Dear mother, God chose you to be the mother of your children. No one can ever replace you. Embrace motherhood with all your heart. It is your highest career.
303 Hits
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.
Dear mother, are you feeling weary and fatigued? You are running out of energy. Jesus understands. Did you know that even as the Son of God on earth He had times of feeling weary too?
I think Jesus and His disciples must have been walking all morning because when they arrived at noon time at Jacob’s well, John 4:6 tells us that Jesus was “wearied with his journey, and sat thus on the well.”
When you are weary, you are allowed to sit down. That’s what Jesus did. Maybe you are pregnant. You are tired. Well, sit down. Take a break.
But remember, even when you sit down to rest a little, you can still minister the anointing of Jesus in your home. Even though Jesus was weary He ministered to the woman who came to draw water from the well. He spoke truth and life-giving words to her, and her life was changed forever.
When you sit down, gather your little ones around you. Sing some Jesus songs together. Sing some nursery rhymes together. Read them a story. You will be refreshed, and your children will be too. They also need these times to sit quietly and be refreshed.
What about your older children? Do they need help with some of their homeschooling? Call them to your side. It is a good time to help them or speak of the things of the Lord to them and pray with them.
You need times of rest and refreshing. But even in these times of needing rest you can accomplish special and beautiful times with your children. And it is all counting for eternity.
As this encounter with the Samaritan woman ended Jesus said to His disciples, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:34).
Many blessings to you in your home today,
Nancy Campbell
345 Hits
I have often shared the following truth with mothers over the years. I believe that it is not enough to love our children; we must also love motherhood. Of course, all mothers love their children, but not every mother loves her career of motherhood. Perhaps the majority don’t. Especially in our humanistic society young women have been brainwashed negatively about the career of motherhood and have been programmed instead for careers outside of the home.
However, it is not until we get the revelation that motherhood is the most powerful career in the nation and the career for which God has created us (physically and innately) and we embrace it with all our hearts that we will live in the joy of it—and walk in the fullness of it.
Lately I have been thinking that this same principle applies to marriage. Yes, we may love our husband, but if we don’t love marriage itself, we will not enjoy the fulness of marriage as God intends. I believe it is important to embrace and love marriage as God as designed it.
Many couples marry because they are in love, but they have no intention of living marriage according to God’s design. They believe they know best. Is this why so many marriages are falling apart today, even in the Christian church.
God is the One who designed marriage and therefore He knows the way it works. Both husband and wife are equal in creation but created with different and very unique roles which enhance and bless the union. He designed the husband to be the provider, protector, and leader of the home. We see this even in creation when God created the male first. He did not even create the woman until there was a home ready for her and God had also given Adam a job (Genesis 2:7, 8). He created the wife with a very special, physical body and a nurturing instinct in the likeness of God, enabling her to bring forth children and to nurture and nourish them.
Of course, there is so much more in God’s word, plus the glorious revelation that our marriage relationship is to reveal the picture of Christ and His church. However, my main point today is that it’s not enough to just love your husband. To walk in the fullness and glory of married life, you must also love marriage. Meditate on this more. You’ll be amazed what a difference this will make.
Be blessed,
Nancy Campbell
358 Hits
Thinking of yourself above others is the greatest deterrent to marriage and motherhood. I have always been challenged by Jesus’ words in Mark 8:35: “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but he that loseth his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.”
283 Hits
Motherhood is the most multi-tasking career in the universe! It is not inferior but an exalted career. Rise up into your full anointing, dear mother, and fulfill your great career to the utmost!
322 Hits
It’s a serious thing when we despise what God gives to us, don’t you think?
I read Jeremiah 2:7 the other day: “I brought you into a bountiful country, to eat its fruit and its goodness. But when you entered, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.”
This is talking about the children of Israel coming into the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey. Alas, they did not appreciate what God had given them and defiled the land. I believe we can do the same with the land of motherhood God has given to us. When God blesses us with children, He bring us into the glorious land of motherhood that He intends for us.
Sadly many mothers do not like this land of motherhood. They think it is inferior to what they could be doing and give their children to others to care for while they pursue the land of their career. They do not get to eat of the “fruit and the goodness,” the joy and the glory of this land. Many grumble and groan and speak negatively about motherhood. What are you confessing each day?
But we dare not do this lightly. God has given to us this gift of motherhood. He planned it. He designed it. He created our female bodies for the specific purpose of motherhood. It is ultimately God’s land. Did you notice God calls it “My land” and “My heritage”? When we despise and spurn it, we defile this beautiful gift. We even turn it into an “abomination.” Yes, that is the word God uses.
Motherhood is the glory of women. Isn’t it amazing that many “change their glory for that which doth not profit” (Jeremiah 2:1). Many do this in ignorance because the devil, who knows the power of motherhood, has instituted a big campaign to brainwash women against God’s ultimate plan for them.
Let’s not be deceived but live in the fulness of all that God has planned for us.
Have a blessed day,
Nancy Campbell
Painting by Polina Luchanova, Russia
254 Hits
Are you speaking words and doing things to make your marriage stronger and more beautiful today? Marriage is a building program. You must keep building every day (Proverbs 14:1).
285 Hits
Dear mother, you are the greatest teacher and influencer your children will ever have. Use your God-given anointing to teach your children the ways and statutes of God.
261 Hits
The other day my sister and I were reminiscing of growing up together. We remembered how all the children on our street would converge on to our front lawn and play together. After a big conflab about their next venture, they'd soar into action.
My father possessed a large box of boxing gloves, and the neighborhood boys loved to have boxing matches (or wrestling matches). This often culminated with boys going home with black eyes and bleeding noses! Did anyone worry about it? No. Did concerned parents call up and complain? No. The boys were back the next day for another round!
Now we live in a different world. Many parents today would be calling the CPS to complain about these parents allowing their boys to be so rough, coming home with torn clothes and bleeding faces! But these boys loved every minute of it. They were boys! And the parents thought nothing of it! They wanted their boys to be boys. To grow up to be men who could face the struggles of life and know how to take a blow!
What a life these children had. On our back paddock they'd set up racing tracks. They wrecked every bicycle in the neighborhood. Each time my parents bought me a bicycle it would be in pieces in two weeks by the time my brother had finished with it. Our brother ended up riding a 14' one wheel bike! They built underground tunnels that went for hundreds and hundreds of yards.
Psalm 144:12 speaks of our "sons as plants, becoming great in their youth." We don't keep them like little boys. We train them to become mature and grow into manhood even in their youth.
Of course, they won't be playing all the time. They are also learning how to work hard, how to finish a job, and take responsibility.
Make opportunities for your boys to be boys.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
277 Hits
Where is your mind today? Dwelling in the past? Or even in the present as you mull over the difficulties you face? To dwell in the past or the present can be depressing unless you are doing it with joy and thankfulness.Did you know that God wants us to LOOK AHEAD! To that which is BEFORE! Paul confessed in Philippians 3:13, 14: "This ONE THING I DO, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Things may look pretty bleak at the moment. But it's not the end of the world. God has got so much more ahead for you. Look ahead to what God has. Forget the past and keep pressing forward to the prize.
Recently in our Family Devotions my husband talked about how we can easily get stuck in an eddy. An eddy is where some flowing water gets sidetracked and stuck to the side of a river. Instead of flowing with the current it goes around and around in circles going nowhere.
If we don't keep our eyes on what is ahead, we can be sucked into an eddy. Instead of looking up, keeping our eyes upon Jesus, and the hope of what is before, we can stay in a rut (or an eddy) going over and over our problems and never getting anywhere. Remember, that's what happened to the children of Israel in the wilderness. Because they didn't believe God was bigger than their enemies, they ended up going around in circles in the wilderness for 40 years!
We'll never find an answer to our problems while we keep worrying about them. We'll only know the way out when we look to the Lord and trust Him.
When our eyes are upon Him, He can show us the way He wants us to go. And it will always be FORWARD. GOING AHEAD. PRESSING ON TOWARD THE MARK.
Keep out of eddies and keep running your race. It's not the end yet!
Love from Nancy Campbell
351 Hits
Your marriage is your first priority. Treasure it and guard it well.
420 Hits
Dear mothers, you are doing a GOOD WORK. This is confirmed in 1Timothy 5:10 and Titus 2:3-5. I know that sometimes you feel as though you are hardly making it, that you are not accomplishing much, and it's all so hard. Yes, it is hard in your own strength, but God does not intend you to do this great work on your own. He stands behind you with all His power. He waits to give you His wisdom. He wants to refresh you and strengthen you as you trust Him.Although it is in the chapter about freely giving (isn't motherhood all about giving?), 2 Corinthians 9:8 is a wonderful promise to you as mothers: "And God is able to make ALL grace abound toward you; that ye, ALWAYS having ALL sufficiency in ALL things, may abound to EVERY good work." ALL is repeated three times in this Scripture. God does not half enable you. He does not give you half enough strength and sufficiency to mother your children. He gives you ALL that you need!
Let’s notice some more words in this Scripture:
"And GOD IS ABLE to make all grace ABOUND toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may ABOUND to every GOOD WORK." The word "abound" is perisseuo in the Greek and means "more than abundant, more than you need." It's the word that used to describe the seven baskets of food that were LEFT OVER after Jesus fed the 4,000 plus (Mark 8:8).
God’s name, Almighty, is the Hebrew word El Shaddai and it means “the God who is more than enough.” God is more than enough to supply our every need.
What more do you need when God promises He will give you more than you need? I think you need to write or type this Scripture out in big letters and pin it up where you can see it.
Many blessings to you today,
NANCY CAMPELL
284 Hits
Do things seem all on top of you? You wonder how you can keep going? Can I encourage you dear, Mother, to keep plodding on? Take one step at a time. You can’t solve your problems in one moment. Your challenges won’t go away with one magic flick of your finger. Everything takes time. Instead, you keep plodding on.
But you don’t plod on in gloom and despair. You take one step at a time looking up to Jesus. When you take your eyes off your problems and look to Him, He will show you the way. He will give you strength. He will put His peace in your heart. The greatest thing you can do is put one step forward after another.
Even when it’s hard, keep taking the next step. What do you do when you are climbing a steep mountain? You get weary. You don’t know whether you can take another step. But you do. And another one. And eventually you get to the top! It’s the same with everything in life. You just keep going and you’ll get through. You will climb your mountain.
I was reading the book of James and was arrested by James 5:10. I love the paraphrase of the Message Bible: “Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and NEVER ONCE QUIT, all the time honoring God. What a gift life is to those WHO STAY THE COURSE!”
Stay the course, dear lovely mother. God is with you. He will not let go of you Trust Him. His ways are higher than your ways and He is bigger than every problem you face.
Many blessings to you from Nancy Campbell
331 Hits
It’s getting to the end of another wonderful Thanksgiving Day. We squashed about 90 plus people for a sit-down meal at our home today. A great time of feasting and fellowship and speeches. Plus tug-of-wars and egg-throwing.Here is an acrostic on being thankful, not just for today, but for every day of the year.
T I thank God for TEACHING me His ways.
H I thank God for giving me my HUSBAND. Marriage becomes more and more beautiful with time.
A I thank God for ANOINTING me to be a mother. Is there any greater blessing, apart from our salvation, than to enjoy the blessings of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren?
N I thank God for creating me to be a NURTURER and NOURISHER to my family and to others.
K I thank God for His KINDNESS to me.
F I thank God for my FAMILY and His daily FAITHFULNESS to me.
U I thank God for giving me UNDERSTANDING of His truth. My greatest delight is to receive revelation of God’s truth from His living Word.
L I thank God for LOVING me enough to die for me and shed His precious blood for my sins. I don’t like to get a day go by without thanking Him for His great and unspeakable and eternal salvation.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
347 Hits
The life God gives us in His kingdom is an abounding life. It is above the normal status quo. He wants us to abound in everything in our lives (2 Corinthians 8:7). That means abounding and overflowing as we face the challenges of motherhood each day. Yes, right in your kitchen, when a child is annoying you, one is crying, and everyone seems to want you at once!"Please get real," you say. "This is a bit over the top. And you don't understand what I am going through." Dear wife and mother, did you know that the word "abounding" is Bible language. It's repeated over and over again, translated with words such as "abundantly, exceeding, increasing, and multiplying." These words relate to every area of our lives. They are even written to believers who are suffering and going through persecution.
One of the "aboundings" is to ABOUND IN THANKSGIVING (Colossians 2:7). Most translations say: “OVERFLOWING WITH THANKSGIVING.” The Greek word is “perisseuo” and literally means “superabounding, overflowing, exceeding, excelling, over and above, and enough and to spare." Now, that's not normal, is it? It's over the top! But dear ladies, it’s Bible language! It’s amazing how we live so sub-zero standard, isn’t it?
Do you start the day thanking God for all His goodness and His great salvation that He suffered for you on the cross? Are you thanking Him in your heart all day long for every little thing that happens? This overflowing thankfulness should spill over to everyone around us.
Do you continually thank and show gratitude to your husband? When he does something for you do you take it for granted or spill over in thanks? Why don't you stop and give him a call right now and thank him for the wonderful husband and provider that he is? Thank him for marrying you!
And don't forget your children. Thank them when they do a task. We give loads of commands, we give lots of frowns, we are always reprimanding, but where are the thanks? Where are the smiles? We should be aboundingly and overflowingly thanking our husband and children and all the people who are part of our lives.
I know you’ll have a great Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, but let’s not limit our thankfulness to this day but let’s have thanksgiving day every day of the year. Amen?
Many blessings to you and have a most wonderful Thanksgiving.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
292 Hits
Do you like waiting? Well, in the natural world it is hard to wait, isn’t it? We like things to happen just when we want them. I remember growing up as a child. We had everything we needed but we didn’t have excess. We didn’t expect to get what we wanted each time we went to town with our mother. We received gifts for birthdays and Christmases and that was it. To get an orange in our Christmas stocking was a gift from Heaven. A little packet of raisins was heavenly!I can remember waiting with agony for Christmas to come each year. It seemed like an eternity to wait. But with the waiting was incredible expectation.
My husband remembered one time how he received a bottle of pop for his birthday and thought he had gone to Heaven. He remembers it being called Orange Crush. It was so precious that he would take two sips each day and put it back on the shelf to make it last. It didn’t even bother him that all the bubbles depleted as the days wore on.
This is unheard of today. An orange or a bottle of pop is like nothing! Most children get what they want when they want it. They have never learned the expectation of w a i t i n g!
In many ways, this is sad. I think that if children do not learn to experience this emotion of waiting when they are young, how are they ever going to learn to wait on God and wait for His timing when they are older? The Bible says, “First that which is natural, and then that which is spiritual.” Nature prepares us for the spiritual.
It is sad when I hear someone say, “OH, I prayed, but God didn’t answer, so I don’t believe in Him!” I wonder how many times they prayed. I wondered how long they waited. I am sure it wasn’t long. They have not learned this very important quality. Don’t deprive your children of learning it.
And let’s all learn to wait on God. He is not in a hurry. He does not live in time. He will work when it is the right time.
Lamentations 3:26: “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”
Psalm 37:7: “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself . . .”
Many blessings,
Nancy Campbell
307 Hits
Your home can be the most exciting place on earth!
344 Hits
Don’t allow the devil any space in your home. Don’t even let him get a foot in the door. Once he is in he will take over more and more. Speak the name of Jesus out loud. Take authority in Jesus’ name over any evil in your home.
304 Hits
Rise up in the anointing and authority God has given you as a mother.
317 Hits