Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

TOP POST # 3 from Nancy:

Talking together about motherhood with a few women recently, one lovely
mother said, "Oh it's so hard. It's such a sacrifice!" Immediately, my
daughter, Evangeline replied, "What are you sacrificing?"

When we confess that motherhood is a sacrifice, we are saying that there
is something better that we could be doing and we had to give it up for
the sake of motherhood! That is a lie.

Motherhood is the highest calling God has given to us. It is our LIFE. It
may be challenging, but any worthwhile career is challenging.

This dear mother is committed to motherhood and when she was confronted
with what she said, she immediately recanted her words. It's just that we
are programmed by society to think that it is a sacrifice.

We need our minds renewed to God's way of thinking, to think truth instead
of deception.

Love from Nancy

Do you find it easy to "keep your cool"? It's not too easy, is it? And yet
this quality is very precious to God.

1 Peter 3:4 says, "Let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is
not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek (gentle) and quiet spirit,
which is in the sight of God of great price."

The word "quiet" is hesuchios in the Greek and it literally means "to keep
one's seat"! In other words, when your feathers are ruffled and your
children are getting on your nerves, instead of lashing out in anger and
"blowing your cool," you stay on your seat! Don't jump off the seat of
your emotions and get into the flesh. Stay rested.

"Help, how do you do that?" you cry! By the power of Christ. He lives in a
state of rest and He lives in you. Let Him live His life through you.

Nancy

TOP POST #4 from Nancy:

I received this note today from Sally Ott (mother of 16 and 79 great and grandchildren).

"At age 77, I can tell you that it is all worth it--every cry, every diaper, every sleep lost, every evening-out missed and every tear! I would do it all over again. What did I miss? Nothing! What did I gain? Very interesting people who love me and a peaceful home always filled with laughter."

I had to share this with you.

Nancy

TOP POST #5 from Nancy!

Quote from my husband, Colin:

"I want to leave my children with a legacy that their father was a praying man and God answered his prayers."

Nancy

Nancy's TOP POST #6!

"A mother had better be missed in the church, and at the public meetings--than be missed in her own household.:"~J. R. Miller.

I am reminded of of the words of the Shulamite in Song of Songs 1:6, "They made me the keeper of the vineyards; but my own vineyard have I not kept."

Don't let society, or even pressure from the church keep you from keeping your own vineyard.

Love, Nancy

Merry Christmas!! Here is Nancy's TOP POST #7:

LITTLE MOMMIES IN TRAINING. These two little girls carried their "babies" in the slings all weekend at the Above Rubies Tennessee retreat.

I watched them tend to these babies as though they were their very real babies. It was beautiful to behold.

Nancy

TOP POST #8 from Nancy:

Are you walking in the flesh or the spirit? Which ever one you feed the most will rise up and rule!

You feed the flesh when you give into your feelings of anger and frustration. Starve the flesh! Instead (although opposite to how you feel) feed the spirit. Bite your tongue and say a kind word instead of a critical one. Express thankful words instead of complaining ones.

The Holy Spirit lives within you to enable you. Live the new life which is in you, not the old life of the flesh.

Nancy

TOP POST #9 from Nancy!

Zechariah 11:17 says, "Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock!"

Wow! God intends us as shepherd mothers to stay with the little flocks He gives us. He doesn't give us our children to give them to someone else to care for while we "do our thing!" He gives us the responsibility to tenderly care for them and watch over them. It is not only a charge from God but an awesome privilege.

Love, Nancy

Are you ready for the TOP 10 of 2011?

Here is Nancy's TOP POST #10:

People do dumb things. They say the wrong thing. They say things about us or to us that hurt us. The more I live the more I realize that life is not perfect! It doesn't go the way we want! So what do we do?

We acknowledge that life is not perfect and rejoice anyway! We bless those who hurt us. Instead of getting upset, we laugh. We keep plodding on, trusting in the Lord, and smiling in the face of trials.

NANCY