Episode 19 – God’s Lifestyle Plan

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

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

Nancy: Many blessings to you and all your children and. of course. your husband today. We are carrying on with our passage in Jeremiah 29, and I have Nadia Pitana with me again today. I know you enjoyed her last week, and I know you’ll be enjoying her again today. In this passage, the God of the heavenly armies, even though they are in exile, wants them to keep doing the things that He originally gave them in the beginning. God’s plans never, ever change. Everything that God says is unchangeable. We have to get that into our very being. I don’t know how it is that some people think that God writes something, and maybe He changes it as maybe it doesn’t fit with our 21^st century. No, God cannot change. It is impossible, for He is God. Everything He writes, what He wrote in the beginning, is for every generation.

I might read this passage to you today. I usually read from King James, but can I read to you from the Common English Bible? It says, “The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims to all the exiles, I have carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon. Build houses and settle down. Cultivate gardens and eat what they produce. Get married and have children.”

Now we are up to the next one . . .

No. 4.

“Then, help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Increase in number; don’t dwindle away. Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you in exile. Pray to the Lord for it because your future depends on its welfare. Don’t let the prophets and diviners in your midst mislead you. Don’t pay attention to their dreams. They are prophesying lies to you in My name. I didn’t send them, declares the Lord.”

We see that we are up to number 4, and God is still talking about children. This time, instead of saying “Marry and have children,” He’s saying, “Make sure you have grandchildren.” It says here: “HELP your sons find wives.” That’s very proactive isn’t it? That’s a little bit opposite to the way we think today, even in the church. Mostly, parents are not helping their sons and daughters to get married.

Some other translation says: “LET your children get married.” I think that applies to some parents. “It’s ok if they meet the one God has given to them when their maybe 26 or older. Oh yes, they are ready to get married.” What if they meet them at 17 or 18? Are you going to let them get married? Well, that’s what the Bible says.

In fact, back then in Bible days they married young. They weren’t old when they got married; they got married young. The statistics reveal that the marriage age is getting older and older so that now its 29 years for men and 28 years for women. That’s getting old. Do you notice? All those beautiful child-bearing years in your twenties have been wiped out? The devil is very good at that because he knows our fertility decreases as we get older. In those prime years, if he can keep people from marrying, especially among God’s people because this is in the Christian church, couples in the Christian church.

It saddens me when couples get together, and they keep on hanging out together, but they don’t get married. What’s the story? What about, as I asked, if they are even younger? Do we let them get married? No, not if it’s not the right one. If it is a godly young man or a godly young woman and you know that it is the right person for your daughter or son, of course you let them get married. They are not too young to get married, that is the Biblical age to get married, or even younger in Bible days. We need to get with the Word. In fact, it says here to help your sons and your daughters to find the right one. We are meant to be proactive because God wants our children to get married. He wants us to raise them for marriage.

Many parents today, even in the Christian world, are not raising their children for marriage. They are raising them for their careers. They are raising them to get everything they can materially. They aren’t really raising them with a vision for marriage and for raising a family. No young man or woman is ready for marriage if they aren’t ready to embrace children because that’s what you do when you get married, according to the Word.

Right here: “Marry and have children and then get your children to marry and have children so you can have grandchildren.” Any grandmothers listening today? How many grandchildren do you have? Are you actively encouraging grandchildren to get married? This is all God’s heart because he loves a couple coming together. It’s a beautiful thing—it’s all God.

In the very beginning, God brought the women to the man. God did it. God still does the same today. He delights in bringing the woman to the man. It’s a God thing. It’s a miraculous thing. I was talking to our Above Rubies’ helpers around the table the other night, and I was saying, “Girls, this is a miraculous thing.” When I think about how my husband and I got together, well, yes, I saw him, and yes, my heart fluttered, but really it was God. God did it. It could have been with some other guy, but no, God caused my heart to flutter for this guy. What about you?

Nadia: God.

Nancy: Yes, it’s God. When you look back, it’s God. It’s God; He does it. I’m thinking, here’s Arden here, recording for us. God brought Esther to him. She was one of our Above Rubies’ girls. She came all the way from Canada, but she had come all the way from China before that because she was adopted from there. He was only very young, but he took one look, and he knew that was the one God had for him. We all witnessed it too. They married young, and they have been so blessed. Let’s get with God.

What does the next thing say?

No. 5:

“Keep increasing in the land of your exile, and do not diminish.” Do you get God’s heart? Some other translations say: “Don’t decrease; don’t dwindle away.” We have got to increase, multiply. That’s what the Word says in the very beginning. Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. We are to multiply. I was recently watching the news and the race between the Democrat and Republican in Ohio. The caption read on the screen, “They are neck and neck.” It was such a close race. We aren’t meant to have neck and neck races because God’s people aren’t meant to be neck and neck with the spirit of the world. God’s people are meant to be mightier.

You are going to hear from Nadia soon, especially when we get onto a certain subject in one minute. Let me read this in Exodus. Back in Exodus, the children of Israel were under the domination of the Egyptians, and their lives were hard with bondage and bitterness. If you ever see the Ten Commandments, you see what they are going through, yet in the midst of it all, it says: “The children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and WAXED EXCEEDING MIGHTY; AND THE LAND WAS FILLED WITH THEM” (Exodus 1:7).

Verse 9 says: “The people of the children of Israel were MORE AND MIGHTIER than the Egyptians.” That really scared them. Do we scare the people who are not with God? Do we scare them today? No, we don’t scare them much at all. We are not much of a threat to them. Yet we are meant to be a threat; God’s people are meant to be a threat. The children of Israel were a threat; they were more and mightier. So, the Egyptians afflicted them, but the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.

Here we are in this cushy lifestyle. We have everything so easy here in America, and we can’t even multiply in good times. They were multiplying in persecution, bitter hard times of bondage, but they still obeyed. This is what God wants. We have to get out of being victims of the lies and propaganda of the enemy who has deceived the people of God to limit their families. This is the lie of the devil. This is the plan of the devil because the devil knows that his greatest threat is the people of God.

The more godly children born into this world, the more it is a threat against him and what he wants to do because more of God comes into the world. We fill the land, not only with people, but we fill it with God’s image, with His truth, with His salvation, with His mercy, and with His love. This is what we are meant to do, and we are giving a righteous vote.

This is one of the very important things. We are coming up to the end of this year to our midterm elections. I believe that every God-fearing believer has to get out and off their bottoms because there is such antagonism and such hate and such desperation for the left to win these elections because they want to take back everything that our president has been doing. We are in a very blessed time when so many laws have been changed and we are having many freedoms again. God is so good, and we have a window of opportunity. May God save us from being “neck to neck.” May God raise up His people that we may be “more and mightier” than the Egyptians. What do you say?

Nadia: Amen!

Nancy: Amen! We dare not diminish, dwindle away; we dare not decrease. But what happens next? This is amazing . . .

No. 6: It says: “Seek the peace of the city where I have carried you to. And pray unto the Lord for it. For in the peace thereof, you shall have peace.” Here’s another command, dear ladies. We have been talking about payer in some of our podcasts. God specifically says: “Come on now, don’t forget to pray. You are not in your beloved land now; you are exiles, but you pray for where you live.” I would like Nadia to share a bit about this because, as a family, they are prayer warriors, and I’m challenged by their life of prayer and fasting. I specifically wanted Nadia to be on this podcast. Tell us what you do in your family to pray and how you feel about prayer? How important is it in your family?

Nadia: Well, prayer is very simple. We are told, “If my people will humble themselves.” The only thing that keeps us from prayer is pride. The recognition that I need God causes me to pray. When a family is no longer calling upon God, they think they have it right. They have it all figured out, I don’t need God in my life. When we realize how we need Him, we will call upon our God. When we realize, and also recognize that our children need him and will need him, we will call upon Him.

Therefore, they must be equipped to know how to pray for the things that will come around into their lives. I think prayer is very essential, just as air is essential, just as doors are essential in our home. We lock our doors, right? Nobody just leaves their home unprotected and allows anyone to come in to their home. Prayer is that shield. It’s what we use to spiritually, physically, and emotionally cover our family.

Nancy: I know you and Pitana love to pray, but how have you taught your children to pray?

Nadia: Again, you can only give what you have, so we did it before they were ever born. I would rise up early, when my husband was going to work, before ministry. I would get up early. He would be going by five, so I would get up by four to have that time in prayer with him before we started the day. When the children came along, I couldn’t.

We do want to find time, even in our family devotions, to allow time to pray. It is not just, “Ok, we got the Word.” We have to pray that the Word will get into our hearts. The Bible says if we just hear and don’t do, we deceive ourselves, yet we can’t do it on our own.

The other major thing I was thinking about the other day was that they go around praying. Just as important as going to church is for us, prayer meetings are just as important. Since they were little, we went to church for the service, but we also went to church for the prayer meeting. When you are a part of a church that has a prayer meeting, which are very few nowadays, get your children there because that communicates that it’s important. Those prayer meetings are usually on weeknights, and it’s late, but that is an important thing for us. I had to readjust, and they went to bed late, but it communicated to them that it’s important to call on this God that we serve.

Nancy: That’s a wonderful thing. I think.about homeschooling. You can go to a prayer meeting; you can take your children, and even if it’s late, and they have to sleep in in the morning, well, who cares? They are doing something so powerful.

Nadia: Well, others who don’t homeschool take them to sports events and still show up. Which one is more important?

Nancy: I know. I’m such a great believer in having children in prayer meetings. We have a prayer meeting here every Wednesday night. We encourage all the grandchildren to come. In fact, there’s usually more children at the prayer meetings than there are adults. Often, Colin will say at the beginning” “C’mon children, all the children pray first,” because some of them will go to sleep as the meeting goes on, so we get them praying first, so they get their prayers in. You only learn to pray by praying.

Nadia: There is no other way. We travel a lot as a family, and when we are in a place where there is no prayer meeting to be found, we always open our home for a prayer meeting. We invite people, and if they can’t show up, we still have our own prayer time as a family. We make it a priority.

Nancy: Amen. Your children love to pray?

Nadia: Oh yeah, because, as you pray, you grow to love prayer because you see the results of prayer.

Nancy: That’s right. Can you tell us any special answers to prayer? I know you’ve had so many, but can you isolate one or two and think of them?

Nadia: On the way coming here, I was sharing a testimony because we were praying for specific finances. We just started a TV ministry, and we needed the finances to come because we just did a recording to pay for it. My oldest son said, “I woke up at night around 3.00 am and I heard you talking.”

I said, “Yeah.”

He said, “Wow, you stayed up that late?”

I said, “No, I went to bed, but the Lord gave me a dream, and I woke up to pray about it.”

He said, “Oh, what was it?”

So, I was sharing. I said, “Before I went to bed, the Lord had answered our prayer. Somebody sent in money to pay for the recording.” He was like, “They did?” He was excited because we had been praying about it.

They already saw that provision, from things like sickness. We had a son break a leg and had a cast on, and they said it could be five weeks before he could heal, and even then, we would have to see if it’s healed properly. Well, at that time, my belly was big, and I had a two-year-old that needed to be carried around with a cast. He was potty-trained, so he didn’t want to go back into diapers; he wanted to be carried here and there and that was heavy, and as I did it, I began to get contractions. I had about eight weeks left in the pregnancy and I didn’t want to go prematurely.

We don’t have family around, so I began to cry out to God. I called my husband at work and said, “I can’t do this, I’m having contractions. If I keep carrying this baby like this, we will have a premature baby.” He came home for lunch, and we said the Word of God is true. He doesn’t change. Let’s agree that the same Word that says, “by His stripes you are healed” God heals. We are going to agree for healing. We laid our hands on him. We got our five-year-old, Jeremiah. We all agreed. We laid hands on him. We believed, and the Bible says, when we believe, it’s done.

Let’s get him to the hospital. We went to another hospital, another emergency room. We had taken him the day before; that’s when they put a cast. We went to another hospital with different doctors, so we waited there. While I was there, I was having contractions. Actually, I was the one laying down on the bed because I was having contractions.

The doctor comes in and he says, “What’s going on?” I said, “It’s not me, it’s my baby. I need you to take the cast off.” He said, “I can’t do that; this cast just got on yesterday. You need five weeks for the leg to heal.” I said, “No please, I need you to take it off.” We prayed that God would move his heart to go past his natural understanding, his medical understanding, and get the cast off. We prayed and prayed. He finally gave in.

He said, “I am going to take it off just because I know that you will be back before this day is done begging me to put it back on. He will be in so much pain, you will come back today; I guarantee it. We will put it back on.”

We said, “No, we will not come back in the name of Jesus. You take it off, and we thank you.” Off they went, and they used this machine. Oh, my goodness, you think they are going to cut off his leg to get it off. The whole time, he is saying, “He’s going to be in pain, and it’s going to be horrible.”

My husband is saying, “No, it’s going to be fine.” He gets it off, and says, “The boy sat still, the prayer worked. When I touch it, he’s going to scream.” My husband says, “He’s going to be fine.” He touches the place, no pain. He squeezes; the boy is fine. He cannot believe it. He puts the boy down; the boy walks.

We were so in shock that we didn’t even stay to witness to him because we were thinking, let’s get out before they realize what just happened. We took off, and we kept our appointment in five weeks with the specialist. We showed up and the boy is playing outside in the hallway waiting, and the doctor comes and says, “Where is Samuel?” I said, “Right there.” She said, “No, no, no, where is Samuel with the broken leg?” I said, “Right here.” She said, “No, that can’t be the same boy.” 

She didn’t believe us. Took the same x-rays. You know when the bone is healed, it still shows where it got hurt, and the only way she could believe it was by looking at a second x-ray. She said, “I don’t know what happened. I can see that this is where it was broken, and it’s healed. I don’t know what you did.” We said, “Well, Jesus healed him.” They have testimonies like that.

Nancy: Praise the Lord. That’s so beautiful. You were saying how Jeremiah, your oldest, just turned 13 a week ago, and you told me how, as a 13-year-old, he spent his birthday praying and fasting. Was that his idea?

Nadia: Well, as mothers, you encourage. We had, as a family, been on a 21-day fast.  We were going to finish it shortly after his birthday. We were doing a Daniel fast. I said to him, “Don’t you think being 13, because biblically they thought that was a man (some people believe that Mary were that age when Jesus was born) . . . that’s a big responsibility. Don’t you think you need to seek God the Father to find out what He has for you.” He said he was actually thinking about that.

I said, “Do you think you need to do a deeper fast than us?” He said he was actually thinking about that. He picked a day, two days before his birthday, and went to be with the Lord and to just find out, “God what plan do you have for me?”

Nancy: Wow, so he just went out into the land?

Nadia: Well, I cleared his schedule, and he woke up early. He was in his room just praying and fasting throughout the day,

Nancy: How wonderful. Praise the lord!

Nadia: Out of that, came the message God gave him. He is now starting a podcast to minister the Word to young people. God gave it to him very clearly.

Nancy: That’s what he felt in his heart? That’s amazing.

Nadia: God gave him a message. While God was giving him a message, God was telling me about a podcast.  He didn’t know how he was going to go about it. Over his birthday, I said to him, “The Lord told me that it is time for you to begin, that we should let you start a podcast.” He was like, “Oh, He gave me a message, but I didn’t know how I was going to give the message.” He will be starting that soon.

Nancy: I think we should get Jeremiah in here to get him to say something. There’s nothing like hearing from a young boy whose heart is for God. Let’s go find him, shall we?

Nadia: Yes.

Nancy: Now, here is Jeremiah. He has just turned 13. I think it would be lovely for you to hear from him. Now Jeremiah, you are 13 now, and if you were a young Jewish boy, you would be becoming a man now.  What’s on your heart? What is God putting on your heart at this age of your life?

Jeremiah: To love Him and love people and talk with Him any time of the day. Like before I go to bed, I always just pray to Him and hear from Him which is really a good thing. Also, love people.

Nancy: I know you love to pray. In fact, as a family, don’t you pray and fast on Fridays?

Jeremiah: My dad prays the whole night on Friday nights.

Nancy: Really? Do you children ever join him for any part of it?

Jeremiah: Yeah, when we were younger, he wanted to motivate us, so we would get a treat if we prayed with him in the middle of the night. As we got older, the treats went away, but we still wake up, and pray with him for a little bit.

Nancy: You do? If you wake up, you go out and pray with your dad. That’s so wonderful. Your mom was telling me how, on your birthday, you put it aside to pry and fast. Tell us how that went.

Jeremiah: I was really hungry. I think it was worth it. I got to hear what God wanted to tell me and what He wanted me to do. 

Nancy: She even said you want to start a podcast to talk to young people.

Jeremiah: Yeah, well my parents, for my birthday, gave me the chance to do a podcast.

Nancy: That’s so wonderful. What would you really like to talk to them about?

Jeremiah: About being God’s child.

Nancy: Yes, but you’ll have to say more than that.

Jeremiah: Yeah, well being in the kingdom of God.

Nancy: Yeah, well you’ll have to say more than that.

Jeremiah: Well, that’s basically it for now.

Nancy: You’ll be seeking God to know what to say?

Jeremiah: Yes

Nancy: And how to encourage them.

Jeremiah: Yes.

Nancy: That’s so great. Thank you so much Jeremiah. Time is going again. Perhaps I could just mention to you the last point.

Number 7.

“Don’t be deceived.” When God said that, He didn’t say, “Don’t be deceived by the Babylonians among who you are living, but don’t be deceived by the prophets who are in the midst of you.”

We can’t be gullible and take everything that anybody says, even in the body of Christ, even in the church. We need to seek God and His Word for truth. Now, if we do these seven things, we get the most wonderful promise. Verse 11 which so many people love: “I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Many take that promise, but they don’t realize it comes at the end of those seven commandments that God gave. As we obey these seven commandments that God reminded them about, then you’ll have a future and a hope. Isn’t that good?

Ok, we are going to pray. We will both pray.

Nancy: “Oh father, I thank You for the precious ladies listening today. I ask that Your blessing will come upon them in their homes. Give them a heart for prayer. Give them a heart to seek after you. Help them to be a family with a passion for God, a passion for prayer, a passion to seek Your face, and a passion to lead other to your ways. Save us from wanting to be like everyone else. Help us to be those who are truly set apart for You and following Your ways. In the name of Jesus, Amen.”

Nadia: “Father, we thank You for the promises You have given us in Your Word and instruction. We might have a desire to pray. Peter had a desire to pray when Jesus took the disciples in the garden. They had the desire to pray, but they could not pray. He said, “Can you not even pray for one hour?” They needed something. They needed to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. We see in Acts that when they received the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, in Acts 2, they were empowered. They were able to become men of prayer. Those who couldn’t pray a little bit when Jesus needed them became people of prayer that influenced nations.

I pray for these ladies in their homes, Lord God, that they will have an encounter with You. That they will be filled with Your Holy Spirit, as we see in the book of Acts. That out of that, they will be empowered to pray. Because Your Word tell us that we know not how to pray, but the Holy Spirit prays for us, interceding for us, with the groanings that cannot be uttered. We need the help of Your Holy Spirit to pray for us and for our children. In Jesus name, Amen.”

Nancy: Amen. Blessings to you today.

 

 

Episode 18 – BUILDING AN EXCITING HOME, No. 6

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

The last point about the exciting home:

15. A GARDEN CENTER

The first home, which was the prototype for all homes to come, was a garden home. A home is not truly a home without a garden, especially growing food to eat. If you are not able to grow a big garden, grow a little garden. Even a tomato plant, or herbs in pots on your deck!

And introducing Nadia Mutana, mother of seven children. Nadia is originally from Rwanda where she grew up with a single father (no mother) and servants. She had no idea of how to mother, cook, or manage a home. She shares how God has been her teacher.

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

Nancy Campbell: Hello, dear ladies. Here I am again with you, in your home, coming to you from my home. Well, last week I still didn't get to talk with you about the last point, #15, which is OUR HOME IS A GARDEN CENTER.

I know that you often go to a garden center to buy plants and seeds. But truly, our homes should be a garden center, because if we go back to the very beginning, in Genesis, we see that the very first thing God did after He created Adam was to create this beautiful home for Adam, and for his wife, Eve, who was not yet created.

Eve had not yet come into the world, because God didn't want her to come in until He had the home ready for her. He created the man without the home, but not the woman. When Eve woke up to life, where was she? In her home, where God planned for her to be.

But it wasn't just a home with four walls. It was a garden. We all know it's the Garden of Eden. Yes, we've got to get that phrase, “the Garden of Eden,” the first home, which was the prototype of all homes to come, with a garden.

Therefore, a home is not truly a home unless it has a garden, and especially a garden of produce, because God intends us to eat from our gardens. It's the healthiest way to eat, but we can get away with it today, of course, with our supermarkets and all our refrigeration.

In fact, I remember growing up as a girl, we didn't have refrigeration, we didn't have all the deep freezes. So, we lived according to seasons. Whatever produce grew, or fruit grew in that season, that's what we ate. I remember one time, for goodness, three or four weeks at least, all we ate was pumpkin and beans. That's what we had in the garden, so that's what we ate!

But now, of course, we can go to the supermarket. We can buy any fruit from any country in the world. We can buy any vegetable we want in any season, because there it is: because of refrigeration.

Even so, it's still not the healthiest. How long has it been sitting there? Is it GMO? Is it sprayed? Most probably. In fact, even if you want to buy organic, you look at it, and oh, it doesn't look very, very fresh at all. So, it's a beautiful thing to grow a garden.

I have the most wonderful garden this year! Oh, I'm so blessed! I go out every day, and it just looks glorious! It's blooming. And now I'm in the middle of the harvest. I go out in the morning, and I just pick about three huge bucketfuls of tomatoes, and then cucumbers, golden squash, and zucchini. Now my okra is coming on. Then I go and pick basil leaves to make pesto to eat with my tomatoes. Oh, it's so wonderful!

I grew some beans this year. They're called “long beans,” I think, because I just found this old packet, and I don't even remember what the name was on the packet. But I planted them. And I couldn't believe it! They grow these long, long, long, long beans . . . they're so exciting! And I've got one still growing on my garden. I haven't picked it. I want to see how long it's going to grow. Do you know it's already two feet, nine inches long?! Can you believe it?

But I have to tell you. In the spring, when it was time to put in my garden, I didn't feel like putting my garden in. Oh, I was very busy at the time. I was going to a lot of different retreats. At the same time, I was fighting this cough and this flu, which I'm just getting over this cough. I just didn't have the energy.

But I knew, if I didn't do it, we wouldn't eat. Well, we'd get it from the supermarket, but we wouldn't eat lovely life-giving foods. So, I had to get myself by the scruff of my neck and make myself do it!

You know, sometimes ladies, it's not easy to do things. We have to just make ourselves do them. But then we get the blessings. I couldn't believe the blessing I'm getting now! Even though I sowed my garden just about in tears, now I'm just rejoicing in the reaping!

Now of course, you may think, “Well, I know, Nancy, you live out there on the land. It's easy for you.” Well, not really. When we first put in our garden many years ago when we came out here, we couldn't even grow a thing. It's just chert up here on the hilltop. Chert! You can't grow anything!

So, we had to buy our dirt, and make these raised beds. From them, I have composted, and composted, and kept them going all these years. Now, you may only have the tiniest little bit of land, or just in your pot. But, look, just grow a few tomatoes. I grew over 100 tomatoes, but you can grow, maybe one or two tomato plants? Even in a pot, on your veranda! And a few herbs. But grow something, because your home is a garden. Okay?

All right. Now, dear ladies, I want to carry on in this passage we started with. You may have to go back a few podcasts to get to where I started, because it's taken a little while to get here.

Jeremiah 29:45: We started with this letter that was written by Jeremiah, but the words were given by God, by the Lord of Hosts. He sends this letter to them, to those who were in Babylon. They were captives. They were exiles, away from their beloved land of Israel. God came to them and He said, “This is what I want you to do while you're in Babylon.”

Actually, there were seven things that God told them. We started talking about the first one, which was: “Build houses, and settle in them.” That's what we've been talking about, what it means to build an exciting home, and just live in it! To really make life in it.

The very next thing He says, number two: “Plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.” Well, we just talked about that.

What's the next thing He says? Verse six: “Take wives, and beget sons and daughters.” Another translation says, “Marry, and have children.” OK. Do you notice something? It says, “Marry, and HAVE CHILDREN.”

It doesn't say: “Marry,” and then to the wife “I think you better also get out to work, and make sure you save up enough money to get your own home, and pay off your car, and get all these things in line. And then, maybe, you could think about having children?” No, it just says, “Marry, and have children.”

Well, I've got something exciting for you today. I have someone special in our studio, which is actually my lounge. Anyway, I want to introduce you today to Nadia Mutana. Say hi, Nadia.

Nadia Mutana: Hello, ladies. I am glad to be here with you.

Nancy: Now Nadia is a mother of seven children. And Nadia, seven children? Did you plan that when you got married?

Nancy: (Laughing) No, definitely not!

Nadia: Tell me about it!

Nadia: We had a plan, just like everybody else. We were gonna wait five years, get financially stable. It's the intelligent thing to do. And have one, two, and . . . maybe we were gonna be a little radical, push for three, but definitely not go over four, and that will be it.

Nancy: So, what happened? You've got more than four now!

Nadia: Well (Laughing) Somebody showed up in my life that I was not pleased with. She brought me your magazine, which I packed in my home, and I kept it for over a year. Didn't think that was something for me.

Nancy: Do you mean to say that you had Above Rubies in your home for a year, and you never read it?

Nadia: Yes. No, she was my doula, and so I had been polite. She was helping with the birth of my baby, so I just stuck it on the side for a while, and the year went by. My first born was a year. Summer . . .  we were moving, so I was unpacking. And I looked, and it was there. I just could not comprehend the things that were being said in that magazine. It seemed to me at that time, ridiculous!

(Laughing) I could not believe! Who lives this kind of lifestyle?! That was my introduction to the magazine.

Nancy: I mean, it seemed so ridiculous to you, well, how did you actually get with it?

Nadia: I love God, so my desire was to seek God, to lead my life dedicated to Him. After having been saved, and the things He'd taken me from. So, what I found in the magazine, there were Scriptures about it, so I just wasn't gonna take it because you said it or pointed out a few Scriptures. Because anybody can point to a few Scriptures and still connect it in the wrong way.

So, I went to prayer, actually what I call wrestling with the Lord. I prayed about it, and said: “God, you cannot be asking me this. Show me proof.”

I said, “God, if I ever trusted You like they were saying, I could end up with 20, 30 children! That is NOT OK, that is not possible for my body!”

I just wrestled with God, and He said to me, He dealt with me, and began to talk to me: “Who says you'll have 20? Who says you'll have 30?”

I said: “Well, science is very clear. If I don't do anything to stop it, I obviously will get pregnant!” I was only 21, so I could only think of having a full house!

So, He took me Scripture by Scripture by Scripture to prove to me that He already knows how many children you're gonna have, that it's Him Who opens the womb, it's Him Who closes the womb. Just because I was willing to surrender, didn't mean He would give me, how many? It could be, or it might not be.

But He already had a plan, and He had to just deal with me. He said: “Really, Nadia, this is an issue of you not trusting Me. You don't think I love you enough. You don't agree when I say I have good plans for you. (We're talking about Jeremiah 29:11.) I have good plans for you, to prosper you.”

I said, “Yeah, but I don't see how.”

He said: “You're fearful because you don't think I would ask you of what is good for you. I'm not out to hurt you.” So, once we got past that, I'm like, OK, but how many could I have? And He literally took me by Scripture by Scripture and began to show me. How many did Abraham have? How many? You know? Right?

OK, how many did Jacob have? I say, well, I don't know. Jacob had two wives and a couple of concubines, so four women, and he only got 12 children. I'm like well, you divide it, that's not a lot. And he lived past 130 years. How many did Isaac have? Rebekah only had one pregnancy (that is recorded).

And on and on and on. He went on to say that “Just because you trust Me is also no guarantee that you'll have children. You just have to surrender that I have the exact amount number that is perfect for you.”

Nancy: Yes. So how do you feel now about making that decision?

Nadia: Well, so After I got over the fear and I learned that He has a good plan for me. Honestly, when people ask me, I say: “This is not what I planned, but I am so glad. It's so beyond what I could have given myself.”

I mean, which one would I trade? I love each one of them. Each child has brought incredible, incredible blessings. This doesn't mean there are no times to challenge you, like “OOOHHH!” You know, difficulties that come up. You're like, OK, we surely can't be doing another one!

But, oh, you get another one, and my husband and I were like, aren't you so glad we have another one? I am so thankful we made that decision.

Nancy: And they have seven precious children. Their names are Jeremiah, Samuel, Wonder (don't you love that name?) Eliza, Jairus, Cyrus, and precious little Grace.

Now the first, no, I don't think it was the first time, because I met you at an Above Rubies retreat.

Nadia: But it was the first time you met my family.

Nancy: The first time that Nadia came to our home and came with some of their family (they've had more since), and I think Jeremiah (their oldest has just now turned 13), yes, he would be about six or seven at this stage.

I have to tell you ladies, I was so impressed. They came up the stairs, and this young boy, only six or seven years old, saw me, and he put out his hand. He said: “I am Jeremiah Mutana. I am so pleased to meet you!” And shook my hand.

Then, along came Wonder. “My name is Wonder, and I am so pleased to meet you!” And she shook my hand. So did Samuel. I was just so blessed! Thank you, Nadia, for training your children to be young gentlemen and ladies. Oh, it was beautiful!

Oh, ladies, it's such a good thing to teach our children how to greet people, and how to greet older people. Today you find that most young people, young people in their teens, and then right down to young children, they don't even take any notice of older people. They just run in and out of houses or walk in and out.

I find you can have young people coming in and out and they don't even bother to say hello. I mean they don't hardly even notice. This happens to be YOUR home that they're entering in. Oh my. Let's teach our children, and our young people, etiquette. That when they go into a home, they don't just enter into a home, even if perhaps another young person is bringing them in.

They should always go to the parents of that home and say: “Thank you for the privilege of coming to your home. My name is, say, Steven Bryant. I am very happy to meet you, and happy to be in your home.”

Teach them to show respect. Teach them how to greet people. And Nadia's been doing that. Thank you very much. You're very much into etiquette, aren't you?

Some time ago we went down to have a meal with Nadia and Pitana and their children. It was just beautiful to see the way the children were conducting themselves. They were all learning how to really show proper etiquette, even at the table. It was wonderful!

So, Nadia, not only had you never ever heard about having more than a couple of children in your life, but you didn't really know anything about mothering or homemaking.

Let me look at this magazine here because, let me tell you, Nadia and her husband wrote, not in number 95, but the one before, 94, about the naming of your children. You can read their article in that magazine.

Nadia also wrote an article in issue number 90. That's the one with Evangeline and her spinning wheel on the front cover. It's a wonderful article. I was just reading it again today, Nadia. It's called, “A Mother Desperate for God.”

She starts off, “I have nothing in my upbringing that qualifies me to be a good and godly wife. I grew up in a broken Muslim home.” That was in Rwanda, because Nadia comes from Rwanda. “And every relative I knew had a broken home, too. I had to cleave to the Rock that is higher than I. And there are four, soon to be five (at that time), lovely children who call me Mama. They expect me to nurture and train them.

“But who am I, that I should undertake such a task? I had never known the love of a mother. From infancy, my older brother, younger twin brothers, and I were brought up by a single father. Where I was raised in Rwanda, East Africa, this was not common. Single mothers, yes, but I had never met single fathers. With the help of servants, we carried on, and my father did the best to care for us.”

So, when you got to get married, have children, and now you've got to cook for them, and you don't know how to cook, and you've got to train them, and you don't know how to mother . . . Oh, tell me what you did!

Nadia: (Laughing) Pray, pray. I still do that, because I still don't know! But I pray, “Oh, Lord, I'm so thankful Jesus said, 'I will not leave you comfortless. But I will send you the Helper.'” I believe the Holy Spirit is not there just to help us with spiritual things, reading the Word, the theology things, but in the everyday things.

I'm called to be a mother. I believe the Holy Spirit can guide us and lead us in how. The first thing He led me to was to find a mentor, somebody close that I could call. So, in my first two or three years of mothering, I called her like five times a day. “OK, I have to make this food, so this happening . . . it’s boiling! What do I do now?” (Laughing) That's before the days of Google!

I needed to feed a family, and I didn't know how, having grown up with servants who did it all. So that's what I did. A lot of praying and asking for help.

Nadia: So, with growing up with servants, you wouldn't even have known how to manage a home.

Nadia: No, I'm still learning! (Laughing) No, I wouldn't, honestly. Cleaning didn't come normally, and laundry, oh my. My mentor once said, “You know, once in a while, I take all my fridges and clean them.” I was like, “Fridges need some cleaning!?” What? It had never occurred to me! (Laughing)

Nancy: Oh, goodness, I guess when you did it, you found loads of things that were waiting away behind! I find that I must clean out my fridge at least every two weeks. Weekly is better, because if I don't, you know, things get left, they're rotting, and oh, I like all my food to keep fresh.

Nadia: By the grace of God, now I have a system where we do it weekly.

Nancy: Good, that's the way! Weekly is the thing, yes. Oh, that's good. You’ve even got your system down.

Nadia: My Samuel is my fridge cleaner. He does it once a week.

Nancy: That's wonderful. So, you have been not only learning yourself, but training your children.

Nadia: Oh yes, because it was very tough. I was raised in that culture. What I figured out in raising my children . . . I don't know where God's gonna call them. I don't know what He has in store, where in the world He's gonna call them to serve Him, to do what He's called them.

So, my goal is to train them in every area so that they can thrive. I couldn't thrive in what He had called me. I was academic, but academia was not the area He had called me. I strive to teach them all those things, so that if they don't need them, great. Anybody can get used to servants. But it's hard if you've been used to servants, to get used to going without them.

Nancy: Yes, that's good training. Because that's all part of mothering . . .  the training of our children, isn't it? It's not just having children. Oh my, that's just the very beginning. It's training these children. I do have to say you're doing a good job, Nadia.

Nadia: Oh, praise God, thank you.

Nancy: Your children are beautiful, and they are such a beautiful testimony of, not only good behavior, but children who love the Lord. That's the whole purpose of our having children. We don't have children just for the sake of having children. We have children to raise for God. That's the powerful thing about mothering.

As a mother, you have a passion for God, Nadia. But you are multiplying your passion. Yes, multiplying it. That's what we need to see, dear mothers, that as mothers, what we have, our passion for God, our love for God, our love for His Word, we multiply that in our children!

Nadia: Well, that's what Timothy's mom and grandma did. They passed it on Timothy, and Timothy, look what he accomplished for the Gospel.

Nancy: Exactly. So, we impact people in this world. But when we think of our children going out and what they will do in this world, it's just amazing. That's the wonderful thing, that the more children we have, and that God blesses us with, the more multiplication we have of the image of God, and the blessing of God in the world.

Nadia: Well you know I used to be a Muslim. In Islam they have a few wives, and lots of children. But what the very big important thing that we do is indoctrinate them in Islam. They have to have a strong foundation for Islam, and how to influence the culture with that Islam. So, they have that system handed down to them. When I became a Christian, well, I'd better do what I can to raise mine to take this God-giving life out.

Nancy: And that is a very good point, Nadia, because Muslim people are truly indoctrinated in their faith. And it's not easy to win them to Christ without the power of God coming in revelation, because they are so indoctrinated in their faith. Their parents have put it into them.

Nadia: I was devout before I was ten. I was super devout to my Islam by then. Look what we have to do. I was just thinking because we were talking about prayer. By six, seven, you're fasting as a Muslim, going all day without food. As a child in Ramadan, we all had to do it. I used to have to go through school, and there's no exception, right?

Nancy: Oh yes, we're going to talk more about that on this podcast, too, but let's get up to it, because we're going to get up to it in the Word. We’re finding here, we're just talking, lovely ladies, about these things that God, the Lord of Hosts, the God of the heavenly armies, told His people, who were in exile to do. It was not an easy place.

You know, the things God gives us to do are not just when everything is easy, and it's all just going smoothly, and it's all lovely. Yes, we can obey the Word of the Lord when it's easy. When we face issues that are not easy, that's where we still must obey. God doesn't change His plan for our circumstances. But the amazing thing is, that even when we face the difficult circumstances, we know that God comes through.

I'm thinking, if I could just take time for a few minutes, I'm just thinking now about a dear couple, and you met them, because you came to the retreat in Tennessee. Sherri Leiter and her husband, Dave, and beautiful family. They put on a retreat in Tennessee?

Nadia: Oh yeah, yeah.

Nancy: Well, Sherri and her husband started off in the way so many start off. They had their two children, and they had a boy and a girl. Whoo, perfect! I don't need any more! So, he went and had a vasectomy. That was it! Life was good, they just had it all planned down.

But, as often happens, the years went by, and Sherri begins to long for another baby, because that's what the Word of God says. In Proverbs, chapter 30, it says there are four things that never say it is enough, that are never satisfied. One is a barren womb.

Oh, you may feel satisfied for a little while, while you've got two little ones that are taking all your life to look after them, but, oh, the years go on. And your womb cries for life again. So, she talked to her husband about it. He said, “No, I've done it. I'm not having another operation.”

She was so desperate. She nagged, and she nagged. The more she nagged, the worse he got. He put his foot down. Anyway, a dear, lovely woman of God said to Sherri, “Look, you've got to change your tactics. Start praying instead of nagging.”

So, she stopped nagging. She started praying. And she prayed, and God did it. God changed his heart. They had a reversal. Then they conceived! They were so excited. But she miscarried.

They conceived again. She miscarried again. They were getting so disappointed, so discouraged. But she conceived again. This time, she kept the baby, right through to full term. But the baby was stillborn.

They couldn't take it. Here they'd given their lives over to the Lord, put themselves back where God wanted them to be, and what's happening? Miscarriages! Now their precious baby was born dead?

The husband came to Colin. He was desperate. He said, “I cannot keep doing this to my wife. I cannot do this. I've got to get another vasectomy.”

Colin encouraged him, gently, but encouraged him in the Word, and in prayer. He said, “You know, we don't live by situational ethics. We live by obedience to the Word of God.” He encouraged him, and by God's grace, they came to the place, yes, OK, we trust God, we trust Him, even if He slays us.

Time went on, and she conceived again. This baby was born alive! Oh, thank You, Lord! But you would have seen their beautiful children. They had five more children after that.

Nadia: Lovely! Good!

Nancy: Beautiful, godly children. Five beautiful children after that vasectomy. But they could have stopped, because it was hard, because it was so desperate. But you see, we keep trusting God, and He comes through.

So, dear lovely ladies, number three is, “Take wives and beget sons and daughters,” or “Marry, and have children” (Jeremiah 29:6). That's what we do when we get married. God said this to these people in exile! “Yes, you don't stop, just because you're in exile. No, you keep doing what I told you to do, in the very beginning. This is My plan for you.”

Well, ladies, once again, our time is going away. But next week, I'm going to get Nadia to be with us again! We're going to keep talking about many things. So, let's pray for you. I'm going to pray and ask Nadia to pray for you too.

“Father, we love You. We love Your ways. We love Your Word. We love Your plans. Help us to be those who are obedient to Your ways. I pray for any mother today who is struggling. Oh Father, I pray that You will come to her. Let her know that You are her Rock, that You are her God, that she can trust You. For Lord, You are always working everything out for our good. Your plan is for our good. Oh Father, I pray that You will pour out Your Spirit on each mother, and all her children in the home, and her husband. In Jesus' Name, Amen.”

And Nadia, you pray for them, too.

Nadia: “Father, I thank You for this appointed time for every woman that is listening. You know them by heart. Father, I thank You.

God, I sense a heaviness, I think that heaviness is in somebody's heart. I sense cries and tears. My God, I thank You that You are a God who knows, who sees and who can do something about everything. In Jesus' Name, we pray Your Holy Spirit to minister to that lady who is wounded. As Mrs. Campbell shared that story, I sense somebody saying, “That’s me. I have lost child after child.”  Somebody says, ‘That is me . . .  child after child’.

Spirit of the Living God Who comforts, I pray Your comfort over this family in the Name of Jesus. And Father, we also pray, Your Word also says that the thief comes to steal, to kill, and destroy We rebuke the devourer, oh God, in Jesus' Name, that he will not steal any more. That this time we just speak life, that this time when they conceive, this child shall come to full duration. This child shall be alive, that they too will have the testimony that that couple had. to took back and say, ‘Look how many we had. God saw us through the other side.’ In Jesus' Name.”

Nancy: Amen. The Lord bless you richly.

 

Episode 17: Building an Exciting Home, No. 5

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

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

Nancy: Good Morning to you ladies from my home to yours. I wonder what is happening in your home today. Here, it is a rainy day, and the rain has abated for a minute, but if it comes again, you may hear the pitter-patter on our roof.  A little while ago we had to renew our roof. It was leaking, so we put on a tin roof. I love to hear the sound of the rain on the tin roof, but it's not so good for recording. If that happens, you'll know what the sound is.

Well, we are still talking about living life in our home and how to make our home an exciting home, how to make life happen in our home.  I have 15 points that I'm sharing with you, and I know that there are so many more. We are up to number 10.

10. OUR HOME IS A HOSPITALITY CENTER

Yes, our home is for our family, to enclose our family, to make it a sacred and safe place for our family, but we are not to live only for ourselves. That is never ever a part of Christianity. We are to live for others, and therefore, even in our home, we are to open our home to others, precious ladies. This makes exciting living.

Colin and I have been married now for over 55 years, and I would have to say that hospitality in our home has been one of the greatest blessings of our lives. It’s added another dimension to our lives, spice to our lives, excitement and joy and blessing and fellowship. It's such a wonderful thing to invite other into your home.

Hospitality is a biblical doctrine that starts in Genesis, right in the very first book, and weaves through the pages of the Bible to the very last book in Revelation. Hospitality is an extension of our mothering and homemaking ministry. Hospitality is not an option. Some people think, “Well, some people have that gift of hospitality, but it's not my thing.” Hospitality was the lifestyle of the early church, and it should be the lifestyle of the church today.

Of course, hospitality means serving. Hospitality means cooking. Hospitality means that you're in your home. You can't show hospitality if you're not there. I think maybe that's one of the reasons so many don't have hospitality today. They are not there in the home. If a mother is out in the workforce, it's hard enough to look after even her own family, let alone be there to cook and invite others to come into the blessing of her home, the atmosphere of the home. But it's God's idea, and as I said before, it makes for exciting living.

Our God is a hospitable God. One of God's favorite words is “come.” We often read it in the Word of God where God says: “Come, everyone who thirsts. Come to the waters, come buy and eat, and come buy wine and milk without money and without price.” God loves to say come.

It was the language of Jesus. “Come unto me all thee that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

It's the language of the Holy Spirit. Revelation 22:17 says: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.” Not just the Holy Spirit but the bride. We also should have the same language. Don't you think we should have the same language as God has, as Jesus has, as the Holy Spirit has? We should have it too. “Come, come to my place, come and have a meal with us. We would love you to come and spend some time with us.” Let's get that attitude. As I said, that was the attitude of the early church.

If we go to Acts 2, we read here in verse 46, talking about the believers, “And they, continuing daily,” Notice the word DAILY, not once a month or once a week but DAILY.  “They continued daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bed from house to house.” That's not just talking about communion.  Breaking bread was a term that was used to fellowship and eat with someone else. Back in biblical days, even in Middle Eastern times today, people break bread. They have flat bread which they break, which they dip into the hummus or the baba ghanoush (sometimes spelt baba ganouj), or whatever dish they have. They dipped it in, and they ate it, and they broke bread, not just with themselves but with others.

Back in the early church, they were so filled with Holy Spirit and with the joy of their salvation and with the revelation that Jesus was their Messiah, they couldn't help but meet daily. They wanted to get together to share and talk about Jesus, to share the new understanding and revelation that they were receiving because I'm sure that they had revelation that we wouldn't have today because they were so familiar with the sacrifices, which were still happening in the temple at that time. In those sacrifices, the morning and the evening sacrifice, it was all pointing to Calvary; it was pointing to Jesus, the Lamb of God. Now they could see it. All the rituals they had done for so many years and for centuries, now they are seeing the meaning of it. They are seeing everything in the temple with a new understanding and revelation with Jesus their Messiah, and they wanted to share, so they got together daily.

They couldn't do it in the day. I'm sure they had to get together at suppertime, when they were ready to eat, and the work of the day was finished, and they would come. Instead of being on their own, they would fellowship with one another. Now, in doing that can you imagine them having time to prepare elaborate meals and put on something so special that we think we have to do for hospitality? No, they were sharing the ordinary meal that they would eat together as a family. “Oh, come and share it with us.” They didn't have to put on something special. They weren't entertaining; they were just opening their home to fellowship.

That's what hospitality is all about. Some mothers think, “Oh, I could never show hospitality,” because they think of having to put on this very elaborate meal; they have to do all these extra things. No, that's entertaining. Yes, there are times when we do entertain, when we do something very special. There are times for that, but regular hospitality is down to earth. It's eating what we normally eat and sharing it with others. This is what the early church did.

“They broke bread from house to house and ate their food together with gladness and joy and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people,” and get this, this is something we often don't notice, “and the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved” (Acts 2::46, 47). I'm always challenged by that. We don't see so many people coming to the Lord today. We don't see them coming daily into the kingdom of God. Yes, every now and then, we see someone come to the Lord, and it's so exciting. But here they were seeing people daily added. I wonder if it had something to do with their daily lifestyle. As they daily opened their home and fellowshipped, God added to them and to the church daily.

People saw their lifestyle; it wasn't religiosity. This was something real. This was something that affected your life. Wow, these people, they love one another, they've got something we've never seen before; I want that. Their lifestyle drew others into the kingdom of God. That makes me think of that Scripture in 1 John 3:14, where it says: “We know that we have passed from death unto life.” Why? “Because we love the brethren.” We love the brothers and sisters in Christ. If we love them, do we just say, “Yes, well, I love the people of God.” Or do we show it? You really don't love unless you show it. If we love our brothers and sisters in Christ, we will want to get with them. We will want them to come to our home for a meal, we will want them to come to our table, we will want to be with them. That's the proof that we are passed from death unto life.

Let's go to 1 Peter 4. Peter is writing here to the people. In this book, they were really facing persecution and many trials, and Peter wrote to them a lot about that. In fact, in verses 12 and 13, he says: “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 with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.” With this Scripture and many others, he encouraged them in their persecution.

Here in verses 7-9: “But the end of all things are at hand.” Well, they are closer at hand today, aren't they? “Be ye therefore, sober, and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent love among yourselves: for love shall cover a multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging.” Isn't that amazing? The message: “The end of all things is at hand.” You'd think he would then say, “You better get down and fast and pray and make sure your life is ready for the coming of the Lord.” No, he just says, “Love one another fervently and show hospitality to one another.”

The Word of God is so practical, isn't it? Let's embrace it and enjoy it. Maybe if you're not use to showing hospitality, just start off with one person. Perhaps you know a single mom. She's lonely, she needs encouragement, invite her to your home for lunch. Even better, invite her for supper if your husband is willing.

Many of the exhortations of hospitality in the Word of God are to men. Many of the examples are men showing hospitality. Men are meant to have a heart for hospitality. Sometimes, wives are married to husbands who weren't brought up with it, and they aren't used to it, and they don't want hospitality.

You think, “Well, what can I do? If you can't have someone for supper, you can invite them for lunch while your husband is at work. Invite them to your home to encourage them and bless them. In summer time, you can invite them to a picnic. Take them to the park and show hospitality that way. If you have a heart for it, God will show you ideas of what to do.

I find myself, that I never have enough time to show hospitality to all the people that I want to, the people I want to invite to my table for a meal, the people I want to reach out to. I have a list, and I can hardly ever fulfill that whole list because I keep adding other names. You can never, ever get bored when you have a hospitable home. We could talk for hours on hospitality, but I want to get through my other points this session. Maybe one time we will do a whole podcast on hospitality.

11. THE HOME IS A COUNSELING CENTER

Our homes are so wonderful. Everything happens in our homes. Our home has always been that home where people have come to receive counseling. In fact, our children grew up with that. I can remember back in the days when they were teens and a little older than teens, and the people would come to our home. Colin and I would not be there; we were out perhaps doing something, and we would get home, “Oh, this person came; they needed counseling, but don't worry, mom and dad, we counseled them.” They would think, “We can do this. It's part of our lives.” I'm not quite sure what kind of counsel they gave, but this is another part of our homes. 

It makes me think of a beautiful article that Pearl, my daughter, wrote. Pearl wrote this article about my mother, her Nana, before she was married, so she wrote it a long time ago. Pearl has been married about 24 years now. Can I read to you a little bit of it, if I can get through it without crying because I always cry when I read this? You can go and read this on my webpage. It would be under Family Life or something. It's there on the webpage, www.aboverubies.org. It's called “More than Toast and Pots and Pans.” Let me start down a few paragraphs. This is Pearl writing: 

“Perched on my stool, watching her through those childhood eyes, I learned that the kitchen is more than just a room. Its significance goes beyond a feeding facility. Her kitchen had a heartbeat. Though she may not have been young, there was more life there than the local coffee house.

It was in her kitchen that she welcomed friends and those who were lonely. An herb tea made in a pottery teapot and “something nourishing to eat” were the items on her menu during visiting hours . . .  though there never seemed to be a closing time. But it wasn't just for the home-made food they came. It was the listening ear she offered and the well-chosen words of counsel. Her kitchen was not only a place to feed the hungry; it was a psychiatry office with a stool for a couch.

It was never a place or drudgery for Nana. Certainly, she often worked hard, and there would be piles of dishes, pots boiling over, steam, and a little bit of sweat. But the mundane chores could not dampen her pleasure of serving others. It's been said that the only way to true happiness is by helping others--this worked for her. Her smile told everyone so. So did the songs which she hummed and sometimes belted forth, so loud you'd wonder how such a small woman could summon such decibels. I've heard her sing Amazing Grace at phenomenal volume. Shoulders straight, hands clasped, she'd let it fly.

Looking back, I've wondered whether she ever felt less than a successful woman when the liberation movement swept the world. There she was, a housewife, and to add to the stereotype--a seamstress. That does not spell "ultimate fulfillment" in feminist language. But I only know what I saw, and I never saw anything other than a fulfilled woman.

The tasks she accomplished everyday were not demeaning to her intelligence, as far as she was concerned, and her opinion was the one that counted. She did not need liberating because she never considered herself repressed. In fact, she loved the kitchen. And so simply, that is why we did too. The announcement of an intended visit to our grandparents would ignite in us children an excitement much too wild to suppress. "Yippee!" we would yell and dance around the house. "We're going to see them, Yeah!"

"I've got the window seat," one of us would yell.

"No way, you had it last time." Inevitably a rip-roaring argument would ensue, but as it was a regular part of the hysteria no one really minded. We were off to see Nana and Granddad, and nothing could dampen our spirits, not even when the arguing sometimes turned to thumping.

We would arrive at their home after a day's long trip and leap out of the car, scattering peanuts and pillows on to the driveway. It was a race to the front door. Up the wooden steps, through the overhanging ferns, up and up, panting and running until we reached the front door, and there they were, waiting for us.

"How's my best mates?" Granddad would boom, squeezing each one of us in a hug that never failed to squash out spare breath. Then we would head straight for the kitchen, six children, a set of parents and two more in their golden age, with their arms around one another and as many of us as they could capture. Through the door, the glowing, wafting kitchen would open its arms to us, and we would crowd around the oven, guessing its contents and hinting vocally of the hunger that gnawed in our stomachs.

It was never a disappointment. Always the room gave the promise of a wonderful meal, the chance to boast to a doting grandparent. Always it lived up to the excitement.

But we weren't the only ones who were big fans of their kitchen. It attracted many other pilgrims who knocked on the front door and ended up staying for days. Granddad was very adept at pulling people in from the doorstep, dragging them into the kitchen, sitting them down at the table and stuffing them full. He was a food man. "Tucker" he called it. "What you need is some good tucker," he'd say, pulling out the contents of the refrigerator at remarkable speed and lining them up on the counter.

There was a fierce, unspoken competition between my grandparents as to who was the master chef. Granddad considered himself quite the man for the job. He'd hold up a slab of meat. "Hunted this myself; you'll never taste anything like it." He'd thrust it into the oven like he was scoring a goal, and then begin a boisterous and dramatic commentary on the items of food the guest would be served. "See this honey here?” He'd hold it up and beam proudly. "Comes from my own bees, greatest in the country."

Their kitchen was there for others--always open. They liked it full, so full it was. There are many who have its memories like I do; many who have learned the meaning of happiness through watching them give. They too must have learned that a kitchen is more than toast and pots and pans. And some days I'm sure that they, like me, cannot help longing for hot soup and a little golden-haired woman who made afternoons of staring out of a kitchen window the most cherished moments of a life time.”

That was my parents, not only a home of hospitality, a home where they counseled so many people, not formally but just casually, as they sat at their table where they fed them food, and they fed them love, and they fed them wise counsel from the Word of God.

Our home is a counseling center to our children first, of course. It’s part of our lives, daily counseling them and once again, being there to counsel them. Counseling is not just, “Ok, at 2 o'clock, I'm going to teach you something or give you some counsel.” No, it's part of life; it's when things happen; it's when something is said; we bring forth these wise words of counsel. We do it to our children, and we do it to the others who come into our home. Think of your home as a counseling center.

12. THE HOME IS A HEALING CENTER

If you have read the latest issue of Above Rubies, # 95, I'm sure you have read the article, which I wrote in this magazine, called “The Healing Home.” I hope you've read it and if you haven't, make sure you do. I shared in this article a word that I recently discovered. It's therapia. Now, as you can imagine, we get our word “therapy” from therapia, and it literally means “to give care and attention, to bring medical cure, to bring healing.”

Now, the amazing things is, is that I discovered that this exact word is used to describe a household in Luke 12:42. This amazed me. It excited me. Wow. My home is to be a healing home. This word is only used three times in the Bible—about a household, another time when Jesus was healing the sick, and thirdly, in Revelation 22 where it talks about the leaves were the healing of the nations.

Dear precious mother, God wants your home to be a healing home. Healing to the body, physically. We make sure we give our children healthy foods. We don't have junk food in our home. No, we are a healing home. Every bit of food we have in our home is for the health of our husband and children. That's just in us; that's what we want to do. We are not just doing what everybody does. We are out to make and build a healing home.

It's not only for their bodies; it's for their souls and spirits. You'll have to read more about it in the article. In fact, I only really shared a little bit in that article. Since then, I have joined with Erin Harrison on her Talk Show, and you can find Erin's talk show on Facebook. Look up “Keeper of the Homestead Blog.” Erin and I ended up doing nine over one-hour sessions, which you can not only hear, but you can see about the healing home. Erin asked if I would do it with her on the Talk Show after reading my article. She also wrote a testimony in Above Rubies about healing relationships. I said that would be great, so we set out and did one session. We thought that's all it would be. It ended up nine sessions, so if you really want to learn more about the healing home, you can find the links on her Facebook blog, or you can just email me, and I can send you each link, which might be even easier for you to find them. I'll send the links to you, and you can enjoy learning so much more about how to build a healing home, physically and spiritually and mentally and emotionally. This is a wonderful thing. Our time is going again so let’s look at number 13.

13. OUR HOME IS AN INDUSTRY CENTER

It's a place where we can do so many projects. How can anybody ever say they can get bored at home? Do you ever have enough time in your life to do all the things and dreams you have in your home? The projects you have, the visions you have. There is just so much. I've never had time to do them all and still don't have time to do them all. In your home, you can do such wonderful projects with your children.

You can even have a home business. Of course, you have to be careful with home businesses. You have to be careful when you start them. You don't start a home business when you have little ones all around you. The most overwhelming time of motherhood is when you have maybe two or three children. They're all tiny, and you have to do everything for them. It’s the most challenging time and perhaps the most physically challenging time.

Then the children grow. The sad thing is that too many people stop when they have two or three children because they think, “Wow, this is so challenging. I don't know whether I can keep doing this.” But they forget, or they don't understand that children grow. They get bigger, and as the children grow, you get helpers. When another little baby comes on, instead of just looking after these two or three little ones, suddenly, you've got a helper. Then you have another child if God blesses you, and wow, you've got bigger helpers, and then it gets to the time when you have teenagers in your home. You have daughters and sons who are 17, 18, and they know how to run the household. They know how to look after everything outside the home. They are capable. They become your great helpers.

When you get to this season, it is a better season to start a business. Maybe you're really good at creating things, and then you want to sell them through a webpage, and you can do that. Then, you can even get your children involved.

Serene and Pearl, my daughters of Trim Healthy Mama, now have a very huge and flourishing business. They didn't start this when they had little ones because that was their life. Now, it's still their life, although they wrote this book and somehow God blessed it and now they have this huge business. But they are not going out of their homes. I think of Serene. She is at home, and of course, Pearl is at home too, although her children are growing.

Serene has her ninth biological baby, little Solly; she's six months old now. She still has her little ones at home, although there are 14 in the family with the adopted children and some are married now. She has these little ones, and Pearl and Serene established at the very beginning, as the business began to grow, and their husbands then came from the jobs they were doing and took over. They have taken over.

If you were to ask Serene, “Now, Serene, how's Trim Healthy Mama going?” “Oh, I don't know, don't ask me.” She doesn't know one thing about the business at all. She just does what she has to do. They do their podcasts; they do their radio work; they do their filming, but it's all done at home. All their cooking demonstrations are done at home.

Arden, who is recording for me right now does all their filming, and it's in the home. When they first started, they had some people who were going to do their filming, but they said, “Well, we'll need you to come into our studio.” They said, “No thanks. If you can't come to our humble home, we are not doing it.” So, these people came with all their equipment and were taking it into Pearl's little trailer home. That's where they started doing their cooking demonstrations. In the end, they actually fired those people and now Arden does it all, but it's all in the home.

It's amazing what we can do in our homes. Once again, you don't actually have to make everything a business either. Yes, some of you will do that. You know, I've always been one of those who felt you don't have to everything as a business. I have never made Above Rubies a business. I've been doing Above Rubies for over 40 years, and it’s never been a business. It’s been a love ministry. I've never taken money from Above Rubies. It's just a love ministry. You can do things in your home, and of course, this has never gone out of the home. I have known of other magazines, that have fewer distribution of magazines than I do, yet they have offices and buildings. Goodness me, I've never taken it out of the home, ever in over 40 years.

We read in the Word of the Proverbs 31 woman who stretched out her hand to the poor, who reached out her hand to the needy. To do that, she had to make things in her home to take them to the poor. Yes, sometimes you will make a business out of the creative things that you can do. Other times, you'll do it as a ministry.

You think of Dorcas. Remember her from Acts 9:36-42. She passed away, and Peter was used of God to raise her form the dead. It talks about the widows who, when he came, were all weeping and showing him the coats and garments that Dorcas had made. She didn't make them for business; she made them to give to people. They were her alms deeds. Our home is a place of productivity and industry. It's so exciting and so many amazing things we can make happen. Sometimes for business but sometimes just for us to bless others.

Precious ladies, embrace your home. It's a place where so many exciting things can happen. Let's pray.

“Oh Father, we thank You for Your plan and giving us homes. Homes, homes from where we can change the world, from where we raise children to go out into this world to take Your love and salvation. Homes that can be filled with Your presence to touch so many lives. Oh God, I pray that You will give everyone listening a vision for their home. Lord, we are not all going to have the same homes. Each one of us are different. Show them what You want them to do in their homes. Give them Your ideas. What You have planned for them. I pray Your blessing and anointing and creativity upon each home and each mother. in the name of Jesus. Amen.”

Link  to Pearl's article MORE THAN TOAST AND OTS AND PANS: http://aboverubies.org/index.php/2013-11-12-17-55-51/english-language/family-meal-table/846-family-meal-table-more-than-toast-and-pots-and-pans

LIVE TALK SHOWS WITH NANCY CAMPBELL AND ERIN HARRISON

THE HEALING HOME, Part 1. Sadly, the filming of this first session is very blurred, and yet you need to hear it as the foundation for everything we say in future episodes. If it drives you crazy looking at it, you may prefer to just listen to the sound.

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/968682509961222/

THE HEALING HOME, Part 2

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/972213059608167/

THE HEALING HOME, Part 3

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/976005822562224/

THE HEALING HOME, Part 4

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/980206722142134/

THE HEALING HOME, Part 5

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/986122464883893/

THE HEALING HOME, Part 6

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/1008012999361506/

We thought we were finished, but then we got more inspiration and moved on to talk about HEALING WATERS. There is so much about healing waters in the Bible which relates to mothers and wives.

HEALING WATERS, No. 1

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/1008012999361506/

HEALING WATERS, No. 2. Toward the end of this session we talk about sexual intimacy. Proverbs 5 tells how the wife is to be "thirst-quenching water" to her husband. You will love this revelation. But use your discretion who you have watching with you. 

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/1022610917901714/

HEALING WATERS, No. 3.

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/1030311223798350/

 

OTHER SUBJECTS:

CHANGING THE WORLD FROM YOUR TABLE

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/954336478062492/

THE SEASONS OF LIFE—FIRST WATCH, SECOND WATCH, AND THIRD WATCH

https://www.facebook.com/keeperofthehomestead/videos/220082002185925/

And then we did a series together on BUILDING OUR HOMES. You’ll enjoy this series immensely. Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for the links to this series if you would like to watch.

 

 

 

Episode 16: Building an Exciting Home, No. 4

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell

We continue the series of BUILDING AN EXCITING HOME. We continue to talk about making your home...

1. A PRAYER CENTER – impacting the world from your dining room table.
2. A CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT CENTER/PLAY CENTER – teaching your children how to play creatively.
3. A SOCIAL CENTER – making functions happen in your home.
4. AN EATING CENTER – making every meal a love affair.

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

Nancy Campbell: May the blessing of God fall richly on your home today. We're continuing to speak about point number six, on making your home a home an exciting home. Point number six is the home is a prayer center. We've already talked about it, but we want to tell you a little more about praying in your home. I think it is so important.

We talked last week about even having a prayer meeting in your home. But of course, you can't have a prayer meeting every day as you pray with your family. I trust that you do seek to pray with your children every morning and every evening, because this is the precedent, the principle that God gave us, the Morning and Evening principle.

One of the things I find that really blesses our home in praying is our prayer boxes. Some of you may have heard me speak about prayer boxes, and I have written in Above Rubies about prayer boxes. I wonder if you have ever made a prayer box? Well, I'll tell you about it again. Maybe this time you will make one.

When I was raising our children, I started out with making a family prayer box. You always start little. I just got hold of a little box, and made it pretty, and wrote on it, “Our Family Prayer Box.” I wrote cards, and wrote the names of each of the children, Mommy and Daddy, grandparents, aunties and uncles, and cousins. And so, when it came time to pray, we would pass the box around, and children could take out a name.

That gave them someone specific to pray for, because, especially little children, they become very insular in their prayers. They often end up praying, “Dear Jesus, give us a good day tomorrow, and give us a good night sleep tonight. Amen.”

But we are the ones who teach them to pray. We have to teach them how to enlarge their prayers. So now they've got someone specific to pray for. It may be an auntie or uncle that they haven't really been praying for. Or maybe a sibling who they've just been quarreling with, and now they have to pray for them. It's so important that we pray for one another as a family.

So, we continue to have this prayer box in our home all these years later. This prayer box we use every morning and every evening. We always use our family prayer box. Now it has so many more names in it today, because our family has grown and grown and grown.

It's not only our children, but their spouses, and their children, and then their children. So, this box is packed full.

But we cannot be insular. So, we had other prayer boxes. I started out, a way back, with our World-Changing Prayer Box, and put in that cards of other people we were praying for, missionaries, people who were in need, and so on.

Now we actually have in our home nine prayer boxes currently. So, what we do, we don't use them all every morning and every evening. Otherwise we'd be the whole day praying. Oh, that would be good, but we have other things to do. We always use our family prayer box, and we add one other prayer box. We take turns with our other prayer boxes.

Some of the other prayers boxes we had, of course, we still have our World-Changing Prayer Box, with the needs of all kinds of current things that are happening in the world that we need to pray about.

We have our Persecuted Christians Prayer Box. I believe this is so important. In fact, dear ladies, I believe we all need to have this prayer box in our home, because Hebrews 13:3 tells us that we are to pray for those who are being persecuted.

We're meant to pray for those in prison as though we were in prison with them, as though we were feeling the pain of the torture in our own bodies. We're to really feel what they are going through, and to cry out to God for them. I find this just so important.

In fact, I often feel, as we're praying for the persecuted church, that if I was being persecuted, I would be so longing that someone was praying for me. I find it such a privilege to pray for them. I know that we often can't really feel the pain and torture they're going through.

I remember, some time back, Serene really challenged me. My daughter Serene, they are in the process of continuing to build their home. She was coming down a ladder from their second story. She had a long skirt on. Somehow it got tangled and she fell, the ladder fell, and she landed on her back. It could have been very, very serious. Praise God, she was fine, but she was in utter pain as she fell, as you can imagine.

Instead of just crying out for herself, she cried out for the persecuted church! She said, “Mum, I feel so terrible when we're praying for the persecuted church, because I feel so great in my body, and there's nothing wrong with me. How do I feel their pain?”

She said, “When I felt this torturous pain going through my body, I immediately felt, oh, I can pray and intercede for the persecuted church!” So, she began to cry out for them.

I felt quite challenged about that. It was a few weeks later that I myself fell! I broke three of my ribs. Now, you know, ribs, they just have to heal. But they can be very painful at the beginning. So, every time I was in this pain, I also was challenged by Serene, and began to pray for the persecuted church.

But, don't wait till you're feeling pain. Get a box. There are so many needs. You can get on the Internet and find out. There are sixty different countries that are persecuting Christians. North Korea is one of the most persecuting nations of the world. We need to pray for them.

We also have our Israel Prayer Box. Once again, this is not really an option, because we are commanded to pray for Jerusalem, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We are commanded to pray, to stand on the walls and pray, and to give God no rest until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62:6, 7). There are so many needs for Israel, as she is surrounded by her enemies that want to throw her into the sea. So, find out all you can. Fill your box with cards to pray for Israel!

We have our National Prayer Box. We actually don't have a prayer box for this one. We have a Liberty Bell. A dear friend of ours, who has often stayed with us on occasions, he came back one time, and he had a little miniature Liberty Bell. He said, “This is what you need, Nancy, for your praying for the nation!”

So, we use that, and we have that packed with the needs for our nation, and our president and his family, our vice-president, our senators, our congressmen, our specific leaders, and those who are notably involved in the nation. We have all their names on cards. We pray for them, and the issues that we are facing in our nation.

Once again, because we usually record on Wednesdays, and Wednesday night is our prayer meeting, we'll also be praying tonight for the nation again.

Actually, just recently, I was reading through the Psalms and was noticing how often David was praying about his enemies. David had so many enemies. Many of his prayers are against his enemies, and they're pretty powerful prayers. As I was reading them, I thought, “Wow, these are prayers that we can pray for our President Trump, because he has so many enemies.”

I don't think there has ever been a president that has so many hating him, and slandering him, and wanting to impeach him, and coming against him. So, I began to write them all out. I now have 50 different prayers that David prayed.

Such prayers as, “Oh God, save him from the nets that they are trying to catch him. Cause his enemies to fall into that same net themselves. Oh God, save him from their slandering tongues,” and so on. There's all these that David prayed, and they're Biblical prayers, not just made up.

Every day now we will pray some of those prayers against Trump's enemies. Now, I have them all on my computer. So, if you are interested, you're welcome to just email me, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and I'll be happy to send them to you, so you can pray too.

We also have our Marriage and Family Restoration Prayer Box. Many marriages that are falling apart, we're praying for them. We have our Salvation and Healing Prayer Box for those who need healing, those who need salvation.

We have our Countries and Capitals Prayer Box, all the most strategic countries and capitals in the world. We have the capital and the nation listed and we have the prime minister or president named on the back. We pray for them.

Then the ninth prayer box we have is our Above Rubies Prayer Box, where we pray for this magazine as it goes out into the nations, all our bases around the world. Above Rubies goes to well over 100 countries of the world, and we have many bases who send it out to all these different countries. We pray for our workers, we pray for their families, we pray for their marriages, that they will be blessed and healed as they receive the magazine.

So, these are our nine current prayer boxes. Now, you may not want nine boxes, but do you think you could start with one or two? Or two or three? You will be amazed at how it will enable your children to get into prayer! To pray for things that they've never prayed for before, to pray for issues that they would never think about praying. You're leading them out into realms of prayer. You're leading them to pray for nations. You're giving them a heart for the world. You are becoming a world-changing family!

In fact, dear precious mothers, as you begin to pray for the needs of the world, you'll become a world-changing family. Even though you may be just praying, hidden away in your little home . . . here we are, out in the woods, on the hilltop. Who knows what we're doing in our home? Nobody needs to know, but God knows, He hears our cries.

We are impacting nations of the world. I often feel as we're praying, as we pray for nations that we cannot even get into (if we were to preach the Gospel in those nations, our heads would be chopped off), yet as we pray, God is moving. We're hearing stories of many, many people coming to the Lord in Iran, through dreams and visions. This is happening, because God's people are praying! We impact nations that we cannot even move into, by praying in our homes!

Oh, just get a vision, dear precious mother, for what you can do, how powerful your family can be!

I love that Scripture in Leviticus, chapter 26. It's talking here in the context of war. In verses seven and eight it says: “And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase a hundred. And a hundred of you shall put ten thousand aflight, And your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.”

Now, precious ladies, what is the greatest way we fight our enemies? We aren't fighting flesh and blood. We are fighting principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world. We fight them in prayer and in intercession. Here it tells us that five of you can put 100 enemies to flight! Maybe you are a family, husband and wife, maybe only three children yet. That's five. As you pray together, you can put 100 enemies to flight.

The Bible says that 100 of you, my, that's just, how many, 20 families of five each, can put 10,000 to flight! Just imagine, families praying together all across this nation!

Oh, will you be part of this revival, part of bringing revival back to this nation? You can be part of it, if you begin to pray as a family.

What about families, some of you have six children, seven, eight, nine, ten children. What a prayer meeting you can have around your table, every morning and every evening, impacting this nation, impacting the nations of the world! Because there is no greater way that you can impact them. Oh, take up the challenge!

I am also always convicted by that Scripture in Jeremiah. Let me turn to it. Jeremiah chapter 10: 25: “Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families . . .” I wonder what families? It goes on to say: “and upon the families that call not on Thy Name.” What a challenging Scripture.

This is Scripture, not me, ladies, I'm not saying it, but this Scripture is saying that the families who do not call upon the Lord, that they might as well be heathen! God equates them along with the heathen if they do not call upon the Name of the Lord.

If we say that we belong to God, if we confess that we are believers, we will be those who call upon the Name of the Lord. We'll be those who cry out to God on behalf of the nation, on behalf of the families and the marriages that are weakening in this nation, on behalf of the nations of the world, because God Himself beholds the nations of the world. He looks upon them, and He dwells in us.

Jesus is at the right hand of God, interceding on our behalf 24-7. He wants to intercede through us also. So, let’s do it, amen? Let's make our homes praying homes. Amen?

Well, let's move on.

7. OUR HOMES ARE CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT CENTERS OR PLAY CENTERS

You don't have to send your child to a day care, or a play center, or somewhere to entertain them. We can do that in our homes. Make your home a play center for your little ones. You can be so creative.

I used to love to make homemade play dough for my children. They would spend hours making things out of homemade play dough. And then I would find a sort of a tub with water in it. You can do that outside. Put toys in it, and things that they could play with. Let them play in the water.

There are so many simple little things that we can do with our little children. We don't have to be taking them out to entertain them. We can be creative in our homes. There are so many creative things that we can do and make for our children. Plus, we don't even have to always be giving them things to be creative. We can let them be creative.

I think that play is a very important thing for children, and especially allowing them to be creative. Often too many toys take away that creativity. Did you know we don't need a lot of toys? Often you go into homes, and there are so many plastic toys around. Children get bored with them very soon anyway.

It's a wonderful thing to just let our children be creative. Often when my children were little, I would just let them play. They would rearrange my whole home. They would get the chairs, they would make them into trains and buses. They would get my sofas and chairs and old blankets and eiderdowns that I would keep. They would take them and make huts. Then they'd want me of course, to make little plates of food for them to eat inside their huts and their houses they made.

Often, they would take all morning to make this, and play this creative game. Well, often they wouldn't play it. They'd spend all their time making it and doing it, and then, when they'd got it ready, well, they were finished. The great thing they enjoyed was actually making it and creating it.

Children love to create. Give them opportunity to create by themselves. You'll find that they will grow up to be creative! If we just have to entertain them with little toys, and always be giving them something that we give them to do, we're not allowing them to think, or be creative for themselves. I think this is so important.

Of course, you'll be a reading mother. We did a podcast on reading to our children. That's just so important.

All right, let's move on. Trying to move on a little more quickly

8. WE MAKE OUR HOME A SOCIAL CENTER

Now, many people say that the reason they send their children off to a school is because they want them to have “socialization.”

Oh my. What a weak excuse to send your children to a place where they're going to hear opposite things that you believe, to a place that is no longer a place where they can have prayer, where they can  no longer have God's Word, where they will no longer hear truth that you have convictions about as a believer. They will hear everything the opposite. Their “socialization,” dear mothers, will be the very opposite kind of socialization that you want them to have!

Because they will mix with peers who will be a negative influence on them. This is one of the worst things about the public school, the socialization. It's the peers that they mix with! They learn a whole different culture than the godly culture we are seeking to give them.

Now, of course, the day is coming when they're going to go out and live among this ungodly culture, but our little ones are not ready for that yet. We are getting them stronger. We are getting them ready to live in this ungodly culture.

In our homes, when you are homeschooling your children, and especially if you have many children, there's loads of socialization. Oh goodness me, and it's the socialization that is greater, because it's varied in ages. It is very important for children to be able to associate with children who are older, and then reach out and play with children who are younger, and to be able to relate to children of all ages, rather than just their peers of their own age.

Sadly, today, as young people grow, they only know how to mix with their own age group. We gear it to that in the public schools. Then we go to church, and we gear it to that again. They go off to Sunday school and children's classes, all in the same age group. They'll constantly be pushing in that age group that is the same as they are.

God wants us to be diversified. He wants them to be able to speak and converse intelligently, even with older people. So, make your home a social center.

Now, if you only have a small family, maybe God has only blessed you with a little family, because the number of our children is not the number we decide, it's the number God gives us. Sometimes God only gives one or two children. Other times He gives many. It's God's prerogative.

But you can do so many things in your home. This is where home is so exciting! Oh, if you have teens in your home, make opportunities to have other godly teens come in and do special things. We, of course, up here on the hilltop, we just have parties all the time, because we have a number of families all around us. There are so many cousins, they all meet together for parties, every birthday party. There's so much socialization. They're just overloaded with socialization.

But you can make things happen. I'm a great believer in making things happen. And not just for the age groups of your children, but to reach out to others. What about thinking of putting on a luncheon for a few widows that you know? Get your children to help you with the cooking. When these precious widows come into your home, teach your children how to bless them and minister to them, and make them feel at home, and wait on them.

Then you can get them to prepare, maybe they can sing, or play musical instruments. They can recite a poem. You can put on a concert for them after the meal. Such a beautiful thing you can do in your home! You can do it for widows, you can do it for other elderly people. It's a beautiful thing for your children to learn how to reach out to older people in hospitality.

You can do it for a single mom, or a couple of single moms. Bring them into your home. You can gather with other homeschoolers. You can open your doors in hospitality. Oh, you can think of all kinds of ideas. Be creative and realize that you can make your home a most wonderful socialization center, a godly social center, so that your children are in a godly environment, but still receiving all the socialization they will ever need.

 9.     OUR HOME IS AN EATING CENTER

Well, you know that, don't you, dear precious mother? So much time of our mothering is spent in the kitchen, where we're cooking meals. Breakfast, lunch, and supper, and often in between. We always seem to be preparing meals, always seem to be cooking. Do you sometimes complain about it, grumble, “Oh no, not another meal to get!”

Can I encourage you? Don't despise this part of your mothering. Embrace it with all your heart, for this is very much part of who you are as a mother.

We go to a Scripture in 1 Timothy 5:10. In the context, it's talking about widows. There were very many widows in the church, and Timothy didn't know what to do with them all. So, he wrote to Paul about it. Paul wrote back, and he said: “Timothy, this is what I want you to do. If these widows have children or grandchildren, they have the responsibility to provide for them, and to care for them. However, if they don't have any children or grandchildren, the widows who are truly widows, who are 60 years of age or older, and have lived a certain lifestyle, I want you to look after them.”

Ok, let's have a look at the lifestyle. Because when we read this lifestyle, we realize this is God's ultimate plan for women. The women, the mothers who have embraced this lifestyle, as they get older, maybe their children are no longer with them. There's no one to look after them. God says, “I'll look after you by My people, because you have lived the way I intended.”

Now, God lists some things, and He lists them all in order. God's Word is very, very specific, and He always lists first things first. I'm turning to 1 Timothy 5:10. It says: “Well reported of for good works.” That word is a word that means “beautiful works.”

The first one is, “if she has brought up children,” then goes on to say, “if she has lodged strangers,” if she's opened her doors in hospitality. “If she has washed the saints' feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work,” I want to reward that woman, and I want you to care and provide for her, he told Timothy.

Now, let's look at the first one, “if she has brought up children.” That word, “brought up,” is teknotrepheo. Two words, tecknon, meaning “child,” and trepho, “to nourish with food, to pamper with food, to feed.” Isn't that interesting? The word, “to bring up children,” has everything to do with food! It means to feed them!

It starts off with nursing your little babe at the breast. But then it doesn't stop there. We keep feeding them, and feeding them, and feeding them. The bigger they get, the more we have to feed them! So lovely ladies, don't despise this ministry. This is part of your mothering ministry. Embrace it.

I was so blessed, and I'll just end with this little story. One time I was watching a movie called Babette's Feast. You may have watched it. If you haven't, get a hold of it. When I watched it, it was black and white, subtitled. It's quite slow moving. But now it's in color, and it's also in English.

It is an amazing story, talking about a woman who was an amazing chef, although the people she was living with didn't know it. One day she cooked this incredible meal. She used her whole inheritance on cooking this meal. It just brought miracles to this community. It was just amazing, how this meal changed the lives of these people, who'd become very grumbling and irritable.

There was a person at that meal, and he had been to this famous cafe in France, where there was an incredible chef. He got up and gave a speech about this chef, because this meal reminded him of the meals that he would eat at that place. He didn't know it was the very woman.

He said these words, in fact, on the movie, it just said that this woman knew how to make every meal into a love affair. When I heard those words, I grabbed a hold of them. They affected me. From that time, I have always taken those words, and made that my own goal. To make every meal, every meal I put on my table, to make it a love affair for the people I am serving. For my husband, or whoever I have around my table.

But then I got hold of the book, and this is the exact quote: “This woman is now turning a dinner into a kind of love affair, into a love affair of the noble and romantic category, in which one no longer distinguishes between bodily and spiritual appetite, or satiety.”

So, a meal is far more than just eating to appease your bodily appetites. It's also to appease that hunger in your soul, in your spirit. That's the whole concept of the meal.

That's the concept I love to share with women and remind you about today, dear mother, that when you cook a meal, it's not just to put some food on for your children to appease their hunger. No, it's more than that. You're going to minister to their bodies, but also their souls, and their spirits.

When you put a meal on the table, it's to feed bodies, souls, and spirits. That's when it becomes a love affair. When you're preparing the meal, you're thinking more than just what you're going to prepare. Although you think about that, and how you can make it nutritious, how you can make it appealing, how you can just make it so appetizing. You're also thinking about what you're going to talk about at the meal table. You're thinking about the ultimate moment of when you will open God's Word, and you'll feed the Spirit. So, it's a love affair of the whole man. It becomes such a blessing.

But time is up again. Let me pray.

“Father, I pray that You will remind me again, and remind every precious mother, wife, and daughter listening of the power of a meal, and how every meal can be a love affair. Save us, Oh God, from just living in the grind. Save us from living in the drudgery. Take us to living in the delight, and making our meals a delight, making our homes a delight. Oh God, just take us out of the ordinary, into the extraordinary. Oh God, to live not just in the mundane, but in, Lord, the miraculous, in all the glory of what You have for us in our homes. Bless every mother again today. In Jesus' Name, Amen.