FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 59 - Motherhood is an Eternal Work

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello ladies. Well, we are now at last starting podcast number 59, and we are getting back on track after catching up on our series, HOW DO WE CHANGE THE WORLD? Now, I do want to mention before we go on today some thoughts of something, I was telling you last week. Remember, I was talking about how we are God's sheep, and if we are His sheep, we hear His voice, and we don't listen to the voice of the stranger?

I was thinking of another Scripture. I didn't share it with you last week and it's in the Old Testament. Hosea 8:12: “I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.”

Isn't that the saddest verse? To think that God has written to us great things. Now, that word “great” in the Hebrew means “multitude, abundance, excellent things,” and His whole Word is filled with the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and the way He wants us to live. It's all there. Everything is there. No matter what need we have in our lives, no matter what question, we can find it answered in this Book.

Yet, isn't it amazing that even amongst Christian people, God's Word can be strange to them? I find this even with a lot of young people in the church today. They don't know the Word. I can't even hear them speaking about the Word. I hear them speaking about loads of other things but not very much about the Word. Shouldn't we be speaking about the Word if it's the most wonderful thing in the world?

I think of the Scripture in Isaiah 59:21 where God is speaking and He says: “As for me, this is my covenant with them saith the Lord. My spirit which is upon you and my Word which I have put in your mouth . . . ” Notice, He doesn't say “in your heart” He says “in your mouth.” “My Word which I have put in your mouth will not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your children, nor out of the mouth of your children's children, henceforth and forever, saith the Lord.”

Wow. This is God's mandate to us: that we will get the Word of God into our children’s hearts so that it's in their mouths, speaking it out, and it's not a strange thing to them or to us. May God save us from that. That word strange is the same word used in Psalm 144 when David was praying, and he prays and says twice in this one Psalm. He says: “Deliver me out of the waters from the hand of strange children.”

Again in verse 11: “Rid me and deliver me out of the hand of strange children whose mouth speak vanity and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.” Who are these strange children? It's the same word, zoor, in the Hebrew that’s used in Hosea 8:12. It means “unrelated, foreign, hostile, profane, to turn aside, to deviate from and it's people who speak words that don't belong to God. They don't come from the Word of God. They don't come from God's heart. They come from another source, and the basic source is the Enemy himself, and he uses people to spread his lies and his deceptions, like we have in our nation today.

We have the fake news, but we have more than the fake news. We have a lot of fake stuff that we believe. Because we live in this world that is so filled with humanism and feminism and now socialism and all these isms, and somehow, they become part of us, and we think like that. We think feministically. We think humanistically instead of thinking God's thoughts. Here, David is saying, “Deliver me from all this fake news and this fake junk and these deceptions and lies and all these isms” because of this reason. Do you know the reason?

It's in verse 12: “That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; and our daughters as cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace.” If we want our children to grow up in the ways of God and have young men who, even in their youth, are like grown up, mature men because they have been brought up in the ways of God, and the Word of God is in their mouth and coming out of their mouths.

We have daughters who are living godly lives and know who they are and are not affected by the spirit of this world and feminism and humanism. We have to get rid of the fake. We have to get rid of the falsehood. We have to get rid of all that is hostile to God's Word.

Today, really, I think the most normal thing in the church today is that we are really caught up with more stuff than what God wants us to do. We are caught up with more lies from humanism and the isms than we are with the Word of God. I want to encourage us again today that this Scripture in Hosea 8:12 will not be our testimony, but it will be the opposite. Remember it says: “I've written to you great things in my law, but they were counted as strange to you.”

May God's Word not be strange to us. May it be familiar and powerful in our lives. I think of how it's a strange doctrine to many Christian families today to have more than one or two children. They think, “That's strange. That's weird. How can you afford more than a couple of children?” But really, they're talking the strange doctrine. That is not the doctrine of the Word of God because God's Word, as we read it, is about blessing us with children, and when He wants to do us good, what does He do? He blesses us. When He wants to have compassion on us, what does He do? He multiplies us and blesses us with children. This is the heart of God. We've got to get into the Word and see what it says and live by it.

 Anyway, ladies, today is a great day because we've got a special guest. I have got here, sitting right beside me, Erin Harrison. If you have ever listened to the TALK SHOW that I do with Erin, you'll already know her. If you haven't, we'll talk about how you can find it. First of all, say “Hi,” Erin.

Erin: Hello ladies, so good to meet all of you.

Nancy: Can you believe it? I called Erin just a few minutes ago and said, “Hey, Erin, Arden's coming. Can you be free in half an hour?” “Oh, maybe.” she said. “I'm just finishing off canning about seventy jars of tomatoes.” She's been out picking and canning, but she left it all. Well, she finished up; she's so quick, and here she is.

Erin: Yep!

Nancy: You were having a busy day.

Erin: I sure was, but it was fun, and your daughter, Evangeline, was out there helping me.

Nancy: How amazing.

Erin: On our last TALK SHOW that we did this last week, you were with us, you joined us, and I thought there was no way I could ever get Evangeline to bottle things up or can anything with me because she's like, “Oh nonsense, I don't have time for that.” She's always busy running here and there but then I said, “Well, why don't you ladies come and help.” We did this, and she got it in her blood now. She wants to keep on doing it now. She's so excited because she figures that she has so much she can give to her family now. This garden is miraculous though.

Nancy: Oh, Erin's garden! Now, I have to say, ladies, I love gardening, and I've always had a wonderful vegetable garden, and I'm getting things out of my garden this year, but it's not prolific. I'm feeling such a failure. I go to Erin's garden, and I've never seen anything more prolific in my whole life. It is amazing.

Erin: I think we've grown enough produce in there for about five families.

Nancy: At least.  Anyway, Erin and I actually do a TALK SHOW every week. It's live.

Erin: Tuesdays at 2 pm central standard time on the Keeper of the Homestead blog Facebook page, but I also upload the video to YouTube as well. If you go to Keeper of the Homestead on YouTube, just search it up and you'll find all the ones that are recorded on there.

Nancy: Yes, and then last week, we were bottling. We don't say that word here in America.

Erin: We were, and we looked terrible, didn't we?

Nancy: Yes. Anyway, in New Zealand, we call putting all your stuff in your jars bottling. I think it's really what you are doing. You're putting stuff in bottles, so we're bottling them. Of course, you say canning here in America. We did do it the old New Zealand way which is pouring the tomato puree into the jars.

Erin: Well, it has to be boiling first with the hot jars and the hot lids, piping hot.

Nancy: Oh yes, sterilize the jars while the puree is boiling, and we sterilize the seals and the rings and everything.

Erin: Then we turn it upside down and it pops and seals.

Nancy: Exactly. Did you know what? I must have mentioned I was doing that, and someone piped back on my Facebook, “Oh goodness me, you're meant to do it in the canning thing.”

Erin: Oh, you've gotten a message from the canning police, have you?

Nancy: Yes.

Erin: Oh, I always get those because I never do it by the blue book. I call them the blue book canning police.

Nancy: Yes, well, most Americans do use, what do you call them?

Erin: Pressure cookers. I saw the comment.

Nancy: You did?

Erin: I did, and I started laughing. I thought, “The blue book canning police found me again.”

Nancy: Well, the funny thing is, in New Zealand, we don't own these canning things, so we've always done it this way, and the population of New Zealand is still alive.

Erin: Well, we're still alive. I've been bottling and canning now for about 17 or 18 years. I've done thousands and thousands of jars, and I can always tell if a jar is off.

Nancy: Well, of course. If it's sealed, it sucks under, doesn't it? It indents.

Erin: It does, and I always smell my jars before I use them, and I always boil them again because you're heating it all up anyway. I know I can't technically, by law, tell you how to do it that way, but you have to can at your own risk, and that's what we do.

Nancy: Well, I didn't even know there was a risk because it's the only way we did it in New Zealand.

Erin: I know. It's the only way the Amish did it too, so yeah.

Nancy: Anyway, it's such great fun.

Erin: It's so fun. We had the time of our lives, didn't we? We were laughing, and you were crawling around the floor.

Nancy: If you are going to watch it, it's pretty raw, especially with Evangeline on it, but I will have to make a disclaimer now because we got on to talking about all kinds of subjects. Well, what happened is I got there because we were going to do this bottling or canning, whatever you want to call it, and Erin says, “I'm going to film this. This will save us doing a talk show. This will be our talk show.”

I had arrived in my oldest clothes with my dirty apron with stains on because I knew that we were going to be getting dirty. We look pretty raw and terrible. Anyway, that's why I love doing podcasts. Did you know that, ladies? I love it because I don't have to get dressed up. I can talk to you here, in my home, in my working clothes and never put on a little bit of makeup, which I never do at home. Only if ever I have to go out.

Erin: For my talk show, she always puts beautiful make up on, she combs her hair, and she puts a beautiful necklace on and beautiful tops. She always looks so glorious.

Nancy: Yes but it always takes time to do that, so this is the fun about podcasts. You can imagine what I'm like. Oh no, don't imagine. Anyway, we got talking about all these things and we got on to talking about...

Erin: Debates with the family.

Nancy: Yes. Our family, because we were saying how it's good to do this kind of thing together. Evangeline was saying how she had been reading how one of the most wonderful things for the brain is for people to be discussing and talking and dialoguing together. Togetherness is very important. I was sharing how this is how we grew up and how we raised our children, and I'm sure you do this too. How you gather your children around the table, and you talk, and you fellowship.

 What I love to do is bring a subject to the table for discussion because I do find that often if we leave the conversation to go anywhere, it goes nowhere, and nobody says anything much. It's a great idea to bring something, an idea, a question, a subject for people to talk about.

Evangeline was saying what amazing times we used to have, and her memory was embellished because she was thinking of the wonderful amazing times we had together, and she got way out on her embellishing of these great memories. She said, “Yes, I can remember how Mom and Dad would get up and stand on the table.”

“I beg your pardon!” I said to Evangeline, “I've never done that in my life.” Anyway, if you hear her say that, you'll know it's just her memory being embellished.

Erin: It's so fun, isn't it?

Nancy: Oh yes, it's all fun but the table actually to me is very sacred. In fact, if children even put their knees up at my table, I'll be telling them to put their knees down because that is not the place to do that. I like to teach our children etiquette at the table.

Erin: What about putting your elbows on the table?

Nancy: We try not to do that because I must admit sometimes, I do that myself, but it's not the right thing to do. It's not as bad as sticking your knees up. I've had young people come to my table and put their knees up on my table. I cannot believe it. I think, what do their parents teach them?

Erin: Would you believe it? I used to be a knee table sitter. I was. I used to always have my knees up, and I'd put my plate between my knees and my chest, and I would balance it there, and I would eat, shovel the food right in my mouth . . . when I was a young child growing up, all the way through my teen years. And when Mark met me, his mother was very proper. She would not have it. She was so gracious to teach me. Then I started to sit like a normal person at the table. I couldn't imagine doing it now.

Nancy: It is just training, isn't it? I mean, we do have to train our children correctly.

Erin: But there's hope, if I could. Now, I have these glorious, beautiful tables, and I am so prim and proper at the table. You would have never thought I was like that, would you?

Nancy: Oh, never. You might have seen some of my pictures on Instagram because I usually will put one if we've been down to Erin's for a special meal. We always call her table a “Gloriana meal” because it's so beautiful.

Anyway, that was my disclaimer. I will have to confess our table with our children was loud because they really debated. I can remember Rocky getting up on a chair to get his point across but never the table. My husband is very proper at the table, and he would never allow such a thing in his wildest dreams, let alone do it himself.

In fact, my husband always comes to the table, usually in a suit or dressed very proper. He has never ever come to the table in my married life of 56 years ever in just causal working clothes. There's something special about the table. He feels its right to come and come dressed appropriately.

In fact, I remember reading the book Faith of our Fathers by John McCain. I have to say that I wasn't in any way a fan of his beliefs, even though he was a Republican, I think he was a RINO. I do have to admit that his book was a wonderful book as he wrote about his very patriotic grandfather and his patriotic father. It was wonderful to read about them. Also, of his time in prison in Vietnam. It was a very good book, but he says in that book that his parents would come to the table each night, his father dressed in a suit and his mother in an evening gown.

Erin: That is beautiful.

Nancy: That was the emphasis they put on the supper table. Isn't that interesting?

Erin: That's what I want to do every night, but I dress in my dresses every day. I must confess, even in the garden this morning, I was wearing a dress. I can't help myself. I always feel like a queen though.

Nancy: Yes, well, that's the thing, and we are going to talk together in our next podcast about being queens, but before we get on to that, I have some questions here. I'm sorry, ladies, I keep forgetting to answer your questions. I have so many things I want to tell you, but we'll do a couple of questions today. Don't forget, you are welcome to ask any questions. Write into my email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and you can send them in.

Erin: I have a question.

Nancy: Oh, you have one! Yes?

Erin: I keep meaning to answer this question. One of the ladies who watches our talk show had this special question that I keep telling her I'm going to talk to you about or ask you. The question is, “What do I do if I have a guest over at my meal table, and they have a potty mouth?” They say bad words, cussing words, in her home. It could be someone they're trying to minister to. Does she correct them?

Nancy: It's not something we ever want to have in our home, but if we are really reaching out to the real gutter-most perhaps, and we have done this over the years . . . in fact, I can remember in Australia how my husband and I had one of these real bad gangs. We had a guy who came to the Lord and he kind of knew them and brought them around and brought them to our church. Then, he asked them to come to our place for lunch, and we said yes, we'd love them to come for lunch.

Well, they arrived up in their Harley's in our neighborhood. I guess the neighborhood wondered what they struck. Back in New Zealand and Australia, the most times the people who ride Harley's are gang members. That's not true in America. You have wonderful, fine people who just love Harley's. Down under, it's sort of different. It's usually the gang members.

One was called Snake, one was called Dapper Dan. We were really reaching out to the real raw. We've had all kinds of people into our home. When you're inviting guests for fellowship, it's going to be different than if you're really ministering to people. If you are doing that, well then, you're going to have to accept the fact that they're going to say anything because they are not yet converted.

Erin: Exactly. That's the truth.

Nancy: Of course, if they're using the name of Jesus in vain, you could say, “My, do you love that name? You use it a lot, don't you? That name is so precious to me.” God can usually give you something to say about that.

Erin: That's beautiful. That's great.

Nancy: Anyway, this precious lady listens to my podcasts. She says, “I listen to the podcast all the way from Port Orchard, Washington, and it is the highlight of my week. Every Tuesday, I think to myself, 'Yay! It's Tuesday, a new podcast.' It gives me a spring in my step.”

She has a question which she wrote in and asked if we could discuss it on the podcast. “My husband and I are in our early parenting days. We only have a six-month-old boy. We have a lot of debt from our young, dumb single years, and he works 70-80 hours a week just to barely break even. I do everything I can to cut costs, but I feel useless staying at home with a six-month old. I feel like I have a load of extra time that I should help out financially. On top of that, we believe in letting God decide the number of children that we have, but it scares me to death of how we will afford more mouths to feed and more bodies to clothe if we are barely making it with one baby. Does God want us to be irresponsible and take on more babies than we can afford?”

Well, I think that's a very good question because so many of you could be asking those very same questions. What are your thoughts?

Erin: For one, little ones don't cost very much to care for. It's when they get to be teenagers that it gets more costly. When they are little like that, my goodness, they don't really eat any extra food. I mean, you're worried about finances, there's so many ways to save money. When you go to the grocery store, you can buy basic ingredients instead of packaged goods which cost a lot less. You can buy big bags of rice really cheap. When turkeys or chickens are on sale, you can buy them when they are only 90 cents a pound.

There are certain times of the year, stock up. Stock up on things. Buy big sacks of flour or wheat berries to grind, and you make a lot of your meals from scratch. That way you can save quite a bit of money. You can do cloth diapers. I've done all of this because we were very, very poor. I never went to work when my children were little. My husband had a job that only paid minimum wage for many years. He worked at a junk yard and was always coming home burned. We made it work because we believed that we were doing God's will for our lives to raise these children. We even grew some of our own food. That's how I got into the whole homesteading thing because of necessity. “Necessity is the mother of invention” is the old saying.

Nancy: Yes. I do think that we can live a lot less expensively than most people do. In fact, I notice that we are a throw away generation. We have so much. Do you know that we don't even need a quarter of what we have in our homes? Look, we could get rid of maybe 90 percent and still live basic good lives.

Erin: You could sell it on eBay.

Nancy: Oh yes.

Erin: Your grandson, Arrow does all sorts of sales on eBay, and he makes quite a bit of money. You can make a little money on the side selling things that you don't need.

Nancy: Well, that is true. A lot of people do that. They even go around buying things that are cheap and then selling them for more. Actually, you were saying, lovely friend, that you have your darling little baby, six months.

Erin: You are not useless. It bothers me because she is not useless. That is a huge undertaking, to care for a little six-month-old baby. They need you, and she's doing such a great work.

Nancy: Absolutely. There's nothing more powerful. You could try out and get an extra job, but really, you're doing something lesser, something that's going to fade away.

Erin: That doesn't matter in eternity.

Nancy: No, it does not. Really, this is the amazing thing about motherhood, ladies. It is an eternal career. Everything that you pour into your children, into your baby, into your children, it's all working for eternity. You see, God has given you the privilege of training and nurturing eternal souls. Yes, you're preparing them for this life but more than that, for eternity. Every moment counts. You may think, “I'm not actually out there earning money.”

No but God sees. God sees. You are earning. God sees that time. It's all going down and building up for eternity. I was reading the other day where Jesus said: “If you will give a cup of cold water in my name, you will not lose your reward.” I've often read that and thought, goodness me, a cup of water. What's that? It isn't anything, but Jesus is saying, even if we do it as unto the Lord and in His name, we are not going to lose our reward.

I thought to myself, wow, if someone will not lose a reward for just a cup of water, what about us mothers who prepare not just a cup of water for our children but meals. Breakfast, lunch, supper . . . breakfast, lunch supper. Day after day, month after month, year after year.

Erin: Or nursing a six-month-old baby.

Nancy: Oh yes, that's more than a cup of water.

Erin: There's so many nutrients in breast milk. That's huge. God created your body to pour that forth. You have to take a little inventory, look at your spending., do a little budget planning and maybe you and your husband could cut a few corners here and there. Because having children and having a little brother or sister for your little six-month one day will be such a blessing to your little one. They'll have each other for the rest of their lives. You would never regret having a child, but you will regret if you don't have children because when you're old and you only have one or no children, then you look back on your life, all the work you did, all the money you earned doesn't show for anything. All that you show for are the people gathered together around you at the end of your days. That's what matters the most, isn't it?

Nancy: Yes, that's so true,

Erin: When somebody is on their death bed, what do they want? Do they want money? No, they want to be gathered around with their children and their grandchildren to see them off and bless them before they take their last breath.

Nancy: Exactly. That is absolutely true. I'm thinking because this lovely mother says that how on  earth, as you were saying, how would we manage, would we be irresponsible if we are barely making it with one baby? Dear mother, this is the thing. You think you're barely making it now, but you are making it. You're not on the streets. You've got a house over your head.

Erin: Thank God; He's providing for you. Thank the Lord.

Nancy: You have meals, I'm sure, every day. Goodness, the Bible says, if you have just food and clothing therewith be content (1 Timothy 6:8). Often, we want more all the time. We have to get back to this being content. I was saying before, we are a throw away generation. Now, I'll have to get on to one of my pet peeves. Actually, the other morning, we had a lovely ladies' morning tea, didn't we?

Evangeline said, “Ok, let's go around,” because we always love to think of something we can talk about, “and let's talk about our pet peeves.” Someone said, “Oh no, that's too negative,” so we didn't. We talked about what thrills us most.  That was so wonderful. Sometimes, I do like to talk about my pet peeves.

Erin: I like to talk about my pet peeves too.

Nancy: I do. Maybe we'll have to have a podcast about it one day. Anyway, one of them is people taking so much on their plate and then throwing half of it in the trash can at the end.

Erin: There's nothing worse.

Nancy: I cannot stand it. Of course, I am a little older. I grew up in the days when you don't waste food. When we grew up as children, if we didn't eat what was on our plates, it waited for the next meal, and we ate that at the next meal, and we learned to eat what was given us. We didn't ever have stuff left over on our plates and throw it in the trash can.

The other night, I had about fourteen around our table, and we're cleaning the table and some folks are helping and getting the stuff and throwing it into the trash. It wasn’t anything on someone's plate, it was a serving dish, and there was a little bit left,  but if there is anything left from a serving dish, I will put it in a container, put in the fridge, and it's leftovers for the next day.

This person was just throwing it in the trash. I said, “Oh, just a minute, that hasn't touched anyone's plate. I'm going to save it.” She said, “Oh, I'm just use to throwing everything away.” I thought to myself, “I can't believe it.” We say that we don't have much or don't have enough, yet we throw away more than we need. I think we should train our children not to be part of this throw away generation.

Erin: Teach them to portion control.

Nancy: Yes, that's what I believe.

Erin: Even here on Sundays, I see certain children that come and load up their plate, and it's heaping full, and it sits there, and it's full, and it makes me want to cry because there's children that are starving in the world.

Nancy: Maybe we will have to get our bucket and cry into it.

Erin: We should. We could see how many tears we could collect, how many cups. The thing is that a mother should train her children to take a little of this and a little of that, a spoonful of each thing. If you don't like it, then it's not throwing away so much.

Nancy: Exactly. That's what I always say to the children. I say, “Look, take a little bit and then you can come back for as much as you want.”

Erin: You can always come back for more. It's actually more fun. You teach them it's like a little taste testing plate. Then you know what you like the best, you taste it all, you take a teaspoonful for each thing. See what you like. Come back and load it up with what you like the most.

Nancy: We have a big crowd. Our family when we get together is pretty large. At Christmastime and Thanksgiving, we will have up to a hundred people for a sit-down meal. Always at the beginning of our big meal, we have the food put out and it's so much food because everybody brings something. I will do my little lecture, “Now children, all listening to Nana. Remember, just take what you can eat and then you're welcome to come back for more. But I don't want to see any food left on any plates.”

Well, I give this lecture every year but every year, I go around and there's big pieces of chicken and turkey and lamb left on plates. I want  to cry.

Erin: Want to know what the Amish do?

Nancy: What?

Erin: Well, it's really interesting. I'll quickly explain it. They have this big, long spread of food. They have a lot of carbs; there are quite a lot of carbs. Noodles, they call it nootlan. They have pies and cakes and cookies and puddings and this jello and all this stuff but then they'll have a little bit of meat. Well, they go through, and they have always the women with the baby children, the littlest ones, then after, that is the men. The men go next and the young folks (they call the teenager boys that are working age all the way up till they're maybe 25) if they are not married. Then the young folk girls. Then the ladies go last. You know what they do? It's a little trick. I learned it. When they go in line with their little ones, they pile a lot of food on their plates, with their little ones because they clean up their little one’s food after that. They never put any of it to waste. They know so many people going through the line, that they might not get anything. That's their little trick. Isn't that a fun trick?

Nancy: Yes, it is.

Erin: They never let anything go to waste.

Nancy: No. We have to teach our children this. I wanted to give you this Scripture. It's in the blessing chapter of Deuteronomy 28, and it says here that God will bless us if we walk in His ways and His commandments. The first blessing is verse 4: “Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb.” That's the first blessing but then God adds other blessings. “And the fruit of your ground. The fruit of your cattle, the increase of your kind, and the flocks of your sheep. Blessed shall be your basket and your store.” I

It's talking about abundant provision. Now ladies, that provision, when it comes, it doesn't come before you have that baby, or number two baby, or three baby or four baby or number 10 baby. It comes after! You see, blessed shall be the fruit of your womb. When God blesses your womb, then he will add those extra blessings to enable you to feed the blessing that comes from your womb. This is the wonderful thing. No matter how many children God gives you, whether it's two or it's 10, God will provide.

I have received so many testimonies from mothers who share, “When we had our sixth baby, we didn't know how we were going to cope but God is amazing, my husband got a raise.” That happened so many times. Another one will write, “God provided miraculously this big van so that we could fit all our children in it.” All these little blessings come along the way to provide for this new baby that comes into the home.

Dear precious mothers, don't worry, you don't have to think of the future. Trust God and He will provide. All our lives, we've been married 56 years, we have lived from hand to mouth, trusting God from day to day. Here we are, 56 years plus down the road married, and we are still alive, and we still have everything we need. We don't have everything we want but who cares about that? We have all we need. We have a home over our heads, and we have food to eat. We have clothes to wear. What more do we need? God is so good. He is a God who can be trusted but we need to close.

“Lord God, we thank You so much for Your wonderful goodness and faithfulness and provision. We thank You that You are the God of provision, and You have stated in Your Word, which cannot lie, that when You bless the fruit of the womb, that You will then bless our store and our basket and all that we need to provide for the children You give us. We thank You.

“Lord, I pray for all these listening who have worries about finance and will they be able to provide, and can they do this or that? But I pray that You will lift their eyes up to see who You are. That You are a God who can be trusted. I pray that You will help them trust You more and more in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Erin: Amen.

If you need further encouragement about God providing, I know you will be blessed by this article:

http://tinyurl.com/CanGodProvideforBaby

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 58 - How Can We Change the World- Part 24 (last podcast on this subject)

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies. I mentioned in my last podcast that I would explain to you more what the word “meditate” means.

When you look it up in the Hebrew it is the Hebrew word hagah. It has a number of meanings.

The first is, of course, as we would imagine, “to meditate, to ponder, to think about.” Now that’s about how we would think of meditating on the Word. But there is more to it.

In fact, this Hebrew word actually means “to emit a sound, to murmur, to mutter, to read in undertones, to recite quietly.” So it’s speaking about when we read the Word that we’re meant to speak it out loud. Either very loudly or very quietly, but we’re speaking it under our breath. But apparently the best way we are to read the Word is to verbalize it.

Thirdly “to speak out loud.” which I had mentioned. It can be quietly, sort of muttering under your breath; or it can be loudly. Back in Bible times that’s what they did. They read the Scriptures, always reading audibly. Either to themselves, just quietly under their breath, or they were reading them aloud to others.

Now I’m quite challenged about this because I love to read but I don’t always bother to read out loud. That always takes a little more effort. And so I am being challenged about that, even when I am doing my personal reading to start doing that out loud, or if someone’s around, to read it quietly under my breath.

This word also means “to study, to memorize, to moan or groan.” Have you ever groaned with conviction when you read God’s Word? I have. Have you ever moaned with the weight of a revelation that God gives you as you are reading a passage, or even God’s judgment on sin?

I mean, you go through some of the major prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and so on, or even the minor prophets, and you read the prophetic words of God’s judgment upon Israel and then of His coming judgment on the day of the Lord. Wow. Oh goodness me, they are so powerful, and you can just moan.

That’s why I believe we need to be people who are constantly reading the Word because as we read the Word, we get the fear of God into us.

I often say to people that it’s a good idea to read the book of Revelation every now and then. It puts the fear of God into you. We do need that. I believe the fear of God is missing from so much of the church of God today. People don’t walk or live or act as though they live in the fear of God.

Often, it’s the opposite. There’s no fear of God in their lives by what they say, do, or watch. There’s no fear of God. The only way we get the fear of God is in the Word of God.

As we’re reading it, we realize that this God that we serve here is a loving, merciful God, but He’s also a God of judgment and justice. And at this present time of grace, with great patience, He waits for more and more to come to repentance. For He is not willing that any should perish, but He waits, and He waits.

There is coming a time when He will deal with sin. He will deal with the nations. And He will deal with people personally. As you read in the Word, that’s not going to be a nice time. It’s a fearful day of judgment. Sometimes you can even moan and groan as you read it. I just cry out to God and say, “Oh, God, I just want to be walking in your fear, I want to be right with You. I don’t want to be in that place where I’m going to receive that judgment for sin.”

Of course we know that every sin that we bring to Him and to His forgiveness that He forgives and forgets, and it comes under the blood of Jesus and will be remembered no more. But if we are walking in sin, when Jesus comes and the Day of the Lord comes and the judgment comes, we will have to face that.

It also means “to growl.” In Isaiah 31:4, it talks about the lion growling and just as a lion growls, chews, rips, and tears its prey to eat it, so that’s how we’re meant to eat the Word of God.

We get into it and we chew it and bite it and, oh, we just want to get into it! It’s far more than just having a little read. We’re to be just like that lion that’s tearing its prey and just wants to get it into his mouth.

This is also one of the pictures of that word, “meditate.” Meditating in God’s Word is the opposite to the alternative meditation people like to do today— yoga meditation, or Buddhist meditation, which is so pacifist. No, when we’re meditating on God’s Word it’s not being passive at all, it’s getting into it. It’s speaking it aloud. It’s studying. It’s using your mouth.

In fact, we can also look at Joshua 1:8, which is similar to Psalm chapter one that we read in last week’s podcast. It says: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth[Do you notice the word “mouth” there? It’s our mouths. We have to get the Word of God into our mouths. We’re to be speaking the Word of God. This is very important]; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night [exactly the same as Psalm chapter one], that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

That’s exactly the same promise in Psalm chapter one where we meditate “day and night” and “you will prosper.”

The word for “prosper” actually means “you will be wise, you will get wisdom and understanding, and you will know the right thing to do.” All when we have the Word in us.

We notice this mouth business. Then I think of Isaiah 59:21: “As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy MOUTH. . ..”

Do you see it again? “Thy words which I have put in thy MOUTH.” Have you got the Word in your mouth? Is it coming out of your mouth? That’s where it has to be, dear ladies. In our mouths.

It goes on to say that it: “. . . shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed [your children], nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed [your children’s children], saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.”

What a powerful Scripture. I believe that this is the vision that God gives to us parents and mothers. He wants us to have the Word abiding in us, not only in our hearts, but in our mouths so we can speak it.

We’re always speaking it out when we come together at breakfast time, and after breakfast, our Bible reading time. So often before my husband even reads the Word, I’m bursting to share what God has already given me. “Oh, I’ve just got to tell you what God has said to me this morning through His Word!” and so I’m speaking it out.

When you speak it out it becomes more part of you. That’s why God wants us to get it into our mouths.

But then it says He wants us to get it into the mouths of our children. How much of the Word is in your children? How much of the Word comes out of your children’s mouths? Do they really have it in their mouths?

Dear lovely ladies, this is our responsibility. Yes, this is what God says, “This is My covenant, this is what I want you to do. I want you to get it into the mouths of your children.”

Now, that’s going to take a lot. That reminds me of that wonderful book, Ten P’s in a Pod. I’m sure many of you have read this book. It’s an old book, written many, many years ago, but I still have it available for sale at Above Rubies. I’m doing a sale at the moment so if you pop on to the web page at www.aboverubies.org you can order Ten P’s in a Pod.

It’s a wonderful story of this family. The father had a great vision to get the Word into His children. He didn’t have only his Bible reading time once a day or even twice a day.

In our home we do it twice a day because we believe that is a Biblical principle. If you want to know about it and understand the Biblical principle you can go onto my web page and put in the search, “The Evening and Morning Principle” (or it might be “The Morning and Evening Principle”). It shows all the Scriptures there of God’s principles of getting His Word into our hearts morning and evening and coming to Him in prayer, praise, and worship every morning and evening.

The morning and evening really are a minimum of coming into His presence as a family each day.

But this father—oh, he had an even bigger vision than that. He wanted to fill his children with the Word! So he would read to his children for an hour after breakfast every morning. After lunch, he would read to them for an hour again. After suppertime, he would read to them for an hour again.

Then as their children got a little older and they could read for themselves, he encouraged them to have 15 minutes before they came to breakfast. As they got older, they had to get up to an hour.

They were in the Word for four hours a day, so consequently most of the children could recite the whole of the New Testament verbatim and so many passages of the Old Testament because the Word was in them. But not only was it in them, they had all these opportunities for reciting it out, so it was getting out of their mouths.

Now this guy, the son of father, he wrote this book and it’s not only about that. It’s about their exciting million-mile journey as they went through the whole of USA and Canada preaching the Gospel, all the things that happened and the funny things that happened.

He also said that they stayed in many Christian homes along the way because people would host them. But his father would never deviate from this principle. So even if he was staying in someone else’s home, a lovely Christian home, he would say to the host and hostess, “We love to read the Word of God after our meals, so would you mind if I read the Bible to my children?”

They would always say, “Oh, of course, go ahead! You’re so welcome.”

Then he would say, “Would you like to join with us?”

Well, the son wrote in his book that not one person ever said yes. They were Christian homes. But not one ever stopped to stay with them.

Anyway, my husband and I were blessed to meet this guy recently. He’s now a grandfather, the son who wrote the book when he was only 21. He came to visit, and oh, it was so delightful to meet him.

God has blessed him throughout the years and now he has children and grandchildren. It was so wonderful to talk with him and see the blessings and the fruit of their lifestyle still continuing down the generations.

Recently I was staying with some folk and visited a most lovely family. Some of you will know this family, Brayden and Tali Waller. He’s the oldest son of the Waller family who is doing this incredible ministry in the heartland of Israel on the West Bank. Ha Yovel is the ministry. They take families and young people from all over the world to go to the heartland of Israel, the West Bank and harvest the grapes and the olive orchards, minister and bless the farmers on the hills of Samaria there.

Anyway, I wasn’t in Israel, but I was staying at their home in Missouri. It was so amazing to see their four little children. Their little children got up and recited to me a whole chapter of the Bible. They did it together. They’re just little ones and they knew the whole chapter. In fact, they already know chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew, and chapters 15, 16, and 17 of John. They can recite Isaiah 40, plus many of the Psalms, they know hundreds of the Psalms.

Here are these little ones already being filled with the Word of God and speaking it out because they have lots of opportunity to say it together and speak it out. The Word is coming out of their mouths.

So I want to encourage you in that, dear ladies. That’s what the word “meditate” really means. Did you get it? Not just to think about, but to speak it quietly under your breath or out loud. To study, memorize, or even moan and groan, or even to growl. It’s all to do with coming out of your mouth!

I trust that you will be an Isaiah 59:21 family!

That’s a great vision to have. You can tell your children about that. Say, “Children, we are going to be an Isaiah 59:21 family.”

You could print this Scripture out and put it up on your wall, reminding you all to get the Word of God into your mouth, and into the mouth of your children, and into the mouth of your children’s children and henceforth forever. It’s meant to carry on for generations.

We don’t want to be, like we were talking in the last podcast, like the generations that are degenerating. We want to be regenerating for God. Amen? Absolutely!

Let’s carry on, shall we? We are going to move on today to our last two points. I think that we will complete them today.

No. 18. ECSTATICALLY REJOICING

We know God wants us to rejoice. It tells us: “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” We all sing that little chorus, don’t we?

Once again, we have an adjective. God not only wants us to rejoice, but to EXCEEDINGLY rejoice. What does it say in 1 Peter 1:8? We’re to rejoice with “. . .joy unspeakable and full of glory.” That’s a great description, isn’t it?

Let’s look at some other situations where God wants us to rejoice. God doesn’t only want us to rejoice when everything’s going good. That’s easy. We all rejoice when everything’s great. We’re happy, we’re having a good time, we’re laughing, we’re rejoicing. But the rejoicing God talks about is rejoicing when everything’s not going so well.

We’re going to talk about when people speak against you. I wonder— have you ever rejoiced when someone has spoken against you? It’s certainly not the thing that we would naturally do, is it?

No, we want to do the opposite. We get very offended and quite mad. How dare they say that about me! That’s not true! Help, I can’t even believe it! And we get indignant and we get offended.

But what does the Bible say? Matthew 5:11-12: “Blessed are ye [that means happy. Happy are ye], when men shall revile you, and persecute you [that’s even more than just saying something a little derogatory about you] and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

Those words, exceeding glad, is a word in the Greek, agalliaō. It means (listen for it, ladies!), “to jump and leap for joy, to show one’s joy by leaping and skipping, ecstatic joy and delight.”

That’s absolutely the opposite to how we feel when someone speaks about us.

Maybe you have friends who just think you’re a nutcase because you’re have more children than the 1.9 that American’s have.

They think you’re a nutcase because you’re homeschooling. Maybe they even talk about you behind your back and you can get so sad and upset.

But here Jesus says when people revile you, persecute you and talk about you falsely, rejoice and be exceeding glad! Now I wonder, have you ever in your life jumped, skipped, and leaped with joy when that has happened to you? Well, if you haven’t, you haven’t been biblical.

I must confess, I don’t do that all the time but because I know the Scripture and I know what it means I have tried to do it a few times. Yes, I have jumped and leaped and skipped around the room when I’ve heard of horrible things spoken about me because I know that’s what God wants me to do.

It really does work because there’s something about bodily action. You start jumping, leaping, and skipping, “Oh hallelujah, Lord, I’m just so rejoicing in you! What does it matter what they say? I’m trusting and I’m jumping and I’m leaping!” Really, you can’t feel mad or upset after that if you’re leaping and skipping because you’re jumping it all out of you.

So perhaps you could try it the next time that maybe this happens, because it’s sure to happen. I don’t think there’s one of us who have ever missed out and will certainly face it again. We will always have to face these things in the future. So let’s know what to do.

Another thing that we should do is to pray for them and bless them. In the same Scripture, in Matthew 5, it talks about that, too. Matthew 5:44: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”

The Bible never lets us off, does it? It always shows us what to do. God’s Kingdom principles are always the opposite to how we feel. We don’t want to do that; we don’t want to do any of it. But if we do, amazing things happen. We get free inside. All the bitterness, hurt, and feeling upset, it goes as we bless those who hurt us, do good to them, pray for them and skip, leap, and rejoice!

The next one, when you go through temptations and difficulties. First Peter 1:6-7: “Wherein ye greatly rejoice [greatly rejoice. Actually that “greatly rejoice” is the same Greek word that means to jump, and leap for joy, and skip with ecstatic joy and delight. So, when you’re going through trials you greatly rejoice], though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: whom having not seen, ye love. . .” So there it is.

Now the third one: When you’re going through a fiery trial. First Peter 4:12-13: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”

There we have it again. Not just joy, but EXCEEDING joy. Even when we’re going through trials.

Of course our greatest, exceeding joy will be on that day. Even when we’re going through trials here, we can trust God, we can know that this is only a season, it’s only for a little time. There’s going to be a day of great rejoicing.

“If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. . ..” (1 Peter 4:14).

And so lovely ladies, not only in our homes with our precious children, but even going through difficult times, fiery trials, temptations, and when people speak against us, in all these Scriptures God tells us to exceedingly rejoice.

Once again, we’re not going to be normal people. We’re not going to be average. We’re not going to be status quo. We are going to be those who are totally different, over the top, above and beyond, because we are mothers who are going to change the world. Even when we go through these tough times we will rejoice with exceeding joy. We will just skip, leap, and jump around the room. Do you think you could do that?

I wonder if I could just tell you the rest of these quickly so we can finalize this amazing series of CHANGING THE WORLD.

No. 19. GREATLY PRAISING

God doesn’t want us to only praise Him but praise Him with our whole hearts. David was continually confessing in the Psalms: “I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart.”

Here’s one of hundreds, Psalm 11:1: “Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.”

We like to sing to end our Bible reading and prayer. Do you like to do that? It is important to also sing when you come together for Bible reading, because when we come together morning and evening it is a type of how they lit the altar of incense every morning and evening. The altar of incense speaks of prayer, worship, and praise unto our God.

So as we come together as a family it is important to sing. When you do sing, how do you sing as a family? Do you sing boringly? Do you sing just averagely? Or do you sing with all your hearts?

My husband has taught our children to sing with all their hearts and our grandchildren, too, because this is how he grew up. His whole family, the children (there were nine children in the family), lived on a farm, and they had to milk cows every morning and every evening. They would sing in the cowshed. They would sing at the top of their voices! The neighbors could hear them for miles around.

They still all love to sing today. They open their mouths wide and they sing with all their hearts. It’s such a wonderful thing to praise the Lord with all our hearts.

Sometimes if he notices the children are not singing, or are singing very boringly, Colin will say, “Come on now, we’re going to do it with all our hearts! Stand up, put your heads back, open your mouths wide and sing with all your hearts!”

Often our children, when they sing the chorus to one of their favorite hymns, “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand” (oh how they love that one!) they open full throttle and sing it.

So let’s do it with all our hearts.

The last one . . .

No. 20. WHOLEHEARTEDLY SEEKING

God wants us to seek after Him. Not only to seek Him, but to seek Him with all our hearts, with every fiber of our being.

Psalm 119:2: “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the WHOLE HEART.”

Psalm 119:10: “With my WHOLE HEART I have sought thee. . ..”

Hebrews 11:6: “. . .He is a rewarder of them that DILIGENTLY seek him.”

Mark 12:30: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with ALL THY HEART, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. . ..”

Amen?

So, precious ladies, let’s be those who change the world because we’re never going to be boring or average. We’re going to do everything unto the Lord with our whole hearts. Amen?

“Dear Father, I ask that You will bless every precious soul who is listening—every mother, grandmother, daughter, and child. Pour out Your blessing all over them.

“Father, we have to confess we have been so slack in getting Your Word into our mouths and the mouths of our children. Oh God, I pray that You would pour out Your Spirit over each one listening. Give them a new love and longing and delight in Your Word, Lord God.

“Lord, give them such a heart and such a passion to make sure that they have these times with their children each day. A minimum of the morning and evening, Lord God, of the principle You have given us.

“That You would help them get Your Word into their mouths that their children would be Word-speaking children, as Your Word says. That they would be Isaiah 59:21 families, Lord God, filled with Your Word, speaking it out of their mouths to one another and wherever they go in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.”

P.S. This transcript was transcribed by Morgan Roth, who was one of my previous Above Rubies helpers. Morgan transcribes all the even numbers and Kayla Lewis; another previous Above Rubies girl transcribes the uneven numbers of the podcasts. They do such a wonderful job. I’m so grateful to them.

P.S. I mentioned Brayden and Tali Waller of HaYovel. You can check out this wonderful organization at www.hayovel.com

P.S. Talking about singing loudly to the Lord, I read this Scripture the other day:

Psalm 105:2 (Msg): “Sing him songs, BELT OUT HYMNS, translate his wonders into music.”

P.S. I mentioned the book, TEN Ps IN A POD. Here is further information for you to order.

TEN P’S IN A POD

A Million-Mile Journal of the Arnold Pent Family

By Arnold Pent III

This book is one of my favorites. It has always been a challenge to me of the impact of reading God’s Word to our children. The author of this book wrote it when he was 21 years old and it is still popular today. Recently my husband I enjoyed meeting this wonderful couple in our home and he testified of not only the impact of the Word in his own life as a young person but in the following generations. This habit is now continuing with his grandchildren.

It is the story of the million-mile journey of Arnold Pent, Jr. and his wife and eight children as they travelled through US and Canada together. The father preached along the way. But no matter where they were, or whoever they stayed with, they never gave up their practice of daily Bible reading and memorization.

Go to: https://tinyurl.com/10PsBook

WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY?

“TEN P’S IN A POD should be required reading. I still count it among one of the handful of most important books I have ever read.” 

~ Andrée Seu Peterson, World Magazine Columnist

“Your book is a breath of fresh air.”

“In a society where the Bible is rarely read, even in Christian homes, this book should be necessary (but enjoyable) reading for EVERY Christian family.”

 “How this husband and wife were able to take a family of eight children across both the United States and Canada throughout the 1950s and early 1960s in various old cars is a story worth reading.”

This book is also available on Audio.

TEN P’S IN A POD AUDIO CD BOOK

A Million Mile Journal of the Arnold Pent Family

Read by the author.

Join a family of ten on a million-mile journey of evangelism, home education, and discipleship. Journaling his family’s travels, experiences, and ministry, Arnold Pent III (the third of eight children) first published this story in 1965 at the age of 21. You’ll learn of his father’s commitment to family Bible reading, Scripture memory, and singing together, as well as enjoy all the antics one might expect from piling eight children into two old cars and hitting the road to take the gospel message anywhere they found a group willing to listen.

Gather the family around and hear the story read by the author himself (now 75) and enjoy this heart-warming story. You and your family will be inspired.

Also contains music and Scripture recitations from the Pent Family Archives. Seven discs.

Go to: https://tinyurl.com/10PsAudioBook

What do people say?

“We have so enjoyed your print book and the audio version that we play several times a year in the car.” 

—

“My husband and I listened to your book with our children during a road trip from South Carolina to Maine. Then on our way from Maine to Ohio, we listened to it again. The last CD we listened to three times, repeating track 13 eight times.”

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 57 - How Can We Change the World- Part 23

Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy: Hello ladies, it's such a beautiful day here in Tennessee. Hope it's great where you are. Maybe some of you are in the wintertime down under, and you're freezing and cold, but we are lovely and warm here today. Anyway, last podcast, I was telling you about a prayer we pray each day, and my mind went blank just as I was going to tell you. I must tell you what it is today.

Every day, when we are having family devotions, and we pray for God's protection over our family, we pray this prayer: “O God, that You will keep them all from accident, harm, sickness, and danger and all enemy attack, both physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually in every way. Amen.” That's a little prayer that we love to pray. I don't know how it has come to be part of our family, but it has. I think it was even passed on from Colin's family because he used to pray it and now it continues.

I was sharing about how God's protection had been upon our granddaughters and the other girls in the car when they had had their accident. Then, Friday night, we had another accident in the family. Our grandson, Arrow, that's Evangeline and Howard's son, was helping his brother and sister-in-law on their car, and the radiator blew up in his face. It was terrible. I think he wondered if he had lost his eyes; he couldn't open them. He was in terrible pain. His whole face was burned, so he ran to a muddy puddle with stones, and he was scraping his face to get this heat and burn off. Apparently, that was one of the best things he could do. Then, they put his head, while the ambulance was coming, in a bucket of cold spring water, and they got a snorkel for him so he could keep his face under. That was very good too.

Eventually, the ambulance came and took him to the hospital where they scraped his face. That's pretty painful, but he was put under with the highest painkillers you could get so that they could scrape it all. His face was down, everything was gone. Anyway, God was good. We were crying out to God and praying for His miracle-working power, and God was all over him. He was able to come home later that night.

Now, he's having to heal. He looks even worse now than when it happened, but that's the whole part of the healing process. Some of you may have seen a picture I sent out on Facebook and Instagram. He looked pretty amazing there, but it looks worse now, but that's all part of the healing. Once again, we are praising the Lord for His wondrous protection. God is good because he has his eyes; they are perfect, and we keep praying for the beautiful healing of his face. He's not allowed to go out in the sun for six months. Sometimes, he has to, and he'll get an umbrella. He'll get out walking at nighttime, out of the sun.

How important it is to be praying over our children and over our families for God's protection. I know there are so many times when I don't even know about how God has protected our family. We have children and grandchildren and of course now, great grandchildren. Our older children are flying and traveling, not only all over this country but all over the world, and God's wondrous protection is upon them. I believe we have a responsibility to pray that each day that little prayer we pray when we are all together, but Colin and I like to pray specifically for our children. We do that together. I believe that's a powerful thing, don't you?

Do you pray for your children with your husband? I do believe that's one of the most powerful things that we can do as husband and wife. One of the wonderful things I was excited about when we got married was that Scripture where it says where ”two of you should agree on earth as touching anything, it shall be done for them as my Father which is in heaven.” When we get married, we are two, but He makes us into one, so we have not only the promise to the two, but we are one together. We agree. We are made one. We have this powerful promise that the things that we pray, especially for our children, as husband and wife, God hears those prayers.

I want to really encourage you to pray together as husband and wife. Perhaps, you haven't been doing that with your husband. Perhaps your husband is one who doesn't even like to pray much. I think, you know, to really encourage him to do it . . . Now, don't tell him this is something you should do because then he won't do it all. Men don't like to do things when you tell them what to do. But you can come to your husband and say, “Darling, I've been really feeling the need to pray for our children. There are so many different areas where I need God's help, and they need God in their lives. Do you think that you could possibly pray with me for the children once a day?” Hopefully, he says yes. Even if he gives a bit of a grunt and doesn't sound excited, even if he gives a tiny affirmation, then say, “Darling, when do you think would be the best time to do it? I'll do it whenever you're free. We can do it in the morning or in the evening. Let's make a time but you tell me the time.”

You don't have to have a great, long length of time but just pray over your children, just to bring their names into His presence, even if you can bring each one of their names before the throne of God, that would be wonderful. If you would like, I do have a list of things that we love to pray for our children, and I have Scriptures with each one because each one of them are a Scriptural prayer. You can email me, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I can send them to you. Let me read them to you.

There's a lot of prayers here, and we don't pray all of them every day. Sometimes, we will just take one or two and pray over them. You can look up the Scriptures, and you can pray these Scriptures over your children, and it becomes very powerful. Here we are:

We pray that they would have a real, born-gain experience and come to know God personally.

I believe that's our number one prayer, that our children have a personal, born-again experience, and they come into a personal relationship with Jesus. If we are praying for this, we will be looking out for that moment when our child is ready to take that step. I have talked with families, with mothers, and their children are getting on, eleven, twelve, and I've said to them, “Are they born again?” They say, “I don’t know. They know about salvation.”

We need to know, dear mothers. We must know if our children are born again and if they have opened their hearts to Jesus. I believe that children can do this at a very early age, especially in a godly family. In a Christian family, where you are reading the Word every morning and every evening to your children, and all our children are around, all your little ones, maybe you're nursing your babe at the breast, but your little babe is hearing the Word of God. Maybe you have a toddler and your husband has got your little toddler on his knee while you read a few verses of Scripture into their lives. That word is going into them. You may think, Oh, they don't understand much; they are so little, but that Word is alive. That Word has power to go into them. The Bible says that the Word has power to bring them to salvation.

Do you remember when Paul was writing to Timothy, and he said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:15: “From a child, thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which is able to make you wise unto salvation.” That word “child” there is the Greek word brephos, and it's the same word that was used when Jesus was in the womb (Luke 1:41-44). It's used of  a babe in the womb.

It's the same word that was used when the angels spoke to the shepherds and said, “You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger” (Luke 2;12). That word babe there was of a little newborn babe.

Often, it's used for a little child. This word there is not talking about older children but young children. Even a young child can come to know Jesus if they are getting the Word into them because that Word prepares them for salvation.  Even children of three and four can have a true born-again experience.

Quite a number of my children came to Jesus and asked Jesus to come into their lives at four years of age. That experience is still real in their lives today. They are still walking with God today in their fifties, and they remember that moment where they gave their lives to Christ. Look out for that, pray for it, look out for it and give opportunities for it, and when you see that their hearts are tender, you can ask them, “Would you like to ask Jesus to come into your life?”

When they have Christ in their lives, then He dwells with them, and you are able to teach them how to live in victory. When they are naughty and they get mad and upset, you can tell them, “Listen, that's your naughty flesh that's wanting to do that, but Jesus now lives in you. He's in your heart, and He wants you to live like He does. Jesus is full of love and joy, and He wants to do that in you. He wants you to yield to Him and say, 'Yes, Jesus, I will be kind to my brother. I'm not going to get mad and yell at him' because that's your naughty flesh, but when you have Jesus living in you, He will help you to be like Him.”

You are able to teach them how to live a godly life, even as a little child. Why do we have to wait until we learn the secrets and principles of the Word of God? No, we teach them to our little ones, right when they are little.

Let's get on with these prayers.

We pray that they will have a soft and tender heart to hear and obey the voice of the Lord.

That they will walk humbly before the Lord.

That they will love the Lord their God with all their heart and soul and mind and strength.

That they will love to read God's Word and receive revelation and insight as they read.

Such an amazing prayer to pray. So many children grow up today and they hear God's Word at Sunday school and at church, but they have never learned to listen to hear God speak through His Word to them personally. This is something we have to teach our children.

When we have family devotions, family Bible reading, we say to the children, “Daddy is now going to read the Bible. This is God speaking. I want you to listen with all your hearts and listen, for God might have something special to say to you, something very important just for you so be listening.”

At the end of the few Scriptures that you read, you can ask them, “Did God say something to you in your heart and in your mind?” You'll be amazed, as you teach your children to listen, what they will say to you. You'll find that God is speaking to them, especially as you get them into this habit.

I believe it is one of the most important things we can do as mothers, to teach our children how to hear God speak personally to them as they hear or as they learn to read God's Word. In fact, we have to learn to do this for ourselves. Never rely on the Sunday sermon to get what you need from God. Let's get it fresh every day. They had to go out and get the manna every day, and if they didn't, “We didn't have time to get the manna, we will use some of yesterday's manna.” No, they'd go to get some of yesterday’s, and it would be stinking and breeding worms.

God never allowed it to last until the next day. They always had to get it fresh. God wants us to get fresh words from him every day. You can get them, and you can teach your children how to get them as you listen to God's Word, which is alive and active and works in our hearts.

When I read the Word, I read every Word. I'm believing and expecting God to speak to me through every word. Sometimes, it's just one word in the middle of a verse but that one word will speak to me. As that beautiful worship song says, “I don't want to miss one word You speak.” When we hear or when we are reading God's Word, we don't want to miss one word He speaks. Let's get our children into this habit, ok?

That they will love to pray and be committed to pray.

Do your children love to pray? Teach them how to pray. How do you teach them how to pray? By praying. That's how you teach them. The best way to learn to pray is to pray. They learn as they hear you pray.

That they will be committed to the regular gathering together of God's people.

Of course, that's your habit I am sure. I trust that you are a family that is committed to meet with the Lord's people. Whether you meet on a Sunday or a Saturday, you are committed to meeting with God's people, as the Word says that we will “not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, and so much the more as you see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

I believe that we show to our children our personal commitment to go by our being committed to His people, by being committed to at least the minimum, one service a week. Help. That is pitiful really. I can remember when we grew up as children. Back in our day, we went to our church three times on Sunday. We went to our morning service as a family. We sat as a family. Back in those days, we never had time for children to go out for Sunday school, children’s church. No, the whole family sat together. We came as families. We worshiped as families.

If you read the Word, you will find that everywhere where God calls His people together, He doesn't say, “I want all the adults to come, but I want you to separate the children.” No, He says: “Come as families.” We read that passage in Joel where He says: “Come to pray and to fast” (Joel 2:15-17).

You would think when there is a time of serious fasting and praying, you would imagine the pastor saying to his congregation, “Now folks, we've got this serious issue. We've got to pray and fast. Now, this is so serious, you're going to have to get babysitters. You're going to have to leave the children at home. We are going to have to get into business with God.” If that's what he says, it's unbiblical. Because when God calls His people to pray, even to fast, He calls them all, the children, the little ones, the nursing moms. He calls them all, the suckling babes. Everyone is mentioned, the little toddlers and the suckling babes and the children. God longs for us to do things together as families, and the most important thing we can do is worship together as a family. Let's do it as families. That's a wonderful thing to do.

That they will love righteousness and hate evil. That they will stand strong against the wiles of the devil and never compromise. That they will hate the spirit of this world and not give into the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

Amen. I've just remembered, I didn't finish telling you my story. I was saying how back in my day, we used to go to church three times a day. I only got up to the morning service. We would fellowship, worship as a family and hear the Word together as a family, then we'd all go home for lunch.

Then us children would go back to church, and we would walk. We didn't get our parents to take us in the car. No, we weren't wimpy back in those days. We walked, and it was well over a mile, maybe a mile and a half to two miles. We walked back to Sunday school. There we had our Sunday school. After Sunday school, we walked back home again.

Then we had the evening service, so we had it three times day. That was life. That was Sunday because it was the Lord's day. We didn't go shopping; we didn't go out and do our own thing that day. That was for the Lord. In fact, back in that day, can you even believe it? The shops weren't even open on Sunday. Can you believe that?  I guess if you are younger, you can't even believe that there was a time when shops didn't even open on Sunday. No shops were open even for the secular people. The secular people didn't open shops on Sunday back then. Now today, Christians go shopping on Sunday.

Anyway, we got to the next generation and my husband and I have been pastoring all our lives, since we've been married. I have to confess; we have kind of degenerated a bit because we only had two services when we raised our children. We had our morning service and then we had our evening service and that was it. Ok, two services.

Now, can you believe it? I have to confess and really, I feel that it’s so sad. We've got down to one service. Now, this next generation, the third generation, we have our Sunday morning service, which is such a beautiful time, but that's all we have. We have a prayer meeting midweek. Of course, church's always, all over, have always had a midweek prayer meeting. Isn't it amazing? We are now down to the one service, and that is becoming typical with so many churches. I don't know how it is that we've even succumbed to this, but we have.

What gets me, what I can't understand, is that we only have one service, yet even for one service, sometimes people don't come.

“Well, something else happened.”

“I think we will go on a picnic today.”

“Somebody else came to visit.”

That's more important than meeting with God and His people? I beg your pardon. What are we saying to our children? We are saying to them, “Children, this little incident happened, but it's more important than God. It's more important than meeting with His people.”

We do that, and we can arrive late, even half an hour late. What's that? I'm only just going to meet with God. What's that? They'd never be late for work; they'd get fired. We are so lax even about one service. Oh my. We have degenerated, haven't we? There is a statement that says, “One generation is a generation away from degeneration,” and I believe it. It's happened in my lifetime. This is one of my prayers. That our children will be committed to the regular gathering of God's people, and as they get older, they will not deviate from it. Sadly, sometimes, as they get older, they tend to deviate from these Biblical principles. How we have to pray. Let's carry on. You can understand how we can't pray all these prayers every day. We'll just take a few each day.

That they will hate lies and deception and seek after truth.

That they will shine as lights in this dark and deceived world.

That they will understand true justice and have discernment concerning good and evil and the holy and the profane.

That they will seek God with all their hearts.

That they will keep their whole spirit, soul and body pure and blameless for the Lord. That they will keep themselves from evil.

That their faith would not fail.

That God will pour out His spirit upon them mightily.

That they will become laborers in God's harvest field.

That they will keep themselves pure and holy, body, soul and spirit for the man or the women that God has chosen for them. That's an important prayer. That in this lustful world, our children will keep pure and holy, ready for that one that God has for them.

That God will, even now, prepare them for a godly wife or husband, who will be committed and faithful to the marriage until the end of their lives. That they will love and embrace children and establish a godly home.

 All these prayers that I just said, there are Scriptures to go with them all. You're welcome to email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for them if you would like a copy.

Well ladies, back to our series on HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD. We've still got five more points to go. I've got 20 points. Can you believe it? We've been talking so long to get through this. Of course, if we are going to change the world, it's going to take a little bit of time talking about it, isn't it? We are up to number 16.

No. 16. JOYFULLY MOTHERING

We have talked about diligent mothering and abounding in mothering, but this Scripture I am going to read talks about joyful mothering.

Psalm 113:9: “He makes the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord.”

Notice, it doesn't only say to be a mother of children. No, God puts in one of His adjectives, which He loves to do. The adjective for mothering is joyful, joyful mothering.

We talked a little bit about this when we were talking about the 25 points of the different ways God wants us to work in our homes. One of those ways is to work joyfully. Here, it's talking about mothering joyfully.

Are you joyful today? Filled with joy? Overflowing with joy/ Or are you going through a bit of a self-pity trip? Are you feeling miserable, downcast, got a bit of depression going there? Darling mothers, please, rise up. Remember, God wants you to be a joyful mother.

It's the same word as Proverbs 16:13: “A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance.” To have a cheerful countenance and put a smile on your face really starts with your heart. Sometimes, if your heart is not there, you've got to do it anyway. When you put on a smile, then it does something to your heart and to your whole body. You just try it.

 After you've listened to this podcast, well, I don't think you'll be depressed. If at some stage you get tempted to feel depressed and get into that self-pity trip, I want you to try something. I want you to put on a smile and look at one of your children and say, “I love being your mother, Abigail. You are such a blessing to me.” Say it with the biggest smile on your mouth and on your face and your eyes are squinting with your smile. You're not going to feel so depressed. You can speak good things, happy things. And you can't make your face go into this big smile and still feel lousy. No, because when you do something, when you speak and when you do an action with your body, it effects how you feel.

Proverbs 17:23 says: “A merry heart does good like a medicine” It's like health. It gives you a fix. Do you remember I talked about that Scripture in 1 Kings 1:39-40 where it tells the story of Zadok anointing Solomon to be king? It says: “All the people followed him, playing flutes and rejoicing with such a great joy that the earth split open from the sound.” Can you believe that? Earth-splitting joy. Now, that was a lot of joyful people together. When all these people were joyful together, it split the ground. That is exactly the same word as in our Scripture. He makes us to be a joyful mother of children.

Now ladies, we are talking about how do we change the world? Can I tell you? Bland, boring, downcast mothers don't change the world! They are a bad testimony to the world, but joyful mothers will change the world.

As joyful mothers go out to the supermarket and out into society, as they take their children to different things, when they have smile on their face and they are full of joy, they will impact the people around them.

Feminists have no comeback for joyful mothers. What can they say? There is no argument. When there are joyful mothers who are embracing their career of motherhood, knowing that this is the greatest career that God has given to them, that it is the most powerful career in the whole of the nation, for there is no other career that can even get near it. I mean, others may think they are in some very important career, but it is only temporary; it's only for this world. It's going to burn up; it's going to fade; it's going to be left behind, but motherhood is an eternal career. It goes on into eternity.

The children that God gives you are eternal souls that are going to live forever. The teaching and loving and everything that you pour into them is going into them and will go on even into eternity. As you pray and you lead your children to a born-again experience and to know Jesus, you will take them into the eternal realm with you. It's so powerful.

Of course, not only for the eternal, but for this nation. It is us mothers who determine the future of the nation. Who is the next generation? It's our children, and they become the nation. It's how we train them that determines what the nation will be like. Dear mothers, you wield the greatest power of anyone in the nation. You're determining what the nation will be like for the next generation.

Let's embrace it with all our hearts, be filled with joy. We know we are in the perfect will of God. We can rejoice, and we can go out into society with a smile on our face because we know who we are. What does our humanistic, feminist, socialist society have to say? They have nothing to say when mothers are joyful, and they know who they are, and they are changing the world, and they are preparing a righteous generation for the future. Can you say amen with me?

Become a world changing, joyful mother. You can definitely affect not only your children but generations to come and society all around you. Amen.

Let's get onto our next point, and it is number 17:

No. 17 DELIGHTING IN GOD AND HIS WORD

God not only wants us to acknowledge Him but to delight in Him. God not only wants us to do His will but to delight to do His will. God not only wants us to own Bible's, and I'm sure you've got a number of Bible's in your home, but he wants us to delight in His Word. Let's look at some Scriptures.

Psalm 37:4: “Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Do you notice what it says? It doesn't say to delight yourself in the things that you are coveting and wanting and think you so desperately need. No, it says: “Delight yourself in the Lord.” As you delight yourself in Him, God will give you the things that you need.

Matthew 6:33: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added onto you.”

Psalm 40:8: “I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, your law is within my heart.” That's a statement that we can say before the Lord, but do you know who said that statement? It was Jesus himself. Psalm 40 is a prophetic Psalm. these few Scriptures in this passage, they are prophetic.

Let's go to Psalm 40. This is Jesus himself speaking. He's already in the eternal realm. He has not yet come to earth. This is prophetic. Verse 6 says: “Sacrifice an offering thou didst not desire. My ears hath thou opened, burnt offering and sin offering hath thou not required. Then said, Lo, I come in the volume of the book, it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God. Ye, thy law is within my heart.” Jesus is speaking here and saying: “In the volume of the Book, in the eternal Writings, it is written that I will be the Lamb. I will be the sacrifice. I will be the One who will have to die and shed my blood so that I can redeem a people unto myself.”

Instead of wondering,  “How will I do this? How can I leave the eternal realm? How can I go to this sin-sick earth and die and take the sin and the sicknesses of the world upon me? How can I do it?” Instead he says: “I delight to do your will, O my God.” If Jesus could say that when He had to lay down his life, when He had to go through that terrible physical suffering, but more than that, the agony, the incredible agony that no one will ever know how to even put into thoughts or words of taking upon himself our sin and our sicknesses. He had to take upon himself the evilest thing that's ever happened in the world. The most excruciating pain that's ever happened to anyone. He took it all. He took it upon himself. God couldn't even look upon Hm as He took the sin of the world upon Him. He did that for us and He said, “I delight to do thy will, O my Father.” Wow.

We are in the will of God as we are mothering. We have the joys of our darling children around us, the joys of our precious little baby and darling toddlers and children who are so incredible. Every life is amazing. We have a home, and tangible blessings. I'm sure you've got a washing machine and a dryer. And a dishwasher maybe, and you've got this, and you've got that. You've got furniture. You've got more than you'll ever need. Yet, many times, we are groaning and complaining.

Let's be those who delight to do His will, amen?

Let's look at Psalm 1:2: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord.” Let's go back and read the whole Psalm.

Psalm 1: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” What happened? “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” Yes, that's when we delight in His Word . . . how much do you delight in His Word? Often, I like to say to the folks living in our house, and we have quite a number of folks living with us currently, and they will come out to breakfast and I'll say to them, “What did you get from the Word of God this morning? Remember, “No Bible, no breakfast.” That was the word that an old Chinese saint said. He would always say every day, “No Bible, no breakfast.” He would not have any breakfast; he would not feed his body until he fed his inner man.

I will say, “Who got something very special as you read the Word this morning?” Most times, nobody answers because they haven't even read the Word. They are coming out for breakfast. They are coming out to get food for their bodies, but they haven't even got food for their souls. How much do we delight in His Word? How much do our children see us delighting in His Word? Do they see us making it a real habit to have our Bible reading time every morning and every evening, or do we just let things come along and take over?

Oh, we haven't got time. Oh, we've got to do this. Oh, we don't have time for Bible reading. Oh, this has happened. We have to do this today. We don't have time.” Do you know that unless you make it a precedent, unless you make it a habit, unless you make it a time and a place every day, you won't have it? Life does that to you. Life is so busy. Life takes over our lives, but we are the ones to determine what happens, not just let life take over. No, we must determine.

Every morning, every evening, we establish our time at our table where we have our Bible reading and prayer. To me, it is the most important thing of the day as a family, so I make it happen. Other things can be forgotten. If we don't have time for other things, too bad. This is the most important. When we do this, we show to our children that we delight in His Word. That it is more important than all the little things that we think are important, that are going to take us away and rob us of this time.

Really, it's the enemy that is doing it because he wants to steal this time from us, he wants to rob us. He does not want any family sitting down to Bible reading and prayer. He’s going to try and stop it every way he can, so you have to rise up in the strength of the Lord because you're not going to be a weak mother, you're going to be a strong mother.

What does Proverbs 31:10 say? “Whoso findeth a virtuous woman, for her price is far above rubies.” That word virtuous there means “strong, courageous, valiant.” This is the mothers that we have to be. Mothers aren't wimps. Mothers have to rise up in strength. We've got to be strong to make happen in our homes what we know must happen.

Therefore, we also show to our children that God is preeminent in our home. His Word is preeminent. If we let other things take over, we are saying to our children, “Children, God's Word is not as important as this little thing that's happening or this thing I have to run to now.” No, let's not be hypocrites. Let's let our children know that He is preeminent in our home. That His Word is preeminent and that we are a family that seek God, and we can't do it without praying together and that prayer is more important than anything else we will do in the day. Amen?

I've got to stop because time is up. Next podcast, I want to talk to you about a Scripture that I just read about meditating on His Word night and day. The word mediate in the Bible is quite different than what we think of it today. I'll tell you next time.

“Father, thank You so much for Your wonderful goodness to us. We want to be a thankful people. Thank You for these lovely wives and mothers and grandmothers and children who are listening. Bless them. I pray that You will help each mother and grandmother to be a joyful mother.

“I pray, Father, that You will give us all a heart to delight in You, a delight to do Your will, a delight in Your Word, a delight to pray, a delight to seek Your face, a delight in our mothering because this is the career that you've given to us. We ask this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.”

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

Podcast 56 - How Can We Change the World- Part 22

Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, I do hope that you are having a wonderful day, or maybe a wonderful evening. We are continuing the adjectives that I have found about the way that God wants us to work. We are up to number 22.

No. 22. WITHOUT GRUMBLING AND COMPLAINING

He wants us to work without grumbling and complaining. We all know that of course, don’t we? But often we still grumble and complain. Oh my, we have to be encouraged about this, don’t we?

I think of the children of Israel back in the wilderness, when God brought them out of Egypt with a mighty, miraculous hand and showed forth His power and might. I don’t think there have ever been such miracles as the bringing of the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, how God parted the sea and brought them through and then for 40 years they wandered in the wilderness.

They could have gotten into the land much quicker, but they really just weren’t ready. God really had to work in their hearts. In fact, He had to get Egypt out of their hearts before they were ready to go into the Promised Land.

The Bible says that He tempted them ten times, but every time they failed and most of the temptations ended with all the children of Israel grumbling and complaining instead of trusting God. They had seen His miracles, they had seen His power, but they still didn’t know how to trust Him. They grumbled and they complained. They grumbled because they didn’t have enough food.

In the end God just blessed them and gave them manna every day, six days a week for forty years. Until they got into the Promised Land, God faithfully provided. They saw so many miracles in the wilderness.

Isn’t it amazing, ladies, it’s so challenging to me that of all those millions who came into the wilderness, of that generation that came in, only two went into the Promised Land? I mean, they were saved through the blood. They put the blood upon the doors, the type of salvation. They were saved through the blood, they came through the water, and they had the pillar of fire above them by night and the pillar of cloud by day. They received miraculous miracles continually. And yet, only two got in—only two.

And what stopped them? Their unbelief, grumbling, and complaining. I think we see this in 1 Corinthians 10:1-11: “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written. . . Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed. . . Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

Everything that happened in the Old Testament, every story about every person (we all know the stories), but all the stories, all the things that happened, and every word that was written, it’s all written for an example. It’s all a type for us to learn from.

So God says, I want you to learn from those who murmured and grumbled. We do have to watch that, don’t we?

Philippians 2:14-15 says: “Do all things without murmurings and disputings [or some translations say “without grumbling and complaining”] That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.”

When we do things without grumbling, we shine as a light. That’s how we’re to do our work and how we are to teach our children to work too. If they see us doing it with joy, and we’re not going around the place grumbling and complaining, we’re showing them the example. We’re showing them the way.

Not only are these attitudes for us, they are for us to teach our children. So we teach them a good work ethic. These 25 adjectives are adjectives we need to put in our children.

We can give them these as they grow up and our sons get out there to provide for their families and get into their careers. If they have these attitudes, they will be successful. It’s not really how many degrees you have.

I have talked to men of recent times, CEO’s of companies, and they have told me that these days they are not looking so much for those who have degrees, but those who have intelligence, a good work ethic, and a good attitude to learn.

They said, “We can teach someone with a good attitude, a quick mind, and a good work ethic the way we want it done. They can learn pretty quickly and do better than someone who comes with all their degrees and thinks they know it all, but don’t have a good attitude or a good work ethic.”

They find a lot of these college students come out and don’t have a good attitude and are not a blessing to the company at all. Of course, if they have a degree, the good attitude, and a good work ethic, they will be a very good asset to the company. But without the good attitude and the good work ethic, they’re not going to be much of a blessing, nor are they going to be very successful themselves.

So these are wonderful things for life. These are the things that help make our home run smoothly with joy and blessing. This is the way we are preparing our children for life.

I think today we have too many lazy young people who don’t know how to work. They may know how to study, have gone to college, but they don’t know how to work in their home.

I know teens who don’t even know how to do dishes! Help! They don’t know how to do the dishes! What I mean is how to do them properly. You give them the job and it takes them so long to do it and they don’t really know the way you’re meant to do it—Okay, let’s get these dishes all rinsed and put here. Now we’re going to wash them, then we’re going to put them into the rinsing, then we’ll put them here to dry! We can do it in order and get it done!

They’ve just got it all in a mess, dishes are all over the place.

My, when I do the dishes, I’ve usually got all of the plates, maybe we’ve had 13 or 14 people around the table, I have them all washed and rinsed by the time the hot water has even got into the sink.

We need to teach our children how to work with a good work ethic, with all these attitudes we’ve been talking about.

No. 23. WITHOUT SEEKING RECOGNITION

Ephesians 6:6 says: “Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ. . ..”

When we work, we’re not doing it just to please people. Although, I think as a wife and mother we do. I want to please my husband. I want to please my children. I want to do it for the blessing of my home. But ultimately, we’re doing it for God. If we get that attitude, that’s a good one—we’re doing it for God. He, ultimately, is the One Who is looking on. He is beholding.

Now sometimes your husband may not give you any compliments. He may not say, “Oh, you’re doing such a wonderful job. I’m so grateful to you for the way you’re teaching our children and caring for them.” That would be so wonderful. If husbands are listening, I hope you do that.

But dear, lovely, precious wives and mothers, if your husband doesn’t know how to give compliments, remember, you’re still doing it as “unto the Lord” and He will bless you. The Word of God says that He will reward every good work.

That is found in Ephesians 6:8 and comes after these attitudes: ^“Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever good thing [Good thing! Did you get that? GOOD THING!] any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord. . ..”

Listen to that again, precious mothers: “Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord.” Any good thing you do does not go unnoticed by God.

Oh yes, it will go unnoticed many times by man. It may go unnoticed by your husband. It may go unnoticed by your children. But it won’t go unnoticed by God. And He says that every good thing you do, He’s going to give you a reward. You’re going to receive the same.

Now, you as a mother and a wife are doing a good thing. In Titus chapter two where it speaks to the older women to teach to the younger women, what does it tell them to teach them? Do you remember? It tells them to teach them “good things.”

And what are these good things? It then enumerates them: To love our husbands, to be obedient to our husbands, to love our children, to be a keeper of our home, to be chaste, pure, and good. These are good things.

In fact the word in the Greek is kalodidaskalos. Didaskalos means “to teach” and kalos means, not only good, it means “beautiful.” It’s more than good. It’s beautiful.

These works that you are doing in your home, to love your husband, to love your children, to love keeping your home—it’s a beautiful work, beautiful! Did you get that, dear wife and mother? It’s beautiful.

God says when you embrace this and when you do it as unto Me, you do this good thing, you’re going to receive the same reward. You’re going to receive a good reward. Do you love that?

We see that again in 1 Timothy 5:10 where it’s talking about the woman and it says she is “well reported of for good works.” Once again, GOOD WORKS.

And what is the first good works that it says? That she has raised and brought up children. The work there is teknotropheō. Teknon means “child” and trephō meaning “to feed, to nourish, to nourish with food.”

So it’s speaking of a woman, first as a baby comes to her, she nourishes her babe at her breast. But then as the children grow, she’s still a nourisher as she nourishes them with food, cooks meals for them and the bigger they get, the bigger the meals she has to cook.

She is always nourishing them. She’s not only nourishing them physically, but spiritually as well, as she nourishes them with the Word of God, and she nourishes them with food. There we see it: wonderful, beautiful, good works.

And so you don’t forget, here’s the promise again: “Knowing that whatsoever good thing [and these are all good works that you are doing] any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord. . ..” Isn’t that wonderful?

I hope your husband blesses you; but if he doesn’t, don’t despair. God is beholding. God is going to reward you for these good works you do in your home.

No. 24. WITHOUT GETTING WEARY

Well, we all get weary, don’t we? I know it’s not a little thing to watch, to care for and to look after your children, your little ones, and then getting to your bigger ones.

It’s a big task and it can be wearying. Especially when they are little and often you have to get up at night to a sick child, and oh my, you just feel so wearied and worn out in the morning. That can happen because there are always times when we’re facing something with our children.

Then you may have a new baby and the baby is wanting to nurse at night. But dear precious mother, can I encourage you to take your baby to bed with you and nurse your baby in bed? You will find that this is so much easier for you.

I found this out along the way. My first babies I didn’t do that. I woke in the night, I sat up with them, fed them, and it was so wearying. Oh my! Then I learned that you could take your baby to bed with you. At first, I was very concerned because I also heard the old wives’ tales, “Oh, you could lie on your baby, you could suffocate your baby and you better not do that.” I know hospital staff even say this today.

But dear ladies, this is not true. You can nurse your baby safely in bed if you learn to do it the right way. Sometimes it needs a little bit of practice. You have to practice everything to do it the right way.

I always nursed my baby on my side of the bed, never had the baby between us because I felt that would be dangerous. If you are a mother, you’re not on drugs, you’re not a half-witted mother, but if you’re a concerned, loving mother, you can learn to do this the right way and you can learn to do it safely.

So you can bring your baby into bed, nurse your baby and you’ll go off to sleep. If you’re holding the baby securely and the right way your baby will continue to nurse off and on all night.

Sometimes, my husband, when he’d wake in the morning, he would say, “Well, did the baby wake?” and I would say, “Oh yes, here’s the baby in my arms.” But really, I’d had a good night’s sleep. My baby was so happy, instead of screaming in a little cot all on its own, screaming for Mummy and I’d get up feed the baby, then put the baby down. But the baby screams because it doesn’t want to leave Mummy.

And so you have these terrible, sleepless nights. Sometimes you’ll have a wonderful husband who will say, “Let me take the baby.” He’ll be pacing the baby around, walking with the baby and trying to get the baby to sleep. But you won’t be sleeping, neither will he, and it’s all ridiculous because all you need to do is bring the baby to bed and nurse the baby. That’s what your baby wants. He wants to be near you, he wants to be next to your skin. He just wants to nurse on and off throughout the night. That is normal for a breastfed baby.

A breastfed baby can’t last throughout the night. Breast milk has a soft curd and it digests quickly and the baby is ready to nurse again. It’s not like a formula that forms the hard curd in the baby’s stomach and the baby can last longer. But that’s not how it’s meant to be. The baby needs that constant nursing and constant sucking, but you can still have that beautiful night’s rest. Isn’t that so good?

Oh, I wish I’d had that with my first baby. I wish I’d had Nancy Campbell come and tell me. But I had to learn by experience and so I pass that on to you.

We do have to watch because sometimes we can let ourselves get too weary by not doing what is right. Sometimes we don’t get to bed on time. We stay up later and later, then feel weary the next day.

I believe, mothers, that we need to prepare ourselves for the next day. We have a big challenge, it’s a big job, to care for our children, manage our home, get everything done throughout the day and cook the meals. There is much to be done and so we have to prepare for the next day by getting a good sleep, going to bed at a reasonable hour.

My mother, who has now passed away many years ago, she used to say, “The hours of sleep before midnight are the best hours of sleep.”

I used to think that was an old wives’ tale and I used to try and squeeze out every little bit I could get out of the day. Even when I was a mother and as I started Above Rubies, I used to go down to the office at night and I had to keep going until I couldn’t keep my eyes open one minute longer. Then I would think, “Okay, now I deserve bed.”

But that was the wrong way to live, completely the wrong way. I had to learn that by experience because that is not good for your health. The old wives’ tale is now scientifically proved.

In fact, I was just reading yesterday a scientific article, which stated that every hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours of sleep after midnight. In fact, after about nine or ten pm your cortisol is starting to click in and that’s a negative against you.

Instead, if we go to bed at a reasonable hour, the serotonin, the good hormones are kicking in and the growth hormones, which are good for children too, and even adults.

We need that. They have done studies to find that a woman who has five hours or less sleep a night, her percentage for breast cancer goes up about 48%. Interestingly, if she has nine hours or more, her risk for breast cancer also goes up about 38%.

It’s interesting because it’s not just, “Oh, well, I can sleep for ever.” No, too much sleep is not good either. But too little is really negative for your body.

They say that a person should get an average of seven to eight hours every night. That is good for your body and especially don’t keep it too late. Start those hours before midnight. I know it can be a temptation, can’t it?

I remember a dear friend of mine. She was running a home school Facebook group and she said to me, “Oh, Nancy, it is so noticeable. At ten o’clock at night is when the Facebook group comes alive.”

During the day hardly anybody is on. They’re with their children and life is busy. Then they have the evening meal, dishes are done, children get to bed and then ten o’clock— “Oh! This is my time! I can get on social media, on Facebook, Instagram, or whatever she likes to get on.”

This woman told me that this homeschooling Facebook group got really humming. But all these mothers were still up. Yes, they were just getting started because when you get on Facebook, then you go to this and then you go to that and it can just keep going on and on. Sometimes it gets to midnight!

And so you’re being deprived of those hours of sleep before midnight. You’re being deprived of your health, refreshing, and your beauty. Yes, even your beauty is renewed. Instead, you’re going to get cortisol, which is aging. You don’t want to do that. You want to do the things that will give you anti-aging hormones. Anyone want to say amen?

Another thing is, at ten o’clock at night, perhaps your husband is a night owl, but maybe he’s in bed. And what are you doing? You are up having a good time, doing your own thing. Maybe he needs you. But he’s being deprived.

You see our job— not our job, our delight— is to always be available to our husbands. I think it is a good thing, a beautiful thing, to go to bed with your husband. So if he’s going to bed at ten, go to bed with him. He might need you. He may not, but he might. Then you’ll both be blessed.

Not only will you be getting serotonin and growth hormones because you’re getting hours in before midnight, but then you’ll get oxytocin because you’ll be just so blessed together.

Think about those things, ladies. Yes, I know we can get weary, but just watch what you’re doing.

I know before I was married, I was a bookworm. I loved to read. I still love to read! But I don’t get the time to read like when I was young. If I had a really good book I’d read into the night, especially if it was a good story I would keep going until I was finished. Of course then you can hardly face the day because you’ve been reading all night. You’ll know what I’m talking about if you’re a bookworm.

But when I married and when children came along, I had to learn to discipline myself. I had to put my books aside.

In fact now I will only read a good, real story. I don’t read junk stories, but a good biography and a good historical novel I’ll keep them to more vacation times. Instead I will read more meditational books, doctrinal books, or theological books. Actually they send me to sleep! I only have to read a couple pages of them, and it puts me to sleep because I start thinking and meditating and I’m off to sleep.

We do have to discipline and watch ourselves. Don’t do things at night. Even reading will take you into the hours of the night. Then the next day you’re blurry eyed and can’t really focus.

Then of course we claim the promises that God gives us of renewed strength for each day, especially as we take advantage of the sleep that He gives us. God gives us nighttime to sleep, renew our energy, and refresh us.

Don’t throw it in the face of God and say, “I’m so tired, I can hardly cope. I can hardly manage,” when God gave you the night to sleep but you’ve been up for hours with the light on.

In fact, that’s not really good. None of us really live how we are meant to today. Because we have electricity, we all have the light on as long as we’d like. There was a time when night came, you went to bed and then got up real early.

I find now that if I get to bed at reasonable hour I wake early. I may wake at 4:30 or 5:00 and oh, you look out and wow! It’s getting light already, the day’s starting! Most people are still sleeping, but the day’s starting.

So instead of tempting to lie there I can get up. When I get up, I could think of one million things to do. I could do some exercises, I could go for a walk, I could get on my computer and get this done because I have ten million things waiting to do. But I don’t do any of them. I find that the Word of God, the presence of God calls me, woos me. Oh my, I just get wooed, I’ve got to get into that Word, it just calls me.

Do you have that pull on you? You just have to get that Word; you can’t do without it.

I have my little basket. I call it my meditation basket. I have it in my office in the day because it has my notebook I write my notes in, my journal, my Bible, my hymn books, and my study books. It’s all there. I carry it down to the office because I’m using it during the day.

Then at nighttime when I turn off my computer, I bring it up, put it on my kitchen table. It’s waiting for me in the morning as I come out to the kitchen table to open that Word. Oh, it is just so wonderful!

I wanted to read you Deuteronomy 33:24. This is the chapter where Moses blesses the tribes of Israel and He’s blessing Asher: “And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children. . ..” Isn’t that lovely? It’s no wonder He gave that blessing, Asher, meaning “happy.” “.Let Asher be blessed with children. . ..”

In verse 25 He says: “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.”

That’s a wonderful promise, “As thy days.” Each new day, God doesn’t give you strength for tomorrow, but each new day He will give you strength and this is in the context of having children. Isn’t that wonderful? Praise the Lord!

Last one, ladies, number 25, so let’s get it done in this session.

NO. 25. ZEALOUSLY

It is zealously. This is the way we are meant to work— zealously.

In Psalm 69:9 and John 2:17, the testimony of Jesus was: “. . .The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. . ..”

That was the story, of course, when Jesus went into the temple and He saw all the Pharisees and all the people selling their wares and everything. It just so grieved His heart that His temple, which housed the presence of God, which was called a house of prayer, had become a den of thieves.

So He began to turn over the tables and throw out everything. He did that with the zeal of the Lord.

Over in Titus 2:14 it talks about this too. It talks about Jesus giving Himself for us and redeeming us from all iniquity, purifying unto Himself a special, set-apart people, zealous of good works.

Now we were talking before how mothering and homemaking, God calls it a good work, a beautiful work and now the Scripture talks about being zealous of good works.

Therefore, if the work that we are doing is good, well, we better be zealous about doing it, don’t you think?

Zealous— doing it with all our hearts, doing it with zeal. Not half-heartedly but doing it with the zeal of the Lord! Amen.

Well, shall we pray?

“Dear Father, we are so grateful to You for Your precious Word which shows us the way. Thank You, Lord, for teaching us how we are to work, how we are to be zealous and how we are to do it as unto You and not unto men.

“Lord God, You have shown us the way, how we can do it without getting weary if we live the way that You want us to live. I pray that You will give to each one listening Your wisdom, even Your wisdom about going to bed early at night. These are such practical things. But Lord, we need to use Your wisdom even about them. We can get into the rut of doing what everybody else does.

“We’re living in a whole new era today of people getting up late and staying up late, but this is not really the way You planned and it’s not for the blessing of our bodies. So I pray that You will give me and each precious wife, mother, and daughter listening Your wisdom, Lord God. Teach us the way You want us to live. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.”