, of course, but they don't just become delightful. We have to work at them becoming a delightful place. It takes thought. It takes meditation. It takes prayer. It takes vision. It takes work. It takes sweat. It takes our lives to make our home a delightful place where our husband loves to be, where our children love to be, where we love to be, because we make it a delightful place for ourselves too. God comes again, and when He comes to them in Babylon, because they're no longer in their beloved land, He says to them, I'm reminding you of the vision I gave you in the very beginning  Just because you are now in a foreign land does not negate what I told you in the beginning. I want you to keep doing it because this is My plan, the way I want you to live. “Build houses and live in them.” Naveh in them.

You see, dear mothers, we are to live in our homes. Not to just be running here and there and coming in to roost or coming in to do something for awhile and out again. No, our homes are to live in. God gave us homes to live in, to make life in them. We are to make life happen in our homes. Our homes are to be a hub where everything is happening, from birth to the grave. I mean, it's all meant to happen in the homes.

Today, sadly, homes are vacated. Often during the day, many homes are completely empty. Children are off to school. Mother is off to work. Husband, of course, is out doing his provision for the family, but the whole home is vacated. That's not how God intended it to be. He wants us to live life in our homes and to make wonderful things happen in our homes. So they are places, not only of delight, but of productivity and beautiful things happening and wonderful memories taking place.

Now I'd like to share with you 15 different ways we can make life happen in our home. Of course, there are many more and maybe I'll add to it, but I've just written down 15 for the moment. Shall we look at some of these?

1.     WE ARE TO MAKE OUR HOMES A PLACE FOR GOD’S PRESENCE

We are to make our homes a place for God's presence, where we live in His presence. I think that is the very ultimate. When Jesus, well no, when His disciples asked Jesus, “Teach us how to pray,” what did Jesus say? He said, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

We kind of glibly say those words. We repeat the Lord's Prayer, and we don't really think about it. But what is it saying? Your will be done, Father, on earth here, just as it is in heaven. In Luke's Gospel, in chapter 11:2 it says it very simply. It just says: “As in heaven, so in Earth,” but that is so powerful if we can just get it; I don't think I really get it. “As in heaven, so in Earth.” We could perhaps say it more personally, “As in God's home, so in my home”.

If we could get this vision—to bring a little bit of heaven to earth, because that is what God wants. That's what He told us to pray. When we pray with our family each morning, that would be a good prayer to add, wouldn't it? “Oh Father, help us to just bring a little bit of heaven to earth. Help us to establish your heavenly ways in our earthly home.” That means, of course, living in His presence.

I love the Scripture. I've written it down here. In Hosea 6:2 it says: "After two days he will revive us, and the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his presence." Don't you love that? We shall live in his presence!

Psalm 102:28 is rather similar. It says: “The children of your servants will settle down here, and their descendants." Not only us but our descendants, our children, our children's children will live securely in Your presence. That's God's plan. For us to establish that in our homes so that when our children get married, they will establish it in their homes and from generation to generation. As one translation puts it: “Our descendants will live in His presence.” The Moffatt translation says: "Though eternal, thy years shall never end, and in your presence, live your servants, children and their posterity forever."

In establishing the presence of God, how do we do it? I guess it starts with us individually because our God is a dwelling God. He wants to dwell in our hearts and if we have received Him into our lives, He has come in by His spirit and dwells with us. In fact, He says that He not only abides in us, He wants us to abide in Him. He also says in Ephesians 2 that because we are in Him, we are seated in Christ in heavenly places where Christ sits at the right hand of God.

This is where we are positionally in Christ. We're not often there practically are we? We need to see ourselves positionally. I'm in Christ; He is in me, and this is how we operate our homes, from that place of Christ living in me. I dwell in Him, and it's from this attitude, this relationship, that we operate our homes, and this brings the presence of God and the atmosphere.

Atmosphere is so powerful. Every home has an atmosphere. You know that, don't you? You go into some homes, and you feel all that warmth of atmosphere. You want to be there. You want to go there. You want to stay there. You don't want to leave there because you feel that relaxed atmosphere.

You go into other homes, and they may have beautiful decor. It may look beautiful. There may be nothing out of place, but it's cold. There's no atmosphere. It's just a house of beautiful things. You can go into another house, and you can cut the air with a knife because there have been arguments, and there's been strife. Where there is strife, it always affects the atmosphere.

I love this quotation from S. D. Gordon. He wrote a book called "Quiet talks on home ideals." In this book he says: “The influence exerted by the mother is great beyond the power of our minds to think or of our words to tell. The making of a child's character is in the mother's hands to a degree that is nothing short of startling." In another passage, he writes: “The atmosphere of the home is breathed in by the child and exerts an influence in his training more, by far, than all other things put together. The child receives more by unconscious absorption than in any other way. He is all ears and eyes and open pores. He is open at every angle and point in direction and all between. He is an absorbing surface. He takes in constantly. He takes in what is there and what he takes in makes him. The spirit of the home then is the one thing on which the keen mind and the earnest heart of the father and mother will center most for the children's sake."

Dear mothers, our children are going to imbibe far more from our godly, heavenly atmosphere, that relaxed atmosphere, that warm atmosphere, that atmosphere of love and joy, than all the things that we'll ever try to teach them. It's the atmosphere they will remember. Those will be their memories as they grow up.

First of all, above everything else, let's seek to make our homes a place where God dwells. Invite Him into every room in your home because He wants to live in every room, in every nook and cranny of your home. He wants to come to your table. He wants to be present as someone who sits at your table. He wants to be involved in every conversation. When we are aware that God is with us, it changes so much in our whole mothering.

You see, dear mother, God is with you in your kitchen, when you're cooking, when you're dealing with your little ones, and they're crying, and they're scratchy, and they're upset and this one is having, you know, a tousle or an argument with another sibling and all things are happening at once, and you're just feeling overwhelmed, and you want to tear your hair out. God is there; God is with you.

Instead of screaming and tearing your hair out, say, “Oh God, I thank You that you're here. Thank You that You are with me.” You only have to cry out those words, and you'll know His presence. He will come to you. He'll give you His calm and His rest, as you acknowledge His presence. That's one of the big things in experiencing the presence of God--acknowledging His presence. “Thank You, Lord that you are with us.”

When you start the day, you're at the breakfast table, you can say, “Oh, thank You, Lord. You are with us today, Lord Jesus.” Tell your children, “Children, God lives in our home. He is with us today, so He's going to be with us in everything we do today, in all our conversations, in all our play, in all our learning, in all our chores. He is with us. Isn't that exciting? Yes. Just rejoice with me. Say, thank You, Jesus.” Get all the children to say, “Thank You, Jesus. You are with us.” As you acknowledge Him, you are going to be so much more aware of His precious presence with you.

2.     THE HOME IS A MOTHERING AND NURTURING CENTER

The home is a mothering, nurturing center. This is the place where we nurture and mother our children, and this is where God intends it to be. When God gives us a little baby to nurse at the breast and to nurture and to love, He doesn't give it to somebody else. He gives it to us, and He gives us the privilege of raising this little child in a home.

We're so blessed because God has put motherhood in our hearts. Dear ladies, motherhood is in our hearts. God has put it there by divine creation. He has put within the female a nurturing instinct, and it is there in our hearts.

Now, we know, of course, more and more today are rejecting motherhood and turning away from everything that is motherly and feminine. Even these screaming, yelling women can't get away from who God created them to be because you'll find, if you go and check it out, that they'll have a pet. They've rejected motherhood, but they've got to have something they can love, so they have a pet.

You see, God has put it in our hearts. Not only has He put nurturing in our hearts, He's put home in our hearts. It is in our hearts. It is natural to love home. Now, once again, in our educated society today that's educated in socialism and feminism and humanism, it has often been educated out of the brains of women, so they have been pulled to leave the home, and they've been brainwashed that it's an inferior place to be. When they get rid of all that junk, down deep in their hearts, there's a longing for home because God has put it within us. He wants the woman to be in the home.

We go back to the very, very beginning, and we find that when God created man. We read the account in Genesis 2. He created man and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” And that was Adam. He was created first.

Then the next very Scripture says, and then God created the home, the Garden of Eden. That was the next thing He did. He still hasn't created the woman yet. We don't even read anything about her until way down in the chapter, verse 18, and God says: “I'm going to create a helpmeet for Adam.” Even then, she doesn't come. God then creates all the animals and the beasts of the fields and the birds and so on, and that all happens before He creates the woman.

Then the day come when He puts Adam to sleep and out of the man, He brings forth a woman. When she awakes to life, she's in her home, HER HOME. Yes, God created the man before the home but not the woman. He had the home ready for her.

There she was. “This is where I want you to be,” God says. “This is the beautiful place I've created for you. You're going to make life in a home. It's from this home that you're going to affect the generations. It's from this home that you're going to nurture the world.”

Here in our homes, we embrace our home because we embrace the place of nurturing. Today, we have daycares, and yes, children can be cared for. They can be watched over from harm and so on, but they can't be truly mothered. Only a mother can truly mother her child. Only she knows intuitively the needs of her child and that can only happen in the home. Day cares are only counterfeit. Everything that God has planned is perfect and everything that God has planned, the devil hates. He has a counterfeit for everything that God has planned, and his counterfeit for the home are daycares, of course. We must embrace our home as a place of nurturing.

3.     WE EMBRACE OUR HOMES AS A PLACE OF BIRTHING

Number three, we embrace our home as a place of birthing. Now, not everybody is going to birth their babies in the home, but it's a beautiful place to birth babies and such a relaxed atmosphere to birth a baby. I love that poem, I've just forgotten the author now, a great American poet, and he talks about how our home is not a home until there's been someone born in it, and there's been someone that died in it, and everything has happened in this home.

I know many of you have had beautiful home births. Some of you have had situations where you've not been able to birth at home, and you've had to go to the hospital. Those who have to go to the hospital, I think that can be an even greater challenge because you've got to be really on top of things. There are so many invasive things that they do today in birthing. Even when the baby is born, we need to make sure that they don't happen to our baby, and we become very educated and informed and know what they are really doing.

I remember when Meadow, my granddaughter, had her first baby. She had it in a birthing center at the hospital where she had a midwife, and it was like being at home, but she was there at the birthing center. She had prepared herself so well. I mean, she'd studied. There wasn't one thing she didn't study and check out about birthing at home or what happens when you birth in a hospital. She had written out everything, gone over it with her husband, and he had the list so that when they were at the hospital, he could check everything off and make sure that that happened or that didn't happen.

When you're in birth, you're so vulnerable you can't even think about these things yourself, and you need someone advocating for you. He was well-educated, and they were able to protect themselves and protect their baby. I think that is important if you're birthing in a hospital. If you're birthing at home, that is such a beautiful experience too.

Well, time has gone again, and we've hardly started. Next week, we're going to speak more about living in our homes.

Let's pray, shall we? “Dear Father, I thank You so much for Your wonderful plan; Your plan for the home. Your plan for us to naveh in our homes and make our homes a lovely place, a delightful place. Help us, Lord, to get a vision for our homes, to see it beyond just a place to live and eat and sleep but to see wonderful and great and amazing things happen. Help us to be those who make things happen, who envision things to happen in our homes. I ask Your blessing and Your protection on every wife and husband and child who is listening today in the name of Jesus, Amen.”

Here is the poem I mentioned in this podcast.

IT TAKES A HEAP O’ LIVIN’

By Edgar Albert Guest

It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house t’ make it home,

A heap o’ sun an’ shadder, an’ ye sometimes have t’ roam

Afore ye really ’preciate the things ye lef’ behind,

An’ hunger fer ’em somehow, with ’em allus on yer mind.

It don’t make any differunce how rich ye get t’ be,

How much yer chairs an’ tables cost, how great yer luxury;

It ain’t home t’ ye, though it be the palace of a king,

Until somehow yer soul is sort o’ wrapped round everything.

Home ain’t a place that gold can buy or get up in a minute;

Afore it’s home there’s got t’ be a heap o’ livin’ in it;

Within the walls there’s got t’ be some babies born, and then

Right there ye’ve got t’ bring ‘em up t’ women good, an’ men;

And gradjerly, as time goes on, ye find ye wouldn’t part

With anything they ever used—they’ve grown into yer heart:

The old high chairs, the playthings, too, the little shoes they wore

Ye hoard; an’ if ye could ye’d keep the thumbmarks on the door.

Ye’ve got t’ weep t’ make it home, ye’ve got t’ sit an’ sigh

An’ watch beside a loved one’s bed, an’ know that Death is nigh;

An’ in the stillness o’ the night t’ see Death’s angel come,

An’ close the eyes o’ her that smiled, an’ leave her sweet voice dumb.

Fer these are scenes that grip the heart, an’ when yer tears are dried,

Ye find the home is dearer than it was, an’ sanctified;

An’ tuggin’ at ye always are the pleasant memories

O’ her that was an’ is no more—ye can’t escape from these.

Ye’ve got t’ sing an’ dance fer years, ye’ve got t’ romp an’ play,

An’ learn t’ love the things ye have by usin’ ’em each day;

Even the roses ’round the porch must blossom year by year

Afore they ’come a part o’ ye, suggestin’ someone dear

Who used t’ love ’em long ago, an’ trained ’em jes’ t’ run

The way they do, so’s they would get the early mornin’ sun;

Ye’ve got t’ love each brick an’ stone from cellar up t’ dome:

It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house t’ make it home.

Edgar Albert Guest is one of my favorite poem authors. Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959) (aka Eddie Guest) was a prolific American poet who was popular in the first half of the 20th century and became known as the People's Poet.

 

Episode 12: MODESTY AND FEMININITY

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 to you again today. I have Meadow with us again this week, so I know you're going to enjoy listening to her, but I also have Meadow's youngest sister, Autumn rose. Autumn Rose is Pearl's youngest daughter, 13 years old and the most beautiful young lady. Autumn, I wonder if you could tell me, what's your most favorite thing in life?

Autumn: Well, I love to be an Auntie, and it's my favorite thing.

Nancy: Yes. Isn't that great? “I love to be an Auntie.” I think that is so wonderful. I love seeing Autumn with little Warren, Meadow’s baby, who's nearly six months old now, and Autumn is with us today because she's looking after Warren while Meadow will be talking with me to you. What's the best fun being with Warren?

Autumn: Well, I love hearing him laugh and making him smile, and he's so cute. He's so hyper, and he's moving all the time and stuff.

Nancy: Yes. Oh, this little boy Warren. He is just out to get into the world, isn't he? It's so funny to see the difference because Serene's little baby, Solly, Solace, but we call her Solly McDonald. I mean, not McDonald, but Solly McDolly. I call her blobby because she is just so fat and blobby and oh, she is squeezy and gorgeous and just growing fatter by the day. She just sits and smiles and grows fat.

Whereas Warren, oh goodness me, he's already organized Kendall and Meadow and organized his schedule. I mean, Meadow didn't plan to have a schedule. She was going to nurse him day and night and be this glorious mother, but oh no. Warren decided I'm going to make my own schedule, and he takes after his dad who is an engineer. He likes everything just happening according to plan. In fact, when Kendall and Meadow were courting, we called it the “Business Plan of Love.” Well, Serene concocted that name because he was doing everything according to plan. That’s who he is. It seems that little Warren is just growing in his footsteps, and he is full of energy and finding it a little hard to be a baby. He wants to grow up and get on with everything, doesn't he? What else do you like to do, Autumn?

Autumn: I love singing.

Nancy: Oh yes, and she is a beautiful singer. She takes after her mommy and her sister Meadow, and she writes her own songs.

Autumn: Yeah, I love writing songs and singing and playing the piano; it's really fun for me. I love hanging out with my family and my cousins and friends.

Nancy: Yes, and photography. I think you're into that now too, aren't you?

Autumn: Yes, I love photography.

Nancy: Yes and Autumn is so blessed that she has cousins and friends on the hilltop here because, now that she's the youngest, and Meadow is married, and Bowen is married and Noble and Rocky, they are always out and about. She would just be all on her little lonesome, but she's got her cousins, so she's usually staying at one cousins’ or the other cousins’, and I think that's so wonderful. I remember when Serene was at the tail end of our family and the others were . . .  many of them had left home by then, and she was often so lonely. In fact, so lonely she would come into our bedroom at night and just bring a blanket and sleep on the floor in our bedroom because, isn't it interesting? Nobody wants to sleep alone. Autumn has this beautiful bedroom in their new house, but I think you'd rather sleep in the” not so beautiful bedroom” with your cousins, wouldn't you?

Autumn: Yeah, I love spending the night with my cousins.

Nancy: Yes. It's just that company is so wonderful, isn't it? It's such a blessing. Thinking too about being an Auntie, I think this is a wonderful thing of how it's meant to be in families. Because here Meadow has Autumn, and she's such a wonderful blessing, and little Warren has an Auntie who can laugh at him and talk to him and play with him. I'm sure that gives Meadow time to go and get supper on or do something like that, and it's how it's meant to be. As the old ones have little children, the younger aunties and uncles become such a blessing and that's the blessing of bigger families and how God intends it to be.

There are so many young mothers today who have no one. They are just trying to manage it on their own. They don't have sisters and brothers around. The little baby doesn't have aunties and uncles who want to hold it and visit and be part of it. It makes family life much more wonderful.

Well, thank you Autumn, lovely having you with us. You can go and look after Warren now, and Meadow is going to come. Now, Meadow is back with us after checking on Little Warren, and last week, we got to talk about modesty. I don't think we've talked about everything yet. Have you got some more things you'd like to share, Meadow?

Meadow: There were just a couple more points that I wanted to make. You know how I was talking about last week that some clothes can become a stumbling block to men? We, as Christian women, don't want to do that because we want to help our brothers out, not make it harder for them. Even though the Bible does not give specific instructions on what is modest and what is not, we know that, in our culture, there are certain clothing items that can either be offensive or can be a stumbling block to men today. One of those things is leggings and yoga pants, and so many women wear them.

Nancy: They're actually becoming the norm.

Meadow: Yes and they're in fashion. They're hip, and they're cool, and they're comfortable, so women love to wear them. The problem is, they are so distracting for men. A lot of women either don't realize this, or they don't care because this is what I want to wear. It's comfortable and just leave me alone, right? That's not considerate and that's not respectful. I know some young men, they'll come back from a party, and they'll complain, “All the girls were wearing leggings with no long shirts, and it was so distracting.” These are young men who are trying their best to have pure thoughts and a pure heart and to stay pure for their future wives. All of these Christian women, who are supposed to be sisters in Christ to them, are presenting a stumbling block before them.

Nancy: Yes. I think there are many who actually do it ignorantly, Meadow, because it's the fashion. They just go and buy it because that's what there is to buy, and they're not really aware. I think it's important for us to think about these things. Precious mothers, we have to talk to our daughters about these things. It's not easy because girls just want to be in fashion. They want to wear what everybody else is wearing. If they want to wear them, well, we've got to encourage them to get a nice little skirt to wear over them that covers the most part or whatever. We have to compromise somewhere because they are an offense to men. Well, maybe we shouldn't say offense because to some men they're a delight.

Meadow: My husband loves it when I wear them around the house.

Nancy: I know! I have a dear friend, and she said to me the other day, “If I get into those, goodness, my husband's just getting me into the bedroom immediately.”

Meadow: Well, they don't leave anything to the imagination.

Nancy: I know.

Meadow: They show everything.

Nancy: Yes and so many young girls don't even realize that as they go out into the world.

Meadow: That's part of the issue is that these young women aren't being taught the way a male brain is wired, and they aren't taught the reason why we should be modest. They're just told that you “should,” but they don't really understand “why.” I agree that, mothers, don't just tell your daughter not to wear that, tell her why and tell her how it can affect other people and tell her why she needs to save her body for her future husband and how meaningful and special that will be.

Nancy: Leggings are so, especially in the winter time, warm and lovely. We have to teach them how, if they want to wear them, what to wear with them to make them feminine and still look beautiful and modern, but to also be covered and modest.

Meadow: Yes, I agree. There is one other thing that I feel like is really important to cover. That is bikinis because almost everyone wears them now, even Christians. The sad thing is they were invented by a Frenchman who worked in a lingerie shop. I believe it was in the 1950's or around that time. When he invented them, it was so scandalous that he could not hire a model to model it for him. He actually had to hire a stripper. One magazine actually quoted on the bikini that “no girl with tact or decency would wear such a thing.”

Back then, guards at the beach would measure women wearing bathing suits, and women wearing bikinis would be kicked off. They were so offensive back then. With the 1960's, came the sexual revolution, and the feminists bought the rise of the bikini. Since then, it has been attributed to the power of women, and it was nicknamed the power suit. Recently, a few years ago, some male college students at Princeton University did a study to see how the male brain reacts to seeing the bikini. This is really interesting. They noticed that when men saw pictures of scantily-dressed women, their brain actually turned off the part that connects to people, like makes a human connection with them. It was as if they were seeing these women as objects and not people.

Nancy: Like porn, in a way.

Meadow: Oh yes, so the study concluded that bikinis really do inspire men to see women as objects, as something to be used rather than someone to connect with. How is that giving power to women?

Nancy: Oh yes. We do have to face all these challenges, and mothers, of course, have to face them with our daughters growing up. I'd love to bring you back to the Word again. Remember when we talked last week about God being the very first clothes designer and how it says that He made coats for them? The word for that is a word that means it came from the shoulders. It was something that did cover them.

What does it say here? Go back to the Word. "And the Lord God made coats of skins." Though it would have been beautiful leather clothing designed by God Himself and clothed them. Now, the Hebrew word there is labash and it's a word that means “to wrap around, to clothe oneself, to put on garments.”

It's not taking off. It's putting on. In fact, one of the meanings of that word is “to put on” and many times it's translated "and they put on garments." It was something to completely clothe and cover them. I think of that beautiful passage in Ezekiel 16 and it's a passage that you could read again. It's speaking of Israel and of how God found Israel and what He did for them. It's also speaking in typology of how God finds us in our sin and how He redeems us and how He covers us.

Let me read some of it to you from the New English Translation. "And God says, I spread my cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I swore a solemn oath to you and entered into a marriage covenant with you, declares the sovereign Lord, and you became mine. I dressed you in embroidered clothing." Do you notice how all these words speak of covering? I spread my cloak. I covered you. I dressed you. He doesn't dress us in rags. He doesn't dress us in boring sackcloth and denim. No. "I dressed you in embroidered clothing and put fine leather sandals on your feet. I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with jewelry." That's interesting. Let's read on." I put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck. I put a ring in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head."

Now, this is all typology, but I don't believe that God will use that typology if He did not believe that we should never wear jewelry. He wouldn't say these things. We often read in the Bible of how the bridegroom and the bride were decked with jewels, and God speaks about our being decked with jewelry. Here it even talks about earrings and necklaces and so on. These things are not wrong. The Bible talks about them. So, we can't become self-righteous and legalistic and say, “Oh no, we must not wear such things.” Of course, it does say in 1 Peter 3:3, 4 that our clothing is not to be the wearing of jewels and doing up of our hair and so on, but of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. Now, of course, it's not saying we can't wear that, but that's not to be what we put our focus on.

Meadow: That's not true beauty.

Nancy: That's not our focus, and that's not our true beauty. It can enhance what we're wearing, and if we do it in taste, it can be beautiful. God loves it because He talks about it in His Word. “You were adorned with gold and silver while your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidery.” Oh, isn't that glorious? Yes. Not drab, horrible, boring clothes. It's so funny because every Friday night we have a Shabbat meal in our home. We're not Jewish, nor are we Sabbath-keepers, but we do the Shabbat meal because it is so glorious and wonderful and the greatest blessing in our family. It's where the father reads Proverbs 31 to the family, specifically to his wife. Then he speaks to his wife and blesses her and upholds her before the family and speaks about all her good points. Then he, as a father, goes to each child and blesses them and encourages them, and it's just a favorite time in every week. When my husband is reading Proverbs 31, and he gets to where the virtuous woman is “clothed with silk and purple,” he always says, “but she isn't dressed in drab, boring clothes” because my husband cannot stand that.

Meadow: He says that every time.

Nancy: He never stops saying it! We kind of get it into our brain, don't we? He wants us to be dressed beautifully. Yes. God does too because this is what God is saying. This is the Word. Oh, sometimes people, I don't think they read the Word of God, especially some people who are into this very self-righteousness. They think you can't do this, and you can't do that, and you have to dress so boringly. But no, that's not the Word. God even speaks many times in His Word about beautiful women. The Bible is not afraid to say this woman was “beautiful.” In fact, of one woman, I just forget who it was now, it says: “she was beautiful of form and face.”

Meadow: Why would God mention that if it's not important?

Nancy: I know; He just loves beauty. "You were adorned with gold and silver while your clothing was of fine linen, silk and embroidery. You became extremely beautiful and attained the position of royalty. Your beauty was perfect because of the splendor which I bestowed on you, declares the sovereign Lord." Ultimately, this is spiritually speaking, and it's showing how it is God who makes us beautiful. He covers us with His righteousness

I love that scripture in Isaiah 61:10: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me." That's that word labash again, L-A-B-A-S-H. Just completely clothed and covered with the garments of salvation. "He has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments and as a bride adorneth with herself with jewels." Here we see again how God speaks of how a bridegroom wears ornaments, and the bride wears jewels. God's not against that.

It says here that He clothed us with salvation. He puts on us a robe. Now a robe is not a scanty little bikini or a scanty little dress with cleavage. A robe is a robe that covers. Here it's spiritually speaking; He covers us with a robe of righteousness.

I believe, I think, what do you think Meadow? If we are fully clothed with salvation, not just scantily clothed, if we’re fully covered with a robe of righteousness, if this is how God covers us spiritually, we won't be people who want to expose ourselves physically.

Meadow: I have never thought of it that way, Nana.

Nancy: I mean, if you're spiritually clothed, are you going to be someone who goes around physically exposed? I don't think that's possible.

Meadow: That's really good.

Nancy: I think that if we're truly clothed and robed with righteousness, we want our clothing to be righteous. We want it to be beautiful and glorious, but righteous. We will be clothed because that's how God wants it. He was the, once again, let's get it, He was the first Clothes Designer, and his clothing is fully clothed from the shoulders down.

Meadow: He doesn't partially clothe.

Nancy: No, He doesn't partially clothe. He fully clothes. Yes. There is so much more that we could speak about this subject. Maybe sometime I'll talk to you more about other Hebrew words because you know I'm a great lover of finding what God really wants to say to us from the Hebrew words. While I have Meadow with me here, “Meadow, what are some other things that you feel strongly about as a young woman?”

Meadow: I'm very saddened that a lot of women these days feel like they have to be just like men, or they feel like they have to compete like men to prove that they are also important and that they are also special. Because of that, women are losing their uniqueness. They are losing their purpose. We are not supposed to be exactly like men. We're supposed to be unique to men because, otherwise, why would have God created women?

Nancy: I know. I can never understand. My brain hasn't quite got around it. Why do women want, as you said, to even dress like men? Why do they want to be like men? Why do they want to get out in the corporate world like men? I don't understand. I mean, isn't it the greatest thing in the universe to be who you are? I mean, I think the saddest thing in life is to go through life missing out on God's total and divine purpose for you. If He created you female, His highest purpose for you is going to be as a female. Therefore, let's be female to the fullest. Don't you think?

Meadow: Oh yes. I know so many young girls these days that have this mindset, and they can get so offended because someone associates them for being like a woman or tells them that they can't do something a man can do or that they are different in some way. It's like they're insecure about their womanhood. I can't relate to that at all because I'm totally secure in being a woman because I feel like being offended of being feminine and being a woman and not being like a man, I feel like that would make me ashamed of who God created me to be.

Nancy: Exactly. I think this is such an important point. Here we are both saying, “Wow, how could they even think like that?” Well, we know what it is. It's deception; the deception of Satan. Satan hates everything about God. He hates His plan. He hates the creatures that God created. He hates the plan God has for us on this earth, and therefore, he seeks to distort it in every way. He is the deceiver, and he seeks to distort. That's why it's important for us to talk about these things and speak the truth because we live in this deceived society with all this deception all around us. We've got to know the truth and be strong in it.

Meadow: That's exactly what it is.

Nancy: Yes, and I do believe, precious mothers and daughters. Older mothers, young mothers, and young daughters, I hope you're listening too. Be who God created you to be. He chose you to be a female, and a female is totally different to a male. If you try to be a male, you're going to miss out completely on all the blessings of life because all our blessings that we're going to receive in life are going to come to us as female because that's who we are!

Meadow: Do you know what's so interesting? Most men are not attracted to women who are more like men. They are attracted to women who are feminine and womanly because this is an eternal instinct that God has given men, to be attracted to their opposites. They want someone that completes them, not someone who is just like them and who can compete with them and prove to do all the same. The reason why men are drawn to women is because “she is everything I’m not. Where I'm weak, she is strong and where I am strong, she is weak.” That's why God brought the man and the women together.

Even though a lot of women will not admit this, even feminists are attracted to manly men. A lot of them are because we instinctively want a man who is like the protector, the leader, and the provider and that's why we've always been attracted to the man who is strong and smart and intelligent. We want that even if some women would never say that. Our society has become confused about the meaning of equality. They think equality means sameness. When in God's eyes, equality means worth. Men and women are both equally worthy, but we are not equally the same.

Nancy: That's right. In this genderless society, that's what Satan is trying to do. He's trying to make it a genderless society because God made the genders. God made the different sexes and right through the Word, what do we read? We read male and female, Adam and Eve, husband and wife, mother and father, husband and wife, son and daughter. It was all distinct, and each one is so different.

In fact, female. What does female mean? I was writing; I think I've even lost where I wrote it now, but that doesn't matter. I had this quote here. Let's see, where are my glasses? Here they are. I have to get glasses if I'm reading a quote, ladies.

A very famous feminist, Naomi Goldenberg, says: “All feminists are making the world less and less like the one described in the Bible and are thus helping to lessen the influence of Christ and Yahweh on humanity. We women are going to bring an end to God as we take positions in government, in medicine, in law, in business, in the arts and finally, in religion; we will be the end of Him. We will change the world so much that He won't fit anymore." That, of course, is right from the very pit of hell. That's what Satan is inciting feminists to do, to completely distort the image of God. God created male and God created female.

I think of that passage in the New Testament where Jesus quoted from the very beginning, and it was where the Pharisees came to tempt Jesus. It was Matthew 19, and they were asking him about divorce. Anyway, Jesus answered them and said: "Don't you know that He that created them in the beginning created them male and female.” It's interesting when we read those words. “Don't you know, that in the beginning God created them male and female?” Those were the words that God spoke forth at the end of that marriage ceremony when he brought Adam and Eve together. We just read them, and we don't understand the full meaning.

The word for female there is very interesting. It is a Greek word, and the very root of it means” a suckling mother.” The verb means “to suckle a babe at the breast.” The noun speaks of a “woman suckling a child.” So it's really amazing that the people, what did they hear Jesus say? Don't you know that He created them suckling mothers? Then he talked about the male. What did he use for that word? The word in the Greek is arsen, and it means . . . get this, very interesting. It means “able to lift heavier loads.” Isn't that amazing?

Meadow: Wow.

Nancy: Yes, because “stronger for lifting.” Now it is true that men on the whole have 50 percent more brute strength than women. I'm so glad to have a husband who can carry heavy things for me, who can lift heavy things. I mean, I could not imagine trying to live on my own. In fact, the house would fall down all around me because I don't know how to fix things, and I don't know how to do this and that. My husband does that kind of thing. I'm the heart of the home. I'm the nurturer and the nourisher in the home. He's the provider, and he's the fixer, and he lifts heavy things and does the heavy jobs.

Meadow: That's my husband.

Nancy: Yes, isn't that how it's meant to be? I mean, we can't do without the other. Of course, when God created man first, when we go to Genesis 2, we read how God created the male first. Quite a bit happened before God created the female. The next Scripture after it says: "and God created the man and breathed into him the breath of life" It then says God created this beautiful garden of Eden. It’s very interesting. Before He created the woman, He created the home first. Isn't that amazing?

Of course, we don't read what happened there. We have to surmise. I can't imagine that after God created Adam He would leave him staring into space while He went to the east of Eden and created this glorious garden home. No, I'm sure He would have taken him with Him. He would have been showing him the type. “Yes, this is what the husband does, Adam. We prepare the home for the woman.”

The home was prepared before He ever put Adam to sleep and brought forth the woman out of the man. When she woke up, where was she? In her home. Her home, the place where God intends her to be. The place that He has put in every woman a desire to be, that she loves to make a home, to be in a home.

I guess you say, I know plenty of women who don't want to be at home. They just want to get out. Well, it's because they're being propagandized. They're being brainwashed, right through their lives. At school and at college, it's just brainwashing. “Get out of the home. It's insignificant. Motherhood, what's that? You've got to make a way for yourself. You've got to do your career.” It's brainwashed into them.

Right, deep down, every woman wants a home. She wants to make a nest because that's who she is. When God said to Adam, before He ever created Eve, He'd made the garden. Then He said, well, it's not good for Adam to be alone, especially now that he's got this wonderful home. I'm going to make him a helpmeet.

Now, that word in the Hebrew is ezer kenegdo. Two words: help meet. Ezer kenegdo of course means what it says. It means to be a help, to be a strength, to be a saving help. It's a very powerful word. Some women think, oh, so that's all I am, just a help to my husband. No, that word is a word that is used of God. It's the same word that's used of God who is my help. It's one of the names of God who comes to our aid. Our husbands need us.

Meadow: Jesus was a servant.

Nancy:  Yes, and they need our help because we give to them what they haven't got, so they need our help. Then it's kenegdo. Now that's interesting. It means part opposite. It means something that is totally unique and different but fits together. It means that we are to fit together, although we are uniquely different. We're part opposite. That's the meaning of that Hebrew word. It's like a seatbelt, which is very common. What do I mean in saying common? I mean, it’s rather a crude illustration of something so beautiful, but when you put a seat belt together, they're not both the same. They're two different things, but they glove together. That's how we come together.

Meadow: And the two become one.

Nancy: Yes, we become one when our husband takes his role as the male, and we take our role as the female. We glove together. We fit together. That's the sad thing today. In all these marriages, where they’re seeking to both be the same, what do they do when they come together? They butt heads. They clash. They cannot actually fully connect because we have to be unique and different to connect.

Meadow: Yes. That is so good, Nana. That's why Satan hates it so much because he knows that when they come together and they complete each other, he knows that that is a powerful thing, and so he wants to prevent that in any way he can. That is why he is trying to deceive all these women.

Nancy: Yes. Satan's way always ends in destruction. How did it end for him when he rose up against God? He was thrown out of the eternal realm. It ended in destruction, but he still wants to take us with him, and he still tries to tempt us and woo us with his independent spirit that rises up against God. Even though we may be Believers, even though we may love the Lord with all our hearts, we can still rise up against the way God has planned for us. We don't like it. Oh, we'd rather do this. It's not until we submit to His plan, surrender to it, that we find the blessings. God's ways ends in blessing; the devil's way ends in destruction. We are seeing this in marriages and family life today.

Meadow: On the topic of submitting, Nana, we know there's one verse in the Bible that God says that women are called to do, that a lot of women don't like. That is submitting to our husbands. A lot of women associate that with the 1950's when women never got a say, and they were doormats, and husbands are more important. No, that's not true at all. I think this one author put it really well in her book. It was "Love Your Husband, Love Yourself." That's a really good book. She was describing how an orchestra has the person, the conductor. The conductor is the one who is in charge. You must have a conductor to tell all the band what to do, otherwise, there's just chaos. That doesn't mean the conductor is the most important person there. God knew that the family needs the conductor so that's why he made the husband the head so that there is order and that there is not chaos. It is the wife's job to submit to that authority? Not because that makes her less important, but because he is the head. It is the picture of Christ. The husband is the head, and the wife is the church because Christ is the head, and we are the church.

Nancy: Can we imagine the church ordering Christ around? He is Lord of lords and King of kings and the head of the church. You mentioned back in the 1950's. Well, I look back, and in the 1950's, I would be just getting to a young teen, and I look back at my family life in the 1950's. My father was the head of the home, and my mother submitted to him. Was that sad? No. It was beautiful. I mean, we lived in harmony. We lived in unity, and my father adored my mother. He lifted her up to the highest degree. Oh my, he just thought she was wonderful, and she submitted to him because she knew that was her role. In doing so, she was not made a doormat. No, she was lifted up.

He wore her as a crown. As the Bible says: “The virtuous woman is a crown to her husband”, and my mother was like a crown to my father. He wore her. He talked about her. He was so proud of her. She was one who loved clothes. We've been talking about clothes. She was a clothes lover. She was a dress designer, and she made all her own clothes, not only her dresses but her hats. Every time she walked down to the town, back in those days, you didn't just pop into your car with whatever you were wearing. No, you got dressed up. She was always dressed up, walking with her beautiful clothes, her hat, her gloves, and her handbag. Oh, and my father thought she was the queen of the whole town. He lifted her up. When we take our role, our husbands lift us up.

Meadow: Yes. It goes with the whole love and respect thing. That's why the Bible instructs the women to respect their husbands and for the men to love their wives the way that Christ loves the church. God knows that men are wired that way. They need respect, and a lot of women don't understand that that's what they are called to do. They think that they need to love their husbands in the way that they want to be loved.

Nancy: Yes. Well, once again, our time is gone. It went too quickly again, didn't it? Let's just pray.

“Father, we thank you again for these glorious opportunities to speak of Your truth, to speak of Your word, and we thank You for leading us in Your way. We thank You that Your way is the way of righteousness. Your way is a way of holiness. Your way is a way of blessing, and we ask that You will lead us all more and more in this way. I pray Your blessing upon every woman, every daughter, every husband, every home in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Would you like to pray, too, Meadow?

Meadow: Yes.

Nancy: Pray especially for the young mothers and this generation, your generation.

Meadow: Yes, I will.

“Father, thank You so much that I was able to come here with my Nana and that we were able to share what is on our hearts. Father, I ask that You would use us to reach other people, Lord. Father, I ask that You would break all of these lies that have been happening in our culture and especially that have been happening to the women of my generation, Father. I pray that these women and these young girls would open their eyes, and they would see who You created them to be, Father, and who You have called them to be, and that they would embrace that. They would embrace being a woman, Lord, and that they would not be ashamed of who they are, Father. Amen.

Nancy: Thank you, Meadow, for being with us these last two weeks. It's been such a blessing.

Meadow: Thank you so much for inviting me, Nana. It's an honor.

To purchase the book mentioned, LOVE YOUR HUSBAND, LOVE YOURSELF” by Jennifer Flanders go to: http://tinyurl.com/LoveYourHusband

 

 

Episode 11: Facing Modesty Head On!

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! What a joy it is to come into your home again. I love to just join with you in your home and hope you can share in a little bit of what is happening in our home. Today, I'm going to welcome into our podcast, Meadow Campbell.

Meadow: Hall.

 

Nancy: Whoa, that's right! Meadow is now married. In fact, she wasn't even . . .

Meadow: Campbell wasn't even my maiden name.

 

Nancy: You weren't even Meadow Campbell, you were Meadow Barrett. Can you believe it, ladies? I still call my daughters . . .  I'll call up on the phone. Call Serene Campbell. Oh, that's right, Serene Allison. Call Evangeline Campbell. Oh, I mean Evangeline Johnson. It's amazing how it's so hard to get used to the new name even after all these years.

Well, many of you know Meadow as Pearl's oldest daughter. Pearl of Serene and Pearl, Trim Healthy Mama, and Meadow herself is also involved in social media with Trim Healthy Mama and is now married. Of course, she has a new name, Meadow Hall. She is married to the most wonderful guy, Kendall. We all love him, and they now have this most precious, gorgeous little baby boy, Warren Charles. He's just doing so well. And Meadow is the most beautiful mother. You're enjoying it, Meadow?

Meadow: Oh yes. I love motherhood so much. It really turns your life upside down, but there's nothing more fulfilling. It really teaches you how to become more Christ-like and selfless, I think. I really have to give up other parts of me, but there's nothing more fulfilling. It’s so worth it.

Nancy: I think that is so true. In fact, I don't think that we learn to do it all at once. I think, as I look back on my mothering, that I learned to do it little by little. I do think that my daughters and my beautiful granddaughters have an advantage in that they've been surrounded with the joy and the love and the promotion of motherhood, and I think that helps toward embracing motherhood. When I came into motherhood, I didn't have that around me. I had to find out for myself, and I remember it took time to just lay down my life. In fact, with every baby, I learned to lay down more.

I remember when Serene arrived, my sixth baby, and I think I mothered her more totally, more completely than even all my other babies. Even though I just totally adored and loved every one of them, I had learned to give more of myself. I think motherhood does take time. It takes time to learn to give of yourself, and, in that, we find ourselves. That's the wonderful thing.

I'm such a great believer in the Word of God of course. But that Scripture in Mark 8:35 where Jesus said: “He that will save his life will lose it, but he that will lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall find it.” Now, those are the words of Jesus. Therefore, they are eternal words. They are an eternal principle and they cannot be denied. They work. When we try to save our lives, pamper our lives, and try to make everything work around us, we lose. But when we come to that place of laying down our lives, losing our lives for the sake of others, for the sake of my baby, for the sake of my family, and as we lose our lives, we find an amazing thing happens. We find our lives. We find life. And so many women think, oh, you know, I want to find my life. Well, you don't find your life by finding your life, you find your life by losing your life. It's an eternal principle. And you're finding that too, Meadow?

Meadow: Oh yes, that's so good, Nana. That reminds me of . . .  remember that baby shower that you held for Kendall and me? And it was so amazing. Instead of just a ladies baby shower, we had couples come, so we had mothers and fathers there, and we had parents speak to Kendall and I and give us marriage advice. And one of the things that really stuck out to me was when my mom was talking to us, she was saying that when she had me, she was like, Whoa, there's no more me anymore because she had to give up all her time. But then she realized, this is me. And I remembered that. And now that I take care of my baby, I realized this is me. This is my most important job. This is who I am now. I'm a mother.

Nancy: Yes. Oh, I think that's another wonderful revelation. You are so blessed, Meadow, to have caught that revelation now, in the beginning of your motherhood . . . that as a mother, that's who I am. I'm me. I'm a mother. That's who God created us to be. And it is a sad thing that so many women are frustrated. They're trying to be everything else than who God created them to be, a mother.

 

Meadow: I feel the same way, Nana. And I just feel so saddened that so many women, of my generation especially, they feel like they need to wait a few years. Wait maybe five or ten years before they settle down and have children because they have to be successful first, as if being a mother is not successful, as if it's not the most important job. My desire is to show these other women, with how I mother and how I live my life, how important this is and how this is my most important job. Why would I want to go chase other things? Because that doesn't make me more important.

Nancy: That's so true. Meadow has a real burden to reach those of her generation, and I think that's so wonderful. I hope we have all mothers listening today. Older mothers, oh, I really trust, dear older mothers, that you are still interested in motherhood. Can I share something that's burdening me at the moment? In fact, it burdens me every time a new Above Rubies goes out. By the way, have you got your new magazine? It's all out in the nation now.

When a new magazine goes out, we have changes of addresses and cancellations. One of the things that saddens me more than anything else is when older mothers write to me and say, “Thank you Nancy for all these years of blessing me with Above Rubies, but my children have grown now. I'm in a new season, so I don't need any more magazines.” And my heart wants to cry because, dear precious mothers, we never change from being a mother.

When our children grow, that's not the end of our mothering. In fact, it is the launching into a greater realm of motherhood. It is a launching into a calling that God has mandated in His word for the older mothers to teach and encourage the younger mothers. And I think, what are these older mothers doing? “Okay, I'm finished with that, thank you.” Well, are they doing anything to encourage the new generation? What about their own daughters and daughters-in-law? They need Above Rubies for them.

And like in any profession, you have to have refresher courses. I do believe that we as older mothers need refresher courses. We need to come back to the Word. In fact, I, as an older mother now of not only grandchildren but great grandchildren, am still in the Word saying, “Oh God, please show me more understanding and revelation of your heart for women, for mothers, for wives. I want to know the fullness of Your plan and purpose because I have this responsibility to teach the younger mothers.”

I hope precious older mothers are getting a little refresher each time we do a podcast, so you can be life and water and encouragement to the young mothers of this coming generation. I hope all the middling mothers in the midst of raising your families are listening. And the young mothers, like Meadow.

Now, Meadow, I know you have many burning convictions on your heart, about many things our young mothers face in this generation. Tell me about something. What do you want to share about?

 

Meadow: Well, something that really grieves my heart about a lot of women in my generation is that we no longer value this virtue, that everyone used to value more, and that's modesty. I believe modesty is a dying virtue in our culture and especially, it seems, that women of my generation just want to completely disregard it.

 

Nancy: Sadly, Meadow, I have noticed that that's not only in the secular world. I am noticing it in the so-called Christian world.

Meadow: Yes, it's true. I have noticed that modesty has been a very big debate among Christians for a long time, and I don't like it as something that we argue and quarrel about all the time. I believe that it is important because basically it all comes down to respect. It's respecting other people. Basically, what women are arguing about these days is that I should wear whatever I want and whatever I feel like because if this bothers men or if this causes men to stumble, that's their problem, and they should not lust, and they should just look away.

Nancy: It doesn't sound like, “Am I my brother's keeper?”

Meadow: No, because the Bible actually says, well, first of all, it says to let the women dress modestly and that means that we are supposed to dress in a way that is respectful and considerate to others in our culture. It also says that we are not to become a stumbling block to the weak. "Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak" (1 Corinthians 8:9). So let's just say that an alcoholic was offering alcohol. I mean, someone was offering alcohol to an alcoholic and that alcoholic became drunk again, and he stumbled back into his sin. Well, he would be guilty of his sin, but the person offering him alcohol is still guilty because he presented a stumbling block. Well, the same rule applies to modesty. Like someone can be guilty for choosing to lust, but another one, the person who purposely created themselves to be stumbling block, can still be guilty for that too.

Nancy: Yes. I think it's something that we have to really face in this hour in which we live. In fact, I think of a story, Meadow, of when we lived back on the Gold Coast of Australia and where your mother spent all her teen years. The Gold coast of Australia is perhaps a playground. It's a place of beautiful weather and beach and surf and sand. We spent 10 years there, beginning and growing a church. It was a challenging place to live, and it was very fleshly, and people wore hardly anything.

In fact, our church was on the right, there it was, and then on the left was the Pacific Ocean and that's where we baptized people. We used to say we had the biggest baptismal pool in the world. But to go down to that baptismal pool, oh my, you'd have to have blinkers on your eyes to pass topless bathers. Then on the right-hand side of our church was Jupiter's casino, so we were in the middle of the devil's playground.

We were always very hospitable and every Sunday we invited people home to our home for a meal. Often, we'd have 30 or 40 people around a dinner table or different tables because my husband and I would invite people and then our children would invite people, and we just filled the place.

One time, I saw a stranger and got talking to her and found she was from the States. So, I said to her, “Come on home, come and have some fellowship.” She was staying at the casino, and her parents had paid for all the family to come and have a big reunion, and they were staying in Jupiter's casino. She was so glad to come and get some Christian fellowship. She enjoyed it, and I said, “Come back next Sunday.” However, during the week, I got a call. “Nancy, sorry, I'm just calling to say that I won't be coming home to dinner this Sunday.” She said, “I'm leaving.”

“Leaving? I replied. “Yes,” she said, “I cannot stay in this place any longer. You see, I come from the south.” Well, I didn't know what she was talking about. I had no idea. Anyway, okay. She's going home. It wasn't until a few years later that we came to the south, to Nashville, to the “Buckle on the Bible belt.”

We came from the fleshly place of the Gold Coast of Australia where people were hardly clothed, and all of a sudden, my eyes met a different sight. Oh wow. People are clothed, and I couldn't believe how, although we hated that kind of lifestyle, it's amazing how you could even get used to living in it. This lady was just there for awhile, and she couldn't take it. She had to get out of it. The sad thing is that we came to the states in 1991 and back then, it was conservative in the church, very conservative and everybody was fully clothed. It was wonderful. It was amazing. We could hardly believe that we were living in such a place. Oh, it was so incredible.

Now, all these years later, goodness me, that is about 27 years later, it is not like that anymore in the church, even in Nashville, in the “Buckle on the Bible belt.” You can go to a church, and you see cleavage, and women are showing so much of themselves, and this is in the church! What has happened?

Meadow: Well, part of it is the change of fashion, and modesty changes with the culture, but that doesn't always mean just because other people are wearing this, I should too. Even though the Bible says that modesty is important, it does say that, it's in there, I know that some people can take this to a very extreme where it becomes legalism. I've known people who have come from a background where they came from a very legalistic family, and they always had to wear shirts to their collar bone or skirts to their toes, and it was like a religion. It wasn't just about respect at that point. It became pride.

The thing is, modesty isn't just about the clothes you're wearing. It's a matter of the heart. If you're not making it a heart issue, you can become one extreme or the other. You can either become super legalistic and judgy and trying to go over the top and trying to draw attention to yourself for the wrong reason, for a self-righteous reason. Or you could go to the other extreme where you dress like the world, and you make yourself a stumbling block, and you don't represent Christ because God says, in everything we do, do it for the glory of God. So that should even account for the way that we dress.

Nancy: I think everything is a heart issue, isn't it? Self-righteousness stinks, and it must be the heart. At the same time, I do believe that when something is a heart issue, it reveals itself on the outside. It reveals how we dress. We're not going to become legalistic and wear long sacks and look so boring and horrible. Because, you know, Meadow, I love that Scripture back when God is telling them how to build the tabernacle and all the furniture.

Then He goes onto a chapter about the clothing of the priests and the clothing of the high priest. I always love the Scripture where God says that He is going to clothe the high priest. These are the words he uses: “For glory and for beauty” (Exodus 28:2). God loves glorious clothes. God loves beautiful clothes because he is a God who loves beauty and color. He created beauty. Just look at some of the animals and birds and the color and the glory of them. It's amazing. The high priests clothing, it was amazing. The breast plate had twelve different sparkling, amazing jewels. On the ephod, there were also 12 beautiful onyx stones, and it was full of purple and scarlet and glory and everything. In dressing modestly, we also dress beautifully and for the glory of God.

 

Meadow: Oh yes, I agree with that. This is coming from someone who has always loved fashion. I love fashion, and I love to wear dresses. Rashida and I, when we were younger, would draw pictures of all these dresses and our designs and fashion, and we just loved it. I'm not saying that if you're going to be modest, you need to be boring and frumpy and never in fashion. You can still be in fashion and wear beautiful and cute clothes, but you can do it in a way that's still respectful.

 

Nancy: Yes, and covered. I do believe that that is very important. In fact, it's interesting, Meadow, that you should be talking about this. Some time ago, I was into the Word and came across a Scripture, and this is how I read the Word. Some people say, “What do you do? Do you read so many chapters a day, or what do you do?” Well, I have to confess, No, I don't keep to so many chapters a day. There was a time when I used to try and read the Word through every six months. I don't do that now because there's too much in it to go too quickly, so I read until I see something that grabs me, and then I pour into it. Recently, I was reading in Genesis about when Adam and Eve had sinned, and of course, they were naked at that time. Then what happened? I then went into this amazing study, and I began to look up all the Hebrew words and then all the Greek words for clothing. Oh my, I was just amazed. Could I have time for a moment to just tell about the beginning?

Meadow: Oh yes, I'd love to know.

Nancy: Yes, just the very beginning. Well, we know that at the very beginning, when Adam and eve sinned, that in Genesis 3:7 it says: "And the eyes of both were opened, and they knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons." Now, they did pretty good. “Aprons” is a word that means “to gird yourself around.” They obviously girded their loins, their reproductive area, and they put these leaves around them to cover them. They knew that somehow they had to cover that. That was man's way of doing it, but it wasn't God's way. Because then we move over in the story and we know of how God came and how he spoke to them.

Then what did God do? He did something more than just make aprons. In Genesis 3:21 it says: "Unto Adam also and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them." We have two different words there for clothing. These are the very first words that God uses for clothing. Now, in studying the Scriptures, there was a very important law to remember and that is the law of the first mention. Whenever God speaks of something the first time, He is laying a foundation down for that subject. He will add to it, and it will grow more in the Word of God as we read more. This is the foundation from which He never ever deviates. God never deviates from that law of the first mention.

He made them these garments. Now, they were skins. It's interesting that men did it with just putting some leaves around themselves, but God's covering had to come through the shedding of blood. It's only the shedding of blood that can cover our sin, so God had to shed animals. It was the first time that they had been killed and blood was shed so that He could take the skins to make these garments. They had to be covered with the blood of Jesus.

Then it goes on to talk about these coats. Now, let's see, what was the word coat? Let me see if I've got it here. Yes. This “coats” is a word that means “to cover.” That's the first meaning, “to cover, a skirt, a coat, a garment, a robe.” Then it goes on. Oh yes. Let me have a look here. Yes, because that's not all of it. When we look into a Hebrew word, we've got to look into the complete root, and the root of that word means “the shoulder, the upper end of the arm, the place from where the garments hang.” In other words, the garment that God made, it came from the shoulder. Now that's very interesting. God, of course, was the very first clothes designer. Isn't that amazing?

Meadow:  I never thought of it that way.

 

Nancy: God is a clothes designer. He was the first designer of clothes. Now, these clothes were made from skins, but have you ever seen pictures, and you see them going out of the garden with skins around their back? Oh, goodness me. I don't believe it at all. Do you think God, who all His works are perfect, the great Creator of the universe; do you think He had just put some skins around their back? No. He would have made the most glorious garments. I don't think there's ever been any leather garments like these garments that were made. They would have been incredible. They would have been amazing. We can't even imagine what they would have been like. When God designs clothes, when He designed the clothes for the high priests, there was nothing more glorious and beautiful. I'm sure He made these first clothes that Adam and Eve were to ever wear, the most beautiful clothes that you could ever imagine. He clothed them, but they actually came from the shoulder. Very interesting because that is the Hebrew word.

Now, that just makes me think about something that we're all so used to. I want, I know you've got lots to say {Meadow}, but I'd just love to share this bit. It's something that we're all used to in our day and that is wedding dresses. Most wedding dresses today are strapless wedding dresses. They just come over the bust, or if they do, most of them don't. They're hanging off and showing so much, which is so sad. Because they’re so much the norm, that's all you’ve got, and it's so hard. If you want to find something that is a little more conservative, wow, you've got to really hunt. You go to a wedding shop, and they are all like this, so this is what everybody buys.

The bride, she comes to her bridegroom, she walks down the aisle, bare shoulders, half her breast showing, to her husband? And to everybody who has come to see her get married. A bride is meant to come to her husband clothed. The bridegroom—it’s his glory, it’s his privilege, it’s his intoxication to unclothe his wife and see who she is. This is for her husband. It's for him. It's the same even in our marriage. We go to the bedroom and that's where we can unclothe.

Clothing is to hide. The next Hebrew word that I looked at means “to hide, to conceal.” We clothe ourselves to conceal these beautiful, special parts that are so glorious to our husband, but they are not for the world.

Meadow: That is so good, Nana, because I've been wanting to say that. Since I've been married, modesty has become even more important to me now than it was when I was single. I grew up in a conservative family, and it was still important to me back then, but it didn't become so clear to me.

When you're married, and you realize how intimate our bodies are and the purpose that God had them for, to be celebrated in marriage and in the marriage bed, why would you want to share that with the world when it's something so personal between two people? The world wants to take away something that is so special and so personal for two people, and they want to make that normal and expose it to everyone else. Everyone is trying to normalize our body parts which are supposed to be private between a man and a wife. That's why I feel some young girls, who are still single and who haven't been married yet, don't get it. I wish I could explain to them--your body is for your future husband, and all those other men that you're exposing your body to, they're someone else's future husband, and they don't need to be seeing your body.

Nancy: Yes, and they're spoiling it for other men, and spoiling it for themselves.

Meadow: Yes, what it really comes down to is the golden rule. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If I wouldn't want someone, this girl, to wear a very provocative outfit in front of my husband, why would I want to do that in front of someone else's husband?

Nancy: Oh, exactly. Yes.

Meadow: It's all about respect. One of the things that people talk about when they talk about modesty, they say that modesty is all about respecting yourself, but Jesus doesn't command us to just respect ourselves. He commands us to consider others. It should really be about considering other people before ourselves. We should be considering our spouse and considering all of the other people who might stumble because of the way we dress.

Nancy: Yes. I often wonder when women come out and they're exposing themselves, you know, not fully, but with cleavage and bare shoulders, even going into church like that, I'm wondering, where are their husbands? What kind of a husband do they have that will allow them to go out like that? Oh goodness me. No, I would never want to, but my husband wouldn't let me out the door. I mean, because he treasures me. A husband is to protect his wife. I think men have just gotten so used to this. They also no longer know what is right. They are missing out. Both are missing so much.

Meadow: Yes. My husband has told me that he is so happy that I am a modest person and that I saved my body for him because it's something special to him, and it's something that's only for him. If I was revealing my body to other men all the time, it wouldn't be special to him anymore.

Nancy: Exactly. Can I say one other thing that's really on my heart too? That is social media, Facebook, Instagram, and people post pictures. Sadly, often I see pictures that are very exposed. Now, on my personal Facebook, I just have family and friends I know well. My Above Rubies Facebook I have over 100,000 people, and I don't even know who they are. On my personal Facebook I'm not having any Tom, Dick, or Harry's, so I'm not even hopefully ever going to see porn or anything like that because I keep it very private.

Oh goodness, my heart is grieving because, even in that little realm, there are times when I see posts that are revealing. What I notice even more, Meadow, is that then I see people who I know who like it, oh, that just grieves me! They like it! What?! They like that exposure. They are then showing to the world, oh, this is what I like. We're exposing who we are when we like stuff like that.

Meadow: They are approving of it, so they are encouraging it.

Nancy: When we see something like that, even if it's our dearest friend, we cannot like it. We cannot stand with it. In fact, I saw a picture recently. It was so exposed. I wanted to get down on the ground with “dust, with sackcloth and ashes.” In fact, it's still grieving me that I still have it on my heart to go out and find some sacks and get out into the woods and intercede about it because it so grieved me. It's so exposed, and it was exposed on social media. How can a woman do that? This is how far we've come. But anyway, our time has gone, Meadow.

Meadow: Can I just say on more thing?

Nancy: Yes, yes please do.

Meadow: I know modesty is an important topic to me, but I don't want everyone to believe that I am pretending I'm the perfect example because I'm not. Even though we can all agree, even if we all agree that modesty is important, some people might have different definitions of what that looks like. I have not always been perfect in this area, and my heart, at times, has not always been in the right place too. I, at least, value this virtue and that is what I'm saying, that I want my heart to be in the right place so that I am trying to be respectful in the way I dress. What I am saying is that even if we don't all agree on exactly what it looks like, we should all agree that it's important to dress in a way that glorifies God and to respect others.

Nancy: Thank you, Meadow. It's been so wonderful to have you with us today. Next week, we're going to talk together again. Just listen for the next episode because Meadow is going to be with me again. Let's pray as we close.

“Dear precious Father, we thank you so much that we can talk together about things that really concern us as women. And Lord, we pray that You will get a hold of all our hearts, that we will have soft and tender hearts toward You, toward Your heartbeat. Oh God, to listen to You, not the spirit of the world. It seems, dear Father, that the more we're getting further away from You, the more women are exposing themselves. Help us to come close to You. Oh God, I pray for each one listening today that You will bless their lives and bless their families and just draw them closer to You. Show them more and more of Your ways. Lead us all more and more into Your everlasting ways. We ask it in the name of Jesus, Amen.”