LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 240: The Shabbat Meal

I have received a number of requests recently asking how we do the Shabbat meal. This podcast tells you what we do in our home. Be blessed and inspired.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Well, my husband and I have just come back from Florida, from the Above Rubies Family Retreat, the first winter family retreat that we have had. We have an April retreat every year in Florida, but it has got so big that we wondered what to do! We can’t fit any more people in. So, Allison and Daniel, who organize these retreats, decided to have a winter one in January so that they could give some of the families an option of coming to this one.

Well, it wasn’t as big. It was a smaller retreat, but it was so wonderful. It was so great that I think it will now become a tradition every year. It was so great for people. Some came from Canada, some from way up north of USA. They could get away from the cold and the snow and get down to Florida where it was kind of warm. The water’s still very cold, although I did brave myself and went in with some of the young people one day. It was pretty cold, but once you got in, you could survive. I then went back a couple more times and was very invigorated by that.

We had a meeting every morning with the folks, and in the evening. In the afternoon, they had lots of wonderful things for the people to do. Of course, the favorite is going to the beach, but they had a volleyball competition, which was very, very competitive. They have such good players. Games on the beach, tugs of war and everything. It was so great!

On the Friday night, we had a Shabbat meal for all the campers. In fact, there were so many children and young people. They outdid the numbers of all the adults there, because the parents brought many big families. It was so wonderful.

On the last night, there were two single moms there. They so graciously volunteered to put on a beautiful meal for all the couples, which they did. It was so delightful. Such a beautiful meal! Such a wonderful evening. Then my husband spoke about marriage. Oh, it was such a great retreat!

But at that retreat, as I said, we did a Shabbat meal. I’ve begun to get people emailing in, and messaging in, saying, “Look, couldn’t you share more about the Shabbat meal?” Then, we came home Wednesday. Friday night was Shabbat. Friday night we sat around our table with nine beautiful girls gracing our table. Six of our granddaughters and three lovely Above Rubies helpers, two who are here, and one was visiting. What a beautiful thing, to have all these glorious girls around our table!

I posted a picture on my Instagram and had more people saying, “Would you mind talking about it on your podcast?” I thought, “Well, I may as well.” So here I am doing it. Now, I hope those who have asked me are actually listening! But we have been celebrating the Shabbat meal for over thirty years, because we started it when we were in Australia. We’ve been in the States for 33 years, so it’s been a long time.

What is the Shabbat meal? Shabbat is just the Hebrew word for “Sabbath.” It’s a Sabbath meal, and it’s a Jewish meal. We do not do it because we are Jewish, because we are not Jewish. We do it because it is a very family-oriented meal.

I first heard about it when we were living in Australia. A wonderful man of God had been ministering in Israel and living there for some time. He came back, and at this meeting, he said, “There’s something very special I would love to bring back to you all, the most beautiful thing that I experienced in Israel.” And he said, “It is the Shabbat meal. It’s a Jewish meal, but I want to bless you Christian families with doing this meal.” He shared about it and how to go about it.

Of course, being one who wants to hang on to anything that will strengthen families, I caught ahold of it. I thought, “Wow, if this is going to bless our family,” and at that time, our children were still around us, “I’m going to do it!” So, I began to do it, and I’ll tell you what we do. We take the basic foundation of a Jewish Shabbat meal, but we adapt it to how it fits in with our family. We make it very personal.

Another reason we do it is that it is a meal that has blessed Jewish families over centuries. We are so blessed by the Jewish people. The Bible says that “In Abraham all the families of the world would be blessed.” It's from the Jews that we have our Savior. Jesus Himself was a Jew. He was born into Jewry. He was a Jew. It’s the people of God, the Israeli people of God, who brought forth our Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, what a blessing!

It is through the Jewish people that we have the Bible. What would we do without this precious living Word, this Word which is alive and active, and speaks to our souls and our spirits every day? Every word was divinely inspired but each book was written by a Jew. There are some people who would say, “Oh, but there was Luke. He was a gentile.”

But if you do a little bit of study, you will find that that is actually tradition. You will find that, really, they don’t have any Scriptural reference for that. Although there’s no Scripture saying that Luke was a Jew, we get to realize he obviously was. In fact, one time, when Paul came to Jerusalem and there was a riot because they said he brought Trophimus into the temple, because he was a gentile; he was from Ephesus, an Ephesian. There was a big riot about that, but Luke was traveling with Paul all the time. There was never mention of a riot with Luke. It is obvious he was a Jew also.

The whole Bible was brought to us by the Jewish people. What blessings they have brought to the world!

They’ve also brought the blessing of this meal, which although it was originally a Jewish meal, you can take it into your family, and do it as you would love. Make it part of your family life. It has so blessed us. We would never miss doing it unless we are away. We always do it.

How do we go about it? Well, when I have our Shabbat meal, I want to make it different from every other night of the week. Every night of the week, I love to make the table special. I don’t want to make any meal just some boring thing; just throw some food on the table. No, I want every meal to be special.

In fact, I may have shared this with you before, but years ago, when I was watching that movie, “Babette’s Feast,” there was a line that I picked up from that movie. This man was speaking. He was speaking about a woman who was a famous chef in Paris. He had been to her restaurant. But now he was away from Paris, away, way out in some sort of land, way up in the snow. Here he was, amongst this little wee group of people. But the food he was eating reminded him of this amazing restaurant. Actually, it was the same woman, and she was behind the scenes, cooking it, but nobody knew who she was. It’s a movie worth watching.

But he got up, and he was giving a speech. He said, “There was a woman who knew how to make every meal into a love affair.” Wow! I heard those lines. I have never forgotten them to this day. They are part of me. It’s what I want to do. I want to make every meal into a love affair.

You can take up that phrase too. It will change your whole life.

Every meal, don’t think, “Goodness, got to cook another meal!” No, never think like that, ever! Think, “How exciting! I have the opportunity to make another love affair for my family!” You’re thinking of how you can make it special and even how you can make the table inviting.

I always love to use a tablecloth. I think you know that about me by now. Sometimes I have folks who will be here, and they say, “Oh, can I set the table for you?” I say, “Yes.” Then they’ll go get the knives and forks and begin to put them down on my table. I’ll say, “Oops! Just a minute! We don’t eat on a naked table. We like to use a tablecloth.”

So many people today just use a naked table! Well, my table is naked during the day, except I do have a runner and a vase of flowers upon it. But in the evening, I don’t want to put down food on a naked table. I want to put a tablecloth. I love tablecloths. I love all different colors and designs, so I can change them.

Some of you are in the throes of little ones all around you, and you can’t bear the thought of a tablecloth! “Oh, goodness me, with children dropping stuff on it, and you’ve got to wash it every day!” You just couldn’t even imagine it. But you can still do it, because you can buy a beautiful tablecloth. You can put clear plastic over it which just has to be wiped down. You’ve got to wipe your table, whatever. Even if you have a naked table, you’ve got to wipe it down.

Or you can got to Joann’s or somewhere like that. These days you can go look for all these rolls of plastic of the most beautiful designs, even lace. Oh! They’re all so glorious you don’t know which one to choose. You just cut it off the length for your table. There, you’ve got a beautiful tablecloth. You don’t have to wash it. You just wipe it down after the meal. You do that every night.

So, what am I going to do on Shabbat? Well, I always keep Shabbat, mostly . . .  Sometimes I have a change, but mostly I will use a white tablecloth, and white dishes, and everything white, because the Jewish people think of the Shabbat meal as the bride, just entering into the Sabbath day. So, I love to use white.

If you have best china, you can get out your best china. I don’t really have best china, so I get out some nice china. Or I will use white plates to match my white tablecloth. I set it nicely.

THE MOTHER LIGHTS THE CANDLES

Then we begin the meal with my lighting the candles. They usually have two candles which I will light. That is traditional for Shabbat. There are some people who say, “One candle means “observe,” and the others say, “remember” because the Scripture does use both those words. It says we are to “observe” the Sabbath day and we are to “remember” the Sabbath day. Some say the two candles represent “creation” and “redemption.” I love that.

In fact, this is what I usually do when I light the candles. I will start off with the normal Jewish prayer, “Blessed art Thou, Oh Lord God, King of the universe, who hath given us the privilege to light the Shabbat candles.”  

Then I will pray my own prayer: “And, Lord, we thank You so much, that You are the Creator of light. You brought light into the world. Oh, we thank You for Jesus, who is the Light of the world, and we thank You, Lord Jesus, that You have brought light into our hearts.

“Oh, Lord, we ask that You will fill each one of us around this table with Your Light. We don’t want to be little lights. We want to be big lights, shining in this world, shining in the darkness, pushing back the darkness and deception of this world. And we ask this in the Name of Jesus. Amen.”

You can pray whatever you like. Just something like that. I usually pray something about the Light of God filling in our hearts and that we will be filled more and more with His Light to shine in this world. And also, the light of the revelation of His truth. We do that. And it is the privilege of the mother of the home to light the candles, because she has the responsibility to keep the Light of God burning in her home.

Sometimes I will also give everyone a little votive candle around the table, so everyone has a little light at their table place which they can all light after I have lit the candles. Children love that. They just love to have their own lights. If I have a little candle in glass, they can then hold it. We will hold our candles up, and we’ll all sing together, “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.” We are really getting them all to realize that we are lights in this world, shining for the Lord Jesus. You can also do that, and the children will love that.

FATHER READS PROVERBS 31:10-31

The next thing that happens is that the father of the home reads Proverbs 31 because Proverbs 31 is a blessing to the wife. The ultimate goal of this meal is to bless the wife and mother in the home. Isn’t that a good idea to have in your home? Wouldn’t you love to be blessed every week by your husband and your family? Well, that’s worth having.

That’s one of the biggest goals of this meal. Of course, that is something that does keep families together. When the children can see their father honor and bless their mother, that is something that is so wonderful for the children. He reads Proverbs 31, all about the virtuous woman. My husband reads from King James Version, but he actually has his own translation with all his little comments that he brings in.

THE CHILDREN STAND UP AND BLESS THEIR MOTHER

Then we get to Proverbs 31:28, where it says” “And her children arise up and call her blessed.” At that moment in the meal, he stops reading. He says, “OK, children, all the children stand up!”

Now, because all our children are grown, we often don’t have our children around our table. Every Shabbat, Colin and I never have it on our own. We have never had it on our own in our whole lives! We will always ask people. Sometimes we will ask some of our grandchildren. Usually, I’ll ask the granddaughters. And then another night I might have the grandsons. Or I might have some of the couples, or some of our immediate couples—our children and their spouses. Or then some of the grandchildren couples. I don’t have the whole family because our family is now so big, I would have to have this huge sit-down meal for over 100 people! That would just be too big every Friday night.

So, I just choose to ask different ones, or we’ll have visitors. We love having visitors! Friends, and even people we’ve just met, and people that we would love to introduce the Shabbat meal to them.

Now, if we have a family around the table, or if we have granddaughters, Colin will usually say, “OK, all the children stand up! Now, I want you to look at your mother in the eye, and say one little thing to her, like “I love you, Mom.” Or ‘Thank you for caring for me.” “Thank you for all you do for me.” So, each child will say just a little thing to their mother. Then they sit down. Oh, what a beautiful thing it is as Mother feels the appreciation of her children around her. It’s such a beautiful thing.

THE HUSBAND PRAISES AND BLESSES HIS WIFE

 Then it goes on, at the end of the chapter, to talk about how the husband praises her too! That’s what it’s all about. He’s been praising her the whole chapter. In verse 28 the “children arise up and call her blessed.” Then her husband also. And he praises her. What does he say? “Many daughters have done excellently, but thou EXCELLEST them all.” When he finishes the next two verses, he’ll stop. The husband will then begin to honor his wife, and say all the good things he can think of about her, to her. Of course, we, as wives, get so blessed.

This last Friday night, Colin decided to read another translation, just for a little change. I got the Knox Translation which is an old translation. It says here, in this translation, “Her husband is loud in her praise.” Then what does he say? “Unrivaled art thou among all the women that have ENRICHE DTHEIR HOMES.”

I love that, because that was praising all the women who love to enrich their homes. I thought, “What a lovely phrase. ‘Enriching their homes.’” Dear wives, dear mothers, this is a wonderful vision that we can have in our home. This is what we’re to do, TO ENRICH OUR HOMES.

Every day is a new day to enrich—to enrich our husband by what we do for him, what we say to him. To enrich our children, encourage them, to enrich them by encouraging them and affirming them, and building them up, and of course, training them. And disciplining them, and preparing them for life.

Your home, everything you do, you really haven’t got time to have another career. A mother in the home does not have time for another career if she really, truly has the vision to enrich her home. Now, this Scripture was talking about all the women who love to enrich their homes. But then he says, “You, oh, you have, you’ve just outdone them all. You are unrivaled.” That was another beautiful thought.

Then my husband will begin to speak to me, and say all the things that he loves about me. Remember, ladies, we have been doing Shabbat for, I can’t remember (33 years we’ve been in the States, and we started in Australia, so it’s many, many years). I keep saying to my husband, “Darling, you can’t say the same things every Friday night. That is just too boring.” So, he has to try to think of something new every week! Wow, that’s a challenge for him, isn’t it?

Now, traditionally, the Jewish people will often just give the blessing. It’s a traditional blessing. “May you be like Leah and like Rachel,” and some of the beautiful women in the Bible. They bless their wives that way. But we do it very personally in our home. Colin speaks personally into my life. That is such a blessing.

When we have other couples or families around our table, Colin will say to the husband, “Now it’s your turn.” Wow! Sometimes the man is, wow! He’s never done this before! He’s never done this in front of his family. He’s never done this to his wife before! Maybe personally, on their own, but never in this setting. It’s quite amazing.

You see the wife. Wow. She’s looking up at her husband with BATED breath. What will he say? Her eyes are big. She’s just waiting for this encouragement, these words that she wants him to say. Oh, it is so amazing, how many times we see . . .  the husband will begin to speak and maybe say things he’s never said before and the wife will begin to cry. Tears are just rolling down her face. It is the most incredible thing.

THE SHABBAT MEAL IS A MARRIAGE AND FAMILY STRENGTHENER

You know, the Shabbat meal is such a marriage strengthener, such a family strengthener. You can't have a marriage that is falling apart when every week your husband is speaking beautiful words into your life. It is so powerful. What are you going to do? You’ve had a quarrel during the week. Well, today you’d better get it right before Shabbat! Because you’ve got to speak into one another’s lives.

THE WIFE BLESSES HER HUSBAND

Then I will usually reply. I’ll read Psalm 112, which is about how the Lord blesses the man who fears the Lord, and so on. Then I speak into Colin’s life. Then, if there are other wives around the table, they will do the same thing. It is so wonderfully powerful. And not only for the husband and wife, but also for the children who are listening. They are hearing their father honor his wife. That is a powerful thing for children. It is very powerful.

Also, they know their turn is coming. Usually, OK, when you have little children, or even getting bigger children and they come to the table, if the food’s not there, they can’t start eating at once, they’re going to be groaning and grizzly, “Where’s the food? I’m hungry!”

But something happens on Shabbat. Somehow, this peace comes over them and they’re not screaming and yelling and grumbling and crying. There’s something about listening to what their dad is saying. Then they know their turn is coming. “What is Daddy going to say to me tonight?” Then, of course, he begins to bless the children.

FATHER BLESSES AND ENCOURAGES HIS CHILDREN

It can be done two ways. Usually, traditionally, in the Jewish family, the father will go and put his hand on each child and bless them, and give them a blessing. Or they will come to him, and he will bless them. That is beautiful and powerful.

Once again, we do it more personally in our home. Colin will speak into each individual life. He will speak into them, affirming the good things that he sees in their lives, what he sees about them, or what he’s been noticing. It’s very personal. I think that this is so wonderful for the children. They’re ready to wait for that. They love it. It is life-changing for them.

This is such a beautiful time. Although we still haven’t eaten yet, everybody is always so happy because it’s such a wonderful thing. Then there is another thing. We don’t always do this. We only do it every now and then. You don’t have to do it, but it is traditional to have the hand washing, where the mother has a bowl of water and a towel. She can go round each person, or just pass it around. Each one will dip their hands in the water and then wipe them.

It’s symbolic of our purifying ourselves, and having clean hands, and a pure heart. If anyone has anything or any quarrel or anything against one another, it is a beautiful time for them to say “Sorry.” This is a very special part of Shabbat that many families do make a priority because that way everyone in the family can be in the right spirit with one another. If they’re not, well, it’s time to say “Sorry.” If we’re doing that, we will usually sing that song, “Create in me a clean heart, oh God.”

THE BLESSING OF THE BREAD AND WINE

Then the next thing that happens is the blessing of the wine and the bread. We have the wine first. We usually have grape juice because we usually have lots of children around our table. In Israel they have wine, even for the children. But here we do grape juice. You can do whichever you prefer.

We pass around the wine, the grape juice. Then, in our home, Colin gets everybody to hold it up. We hold up our glass, and we all say together, “Blessed art Thou, oh Lord God, King of the universe, Who bringeth forth the fruit of the vine.” Then he will pray and thank the Lord for shedding His precious blood and so on. It becomes a time of communion in our home, another time to remember how Jesus gave His life, how He poured out His blood for us.

We do that, and then we have the bread. The bread on Shabbat is called the challah. It is a bread that is braided. Actually, I have to confess that often, sometimes, I just don’t get time to make my bread on that day. I make all our bread, and I make sourdough bread. It is, perhaps, a little denser than the normal bread. I make it with spelt and rye. It’s a very, very healthy bread, which I love.

But sometimes on Shabbat, I will forget to make challah. Challah is usually a bread that you use eggs, and it’s sweeter, and you braid it. It’s traditionally braided in three, or you can braid it in four. You can braid it in six, as long as it comes from a little lump of dough that makes into 12, to represent the 12 tribes of Israel. But you don’t have to worry about all that.

If you don’t have time to make challah, or even braid it, well, this is what I do. I always have in my freezer already, some raised round loaves, or sometimes oval loaves, that I have there, ready for Shabbat. So, if I have not had time, I get them out. They are ready.

You don’t have to think, “Oh, we can’t have Shabbat tonight, because I haven’t made the challah when I haven’t had time!” No, we can still do it. I will still use those loaves, but I will always heat them up. We always love to have hot bread. It’s beautiful.

When I set the table, of course we’re putting the grape juice on the table and the butter. And, of course, we always use butter knives. Well, I know, a lot of American families don’t even know what they are! But we grew up with butter knives.

You were never, ever, ever allowed to take butter off the butter plate with your own knife! That would be disgusting because who wants to have somebody who’s licked their knife? I hope nobody ever licks their knife, but sometimes I’ve seen people doing it! And then they put it in the butter! Then who want to touch the butter? So, we have butter knives. They’re just little wee knives, especially for that. That’s all ready to have it with our bread, our lovely hot bread. Hopefully challah, but if I haven’t had time to make it, well, it’s just bread I have in the freezer.

TWO CHALLAH LOAVES

But something special about it is that we always have two loaves. Two loaves remind us of the sixth day, because now we’re going into the seventh day, which is the day of rest, Sabbath, or Shabbat. But on the sixth day, you’ll remember that in the wilderness God sent a double portion of manna. The Lord sent to them in the wilderness, He sent manna every day. It was miraculous food! It was called “angel’s food.” It was miraculous! It just arrived there every day for them!

And they could cook it, and bake it, and do all kinds of things with it. They could make up loads of recipes. I’m sure if Serene had lived back then in the time of manna, she would have made a recipe book for recipes of manna, because she always does that. When she went on her extreme thing of seven years when she went raw, some of you may remember when she made this incredible recipe book of raw recipes, although eventually she realized that it was something that you shouldn’t do for a lifetime.

Raw is for times when people are maybe, in some way, very, very ill, with cancer or something. Going on juicing and raw food can really help them. But it’s not a lifestyle. She had to come to realize that, of course. But while she was doing that, oh did she ever imagine and dream up the most glorious recipes that you could ever think about! They were so amazing. In fact, one time, while she was on that roll, she put on this great evening. It was a feast, and it was for over 100 people, and every recipe was raw. Every recipe was so delectable!

But anyway, I’m getting off my subject! Yes, we have the two loaves because it’s a double portion. Because on the seventh day they went out to get their food for the seventh day, and there wasn’t any. They would starve. So, they had to have the double portion.

It is traditional for people to make enough, not only enough bread, but enough food for the next day so they don’t have to work and cook and do everything on the Sabbath day. It’s the day of rest.

We have the two loaves. I cover them with a little cloth, because that represents to the dew, the way manna came.

Then my husband will hold up the two loaves, and we’ll say the blessing together with him, “Blessed art Thou, oh Lord God, King of the universe, Who bringeth forth bread from the earth.” Then he will pray and thank the Lord for His body which was broken for us all. Then we will take the bread.

We don’t take it like a little, in communion, a little wee piece. We will say to everybody, “OK, just break off a hunk! Take as much as you want!” They will have it with butter and be enjoying this, because yes, it is communion, but it is more than that. Today we have communion in our churches which has become just a little token. But back there in early church, they were love feasts where they had the bread and the wine. They feasted, but it was all part of the meal.

NOW WE CAN EAT!

This now becomes part of the meal. They’re eating their bread and waiting for me to go and get all the food and bring it to the table. Now, at last, we’re ready to eat! But it is amazing. It took me a while to tell you all that, but it doesn’t have to take too long. Then we enjoy the meal together.

So, lovely ladies, that’s just a little bit about the Shabbat meal. You can also go to my webpage and look up “Shabbat meal” if you want to read up about it again. Another thing about it is that, and it’s so amazing, the Bible is so incredible. The day before Shabbat, I wonder if anybody knows what that is called? It has a name, too. Yes, and it has a capital.

In the King James Bible, it calls it the “preparation day” and in some translations it has a capital “P.” You actually can’t have a rest day without a preparation day, because if you don’t, you’ll be still working the next day. So, usually in my home, Friday is Preparation Day. We clean house from top to bottom. We prepare the meal, and we get everything beautiful, so the next day we can relax. We don’t have to do all the things that we do every other day of the week. Isn’t that a beautiful thing?

So, ladies, I’m sure you will love it. You may like to start bringing it into your family. You’ll be blessed. Your children will be blessed. As you get to enjoy it, you can ask others in to sit at your table to be blessed, too. OK?

“Dear Father, we thank You so much for all these beautiful ways that we can strengthen and build our families. Thank You for this beautiful meal which has come down the generations of Jewish people that we can also take hold of it, just as we have taken hold of salvation, just as we take hold every day of the Word, which has all come down through the Jewish people. We thank You for them, Father. We thank You for Your blessings.

“I pray for every mother and wife and family listening today that You will bless them, that You will inspire them, that, Lord, this goal of enriching their home will be upon them. And that they won’t be hankering after all the other things around, Lord, that are really so vain and shallow that are not building for eternity. But, Lord, everything we do to enrich our home, that is building for eternity. I pray that You will bless them with this vision. In Jesus’s Name, 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.

REJUVENATE YOUR LIFE – RECIPES FOR ENERGY

By Serene Allison

Serene no longer eats totally raw, but TRIM HEALTHY MAMA. However, her recipes in this book are so delectable that I know you’d love to try them.

15 CHAPTERS OF RECIPES as well as other chapters. It’s worth it for the DREAMY DESSERTS and LITTLE TREATS and so many other interesting, easy, and mouthwatering recipes.

If you’d like to check them out, go to:

Rejuvenate Your Life Recipes for Energy by Serene Allison (mybigcommerce.com)

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 239: Scary Birth Stories

Even in challenging pregnancies and births, God will be with you. Our God is a miracle-working God and far exceeds the diagnoses of doctors. Today you will hear two birth stories from Michelle Schrum.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! I should be continuing our series today, but instead I thought I would have a little change. I have asked my neighbor to come and share with us today. Michelle is living right next to us in their RV while they are building up on the Hilltop. It’s so wonderful having their family near us. We so enjoy them all.

Randy and Michelle have seven children, and you have heard from Michelle before, because we did seven podcasts together on “The Four L’s of Raising Children.” I had been talking to Michelle about family life, and she happened to mention how they used “The Four L’s.” They are teaching their children to Love the Lord, to Love Learning, to Love Labor, and to Love Liberty. We ended up doing seven sessions, didn’t we?

Michele: We did! We expected two or three, but we ended up with seven! [laughter]

Nancy: That’s so great! You can go back, look them up, and you can listen to them.

Today I have asked Michelle to share about a couple of her birth experiences. We all love birth stories, don’t we? I love wonderful, natural, amazing birth stories. But sometimes birth stories are not always perfect.

Michelle has some good birth stories, but she had a couple of really, kind of, not-so-easy ones. I thought I’d get her to share about them today, because they can be an encouragement to others who face difficult situations because life isn’t perfect. Not every pregnancy or birth goes perfectly, but God is always there. We’re going to see how God was in it all.

So, Michelle, maybe you could tell us about your twins’ birth. Michelle has 15-year-old twin sons. Tell us. Start from the pregnancy and let’s go from there.

Michele: OK. Well, this was my third pregnancy. The first two were pretty great. Good birth stories. This one was certainly miraculous and good as well, but a little more difficult. Some challenges came along the way pretty early. We thought it was a single. Of course, we were so super excited. Seeing the midwife, planning a homebirth. Everything was going great.

We expected twins pretty early on. Things were getting a little tight, but, hmm, I’m suspicious. It was like, well, third pregnancy could dispute that. But it was a few weeks after that, that another midwife came, and they did hear two heartbeats, so we were pretty sure.

But, of course, had to go for an ultrasound to confirm that. We did. We went to the ultrasound. At first, they said, “Nope, just one.” Then she started looking some more, and said, “Oops, wait a minute! Nope, there are two. They are back-to-back.” So, we were really excited.

We found out they were both. . . We weren’t going to find out what we were having. We wanted it to be a surprise. We found out it was twins. We were already surprised so we went ahead and found out that we were having two boys. That’s all we knew. It was enough. High-tech ultrasound or anything.

We were excited and went on. A few more weeks passed by and I started experiencing some early-on back pain. Just getting larger, even for twins, than expected. My midwife took me to a doctor in town that was experienced with home births. He checked me over. He was a very kind older man. He said, “Nope, I think this is twins. You can expect things like this with twins.” I’m like, “Well, OK.”

Went home, and a few more weeks passed. It got very intense. I couldn’t even sleep. My back felt like it was breaking in two. I got huge and my midwife was like, “I’m taking you into a high-risk doctor.” She’s also a friend of mine who has been a midwife for years and years and years. Had experience with twins.

I kind of fought her on it. I said, “Nope!” I did NOT want to go see a doctor where I lived because it was a big war between midwives and doctors in that area. She wanted him to give me the approval that everything was going well and that I could continue with my homebirth. I was thinking, “There is NO doctor around here that’s going to OK that.” She said, “No, this one will. He’s a high-risk doctor but he and his wife have had five homebirths.” I said, “Oh, OK.”

She actually went and made the appointment for me. She went with my husband and myself to the appointment. I was exactly 23 weeks along. We walked in and he introduced himself. He immediately started an ultrasound in his office. Then he starts talking to me about twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. I’m listening. I’d heard of it before, but I didn’t ask him why he was telling me about this.

Then, as he was doing the scan and looking and kept talking in more depth, it dawned on me. I looked at him, and I said, “Wait a second. Are you telling me that my babies have twin-to-twin?” He’s like, “Yes, and it’s very serious. This is not looking very good.” I’m like, “Oh.” I immediately started tearing up as he was explaining to myself and my husband who had never heard of twin-to-twin, what it is.

Basically, what happens, we found out our boys were identical twins. With identical twins, they share a placenta. In that shared placenta, they should have their own set of blood vessels. Well, some of their blood vessels were connected and they were sharing blood. They call one baby the “donor baby,” and the other baby the “recipient.” The donor baby is not getting enough blood, because his blood is going to the other baby, brother in this case.

So Niles, who was our “Baby B” at that point, was very small, didn’t have any fluid, wasn’t receiving blood. He was “shrunk wrap,” and he wasn’t growing. He was dying. His brother, which is now Nolan, who was referred to as “Baby A” back then, had enormous amounts of fluid. He had fluid around his heart, he had fluid around his brain, and his heart was in distress because he was receiving too much blood.

Nancy: So, both were in distress in opposite ways.

Michele: Very much so. They were both in trouble and it wasn’t looking good. We’re at his office at the hospital, so he sent me down for more tests, a more in-depth ultrasound. I had to see (I didn’t even know this existed) a fetal heart specialist that looks at babies in the womb’s hearts. That’s his job.

I had all this testing all day long. We get home at 4 PM. At 8 o’clock that night, the high-risk doctor I went and saw called me and my husband and went over everything with us. He had already called a doctor in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is seven-and-a-half hours away from us. He said, “The only chance for these babies to survive, if at all, is if you go have this surgery. We need to see if you’re qualified even to have this laser surgery.”

There were only three doctors, at the time, in the United States that even did it, and the closest one was in Cincinnati, Ohio. We’re like, “OK.” That was Thursday night. We had to be at the Cincinnati, Ohio, Children’s Hospital at 6 AM on Monday morning. We left on Sunday. We had to stop by the hospital, the original hospital first, to check on the babies’ heartbeat. You can imagine. Oh, and it was Mother’s Day.

Nancy: I can’t even imagine that!

Michele: Yes, not a very memorable Mother’s Day that I want to remember. But the doctor comes in in his suit, unlocks the door just for us, does the ultrasound. Both babies still have heartbeats, so we’re on our way to Cincinnati.

We arrive in Cincinnati the next morning. At 6 AM they started testing. It was a full day of every kind of test you can possibly think of. I even had an MRI. I had another fetal heart specialist, two of them actually. Blood tests, you name it. Ultrasounds, everything you can imagine, from 6 AM to 4 PM.

At 4 PM they sit me and my husband in this huge conference room with two high-risk special doctors that would be doing the surgery, if I was even qualified for the surgery, specialized nurses, all these people. Sitting right next to me was the chaplain which was not comforting. I couldn’t even finish. He sat down, and I knew what the chaplain . . .

I couldn’t stop crying the whole time they were talking. They filled a white board in that room, filled with the statistics, our options. “You do this, this is the baby’s chance of survival.” If we did nothing, they said the chance of either one of them surviving was practically nothing. It was like a 99.9% chance they would both die in the womb. At this point it was not looking good.

One of the options they gave me, which I couldn’t even believe they were saying, was to cut Baby B’s cord and it would give Baby A an 80% chance of survival. I couldn’t, and I was crying. I said, “That’s not even an option! That’s not even an option for us. I don’t even want to hear that spoken again.” I said, “What is the option, the best chance to save both babies?”

They said, “Well, we can try this laser surgery and see how it goes. In order to save both babies, if it’s successful, that’s your best chance.” I’m like, “OK. When do we have it?”

It was a day and a half later, back in the hospital bright and early, to get me already for surgery. They take me back and it was in the Children’s Hospital. I had just had a spinal. I was awake during the surgery. I was awake the whole time. They made two little incisions. One they went in with a microscope. The other they went in with a laser.

Nancy: So, you’re able to see it all on the screen?

Michele: Yes, I can actually see. I was exactly 24 weeks at that stage. I could actually see the babies onscreen in my uterus. It was like watching Discovery TV. It was absolutely incredible.

What they did during the surgery, is they go in and they map out the placenta, and see which blood vessels are connected, that they’re sharing the blood with. It can be one, it can be 50. They mapped it out several times and they found five in my placenta that were connected. They laser them with the laser. Then they go back through and see if they can tell if they missed any. Then they sewed me back up and took me back to my room.

I was on medicine to stop contractions because they’d poked a hole in my uterus. It was normal to start contracting but they had to keep upping that medicine all night long, because my contractions weren’t stopping. Thankfully, by morning, they had let up. I hadn’t gone into full-blown labor or anything but they were starting to get a little concerned as it was lasting so long. But the medicine made you feel completely loopy and so thirsty.

The one thing they did when we went back to the room was that they turned off all the monitors because they had me hooked up, listening to the babies’ heartbeats. They turned it all off, because they said, “If anything happened, you’re just going to hear babies in distress, and there’s nothing we could do. You’re 24 weeks but these babies are sick. They’re not in good health.”

It’s a miracle for 24-week-old babies to survive, but these babies, if born, there is nothing they can do. They were in bad shape at this point. So, you turn everything off. I laid there, praying all night, believing God’s diagnosis and not the doctors.

Nancy: So, nobody knows what’s happening, doctors or you. It’s just, ohh.

Michele: Yes. The next morning, I’d had two surgeons. They both came back in, and they turned on the ultrasound machine. Me and my husband are holding our breath, I’m sure. At this point, we’re praying. They start scanning and a couple of seconds in, they’re like, “OK, there’s Baby A’s heartbeat.” I was like, “OK! What about Baby B?” And then, “Oh, there’s Baby B! Has a heartbeat!”

Nancy: That’s really miraculous.

Michele: Oh, it was. It was so God. The whole time, going through the process and beyond, the big takeaway was trusting God’s diagnosis and not the doctors, not man’s diagnosis, or man’s wisdom. Cut Baby B’s cord? No! I couldn’t imagine.

Nancy: Because their diagnosis was that they would never make it, wasn’t it?

Michele: Right. They even gave me the option of terminating the pregnancy and just starting over. I’m like, I couldn’t even imagine! This was not the doctor in St. Louis. He was a Christian man, and very, very, very supportive. But some of the other doctors, that’s what they’re taught.

So, both babies had heartbeats. I stayed in the hospital.

Nancy: What happened with all the fluid?

Michele: Oh, yes, all the fluid! During the surgery, not only did they laser the blood vessels, but remember, I was 24 weeks pregnant, but I was measuring 42 weeks pregnant with all the extra fluid. They drained seven liters of fluid off of Baby A, which is Nolan. They drained seven liters of fluid out of his back. So, I could feel, me being awake, I could feel my stomach deflating. I came out of that surgery like, “Oh my goodness! My stomach’s gone! Where’s my babies?” But it was, oh, so much fluid and that was where all my back issues and stuff were coming from.

We had to stay in Cincinnati for a week, for seven more days, with lots of doctor’s appointments and scans. Every 24-hour period that passed, the chances of their survival went up just a little bit more. Every time we went in, it was like, “Please Lord, let them both have heartbeats. Thank You.” Then we changed our prayer to “Thank You, Lord, for letting them have heartbeats.” Believing God’s Word, and not man’s.

Then we had to make the drive back, seven-and-a-half hours back home. I was on three months of bedrest. Two to three doctor’s appointments every single week for scans because they were watching the blood flow. Different things could happen. Blood vessels could grow back together. They could have missed one and not known. They were watching the babies’ blood flow back and forth.

They prepared me for delivery. They said specifically, “If this is successful surgery, you’ll make it 28 weeks.” I toured in my wheelchair. You have to tour the NICU and get all prepared for that. But, again, we believed God, and we kept praying. “We’re not going to be here. We’re not going to be here in this NICU,” and believing God for the best.

Week in and week out, we spent the entire summer. People were rallied around us and supported us. It was wonderful. My mom even, I think I mentioned something about Thanksgiving. She came up in July with an entire Thanksgiving meal that she had made from scratch. That fed our family for a week. I did a lot of reading and coloring with my older children because I was in bed.

Nancy: I think you mentioned once, you even had a Christmas meal, didn’t you, at that time?

Michele: We did! We had a whole Christmas party. This young lady who is such a blessing in our family, she’s just like a daughter to me. My little boy had mentioned that he wanted to do Christmas. It was like the why. He wanted Christmas. So, she shows up with these two giant black trash bags and she goes downstairs in our basement and strings Christmas lights everywhere. Even a disco ball and puts on Christmas music. They had a giant Christmas party downstairs.

Nancy: I think that’s so beautiful. It just inspires us doesn’t it, how when someone’s going through a trial and a difficult time to think of fun things to do. To just lift the spirits of those who are going through. I think that was so beautiful. I think it encourages us. Don’t be boring. Let’s think of fun and exciting things we can do for people when they’re going through these times.

Michele: Oh, absolutely. It was such a blessing. For all the friends who came over and sat on the end of my bed and had tea with me, or brought me healthy, yummy treats, just spent time. The wonderful books that I was given to be able to read during that time. Time went by quickly, believe it or not.

Babies kept on growing and all the issues they were having were improving. Niles was my Baby A that was shrink-wrapped and wasn’t growing. There was a big size difference between the two of them at the beginning of this. He was catching up to his brother. He was growing and catching up.

Nolan’s fluid around his heart and his brain were slowly deteriorating and going away. They were healing inside of me. I felt that too, like God’s healing hand was upon me and these precious babies. Passed that 28-week mark and just kept on going.

One of the doctors I had to see on a regular basis was the fetal heart doctor. He would look at their hearts, because with the twin-to-twin, Nolan had the distressed heart. It was enlarged. Niles’ heart was weak. But he found a heart defect in Niles, my Baby A, my little baby.

Even later on, as they started improving in things, he said, “Aside from twin-to-twin, when this baby is born, shortly after birth we’ll have to have heart surgery.” It wasn’t super-rare. He said, “It’s fairly common, but it is open-heart surgery,” so they were preparing me for that as well.

We started praying now for healthy hearts. These babies that they said, first of all, wouldn’t make it, have now made it all the way past 28 weeks and just kept going. I was able to go all the way to 37 weeks with these babies

Nancy: That is wonderful!

Michele: It was amazing. The high-risk doctor I had was absolutely wonderful when I came in to give birth to them. He knew I originally wanted a homebirth. The whole pregnancy was anything but. natural homebirth? He was so amazing.

I saw a nurse one time and she said some not kind things to me, because he told me that I could eat breakfast before I came. I needed my energy, which was against hospital protocol, of course. He was willing to do everything I wanted, as far as natural, and still keep a close eye on the babies and myself. He was absolutely wonderful. 

I had one nurse who said some not nice things to me. I never saw that nurse again. He stayed on that hospital floor the entire day and into the night because I had them right before midnight. He didn’t leave. He stayed there, and he came and took them, and he did the ultrasound scans, and he came and checked their heartbeats. He was absolutely amazing.

My midwife, my friend was there with me, so I felt like I was in good hands. It came time to give birth. I did have to give birth in the OR, but I was able to have them completely natural, not even an epidural. It was amazing.

Nancy: Was one of them breech? Or they both came heads?

Michele: Yes, so their birth. Imagine the OR room stuffed full of people. Each baby, because they didn’t know, they thought Niles had this birth defect, and with the twin-to-twin, there are things that can happen. Even the blood vessel blood issue could happen during birth. I actually had an ultrasound going my entire birth. They kept the ultrasound machine on.

When I gave birth, Nolan came out first, headfirst. He was healthy, and his team of doctors took him in the room and checked him over. His team of doctors started leaving one at a time. He was left with one doctor who stayed with him for a little bit. But he was great.

But right when I gave birth to him, I started hemorrhaging, which I knew was a possibility, because they had messed with. . . I had surgery on my placenta. Things could happen with the placenta. The doctor actually reached up and grabbed. . . He was breech. Grabbed the first thing he could find, which was his feet, up to his elbow. Grabbed his feet and pulled his feet out. Then I pushed him the rest of the way out. So, they’re only 20 seconds apart.

If I wouldn’t have had the issue with hemorrhaging, they would have had different birthdays, because they were born right before midnight! [laughter] They were born at 11:54 and 11:55 PM, twenty seconds apart. I always think it's funny. The twin question I get asked all the time is, “Who’s older?” [laughter] They’re twins! They’re really the same! But it’s funny. Yes, he’s a footling breech.

Nancy: That’s pretty amazing. A footling breech. Hospitals won’t even do breech today. You have to have a cesarian for breech. Really, most midwives can handle a breech so beautifully. Footling breech is something else. When I had my twins, Evangeline was first, and she was breech. Then Stephen was headfirst. Often one is breech. But that is amazing. I forget which, Nolan, Niles, he didn’t even need surgery.

Michele: Oh! Yes! After they were born, and I hadn’t been anesthetized. I didn’t have an epidural. Even with him pulling the baby out, I didn’t feel anything, because when the first baby is born, it naturally, the head naturally numbs you. I didn’t feel any of him being breech, or him reaching up in me, or anything when Niles was born. The actual birth itself, besides the environment and the situation we were in, was probably my easiest birth. But they’re also my smallest. They were 5.5, and 5.14, which was a miracle!

Nancy: Such great weights! That is miraculous!

Michele: It really is. Niles had really caught up. He was not even a pound less than his brother. Niles’ team was over there, and his heart doctor was over there. They checked him all out, and one by one, they all started leaving. I was like, “Well, what about his heart?” And they were like, “His heart seems fine!” They did more tests the next day and no heart defect. It was a miracle. There was no surgery needed. Everything was perfect, and they’ve never had any heart issues.

Nancy: I never knew that story. And now, today, I see these young boys, because they’re living right next to us--15 years old, and they’re real boys, they’re out hunting and having this adventurous life with our grandsons around here.

They are two of the most wonderful boys, living for the Lord. They never miss a prayer meeting. They don’t just sit there on their chairs. They’re always into prayer and a part of it. Just shining lights for the Lord! Isn’t God so good?

Yes, and to think that they told you, “OK, you’d better maybe just finish it off.” You can’t listen to the diagnosis of the doctors. We can trust God. Oh, it is so sad that there are so many who listen to these false diagnoses and terminate their babies. And yet, so many who trust God, their babies come forth. Even with all you went through, God has brought these beautiful young men into this world.

Michele: Absolutely. I couldn’t imagine our life without them. They are such a blessing. Yes, you have to trust the Lord’s diagnosis, and not man’s. Even though I had to go through some of the hard things for pregnancy and such, I had to trust God. I knew it was going to be OK. Finding those prayer warriors to join you is an incredible, incredible thing.

Nancy: Amen! Well, I’m wondering, have we got time to hear about Ruthie’s birth story? Oh, we have! That’s exciting! I don’t know Ruthie’s birth story, so I’m going to be, wow! See what happens here.

But Ruthie, that is their youngest daughter. She is six years of age, the most beautiful little girl you could ever find. She’s always over here visiting me and helping me. Sunday morning, when we have church, she’s always over here early to help me put out all the chairs. She’s the greatest helper I have ever met! She loves to come and help me set the table. She loves setting tables. When I’m having visitors even, she’ll pop over, and she’ll help me set the table. Anyway, I’m looking forward to hearing, how did Ruthie come into the world?

Michele: Oh, Ruthie, yes. Actually, I had an amazing pregnancy with Ruthie. In between the twins and Ruthie, I did have Elijah, who was a beautiful homebirth story. Much less adventurous, which was wonderful. But Ruthie, fantastic pregnancy. Seeing the midwife again, planning the homebirth. Everything went fantastic.

Then, oh, fast forward to birth. I am notorious, except for the twins, to be a 42-weeker. So, here I am, getting past that 41^st week. I think she was 41 weeks and three days, or four days. We had had dinner that evening. Actually, my husband and my older son were supposed to be out for the evening. I said, “You know, I think you should stick around for tonight.” Both were like, “Well, OK, that’s fine.” So, he stuck at home.

We finished up dinner, and everybody had gone their ways. My girls were reading, and Randy had gone downstairs to finish up some work in his office. I was finishing up the last bit of dishes and things. I thought my water broke! I looked down, and it was blood. I was hemorrhaging, gushing.

I ran into our bathroom. I passed the basement door and opened it up, and said, “Randy, I need you!” I ran into my bathroom to grab my phone, and I called my midwife. She gets on the phone, and I’m telling her, “I thought my water broke, but I’m bleeding.” She’s telling me which hospital to go to. She’s like, “We need to check you out. I’m going to send you to this hospital,” that was probably 15-20 minutes away. “But they’re very midwife-friendly there. But first, tell me, how much blood?”

So, I started explaining things to her. She’s like, “Um, get to,” I had a hospital probably 3-5 minutes away from us. She’s like, “Get there now. It sounds like a placenta issue. Get in the car and go. I’ll meet you there.” But she lived 45 minutes away. I called my friend, who actually was my midwife with the twins. She was no longer practicing midwifery. She was getting older. She was much closer. I’m like, “Meet me at the hospital.” I called her on the way.

I grabbed my birth kit, which thankfully, I don’t even know how I thought of this. It was just sitting in my room and on top was a waterproof pad for the mattress. I grabbed it and put it our car, thankfully. We zoomed off to the hospital. We pulled to the Emergency Room. My midwife had called so they were ready for me.

But we pulled up to the Emergency Room. My husband jumped out of the car, left the car door open. The car is running. The valet parking guy was standing there, and he sees me. He gasped, and he grabs a wheelchair and brings it over to me. I get in the wheelchair, and the valet parking guy’s wheeling me in. Randy’s behind him. The car’s running, and the door’s open.

The valet parking guy walks into the ER. There’s a big, long line, and he didn’t know what to do with me. He’s like, “Um, wait here.” I look at him. By that time, the receptionist saw me, and she yelled across the room to a nurse that was pushing another patient. She said, “This is the one they called in!” She leaves her patient, comes running to me, and whisked me off to the elevator.

Up we go, and they took me up to labor and delivery. The doctor is in the room with the ultrasound machine on, ready for me. It was a whirlwind. On the way there, I also called our pastor’s wife, who is a dear friend of mine, to ask her to pray. She’s like, “Do you want me to come?” I’m like, “Yes!”

I get in there, and right when they start the ultrasound machine, my friend Melissa, the pastor’s wife, and my midwife friend both show up. I was so grateful that I had my prayer warriors there. My midwife friend is not only a prayer warrior, but also could tell me what’s going on, because here I am, in a strange place, with a strange doctor.

He starts scanning, and he says, “Oooh.” He’s like, “You have placenta previa,” which means my placenta was covering my cervix. I had probably started early labor and started dilating. When that happened, it started ripping the placenta. I would have known if I had an ultrasound during pregnancy, but we didn’t want to know if we were having a boy or a girl.

The pregnancy was pretty perfect. I had a great pregnancy. No issues. I never had any spotting or bleeding which is common when you have placenta previa. But I never had spotting or bleeding so I chose not to have an ultrasound. Looking back, if I had had an ultrasound, they would have diagnosed the placenta previa. I would have been on bedrest and they would have taken her early.

In the scheme of things, it worked out well on my part. Not that I would suggest doing that way. The bleeding had slowed down. There was no way for her to come out through a placenta. We both would have bled to death. I would have bled to death, and they would have lost both of us.

They whisked me off to the c-section. Because the bleeding had slowed, they were able to give me an epidural so I was able to stay awake. I really wanted my midwife friend to go in with us, which it was against hospital protocol. Only my husband was supposed to be able to go in. But the doctor was amazing, and said, “Yes, she can go in.”

So, she got to go in with us, which was great, because my husband was not going to watch a thing that was going on. He was like, down with not looking over that blanket, while she was watching everything, giving me a play-by-play, which I wanted, to know what was going on. She was such a blessing to have in there.

But the really neat thing, before we went in there, two different nurses at different times came in to pray with me. Then the doctor, before he started surgery asked me if he could pray. I didn’t know this doctor. And then they played Christian music in the operating room.

The whole time, I felt like I was kind of not in my. . . I want to say I was in my body, but I felt like I had this peace over me. I knew God was in control. I knew God was going to take care of us. I didn’t fully understand why we were in the situation we were in, but it was peaceful. I knew everything was going to be OK.

She was born. She wasn’t even out all the way, and she’s screaming, that wonderful, wonderful sound. She was born. She was healthy. I had some issues with my uterus. I was very close to having to get a blood transfusion from all the blood I had lost. But thankfully, didn’t have to get the blood transfusion, but did lose a lot of blood.

They had to very carefully stitch my uterus up. Apparently, where the placenta was located, it had started tearing, and left a very weak spot in my uterus. God sent my midwife friend there. She said they just took such good care of me. A lot of doctors would have just done a hysterectomy at that point. But they spent the time to sew me back up. She said double-blind stitch, whatever that means. They actually took my uterus out of my body to repair it, and then put it all back in.

Nancy: Amazing!

Michele: It was amazing. The whole time, little Naomi Ruth, we call her Ruthie. She was right there, and she was fine. She was healthy. It was a miracle. A miracle for everything, for the circumstance and everything that happened. We couldn’t have asked for a more incredible outcome. My first c-section, and I wouldn’t want to repeat that by any means. But I feel like, through all my different births, I pretty much have the spectrum of almost every birth story you can possibly imagine. But God is good, and He is faithful. Every birth is so miraculous.

Nancy: Yes. Now, and you have the blessing of these beautiful children. God is good, even in the different times, in the hard times, in the scary times. God is there. I pray you’ve been encouraged and blessed today.

“We thank You, Lord, that You are the One Who brings the babies safely from the mother’s womb. You are the One Who hovers over the babies in the womb. You are doing wonderful things that we can’t see. We thank You, Lord. We just thank You that You are the giver of life.

“We praise You today. We ask your blessing on every pregnant mother, on those nearing birth, that You’ll be with them, that You will, Lord, just bring their babies safely forth into this world. 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.

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 238: What Does God Want Us to Do in the Land, Part 13

God wants us to SERVE Him in our land of motherhood. When you mother, you are actually serving and worshipping the Lord. Are you HEART AND SOUL MOTHERING?

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Here we are, already into the new year! Even already it seems to be going so quickly! Oh, I’m sure you’ve had a lovely Christmas, Hanukah time, and yes, a little break, hopefully, before you’ve had to get into this new year.

Colin and I had a lovely Christmas time, which was mainly family gatherings. Our Christmas is mainly family getting together to have a meal. Then we have toasts. Well, actually that’s speeches. But anyone can get up and toast to someone or to something that has meant something to them during the year, or they’re thinking about. They can speak about that.

That’s my favorite part. I love fellowship, love conversation, but I think there’s something about when you can have speeches. People can get up and really talk about someone or something that’s really worthwhile. That was a beautiful thing on Christmas day.

Then we had other little family gatherings with different ones of the family. I always have my traditional book party with our children and their spouses, which is such a wonderful night of the year. Now I do one for the young couples as well where we all come, have a lovely meal together and then we bring books.

Each one brings a book and we put them in the middle and take a number, of course. Then we choose. Or we kind of hopefully fight over them, because that’s what we want to do to have some fun together. We usually let our hair down and do that. It’s so great. We don’t do it with stuff. We do it with books, because we can’t be bothered with adding more junk into our homes, but we all love books, love reading. So, it makes it worthwhile.

Since last week, Colin and I went away for a couple of days which was so lovely. Came back to, once again, functions all weekend. Friday night was Shabbat. I invited my granddaughters. I wanted to do a special meal with them. That was such a lovely night.

Then Saturday night was the New Year’s Eve. We had a New Year’s Eve party here with food, fellowship, games then worshipping the Lord until midnight. But I have to confess, sorry, Colin and I didn’t last until midnight. We actually missed out on the best part of the evening which was worshipping the Lord until midnight. But we couldn’t last and went to bed. But everybody else had a great time.

Then last night, we had a birthday party here at our home for a precious little girl. A dear friend of ours, Nadia, has seven children. Her youngest was born with a very rare disease, where one side of her body is perfect. The other grows these big tumors. It’s very rare and not very good.

Not only did she face this, but nearing a couple of years ago now, she was also diagnosed with stage four cancer. So, Nadia has been in and out of hospital with treatments and so forth for her, for 18 months. She was so praying that she would have a perfect scan after all that. But no, there were still things growing. So, she’s back doing the same old thing this year.

But in the midst of it all, little Gracie is still a miracle. Here she was last night, five years old, and so bright, cheerful, wonderful, walking around. They didn’t think she’d ever be able to walk. But walking around, just a delight to all. It was the most beautiful thing to be able to celebrate her birthday. Now, she goes into hospital again this week. But that was a beautiful evening last night.

Let’s get on to our series of “What Do We Have to Do in the Land of Motherhood?” Well, these are the things that God told His people to do in the land. We’re talking about our land of motherhood. We’re up to . . .

No. 11. TO SERVE THE LORD

We’re reading from Deuteronomy because, ladies, Deuteronomy is the whole message that Moses gave to the people of Israel to prepare them to go into the land. It’s a wonderful book for us to read, even as we look at it in the light of motherhood. We read it to encourage us, inspire us, strengthen us, as we live in our land of motherhood.

One of the things that Moses encouraged them to do when they went into the land was to serve the Lord. Deuteronomy 10:12 & 20: “What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God?” I wonder how? It tells us. God tells us everything.

WE SERVE THE LORD WITH ALL OUR HEARTS AND ALL OUR SOULS

“To serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” Now, we’re talking about serving the Lord, but in that Scripture, it tells us we’re to fear Him, and walk in all His ways, and love Him, and to serve Him. That word “serve” is an interesting word, ladies, because the first time this word is mentioned is regarding the home, the first home, called the Garden of Eden.

The Bible says, in Genesis 2:15: “And the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it.” The word “dress” in the Hebrew is the word abad, the same word that’s used here, “to serve.” That’s what it means, “to serve, to labor, to work, to work so hard that you get weary, even be fatigued.” It also means, “to worship.” That’s the first time the word is used. Whenever a word is used the first time, we take notice of it, so we realize that the first time is regarding the home.

Let’s move on. It’s interesting. We see here in Exodus; I’m just popping back to Exodus for a minute.

Exodus 4:22-23. And God is telling Moses to speak to Pharoah. This is while the children of Israel are still captives and slaves in Egypt: “And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.” Which we know eventually happened. That was the last plague.

But God is telling Pharaoh here, “Israel is My son, My firstborn, and you’ve got to let him go!” And what was the reason? So that they could serve Him. This is the reason that we are saved from the bondage of sin, and slavery to sin, the bondage to the enemy. Jesus died and shed His blood to save us, and to redeem us, and to set us free, so that we could be set free from the kingdom of darkness and put into the kingdom of His dear Son, to serve Him.

We are saved to serve. Now, we’re not saved by our works or anything we can do. We’re saved through all that Jesus did, through shedding His precious blood. But then, when we are saved, we’re saved unto good works, and unto serving Him. As it says in Ephesians 2:10, that “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” We are saved to serve.

Sometimes we don’t like the word “serve.” But it is a beautiful word. It means “to work, to labor.” Sometimes we don’t like those words “to work,” and “to labor.” But they are also wonderful words because God created us to work. He never created us to be lazy and sit around. That doesn’t help us at all! There’s nothing in that.

We’re created to serve. We were created to labor. We were created to work, because when we do that, we find fulfillment. Work releases us to creativity, to find better ways of doing things. After a good day’s work, we have a good night’s sleep. It’s all part of how God created us and for our blessing.

Let’s go on to Deuteronomy 11:13-15: “And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.” We see the blessings of serving.

But ladies, did you notice how God wants us to serve? He wants us to serve Him with all our hearts and with all our souls. Yes! That’s how we are to serve, not out of obligation, not out of legality, not out of “this is what I have to do.” No, it’s out of our hearts. The heart. What is the heart? The heart speaks of our deepest emotions. Also, the will to action.

So it begins with desire and our emotions, which inspire us to actually take action. It begins with the heart, either to positivity, or to negativity. It begins with the heart toward God, to serve Him, or to serve ourselves. But it’s a heart thing. I believe God wants us to be heart-people.

I love this Scripture in Jeremiah 32:41. I’ve shared this Scripture with you before, ladies, and it’s God speaking. He says: “Yea, I will rejoice over them, to do them good, and will plant them in this land assuredly, with My whole heart, and with My whole soul.” I love this Scripture because it gives us a picture of our God. He’s a God who is . . . He’s part of our lives. He's not just distantly part of our lives. He’s passionately part of our lives, passionately wanting to do us good.

Here He’s giving a promise to His people, that yes, even though He had to cast them out of the land because of their sin, that He would never violate His promise, that He had given them this land for an everlasting possession. He said, “I’m going to bring you back, and I’m going to plant you, assuredly. Yes, with all My heart and with all My soul.” I love to hear God speaking like that. Don’t you? That’s the heart of God, the passionate heart of God.

Dear lovely ladies, oh, sometimes you may feel that God is distant. Oh no, He is always there. His heart is passionately for you. His heart pants for you, to do His will and to walk with Him. This is in the heart of God. This is how He wants us to serve Him.

This is the attitude. I believe that this should be the heart of us as mothers. We are talking about the children of Israel serving God in the land, so that’s what we’re doing in our land of motherhood. We’re serving Him. We’re serving Him in our motherhood. When we come into this land, when God gives us a baby, and another baby comes along, and our little family grows, we are in the very perfect will of God as we are serving Him in the role of motherhood.

Now, we can do it many ways. We can do it with drudgery, because “Here, I’m stuck in this home. Of course, I love my children. Of course, I’m going to cook for them, feed them, look after them.” But we still don’t have the fullness of the passion God wants us to have. What does He want us to have? To do it . . . to do it with our whole heart, and our whole soul.

Dear lovely ladies, this makes the whole difference to your living in your land of motherhood. It comes back to your attitude. It comes back to your heart-attitude. Yes, not just your mind-attitude, but your heart-attitude. Sometimes you have to get a mind-attitude first, because you’ve got to know the truth.

Many mothers don’t have the right mind-attitude because they’ve been brainwashed. They’re being cajoled and wooed and brainwashed to get out of the home, that motherhood is insignificant. They have been told the wrong story. They have been told lies. No, this is who God created us to be.

As I have shared with you before, we have three witnesses giving us all we need to know what we are meant to do.

BIBLICALLY, PHYSIALLY, AND INNATELY

First of all, we have it biblically. It’s right through the Word of God. But even if we didn’t have the Bible, we would still know, because secondly, we were created physically for this task. We were created as a female, with a womb and with breasts, for the very purpose of motherhood!

It’s so amazing that there are so many women, I shouldn’t say the word “educated.” I would say “brainwashed beyond their intelligence.” They don’t even know who they are. They seem to not understand that they were created with a womb and with breasts for a purpose.

If that was not enough, we have it innately. The third witness; we are born with this nurturing instinct, this compassion that we have as women. It is put in us innately. God prepared us for this great task. He wants us to embrace it with all our heart and with all our soul.

I wonder, precious mothers, young mothers listening today, middling mothers, maybe there’s some older mothers, maybe you’ve never really embraced it. Oh yes, you can be a mother, and not really embrace who you are.

I can remember when I first went into motherhood. I didn’t embrace it. I, of course, loved my children. Oh goodness me! I had never known such love but I still was kind of rejecting this role of motherhood, because, my, I had so many other things I wanted to do in life! Goodness me! I wanted to change the world! This mothering business was just holding me down in four walls!

Until God came, and little by little, began to show me His truth, that yes, I was in His perfect will.  Yes, I had been created for this purpose. And little by little, I came to it, and came to that place of saying, “Yes!” and embracing it. Not just in my mind, but with my whole heart, and with my whole soul. And then began the change. Then began the enjoyment. Then began the fulfillment. That doesn’t happen until we come to this place of embracing it wholly.

Now, I noticed as I read through Deuteronomy, and I would encourage you to pick up that book and read it through. Read it, and let God speak to you, even speak to you as a mother, thinking about the land, your land of motherhood. But I noticed, as I read through, that He’s continually talking about the heart.

GOD WANTS YOU TO BE HEART MOTHERS

When He was getting the people ready to go into the land, He was not just commanding them, “You shall do this, and you shall do that.” He was talking about the heart. He wanted them to be a heart-people as they went into the land to possess the land. God wants you, dear mothers, to be heart-mothers.

Let’s look at some of the other things that He wants us to do with all our hearts and souls.

Number one: Of course, we’re talking about serving Him, and we’ve read those Scriptures. Yes, to serve Him. That means to work, to labor, even to being totally weary and fatigued. Yes, I will confess, you can feel like that many times as a mother.

I remember when my little ones were so little. I had three in 17 months, and then four under four. In the early days, I remember that I was so tired I could hardly bear the pain of the tiredness. And yet, even in that, oh, there was still that great fulfillment of purpose, because, you see, to be in something that is so powerful and purposeful doesn’t meant that you’re not going to get tired. Of course, you’ll get tired with doing something that is so mighty and so powerful.

Number two: He wants us to seek Him with all our hearts.

Deuteronomy 4:29: “Seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.”

Number three: He wants us to fear Him with all our hearts.

Deuteronomy 5:29: “Oh that there was such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments.” I wonder, is it because it hasn’t got to our heart that we really don’t walk in the fear of the Lord?

I think there is such lack today of walking in the fear of the Lord. We talked about that last session, so we don’t need to go into it more, but this Scripture tells us how it takes the heart. Oh, if only there was such a heart in them! Because when our heart is for Him, well, then it’s going to change things.

Number four: He wants us to love Him with all our hearts.

Deuteronomy 6:6: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

Number five: He wants His Word to be in our hearts.

Deuteronomy 6:6 and 11:18: “Therefore shall ye lay up these words in your heart and in your soul, and ye shall teach them to your children.” You know the passage in Deuteronomy chapter 6 where it says we are to teach our children diligently. It’s repeated over in chapter 11.

And God tells it to them again, but before, He said, “Before you do that, before you can even teach your children, you’ve got to have My Words in your heart and in your soul.” It’s a great responsibility, isn’t it, mothers?

I know, often it’s hard to get time to spend that time in the Word, When your time is so taken up with all your little ones, and middling, and big ones, motherhood is very all-encompassing. That’s why I believe it’s so important, mothers, if you did not have that privilege of filling your heart and soul with the Word of God before you became a mother, do it for your children.

Get the Word into them so that they’re going to go into their marriages, and your daughters into their motherhood, with the Word in their hearts, and in their souls, because we need it. How do we mother without it?

Because mothering, there are so many aspects to mothering. We are, perhaps, firstly nurturing. That’s the number one thing of mothering, it’s nurturing. We’re also feeding, we’re cooking meals, and feeding. We’re clothing and providing. We’re teaching. Oh, there is so much to motherhood. But one of the greatest things, I believe, is the transmitting of God’s truth and His ways to this next generation.

Colin and I leave on Wednesday, tomorrow, to go down to Laguna Beach, Florida, for our first Above Rubies Family Retreat for the year. We usually have our Florida one in April but there are so many people coming that we can’t fit them in. So, we’re doing a second retreat, and this is the winter one. We’re going this week.

I’m planning to speak on this subject of transmitting God’s ways to the next generation, because I look around and I see such a lack. In so many ways, this generation now doesn’t know God’s ways. They’re living in a society that is full of deception. They must know. They don’t even know normal ways of living and etiquette. Even that has been lost. There is so much that is lost!

How was it lost, ladies? It was lost through the mothers. We are the ones who pass it on to the next generation. This is such a powerful part of motherhood. We can’t mother part-time. No, it’s full-time. It takes every bit of our heart and soul to be able to impart everything that we need to into our children’s lives. Not just a bit of head knowledge, no. Getting it into their heart and soul because it's in our heart and soul.

But we’re not going to get through anything to their hearts unless it’s in our hearts. We can say things but if they don’t see it in our lives, if they don’t see it pulsating in our very hearts, they’re not going to get it. No. We’ve got to have His Word in our hearts and in our souls.

Number six: He wants us to cut off the foreskin of our hearts. Well, that’s an interesting one, isn’t it? Talking about circumcision.

Deuteronomy 10:16: “Circumcise therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.”

Now, in the Bible, there is the physical circumcision of cutting off the foreskin, but it is always a type of the spiritual of cutting off that which is of the flesh—all that displeases God, all that hinders our walk with Him. Everything that’s unnecessary. It starts in the heart, because our heart is either panting after God, desiring God, wanting to please Him. Or it’s hankering after fleshly things, entertainment, and the things of this world. We’ve got to cut off everything that displeases Him.

And then the last one, number seven: He does not want our hearts to be deceived.

Deuteronomy 11:16: “Take heed to yourselves that your hearts be not deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.” You would think He would say, “I don’t want your minds to be deceived.” Well, that’s true, because we can be deceived in our minds.

But He’s more concerned about our hearts, ladies! That our hearts are not deceived. Yes, where is your heart, Mother? Is your heart in your home? Is your heart panting and desiring all that God has for you? Have you embraced the role that God has given you, this glorious powerful role of motherhood with all your heart, and with all your soul?

Or have you, perhaps, been turning aside? Yes, isn’t it interesting? He said, “Don’t let your heart be deceived and turn aside.” There are so many distractions today, aren’t there? The devil is constantly bringing distractions . . . distractions. They’re all around in our society. There are deceiving distractions. Yes, they are deceiving. They’re not the truth. They are lies.

They can look good. Oh, yes, especially to those who love the Lord. The devil will never make things look bad. Oh, he will make them look so good! So that he can deceive us. We’re not going to get deceived by anything blatantly bad. Goodness no! We get deceived by that which looks good, which is really a distraction to our highest calling and what God wants us to do. Things that take us away from our role in the home and from giving ourselves passionately to this calling which God has given us of motherhood can be distractions. We can easily turn aside. Be careful. Be watchful that you don’t turn aside to other gods, to serve other gods, because God is a jealous God.

Today we don’t serve gods of wood and stone as they did back then, but it’s amazing. In Deuteronomy, there are 16 passages, with quite a number of Scriptures in each one about the warning of going after other gods. But today, we don’t go after gods of wood and stone, but we have so many gods; distractions, things that take us away from God, and the calling He has given to us. Watch those distractions. Watch those other gods.

I wonder what our children see in us. Do they see that we worship God only, and serve Him only with all our heart and soul? I think there are so many Christian homes today . . . I think the majority of Christian homes don’t even sit with their families, morning and evening, to hear the Word of God, to pray together. They’re too busy!

Oh, there’s so much going on! Gotta go here, there, doing this, involved in this and that! They are little gods. Those are things we are turning aside to. If we do not have time in our day for our time of gathering our family to read God’s Word, to pray together, to worship together, we have other gods that have taken the place of God who is to be worshipped, who is paramount. Dear ladies, let our family see that God is the One who is worshipped, and who is paramount in our homes. I will put the Scriptures for those in the transcript. I won’t give them to you now.

Now Joshua 24:15-25. Do you remember this passage when Joshua challenged the people of Israel, and he said: “‘Choose you this day whom ye will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ And the people answered and said, ‘God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. Therefore, will we also serve the Lord, for He is our God.’”

AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL ERVE THE LORD

I love that Scripture. Is that your confession? “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” And all the people of Israel confirmed it, “Yes, we’re going to do it too!” But sadly, they didn’t last very long. Gradually they turned to other gods.

We can make a statement, but we’ve got to daily keep in God’s Word, daily gather our children, our family around His Word, praying together, and singing together. This is really the foundation of the family that is serving the Lord, because that word “serve” also means “to worship.” When you are mothering, when you are pouring your heart and soul into raising godly children, transmitting God’s ways into their lives, you’re actually worshipping Him.

Oh, may the Lord bless you today, lovely ladies! I pray that you will live in the joy of serving Him. Don’t ever see all the things you have to do, even the mundane things, as drudgery. No! Look at them as a delight. Oh, it’s all in our attitude. It’s either we look at them as drudgery, or we look at them as delight. When we do, we live in the joy. Love you!

LET US BECOME HEART-MOTHERS!

“Lord, bless each mother today. Pour out Your Holy Spirit all over them. Draw them into Your ways. Speak into their hearts. Let them hear Your heart speaking to their heart. I pray that they will become heart-mothers. And, Lord, that they will be heart-and-soul mothering. Oh, Father, let us all become heart-and-soul mothers. 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.

Scriptures that warn about turning aside to other gods:

Deuteronomy 4:15-19; 5:6-10; 6:14,15; 7:25, 26; 8:19, 20; 11:16, 17; 12:2, 3, 30, 31; 13:6-18; 17:2-7; 28:14; 29:18, 25-28; 30:17, 18; 31: 16-21; 32:15-21.

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 237: What Does God Want Us to Do in the Land, Part 12

Today I tell you three secrets about myself. Please don’t tell anyone else!!! We also ask ourselves some questions today. Do I know the ways of God for motherhood? Do I have a willing heart? Do I know how to wait for God’s promises? Am I walking in the fear of God? All part of living in the LAND OF MOTHERHOOD.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Ladies! Can you believe it? That this is the last week of 2022? I really can’t believe it. Every year goes by so much more quickly, doesn’t it? Well, I do hope that you had a very beautiful Christmas time with your families. Or maybe you were celebrating Hanukkah. Those lovely celebrations.

We like to celebrate both actually. Of course, when we celebrate Christmas, we’re not doing it in all the tinsel, materialistic way. But we love to get together as families. We love to sing the carols and remember the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Well, we are still on the series, “What God Wants Us to Do in the Land?” We’re up to . . .

No. 7. YOU MUST KNOW THE GOD OF THE LAND

I have an interesting story to read to you. I will read it from The Living Bible because it’s easier to understand if we read it as a story.

2 Kings 17. This is when the children of Israel, the children of Judah, actually, had been taken to Babylon. Then the king of Babylon decided that he would bring some of his people from Babylon and places around there down to Israel to take up the places of all the Israelites, all the Judeans that he had taken away captive.

It says here: “So the Assyrians,” this is verse 24 if you want to check it in your Bible. “So the Assyrians took over Samaria and the other cities of Israel. But since these Assyrian colonists did not worship the Lord when they first arrived, the Lord sent lions among them to kill some of them. Then they sent a message to the king of Assyria: ‘We colonists here in Israel don’t know the laws of the god of the land, and he has sent lions among us to destroy us because we have not worshiped him.’

“The king of Assyria then decreed that one of the exiled priests from Samaria should return to Israel and teach the new residents the laws of the god of the land. So, one of them returned to Bethel and taught the colonists from Babylon how to worship the Lord.”

Because God was not pleased with them following their own ways of worshipping their gods in His land. This land belonged to Him. Therefore, God should be worshiped in the way He intended in His land.

And it is the same today and the same for our land of motherhood. We have to live in the land of motherhood the way God intends for us, the way He has planned for us. We must do it according to the way of the God of the land, the God of our kingdom, the God of the land of motherhood, because He is the One Who designed motherhood, who planned it. So, we must do it His way.

Sadly, so many young mothers today don’t know His way. Out there in the world, and many times, even in the church, they don’t know the way. And why? Because the older women have not been teaching them.

In this new addition of Above Rubies #100 that has just gone out in the land, in my editorial, I talk to the older women and remind them of the mandate that God has given them. Because God has given a mandate to every older woman to teach the younger women His ways. He tells us specifically what to teach them.

Actually, just before, I was looking up in the Young’s Literal Translation. This is a translation by the Young who wrote the Young’s Concordance. It’s a very literal translation, according to the Hebrew and the Greek. I was most interested to see what it says here.

In most translations, it says that the older women are “to teach,” or they are “to train” the younger women. But in the Young’s Literal Translation, it says that the older women may “make” the young women. That’s interesting, isn’t it? Not just to teach them, not only to train them, but to “make the young women sober-minded, to be lovers of their husbands, lovers of their children, sober, pure, keepers of their own houses, good, subject to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be evil spoken of.” (Titus 2:5 YLT98)

I had never noticed that before, that they were to even “make” the young women. Well, today there are rarely older women teaching the young women. Sometimes, when they do want to teach them, the young women don’t want to listen. Recently I had an older woman sharing with me how she was wanting to share with some of the young women ways that could help them in the disciplining of their children and in their homemaking tasks. This woman is an amazing homemaker.

But she said they weren’t really interested at all. So, I think it does work both ways, doesn’t it? There should be a willingness of the young women to learn from the older women. And then, of course, the older women taking up their mandate.

But they have to know what they’re going to be talking about! Sadly, many of the older women are no longer in the home. They’re out doing their own thing. They really haven’t a clue of what God says about motherhood.

So, dear mothers, I know some of you are young mothers who are listening. Some are middling. And some of you are older mothers as I am an older mother now. What I find very sad is that many older mothers think, “Oh, well, I’m finished with motherhood. I’ve raised my children. That’s it. I can get on with something else.”

No, darling mothers! We are mothers until we meet Jesus. This is who God created us to be. Yes, we’ll do many, many things. We all have different gifts. We all do different projects. We all have different interests.

But who we are is mothers. That is who God created us to be. He created us physically for this task of mothering. We are created with a womb. We are created with breasts. We are created innately with this nurturing anointing, not only physically, but innately within us. Our little daughters want to mother right from the time they are little. They’re mothering their teddies, and their babies, and their dollies. It’s just in us. It doesn’t suddenly stop being in us when our children are raised.

We’re pretty young, even when our children become adults. We’ve got many years ahead. Many, many years. And those years are to be years of being examples to the young mothers and teaching them. What a difference it would make if the whole of this nation of older, godly mothers would rise up and teach and encourage the young moms instead of just poor young moms not knowing what they’re doing, or even leaving their children and going out of the home.

Today, who teaches the young moms? Our public education system! Our humanist people all around. They teach them. They show them. They tell them, “Hey, you can’t stay at home! Goodness me! You’ll be wasting your life! Get out in your career.” They are taught daily, through the media, and through our public education to completely vacate motherhood.

Oh, yes, they may suddenly become mothers by having some children, but they’re not giving themselves to motherhood. They don’t know God’s ways. Dear ladies, there is so much. God has provided everything we need to know and yet we don’t know it all yet.

Every day I am still seeking God for His ways and His truth. I’m still learning. I’m still learning. We’ll always be learning. There’s always more. We’re always finding new things in His Word and new understanding. We can’t say we’ve made it. No, but we should always be seeking and always learning. As older moms, always passing it on to the young moms, so that we will know the ways of God for motherhood.

We can’t do it our way. We can’t do it a humanistic way. We can’t do it a worldly way. No, we’ve got to do it God’s way. That’s the only way that works. Because if we do it our way, we will find that the lions will come amongst us, the lions that the enemy sends in. Lions of deception, and all these things that roar about us in our homes because we’re not doing it the right way. That is so important in our land of motherhood.

No. 8. WE MUST HAVE A WILLING HEART

 Isaiah 1:19-20: “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” 

It’s so important to have a willing heart. Everything starts with the heart, doesn’t it? A willing heart. A willingness to be open to God’s ways. A willingness to hear instructions.

That’s not an easy thing to do, to hear instructions. Sometimes people will speak to us and point out something we’re doing wrong. Maybe even our husbands will seek to show us something we’re doing wrong and we kind of get our hackles up. We just don’t like to be told. But there are so many Scriptures in the Word of God of how to receive instruction belongs to the wise. It’s the foolish who do not receive instruction. We learn so much as we receive instruction. We must have a willing heart.

Let’s look at a few other Scriptures about that in Exodus 35. This is where Moses asked for all the different materials to come from the people so they could build the tabernacle. In verse 21, it says: “And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing.” It starts in the heart. It starts in the spirit. That’s where our willingness begins.

It’s such a big thing, ladies, to cultivate that willingness in your heart. Yes, cultivate a willing heart. “Everyone whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord’s offering to the work of the tabernacle. . . both men and women, as many as were willing hearted, and brought bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold.”

Yes, go down to verse 25: “And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen. And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats' hair.”

Verse 29: “The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing.”

I love that. “Whose heart made them willing.” Now we read “willing” more than once in that passage. One of the Hebrew words for “willing” there means “to volunteer, to present spontaneously, offer freely.” That’s verse 21.

In verse 22, “willing hearted” is a different Hebrew word. It means “to be generous, to be magnanimous, liberal.” It’s a really big-hearted willingness it’s talking about there where they brought all their jewels, their earrings.

Just reading “earrings” there, yes, that’s interesting. They had to bring earrings, and rings, and jewels of gold, and so on. It made me think of how there was a time when I didn’t even wear earrings. I was brought up in a denomination that was pretty conservative. I think everybody in that denomination would wear earrings today but back all those years ago, it was frowned upon. So, I didn’t wear earrings.

Then, as I got older, I noticed Scriptures in the Word of God that talked about earrings. It’s interesting, isn’t it, that often we do things, or we don’t do things, just because of tradition. We really have to find out what the Bible says, don’t we?

I have to tell you a little secret, ladies. Don’t tell anybody else, will you? But I actually didn’t start wearing earrings until I was 70 years of age! Wow! But then, I had come to realize as I was reading the Word of God, “Wow, they actually did wear earrings! Well, I am a biblical woman, so I’d better start!”

I thought, “OK, well, I’ll go and get my ears pierced.” So, I thought, “If I’m going to do it, I'll really do it!” So, I got two piercings in each ear. I thought, “Right. Might as well do it properly!” But then I didn’t keep wearing the second. I just wore one pair of earrings, so they gradually closed up. That’s when I started. Isn’t that amazing?

Let’s see some Scriptures here, because every single thing I do in life, I like to have Scriptures for it. In Ezekiel 16:10, it’s an allegory, a beautiful allegory. You can read the whole chapter later, but it’s how God chose Israel and what He did.

He said: “I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked” (real King James language there) “Thus, wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work.” This is God speaking. And He uses all these beautiful descriptions of a woman clothed with beauty and jewels and even earrings in her ears. Wow, I read that and think, “Yes, I’d better get on the job!”

What else do we read? We go right back to Genesis, and we read how when Abraham’s servant came to find a bride for Isaac, and he found Rebecca, that he gave her jewels of silver and jewels of gold. Genesis 24:53.

And then we go to Exodus 3:21. When they were leaving Egypt, God told the Israelites, “And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty: But every woman shall borrow of her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters.”

And then Isaiah 61:10 talks about how God covers us, like a bride adorns herself with jewels. So, we read lots of other Scriptures. Actually, ladies, oh, I’d better tell you the rest of my secrets. Can you believe it? OK, I was 70 when I first started wearing earrings. And guess what? I was 70 years of age when I started drinking coffee! Can you believe that? What a crazy lady.

But, you see, once again, I grew up with a mother (shows you how powerful your mother is!) and she did not believe in coffee. She thought it was bad for you. She didn’t drink it and we never drank it in our house. I grew up not drinking it and thinking it was bad for you. If anything is bad for you, well, I don’t eat it or drink it. Until, of course, later on down the years, and getting near 70, I actually began to realize that coffee is an antioxidant, and it’s actually good for you! Wow! I had been deceived all those years! So, at 70 years of age, I started drinking coffee! Wow!

Can you guess what else I did at 70 years of age? Now, this is really crazy, so don’t tell anyone else, will you? Oh, it was that year that I became very nauseous. I felt so sick. It was just like morning sickness. Oh, I felt like I was pregnant, and I couldn’t eat that. It put me off. But then I had to eat other things. It was just as though I was pregnant!

I thought, “Goodness, what on earth is happening to me?” Guess what? I took a pregnancy test. At 70 years of age! Of course, it was negative. But my husband and I were so sad because we were hoping it would be positive. Now, how crazy can you get? [laughter] Those are my little crazy secrets. Will you still keep listening to me, I wonder?

Let’s get back to being willing. It’s a beautiful thing to have a willing heart—

willing to hear God’s voice,

willing to hear instruction,

willing to submit to my husband.

Oh, that’s not very popular in our humanistic age in which we live. But it is Bible. And it is beautiful. And it will bring such blessing in your marriage.

Willing to embrace God’s plan for you, as a female. Yes, in this age in which we are living, we must be willing to be female. There is such blurring of the sexes, more and more in this day, in every way; in our roles, in the way we even live, the way we dress, and every way. There is such blurring of the sexes. Are we willing to be female?

If God has created us female, I believe we should embrace our femaleness, our femininity, our womanliness, and be that in everything. Amen? Let us be willing in the day of His power. That’s a beautiful Scripture.

Psalm 110:3: “Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power.” Yes, are we a willing woman?

No. 9. WE MUST WAIT UPON THE LORD

Psalm 37:34: “Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt thee to inherit the land.”

That word means “to look to the Lord, to look expectantly, to look patiently.” Many times we have to wait, don’t we? Things don’t just happen when we want them to. I read something the other day, that “When God gives us a promise, He does not give us a calendar.” I thought that was very, very good.

Yes, God’s promises do not fail. Maybe they’re not fulfilled right away. God doesn’t give us a calendar when He gives the promise. But you can hang onto that promise and if it’s in God’s Word, in His infallible Word, you can stake your life on it. But sometimes you’ve got to wait patiently but wait expectantly. No, we don’t just wait with, what is the word? With no expectation. No, we’re to wait expectantly even as we wait patiently. Amen?

No. 10. WE MUST FEAR THE LORD

Let me take you to Deuteronomy again.

Deuteronomy 31:12-13: “Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law: And that their children, which have not known anything, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as ye live in the land.”

Now, God is bringing all the people together. In fact, whenever God wanted to say something specific and important to His people, He gathered them together. When God gathered His people together, He gathered everyone, the fathers, the mothers, the children, the little ones, the babies. They all came.

It’s interesting here where it says: “Gather the people together, men and women, and children.” That word “children” there is the Hebrew word taph, T-A-P-H. That word is a word that means “the little children, the little toddlers. It’s the tripping gait, or short steps of the little toddlers.” That is so interesting.

Actually, in my study manual, The Power of Motherhood, I have a chapter where I give all the Hebrew words that God has in the Bible for “children.” There are 50 Hebrew words, all different stages of the child’s life, from birth, right up to older. Of course, taph is one of them, the toddler. I think that’s so amazing.

I think of church life. Many churches today refuse to have the children in their services, especially the toddlers, because it’s that toddler stage that is the most difficult in a service. They’re just learning how to sit. In fact, they hardly know how to sit still. They’re learning how to stay quiet, and they don’t always know how to stay quiet. So, we’re little by little training them and teaching them.

But God wanted them with the whole family when He was bringing His Word forth. He wanted everyone in the family. I believe that is His plan. When we meet together at church, it is to have the whole family. God does not want us to be separated. He doesn’t want us to come to church and drop our children off at the nursery, then the next class, then the next class, and then the next class. We drop them all off and then we walk in, just Mom and Dad. All the children are separated.

No, God wants us to be families with everyone present. Of course, that takes training of the children. But yes, that’s what we’re meant to do as parents. We’re meant to be training them, aren’t we? I wonder what kind of church you go to. Do they have all the family sitting together? That’s how it’s meant to be.

Deuteronomy 6:13: “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve Him.”

Deuteronomy 10:12: “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee? But to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all they heart, and with all thy soul.” And so many other Scriptures.

I do believe that the fear of the Lord is . . . and the Word of God says: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” There is so little of the fear of the Lord today. In our homes, and in our churches, I really believe there needs to be such a revival of the fear of the Lord. What does God say? He says: “In the land.”

In the land of our motherhood too, He wants us to fear Him. That means we’re not scared of Him, but we are in awe of Him. We do not want to do anything that would displease Him. We’re putting Him first in every aspect of our lives, even of our family life. Our children know that He is paramount.

Yes, He is the One that we listen to. He is the One that we obey. He comes first in every situation. Our lives are not ruled by our circumstances but by walking in the fear of the Lord. Oh, precious moms, just pray about how we can bring the fear of the Lord more and more into our homes.

Not only we ourselves, but that our children will walk in the fear of the Lord, that they will have soft hearts toward God, that they would fear to displease Him in any way, that we may hear the Word of God. They hear it with awe. They don’t just take it for granted. I think this is also very important. How we listen to the Word of God, how we read it. We can just take it for granted.

But do we come with a heart of awe to His Word? When we read something, we don’t just gloss over it. We take it to heart. We tremble at it. The Word of God talks about those who tremble at His Word. Those are the ones that He looks to (Isaiah 66:2).

May God help us to walk in the fear of the Lord, to teach our children the fear of the Lord. As we walk in the fear of the Lord in our homes, well, then, there will be more of the fear of the Lord in our churches. It won’t be all this worldliness that we see today in Christendom. I think the fear of the Lord should affect every aspect of our lives. Not only the way we live, but the way we speak, the way we treat our husbands, the way we dress.

WOMEN CAN BE CLOTHED AND YET NAKED!

It is so sad that so much of the church of God today does not dress according to the fear of God. They dress according to the fashion of this world that exposes so much of the flesh. I can’t believe it! People come to church exposing the flesh! I can’t believe it. People come to church, actually clothed and yet naked!

Did you know that, well, most people, I don’t think they know. But when they wear the tight pants that many females are wearing today (not only the young people, but even some older ones) you can see everything! When they walk, they don’t see their behinds. But people walking behind them see every single nook and cranny and curve and wrinkle. They’re clothed but they’re naked. Help!

What does it do to the men walking behind them? Wow! I think it’s time for the fear of God to come back to us as families and to the church. Because how is it that we, as mothers, allow our children to go out of our homes dressed in these ways? And looking like this? I’m not quite sure. It doesn’t equate with the Word of God. It doesn’t equate with holy living. I think we are in need of a great revival, don’t you?

Anyway, time is gone. Love you all so much! May you have a glorious and wonderful and amazing new year, as we go into the New Year this weekend.

“Lord God, we thank You again for all Your goodness over this past year. For Your faithfulness, for Your provision, for answering our prayers. Lord, You are so good. We give You thanks.

“We thank You we can go into this New Year, trusting You, knowing that You are our God, and You are faithful. We pray, Father, that we will go into this New Year, walking in the fear of the Lord, that there will come such a greater fear of the Lord into all our hearts, and into the church of God. We ask it in the precious 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.