Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs

Yesterday I posted Meadow's article about the misconceptions of non-feminist women. Today, I'd like to post about WHO WE ARE as feminine women.

QUINTESSENTIALLY FEMININE
Part 1

I read these beautiful words, “quintessentially feminine” in Song of Songs and was arrested by them. What does it mean to be feminine? I don’t mean feminine according to society’s standards, but rather what is quintessentially feminine. It means the perfect embodiment of who God originally created us to be. It is who we are in our purest form. Instead of looking around us to see what other women are doing to find our standard, we check the plumb line of God’s Word or even at our inherent inclinations which God has divinely put within us.

One of the most beautiful aspects of femininity is pregnancy. The pregnant figure is beautiful. In this awesome time of a woman’s life, she has the privilege of housing and growing a new life, a life that will not only be born into this world, but an eternal soul that will live forever. Absolutely nothing in this world is more powerful than nurturing an eternal soul. This season of a woman’s life is only for a certain time. It is her time of visitation which is only about 20 plus years of her whole life, not many years when you consider that most women live into their eighties and nineties today. It is the privileged time of a woman’s life when God can visit her to conceive life.

Every conception discloses a visitation of God. Mere man cannot give conception. After Hannah dedicated her firstborn Samuel to God and took him to live at the temple, God “visited” her five more times and gave her five more children (1 Samuel 2:21). Genesis 21:1 also tells us how God “visited” Sarah and she conceived.

There are only two kinds of human beings in this world—a man without a womb, the male; and a man with a womb, the woman. The womb is distinctive to God’s female creation.1 To embrace our womb is to embrace who we are; to reject the function of the womb is to not only reject the true essence of femaleness, but to reject our Creator who designed us.

Does the handicraft disown its Craftsman? Isaiah 29:16 (RSV) says: “You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay; and the thing made should say of its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?” Have we become so shaped by a godless society that we no longer understand who we are? What perversity! 2

TO REJECT MOTHERHOOD IS TO REJECT
THE TRANSCENDENCE OF OUR FEMALENESS.

Motherhood is also part of our innate femininity. Noah Webster’s 1928 dictionary describes quintessential as “the highest essence of power in a natural body.” Motherhood is primal, powerful, protecting and permeating—not only in our children’s lives but in all of society. Motherhood is not something we perform at a certain time of our life. Motherhood is who we are as a female. When we reject mothering, we reject who God created us to be. The desire to nurture is divinely inherent in every woman, even those who seemingly reject motherhood. Those who refuse to embrace children into their arms will usually have a cat or a dog, which they nurture like a human baby!

To embrace motherhood is to embrace quintessential femininity. Motherhood is the highest career in the nation. It is a divine mandate. It is the glory of the nation. We read in Hosea 9:11 how God told Ephraim that He would take away their “glory” as punishment for their sins. What was their glory? Conception, pregnancy, and birth!

Not only is motherhood innately within us, but it reveals the nature of God. One of the names of God is El Shaddai which reveals God as a nursing mother. Motherhood is not something we “have to do,” but it is the revelation of the nurturing heart of God.

Webster (1913) describes quintessence as “an extract from anything, containing its rarest virtue, or most subtle and essential constituent in a small quantity.” We are not El Shaddai, but a little “shad” revealing to the world the rarest virtue of motherhood. When we embrace, and live in the glory of motherhood, we show to the world what God is like. When we reject motherhood, we deprive the world of seeing this characteristic of God.

There are some women who cannot conceive naturally. Are they denied motherhood? No. When a woman expresses her nurturing instinct to mother the hurting and needy, the elderly, the orphans and widows, or even to adopt a child, she finds her fulfillment in mothering. The most renowned mother of our last century was Mother Theresa, a woman who never birthed children, but who was the greatest example of motherhood as she poured out her life for the downtrodden.

PRAYER:
“I thank You, dear Father God for the gift of femaleness. You chose to create me female. This is how I will fulfill my destiny on this earth. Help me to understand the fullness of Your plan for me as a female. Help me to walk in the glory of femaleness You created it to be. I ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:
I live in the fullness of my femininity to glorify God.

NANCY CAMPBELL
www.aboverubies.org

Footnotes:
1. Go to http://bit.ly/ProtectYourWomb * an important document which every woman should read.

2. The Hebrew word for “you turn things upside down” is hophek and means “perversity!” Read also Isaiah 45:9-10; 64:8 and Romans 9:19-21.

Painting: Lullaby by Holly Irwin

The following is an article from my granddaughter, Meadow Hall. Meadow is Pearl’s daughter (Trim Healthy Mama). I know you enjoy hearing from Meadow.

FIVE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT NON-FEMINIST WOMEN
Are we non-feminists oppressed, misguided, or just deluded?

In a recent poll from Refinery29 and CBS News, 54 percent of young women in the US said they do not consider themselves proponents of the movement for gender equality, while 46 percent said they identified as feminists. If feminism is supposed to be a cause for women, why would more than half of us not identity as feminists? Have half of us just not caught up with the times yet?

Or maybe half of us are not being properly represented.

Feminists tend to be the loudest in their opinions among women (take the Women’s March for example), but the rest of us can often feel vastly misunderstood. So, before they try to convince us non-feminists that we’re still in the dark ages, maybe there needs to be more understanding about why we don’t find modern-day feminism appealing.

Misconception 1. WE HAVEN’T BEEN “ENLIGHTENED” YET
Some feminists assume that the only reason other women are not feminists, is because we’re “stuck” in traditional thinking and our eyes have not been opened to the “empowering” views of female equality.

It’s not because we haven’t been enlightened by feminist views. It’s because we’ve heard them, and we reject them.

The reasons for disagreeing can vary by person. For some, we see that many (but not all) feminists are extremely bitter towards men. They constantly punish them for being “animals,” “predators,” and “toxic” to society (and we kinda like men, and have some good men in our lives, so we think these gals are exaggerating a bit).

Many Christian women reject modern-day feminism because it’s pushing ideals that are completely out of line with the Bible and Christianity. Some women don’t like to be associated with feminism because they feel it has become an extremely far-left movement. And me? I’m not a feminist for these reasons and more.

Misconception 2. WE DON’T BELIEVE WE’RE EQUAL TO MEN
I feel like I shouldn’t need to explain this one, but unfortunately, I do.
I have never met a single anti-feminist who believes men are superior to women. I’m sure there are a small majority of women somewhere in our society who believe men are superior. But let’s face it, there are WAAAY more women who believe we are the superior gender. It is also more socially acceptable to call women “superior”.

Truth is, most non-feminists believe in some form of equality!

I believe in equality. I believe men and women are equally important. I believe Christian men and women are equal as inheritors of the Kingdom of God. And I believe both men and women should have rights.

*** “Men and women are created for DIFFERENT purposes!” ***

The reason I (and others) clash with feminism, is because men and women are not equally the same. Some of us are not caught up in the push to blur the line between genders. Not only do we recognize the clear biological distinctions between men and women, we believe that men and women were created for different purposes. Some of us even choose to embrace *gasp* traditional gender roles.

Of course, it would be silly to believe that men are not capable of doing domestic things at home, and women are not capable of running businesses and having careers. But we believe that women were put on earth for different reasons than men. We don’t feel the need to compete with men and prove how we are equal, because we embrace how we are unique. This also allows us to appreciate men for their own uniqueness without being jealous (or thinking they’re “superior”). We respect men for who they are, and we respect ourselves for who we are.

*** “We respect men for who they are, and we respect ourselves for who we are!” ***

Misconception 3. WE DON’T BELIEVE WOMEN SHOULD HAVE RIGHTS
Most anti-feminists are thankful that we have the liberty to attain higher educations, financial opportunities, and the right to vote. And most would agree that women should have equal pay (if they are in the same positions and putting in the same level and quality of work) as men.

We don’t believe women are supposed to be doormats and dominated by all men (even if we believe in the biblical commandment of submitting to our husbands).
Then why are we not advocating for women’s rights? Because we already have legal rights. We are living in the 21st century where women have all equal opportunities and the same important legal rights that men do! This is why many of us kind of see modern-day feminism as a dead cause!

What legal “women’s’ rights” are they talking about? The right to go topless like men? Reproductive rights (AKA, abortion)? The right to free birth control?
These so-called legal “rights” are nothing like the rights of first-wave feminism in the 19th and early 20th century that focused on overturning legal obstacles to gender equality and advocating voting and property rights. And many of us believe these new causes to be immoral.

However, there are a few feminists who are not advocates of these extreme so-called “rights.” And if they have no more legal battles to face, what are they fighting for? For social and cultural rights for women . . . we get it. There will always be women who will be raped, assaulted, or unfairly treated somewhere, even in our modern society.

Sure, there are plenty of women who need to be defended, but non-feminists recognize that women are not always the victims. Sometimes men are the victims. Sometimes men have it worse than women. Who’s fighting for them?

There are some feminists who claim that they fight for men’s rights equally, and maybe some of them do, but for us non-feminists, it just wouldn’t make sense for us to post hashtags like #Believewomen, or to march for a cause exclusively for women, or to be associated with the word “feminism”, which is a word for women.
Those things don’t sound like equality to us.

Misconception 4. IT’S THE WAY WE WERE RAISED
It is true that the way someone is raised may greatly influence their views on life and personal beliefs. A woman may be more likely to accept traditional gender roles if this is what her mother modeled for her. Likewise, many feminists may have had mothers who were more career-oriented.

However, we can still choose to reject or accept what we were taught. Sometimes women who were raised by more conservative stay-at-home moms, grow up to become far-left feminists. Some women who were told by their parents that they should put off having children and chase their career, may still desire a more domestic lifestyle.

The reason many women who were raised to embrace traditional gender roles may still accept them is because they have evaluated these beliefs themselves and they have seen the positive effects that this lifestyle had on their own mothers and families.

As a non-feminist, this is true from my own personal experience. My mother stayed home to raise us five children because she felt that we needed her during our growing years. My mother had other side careers going on, but she believed in putting us children first. This gave us comfort and security and highly benefited us in other ways. I see her years of staying home and serving us as a gift and self-sacrifice.

Because of her example, I wanted to be that kind of mother to my own children. I also want to give them the best that I can offer and impact the world through my children. When I was little, growing up to be a stay-at-home wife and mother was my ultimate dream. Now I walk in that role, not because I feel pressured by my family, but because this is a desire for me and a calling on my life.

Misconception 5. WE ARE “OPPRESSED” BY TRADITIONAL ROLES
Women who reject the idea that traditional female roles are oppressive, do so because they see those roles (such as placing family before a career) as an honor and more highly fulfilling than any career. It is society that teaches us these roles are “oppressive.”

*** “Women inherently want to nurture!” ***

But this doctrine goes against our womanly instincts. Women inherently want to nurture something. If a woman says she never wants to have children, she will still usually “mother” something (maybe a cat or a dog). And many mothers who do have careers, wish instead that they could stay at home with their children.

Maybe to feminists we are “oppressed” if we serve our families, but many mothers who get to stay at home and serve our families see it as an immense blessing. This is not to say we don’t have our own ambitions and passions, but we recognize what is truly precious in life.

It is true that there will be some women who will feel like they’re missing out when family gets in the way of their careers, but this is largely because society has taught that children are burdens instead of blessings.

Non-feminists reject the idea that we are free when we serve our employers, but slaves if we serve our husbands and children.

After all, love, family, and selflessness are really what life is about.

MEADOW HALL
Facebook: Meadow Hall
Instagram: _m_e_a_d_o_w_

This article is from SILK AND HONOR, her blog that inspires women in Faith, Fashion, & Femininity. For further articles, go to: www.silkandhonor.com

Photo: Meadow with her husband, Kendall.

Guard your resting place. Don’t let anyone or any organization or spoil your resting place. Deal with every situation that spoils the rest in your home. Don’t let them fester and grow bigger. Resist all outside evil influences. Take time to create order and peace in your home. Make it what God wants it to be—a “resting place.”

In Hosea 11:11 God says that He will “settle” Israel in their homes. God loves us to be settled. The Knox translation says: “In their own home, the Lord says, I will give them rest.” Isn’t that lovely? Often, we get overwhelmed and agitated in our spirits because we are too busy running here and there. When we get into this state, God reminds us to come back home. You’ll find rest in your home, not gadding about.

This doesn’t mean that you won’t be busy in your home. You can be busy and yet at rest in your spirit. Get into the habit of living a “restfully busy” life.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Painting by Theodore Robinson (1852-1896).

“I am free from debt, depression, and disease. I am free to jump on the trampoline or have a tea party with my children. I am free to teach them right from wrong; free to teach them how to read and explore the wonders of creation with them. I am free to worship God and read His Word. I am free to work in my garden and enjoy the labor of my hands.

I am free to choose whether to be thankful or feel sorry for myself; and I am free to make that choice every day.”

You are free too. Make the right choice today.

Love from Nancy Campbell

Illustration: Brooke Smart

Did you know that when you conceive, God has visited you? What could be more awesome than a visitation of God?

Just think about it. It’s true, dear mothers. Genesis 21:1-2 says: “The Lord visited Sarah . . . for Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son.”

Again, it says in I Samuel 2:21: “And the Lord visited Hannah, so that she conceived, and bare three sons and two daughters.”

Do we really understand the awesomeness of conception?

Blessings to you today from Nancy Campbell
Painting by Robert Coombs

And you run your hand up their body and tickle them under the arm or under their chin.

~ Nancy

As you embrace this beautiful picture of a woman, you not only nurture your family, but you build a nation!

Motherhood is not weakness, it is power.

Be encouraged today, Nancy Campbell
Painting by Sandra Kuck.

“Wonder” is an emotion God has given to us, firstly, in relation to Him. He is called “Wonderful” (Isaiah 9:6). The word is “pele” and literally means, “a wonder, a marvel.” God cannot be fathomed. He is mysterious (Job 11:7-10). Judges 13:18 says His name is “secret.” God should be our greatest awe as we continually receive new glimpses and understanding of Him and His amazing creation.

Can we awake each morning, filled with wonder and expectation of what God will do and show us? Or have the stresses and burdens of life dimmed this wonder? Perhaps excessive social media and iphones etc., have blurred our brains from seeing the wonder and expectation in life. A book I am reading currently talks about a delightful clockmaker who “had never grown up and things still amazed him.”

May you and I be those who keep being amazed! Ask God to renew in you the delight of wonder. Together, with your children, daily look to understand more of God. Look for wonders and miracles in your everyday lives, not only in the big things of life, but also the tiny little things.

As you sit together at the table at supper time, ask your children to tell you about some “wonders” they noticed today.

Live in the expectation of wonder today.

Blessings from Nancy

When you are home you cook from scratch, using wholesome, non-packaged foods. You can grow a garden and eat fresh, non-sprayed vegetables. You save loads of dollars on prepared foods and eat healthier.

You save on gas and clothes.

But best of all, you are with your precious children. You are not handing them over to someone you don’t even know! You are investing in their lives. You are teaching them in the ways of God. You are “little by little, and precept by precept” training them to grow up in the character of God.

You still think you can’t do it? No, you can’t in your own strength. But when you take a step of faith and simply obey God’s ultimate plan for you, you will find He is with you all the way. You’ll be amazed at the miracles that take place! You’ll be amazed at how you survive!

Love to you from Nancy Campbell

You are still wondering how God can provide for you. Check out this link:
http://tinyurl.com/CanGodProvideforBaby

Painting by Katie Berggren

If you listen to my podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS W/ NANCY CAMPBELL, you will have heard, Serene my daughter, read excerpts from this book on the podcast.

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And instead of getting bitter, we open our hearts to instruction. This is the way we mature. This is the way we grow in our walk with the Lord. If we cannot receive reproof, we may stay in the same habit, the same sin, or the same rut for years!

The other day I read this powerful Scripture in Psalm 141:5: “Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil.”

I looked up the Passion translation and was challenged when I read: “When one of your faithful ones rebukes me, I will accept it like an honor I cannot refuse. It will be healing medicine that I swallow without an offended heart.” What wonderful words to take to our hearts.

Can we receive instruction and reproof to heal us like medicine? And without being offended?

This Scripture calls reproof a healing medicine. Proverbs 15:31 calls it “the reproof of life.” It brings life to our souls.

This is how we need to live our personal lives and then teach this habit to our children. We must teach our children HOW to receive instruction and rebuke. It is natural to resist. We must show them God’s way.

I think this would be a good Scripture to pin up in your kitchen for the whole family, don’t you?

Be blessed today,

Nancy Campbell

My husband and I had to come to this great country legally. We had to spend time, money, and effort to become a US citizen. It’s not easy, but it is a prized possession. Not to be taken lightly.

I was most disappointed to see that the following senators did not stand with securing our border. I have already contacted my Tennessean Senator. I encourage you all to do the same. Just google for the phone number of the Senator in your sate and call to express your concern.

REPUBLICAN SENATORS WHO VOTED AGAINST THE BORDER WALL
Lamar Alexander of Tennessee (615) 736-5129
Roy Blunt of Missouri
Susan Collins of Maine
Mike Lee of Utah
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
Rob Portman of Ohio
Mitt Romney of Utah
Marco Rubio of Florida
Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania
Rand Paul of Kentucky
Roger Wicker of Mississippi
Jerry Moran of Kansas

~ Nancy

We were talking about how God knows each child even before He forms them in the womb. He knows them from eternity. He is Omniscient and has each child in His heart from before the foundation of the world.

I often think of how Hebrews 7:9, 10 tells us how Levi paid tithes to Melchisedec while he “was yet in the loins” of Abraham who was his great-grandfather! He wouldn’t have even been a twinkle in Abraham’s eyes, and yet God knew him before he was conceived. The Bible states that he literally paid tithes when Abraham paid tithes! Wow, God’s understanding is far beyond ours, isn’t it?

Anyway, as we were talking, Serene talked about her little one-year-old, Solly, sitting on her knee, and said, “Oh my goodness, if I didn't have her! It's just too incredible and too amazing. And look at her personality! God had a vision of her. Imagine if I had said, ‘No, God, I don't want her, I don't care for Your desire to have her in eternity with You.”

What a powerful revelation. This is something to think about. When we say No to a child that God has planned before the foundation of the world to spend eternity with Him, we deprive that child of life. Not only of life in this world, but of the opportunity to enjoy the glories of the eternal world forever. Glories that are beyond the scope of our human minds to comprehend! How grieving to deprive someone of this glory.

Our minds are so puny. I constantly need to ask God to open my mind to think His thoughts. To understand His ways. May God save us from putting Him in a box, bringing Him down to the level of our puny thinking, of making ourselves our own god, instead of allowing Him to be God!

Be blessed today, Nancy Campbell

Photo: Serene with Solly as a newborn.

Scriptures about how God knew us before we were born:
Judges 13:5; 16:17; Psalm 139:16; Isaiah 49:1, 5; Jeremiah 1:5; Luke 1:15, 16, 41; and Galatians 1:15, 16.

All of a sudden, Erin realized that there’s only one letter difference. Take out the L from “world” and you’ve got Word! We are either going to live our lives according to the mindset of the world, or the mindset of the Word of God. Which will it be?

We need to get the L of leftist ideologies out of our lives which infiltrate our society. We choose whether we will have a biblical worldview or a liberal worldview.

We’ll never be old-fashioned when we choose the “old paths” because they lead us to rest and blessing. Jeremiah 6:16 says: “Thus saith the LORD (not Nancy Campbell or anyone else, but GOD), Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the GOOD way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.”

God’s living Word is the secret to prospering. Joshua 1:8 says: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way PROSPEROUS, and then thou shalt have GOOD SUCCESS.”

Live by the Word, not the spirit of this world!

1 John 2:15-17 says: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”

And James 4:4 is challenging too, isn’t it? “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

Be a Word family, not a worldly family.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

Let’s keep a good attitude. Cast aside all negativity, anger, hurt, bitterness, unforgiveness and let’s fill our lies with the beauty of forgiveness, love, joy, and unselfishness.

2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us how that when we behold the face of Jesus, we are changed into His likeness. This also happens with us and our children. Our children behold our face all day long. What do they see? An expression of contentment and joy? Or frustration and anger? A smile or a frown?

Dear mother, your children will change into the same image they see on your face. Do you want happy, smiling children? Let them see this expression on your face.

I love the words of the hymn:

Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me,
All his wonderful passion and purity,
O thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine,
Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.

May the expression on our faces make us look beautiful to our husbands and children.

Love from Nancy Campbell