Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
Through the weekly and daily devotionals you can be constantly encouraged in your great role of parenting, the highest career in the nation. You can also stay updated on what's happening with the Above Rubies ministry.
POLISHING TOOLS
I remember arriving at the home of my future husband. I wondered what it would be like. He was the oldest son of nine children and back in those days I was not familiar with large families. There were only three children in our home, and we could be unruly. I didn’t expect things to be that perfect!
But I was in for a surprise! There was not a thing out of place. The whole house ran shipshape in perfect order. We arrived in the early morning after a night ride on the old steam engine. That night was to be Colins 21st birthday. I had only been in the home a few hours when his mother gave me Colin’s suit and asked me to press it! Help! I knew how to iron but we took suits to the dry cleaners! I was on the spot! Somehow, I managed but I don’t think it was up to par!
Staying on a little longer I noticed how the silverware (the cutlery) had to be polished every week and everything was ironed, even the tea towels and pillowcases! Wow, I can’t remember even having silver in our home. Anyway, the silver looked beautiful and shiny when it was cleaned each week with the Brasso, which we used in those days.
Which brings me to my thought for the day found in 2 Timothy 2:20, 21 (BSB): “A large house contains not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some indeed are for honorable use, but others are for common use. So if anyone cleanses himself of what is unfit, he will be a vessel for honor: sanctified, useful to the Master, and prepared for every good work.”
The most honorable vessels are gold and silver (please read 1 Corinthians 3:12-15). However, although gold and silver are expensive and precious, they can tarnish and need regular polishing and shining to show their beautiful gleam.
To keep gleaming and shining for the Lord, we must yield ourselves to polishing.
We get polished in many ways. God’s powerful Word polishes us as we read it each day. Oh my, I got some polishing this morning as I read some Scriptures that really convicted me. What would we do without our daily doses of the Word to keep us on track?
God also uses circumstances, trials, and tribulations to polish us. We don’t like having to go through them, but they are good polishing rags! And He often uses people. Oh, that’s the hardest. People who rub you up the wrong way and get on your nerves. How does silver get polished? We have to rub it up and down until it shines. Often, we must be rubbed up and down to get the tarnish out of us so the life of Jesus can shine through.
I think that marriage and motherhood are marvelous polishers. We can come into wifehood and motherhood thinking we are so pious, but we haven’t yet lived so closely with another human being and gradually more human beings to come who grow bigger and bigger and no one is perfect! So there’s going to be lots of rubbing up and down. But oh, as we yield to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives and let God polish us, He gradually rubs away the rough spots and the ugly spots and shines us up, confirming us into the image of His dear Son (Romans 8:29).
Therefore, dear fellow wives and mothers, can I encourage you? Don’t resist the polishing., Yield to God’s ways instead of your own way. Let Him expose the spots and blemishes and deal with them. He will cleanse you and make you whole. And make you shine. You will become a shining gem in your home and wherever you go.
Love in Jesus, Nancy Campbell
