PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 420: THE FLOURISHING MOTHER, PT 2

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 420: THE FLOURISHING MOTHER, PT 2

Plants can’t survive without light and without water. Nor can mothers. How can you be watered? Check in.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to the Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies, a magazine bringing strength and encouragement to families across the world

Nancy Campbell: Good morning! Or good afternoon! Or good evening. I know that many of you will be listening at all these different times. So good to be with you again and we are continuing our new series, “The Flourishing Mother.”

Well, that’s what we aim to be. Sometimes we feel as though we are wilting. Sometimes we’re barely surviving. But God wants us to flourish. So, I am giving you some very good points about how to flourish.

Today we’re up to . . .

No. 2. THE FLOURISHING MOTHER LIVES IN THE LIGHT

Now it’s impossible for plants to grow and to thrive unless they have light. We notice this, especially with potted plants. If you put potted plants in a dark room, they are just going to die. They cannot survive without the light. It’s the same with us, ladies. We have got to have the light.

Now, talking about plants, I now have some beautiful potted plants. I’ve got loads of beautiful potted plants in my home. But I decided I wanted to have some potted plants in my special secret place where I meet with God each morning. It’s in my library. I have a desk at the window, so on the windowsill I have potted plants. Then I have four other shelves on either side which Colin put up for me.

I have gradually filled them with potted plants. It’s so amazing. You know, I started off with one potted plant. I bought that potted plant, and then I thought, “Help! I can’t just go and buy all these potted plants. They’re quite expensive.” So, I began to get little cuttings from friends or people where I saw they had an extra shoot coming out. I’d say, “Can I have that little shoot?” And I planted them from little shoots.

Now, oh, I wish you could see all my potted plants that are surrounding me. As I go down in the mornings to meet with the Lord, I just love it! It’s just so beautiful. The ones on my windowsill at the moment are all flowering. But the thing that I notice is that they all bend towards the light because that’s what they long for. That’s what is going to make them grow. So, often I will have to turn them around. Then that part of the plant will go toward the light. It’s so necessary.

Talking about where I meet with the Lord with all my lovely potted plants, the other morning I was reading a Scripture. It was Psalm 5:3. It’s David talking to the Lord. He says: “My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up.”

When I read that Scripture, I realized there was something that I wasn’t doing. Wow! Now, when I come down to this lovely, special place, I begin to read the Word and pray in my heart to the Lord over what I’m reading. Meditate upon it. And so, I’m communing with the Lord as I read.

But I noticed that this Scripture says: “My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning.” And I realized I wasn’t praying out loud! God wanted to hear my voice. And so, I like to obey the Word of God. Now I’m making it my habit, every morning when I first get there to my desk, I vocally, out loud, speak to the Lord, worshipping and praising Him, talking to Him about things on my heart before I even start to do it in my heart as I reading. Now I’m making this habit because I realized God wants to hear our voice.

We go over to the Song of Solomon 2:14. That’s the picture of Christ and the Bride. It says here: “Oh, my dove (that is Christ speaking) “that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.” (Or “beautiful,” which is what the word actually means). And so, I read again here that God wants to hear my voice.

Then I went over to Song of Solomon 8:13, where it says: “Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause Me to hear it.” Now lots of people get to hear our voice, don’t they? He says here: “In the gardens, the companions harken to thy voice: cause Me to hear it.”

In the New English Translation, it says: “My companions are listening attentively for your voice. Let Me be the One to hear it.” 

Then the New Living Translation says: “Your companions are fortunate to hear your voice. Let Me hear it too!” Now I understand. God wants to actually hear my voice. He should be the One who hears my voice first in the morning.

In fact, I noticed three things in Psalm 5:3.

Number one: He wants to hear our voice.

Number two: it says: “In the morning.” Two times! “In the morning, O Lord. In the morning I will direct my prayer.” So, God wants to hear our voice first thing in the morning.

And then the third thing David says: “I will look up.” What a wonderful way to start the day, letting God hear our voice in the morning. The first thing we do is we let Him hear our voice. We talk to Him and then we look up. We look up to Him.

Often, we can have so many pressures and things weighing on our mind. Things that we have to face. Worries, concerns. But God doesn’t want us to be bowed down with things. He wants us to look up. Look up to Him. Give our burdens to Him. As we look to Him, as we give our burdens to Him, He will take them. What does it say? “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, for He cares for you” (Psalm 55:22 and 1 Peter 5:7). He’s waiting to take your burdens. And He wants us to look up to Him. If we start the day looking up, then we keep looking up through the day.

Well, I thought I’d just pop that in because that’s something the Lord was speaking to me about. But we get back to our plants and see how they must have the light. That’s how they’re going to grow. So, let’s have a look at a few Scriptures, shall we? There are so many Scriptures about the light.

I love the celebration of Hanukkah. I wonder if any of you have ever celebrated Hanukkah? That’s at Christmas time; it’s around the Christmas period. It’s also called “The Festival of Lights.” We celebrate Hanukkah to remember the time of the Maccabees and when they rose up to take back Israel. Israel was being taken over by Antiochus Epiphanes. They were in servitude. This man had taken over their land, and even the temple.

But this family rose up, and they were able to get back the temple. It was full of rubbish and everything. They had to clean it out and cleanse it. Then they wanted to light the menorah again and get everything started again. But there was only enough oil for one day. They had to make the special oil, because in the Bible, it talks about the special oil and gives the recipe (Exodus 30:22-33. Use no other oil (v. 32).

It took eight days for them to get that oil ready. But a miracle happened and we read that the light kept on glowing.

Now that word Hanukkah, when we take the verb chanak, it means “to train, to dedicate.” It’s the word that is used when it says: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” But the word literally means, “to dedicate.” We dedicate our children to the Lord, but we don’t have just one dedication. When they’re born, we have a time when we dedicate them to the Lord. No, we are dedicating them every day to the Lord.

And why it was called Hanukkah was because they had to dedicate the temple again to the Lord, because it had been so overrun, and had been filled with such junk and everything. So, they dedicated it again to the Lord. And also, it’s called “The Festival of Lights.” In the Bible, we read of how Jesus went up to Jerusalem at the Festival of Lights, to commemorate that celebration. He loved to do that.

At the time of Hanukkah, in our Bible reading morning and evening, we read Scriptures about the light. We have quite a number of Scriptures for every morning and every evening for the eight days of Hanukkah. It’s a wonderful time of the year, where we read all the Scriptures in the Word about the light. It’s wonderful, and if ever you get to that time of the year, and you’d love to celebrate it, and you want to have those Scriptures, well, you can email me and I’ll send them to you.

But let’s just look at just a few today, because we’re talking about the light. Jesus, of course, said: “I am the Light of the world. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” That’s John 8:12. Jesus says, “Follow Me.” Yes, He is the Light. We’ve got to follow Him to walk in the light.

It’s just like our plants. They’ve got to have light. So, they reach out to the light. You see the branches reaching out towards the light. They’re following after the light. So, that’s what we have to do, lovely ladies. We’ve got to follow after the light, follow after Jesus, follow after His words. He says in John 12:35, 36: “He that walks in darkness does not know whither he goes. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.”

2 Corinthians 4:6: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Let’s go to the Old Testament. Psalm 36:9: “For with thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light.”

I love that, because as we reach out for the light, that’s reaching out for Jesus, for His Words, for His truth, we will begin to see more light. Did you know that the more light you get, then you see more light? It’s just how it works.

We go to Psalm 43:4, 5: this Scripture starts with an “O.” “O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.” This was David’s prayer. “O send out Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me.” I love to pray that. “Lord, oh, lead me into Your Light. Lead me into Your truth.”

And dear lovely mothers, as we come into the light of God’s truth, that’s when we will begin to flourish. You see, the plants that are getting all this light just flourish. And so it is with us. As we seek after the light, we’ll begin to flourish. Often, we just live in the darkness. We live in the darkness of deception many times, because many precious mothers, especially I think this young generation of mothers.

You know, I started Above Rubies well over 48 years ago, getting it out to my generation of mothers back then. And then, I was getting it out to the next generation of mothers. Now, there’s a third generation of mothers. Sadly, I really haven’t accomplished what I set out to do because there’s a generation of mothers now who are even more deceived than I think we were back in those days.

And because they haven’t got the light, they have been brainwashed. They’ve been propagandized in their schools, and in their colleges, and even in society against motherhood. What’s been put into their brains is that motherhood is insignificant. When that’s in your brain, and then suddenly you get children and you're having to care for these children . . .

Of course, every mother loves her children, but oh, many times, she just doesn’t love this motherhood. “Oh goodness me! I could be doing something more, something better, something more powerful!” And because that is their thought life, they are not flourishing in motherhood, and because it’s disdained in their minds, it’s been put into their brains.

We have to know the truth. We have to be filled with light because when we’re filled with the light and know this is what we were born for, “Yes, I’m in the perfect will of God,” well, then we can flourish. So, if you're feeling a little, well, “I don’t know about this or that,” just pray that prayer, “Oh Lord, send out Your light and Your truth. Let Him lead me.” Don’t be led by what is around you, dear ladies.

OK, Psalm 119:105: “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” I’m sure you learned that Scripture as a child. I hope you have taught it to your children. I believe that’s a Scripture every believer should know. The Word, it’s the Word that’s a light to our feet to show us the way to go. It’s a light to our path.

Now, I was just talking before this podcast to my wonderful Above Rubies helper, Kerianne, and she was telling me how from a little girl, her father gave them all Bible memory verses to learn every two weeks. Now, Kerianne, do you know that one? Psalm 119:105: “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet.” Did you learn that one?

Kerianne: I didn’t.

Nancy: You didn’t! Isn’t that funny? You know so many Scriptures and that’s one of the real basic ones. Well, you’ll have to add that one to it. She knows so many Scriptures. This is so true. We’ve got to have God’s Word and then it lights our path.

Psalm 119:130: “The entrance of Thy words giveth light. It giveth understanding unto the simple.”

THERE IS ALWAYS MORE AND MORE

And then, of course, Proverbs 4:18: “The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” It’s one of my favorite Scriptures. In fact, we have just finished a series about “Welcome to the Land of More and More.” This is how I started and ended that whole series with this Scripture.

I wonder if you have memorized it yet. It’s such a wonderful Scripture to know and to confess out loud. “The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”

Another translation, The God’s Word Translation, says: “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that becomes brighter and brighter, until it reaches midday.” This is a testimony also for us in motherhood. As we come into the light of God’s truth, and we walk in it, we keep reaching for the light. We keep learning more and we keep understanding more.

Now when I begin Above Rubies over 48 years ago, that was a time when God was just beginning to reveal to me His ways for motherhood. I didn’t start out knowing His ways but as I began to seek His truth and reach out to the light, God began to show me His ways. That was when I began for the very first time in my whole life to embrace who God created me to be.

Up to that time, I’d always thought, “Oh goodness me! It must be more exciting to be a guy. They go out and do all the adventures, and here we are. We’re just in the home, raising the children.” Although I just loved my children, I hadn’t come to that place of embracing motherhood.

God began to show me. It was revelation that I was in His perfect will, that He had created me physically, innately, for this purpose. And I was fulfilling the destiny that He had created for me. I embraced my womanhood, my motherhood, with all my heart. As I did that, that was when I began to live in the joy and the fullness of it.

But that was only the beginning. As I continued to live in His Word, God kept showing me, even to this day. I keep getting new light and new understanding, because there is always more and more. Isn’t that wonderful? Yes. Truly our walk, and even our motherhood walk, is a more and more walk.

LITTLE BY LITTLE YOU WILL BECOME AN AMAZING MOTHER

You may be, at this time, just feeling as though you're maybe even wilting. Or maybe you're just surviving. You haven’t got to that flourishing yet. But don’t despair. You will get there. We don’t suddenly become great, amazing mothers overnight. We grow into it, little by little. And we also come into more and more understanding and revelation as we continue to reach out for the light.

One last Scripture. I’ll read Isaiah 60:1-3. Now, this Scripture is actually speaking to Israel, and about Israel. It says: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”

We, as believers, we can take the Scriptures that God speaks to Israel. We can take them to ourselves, but only as we do not realize that we replace them. We never replace Israel because these Scriptures were written literally to and about Israel.

I was talking to someone recently, and they said, “Oh, I don’t believe it. I don’t see any future in the Word of God for Israel.” Well, that person I don’t think reads God’s Word because His Word is filled with the promises of what He is yet to do for Israel! Yes, they haven’t come into them yet, but there is coming a time, even this one (Isaiah 650:1-3) where it says that they are going to rise and the glory of the Lord will shine upon them.

But, of course, now, as believers, we’ve been grafted into this olive tree. We can claim these beautiful Scriptures that we will also walk in the light, and the glory of the Lord will be upon us. And so, we want that, even in our mothering, dear mothers, that you can walk in the light with the glory of the Lord upon you. Yes, God wants you to walk in His glory in the home. Wow!

I did a podcast on that, a little series. It was about the home, and how God likens the home . . . He likens the home to heaven, and He likens the home to the Holy of Holies that was in the temple. It’s very amazing and that’s where God’s glory dwelt. God’s glory was in the Holy of Holies. God’s glory fills heaven. But He also wants His glory to fill our homes too. So, may this be a testimony, that you “arise and shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.” Amen.

Well, let’s go on to our next point, shall we?

No. 3. THE FLOURISHING MOTHER IS A WATERED MOTHER

Now this is another thing about the plants, ladies. You know, don’t you, if you’ve got potted plants, or even if you've got a garden, you know that if you don’t water that garden, it dries up. If you don’t water your potted plants, they begin to wilt.

There have been times when I have forgotten. I don’t forget very much because I just love my potted plants. I want to keep them all wonderful. But there have been times I have forgotten. Ooh, I see them beginning to wilt! So, I’ve got to go and get that water. And my, you simply can’t believe it! Just water revives them so quickly! It’s absolutely amazing.

And, of course, the drier they’ve got, the more water they need. And when it’s hot, the more heat there is, the more water they need. That’s an interesting little observation, because when we’re going through the heat, when we’re going through difficult times, and the heat and the pressure are on, that’s when we need even more water.

I have some plants at my front door. I have four pots of plants out there. Two of them are marigolds. I love them at my front door because it’s very hot. The sun pours down, right there at my front door. Not very many plants can survive. But the marigolds do and they’re just blooming and shining in all their glory. But I do have to water them every day.

There are two other plants. They are surviving too if I water them. In fact, two of these plants, they’re the same kind. I have to put a huge bowl of water on them every day, sometimes twice a day, to keep them flowering. If I do, ooh, they just keep flowering and keep blooming. If I forget, they all just wilt away. But then, if I come and throw a whole bucket of water over them, wow! They revive so quickly again! I’m just so amazed. And so, lovely, precious wives and mothers, we’ve got to stay watered if we’re going to flourish.

All right. So, let’s look at some Scriptures, shall we?

Psalm 1:3: “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.” Now let me understand that, but let’s go to Psalm 1, because who is this person? Who is this person? It starts off: “Blessed is the man [or woman] that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his [or her] delight is in the law of the Lord. And in His law doth he meditate day and night.”

That’s the one where it says: “And he [or she] shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” Remember last week, we talked about the point, THE FLOURISHING MOTHER IS PLANTED? Well, here it talks about it again. Planted, but where is she planted? “Planted by the rivers of water.” She has access to the water. If she doesn’t have access to that water, she wilts. She’s got to have water to flourish.

Then we go to Ezekiel 19:10. This is the allegory that talks about Judah going to Babylon. But God likens her to a mother. And oh, “She was fruitful and full of branches by the reason of many waters.”

Now, do you notice something here in Psalm 1:3? It says he’s “planted by the rivers of waters.” And here in Ezekiel 19:10, she’s planted by “many waters.” Do you notice, it’s not just a little trickle of water. It’s “many waters.” A little bit of water, yes, you’ll survive, but if you want to flourish, you need much water.

You will survive with a little bit of water but to flourish you need much water!

Ephesians 5:26, and here it’s talking about Christ and His Bride, but it’s also in the context of the husband and the wife. It says here that “he might sanctify and cleanse her by the washing of the water by the Word.” Now we’re getting to find out how we get watered. There are two ways we get watered, precious wives and mothers. By the Word, and by the Holy Spirit. In the Word of God, both the Word and the Holy Spirit are likened to water.

This is a wonderful Scripture for husbands, because God wants husbands to wash their wives with the Word by reading the Word to them each day. I love . . .  My favorite time of every day, is our morning and evening devotions when we gather together as a family, or whoever is in our home, and my husband Colin reads the Word. I love to bask in that Word, because I’m being washed.

And, of course, we’re usually doing this together as a family, but if we go away together, and it’s just Colin and me, we will do it on our own. And often, that’s even more special, because it’s just me and him. I’m sitting close to him, and he is washing me with the Word. That is the number one responsibility of a husband, and such a blessing for the husband, and a blessing for the wife, and also the family when you do it as family devotions.

Now, some of you mothers get so busy, and so overwhelmed, and you don’t get a lot of time to get away and read the Word on your own. But, as you have your gathering of your family, and you have devotions morning and evening, you are getting the Word. You’re being washed. You’re getting watered. Make the most of those times.

As I said, when you have little ones, you have babies and little ones, and I was saying how you don’t have a lot of time to get away on your own with the Word of God, and you've just got to make special times. I had to have such a big, huge change in my life, because before I got married, I set aside three hours a day to wait on the Lord in His Word and in prayer.

Then I got married, and then I had babies. I had my first baby and 17 months later, I had two more babies! We had twins! So, I had three babies in 17 months. Did I have time to go away for three hours and spend time in God’s Word? Help! I hardly had time to even think! I hardly had time to go to the bathroom!

Oh goodness me! I didn’t have time to do it, and I wondered what had happened to my life! What am I going to do? I can no longer be in the Word! Then I had to find other ways. I put my Bible on the windowsill. I would usually put it at Proverbs or Psalms so I could just get a little Scripture even without context. And I could look up as I was doing the dishes and just read a Scripture.

I’d have another Bible in the toilet. Sometimes I had to go, even though I hardly had time in those days. And there I could read a Scripture. I had another Bible where I would nurse the babies. I would just get a little Scripture here and there. I just had to get that little watering. Wow! It wasn’t very much, but it was some watering.

Then also, as time went on, I decided to have a Bible basket. And I still have my Bible basket today. I just love it. I have in my Bible basket . . . I’ve been through many, many baskets, and they wear out. But I have my Bible, and I have two notebooks, because I always have a sort of a scrap notebook to write little notes for when I have more time and I can write more carefully, and meditatively. I also have a hard-covered journal for writing what the Lord says to me each day. And then I have a hymn book, because sometimes I might want to meditate on the words of a hymn.

And, of course, when I had little ones, what do you do? Well, you have some extra little scrap notebooks or paper, and pens and colored pencils in your Bible basket. Summertime, you can go outside with the little ones. You can take your basket. You can have some little toys in your basket. They can play with them, or they can write or draw. And you can have a little time for reading. And so, you make little special ways of getting the Word into you so you can be watered.

Then, we’ll continue next week, because we’ve got to speak about how the Holy Spirit also waters us.

“Dear precious Father, we thank You. We thank You that in Your Word, You tell us that You want us to flourish in our homes as mothers. Then, Lord, You show us the way, because Your Word waters us. We thank You for the watering of the Word.

“I pray for the young moms who find it difficult to get time, but I pray, Lord, that You will help them to find these special times, and these little ways they can get Your Word into their hearts and their minds. Just bless them, Lord God. Encourage them, and I pray that all the lovely wives and mothers listening today will be watered by Your Word. I pray they will be watered by this podcast.

“Lord, you know that how in these podcasts, we give Your Word. As Your Word goes out, it waters us, and we thank You. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

DON’T FORGET TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT THESE PODCASTS AND TRANSCRIPTS.

“LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell, Above Rubies”

DON’T KEEP THE BLESSINGS TO YOURSELF.